Electronics among Industries Recommended to Operate on Certain Terms

The Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has recommended to the MHA to allow the functioning of some vital industries including Electronics manufacturing at 20-25% capacity in the fist shift and with certain  conditions. This is being regarded as an attempt to lift the lockdown  in a phase-wise manner.  On 11th of April, Guruprasad Mohapatra, the Secretary, circulated a letter which details the conditions  and the list of industries recommended to begin functioning again.

The industries which  are recommended to begin functioning have to follow the following conditions - single entry points for the workers, sufficient space to ensure distancing between employees, provision of either transport for the workers or for their stay within the factory premises and provision of high quality sanitisation of the premises.

Big companies with proper sanitation and distancing norms  in sectors such as textiles, automobiles and electronic s manufacturing have been recommended to begin operation at 20-25% capacity in single shifts.  MSMEs with export commitments are recommended to allow to operate with minimal workforce.

Similarly, a list of  industries has been released. These have been recommended to function with minimal workforce, with proper sanitation and in single shifts. these include  heavy electrical items such as transformers, telecom equipment, compressor and condensor units, steel and ferrous alloy mills, power looms, spinning and ginning mills, defence and ancillary units, cement plant  (to be allowed to function in 3 essential shifts with proper safety, sanitation and social distancing provisions), pulp and paper units in clusters where infection is nil or low, fertiliser, paints and dyes manufacturing, food and seed processing units, plastic manufacturing units, automotive units, gems and jewellery units and all units in SEZ and EOUs. Steel,  power and mining are already allowed. Construction is recommended to begin again if the labourers are housed at the sites with safety, sanitation and  all facilities.  All transport vehicles are recommended to  ply again. Banks should function with digital documents, with hard copies  submissions allowed when the lockdown is over.  All agricultural activity is recommended to begin.

There have been some initial  response from the channel community of the IT sector.  It is being felt that since IT equipments are used in many industries which are recommended for functioning again, these IT equipments  should also be allowed.

Amitansu Satpathy, Director, BPE, said that UPS is used in transformers etc, so it should be allowed. He further said that there is a  long line of trucks stalled on borders. If all of them are allowed to run at the same time, there would be total chaos. Hence, only 50 should be allowed to move in one hour to avoid congestion of traffic. Amitansu also said that in  Australia, Taiwan, Singapore etc., lockdown is not as strictly imposed as in India, There all activities are on; only there are measures  to reduce all activities,  like 1 /3rd of workers for manufacturing,  logistics and there  full transportation is operational. Only there is curb on social gatherings,  movie halls, eateries etc.

Pankaj Shah, Director, TechnoPlus Systems, Mumbai and Founder Secretary & former President, ASIRT, said, "It seems that IT sector is inadvertently missing, as we all know Digital India is the way forward as it is one of the pet projects of present Government. In these tough times, we and our IT personnel have been providing active support to all into essential services and respective electronic Data generated and probed in real time basis for immediate action by all decision makers concerned, be it in Healthcare or Government Authorities at all levels. The public at large also looks forward to us for immediate support to keep *Work From Home* culture up and running in this Lockdown period in a secured manner."

Puneet Singhal, President, CMDA, said, "Some of the Challenges before us in case we are allowed to Open are-

1)With No available Public Transport working majority of Staff will not be able to make it. Hence only Employees with Independent Transport can only make it to work.

2)Unless the T1/ Wholesalers are fully Open it might not be worth the effort.

3)How can we undertake our Staffs Responsibility viz.Covid in such  dangerous times.

4)Maybe the Small Retail with owner taking the Risk could be Permitted District wise that too on something like  Odd & Even days  could be Feasible for Opening.

The other Important Aspects to Focus should be-

a)We need to gun for Paying No Interest to Bank for CC/OD Limits.

b)Deferment of EMIs.

c)Having one Single Rate Min Wages for the Country and Govt Recommending Paying 50% of Min Wages during Lock Down period as well as the next 3 Months.

d)Adhoc Limits granted by Banks @2% for 6 Months and the Interest on the Existing Banking Arrangements to be @2% for MSME.

e)No Security Deposit or EMD alongwith Refund of all those lying with Govt/PSU Deppts and the Corporates.

f)Govt giving us ExGratia one months Avg Collected GST both IGST/SGST of the Previous Years.

g)No Tgts by OEMs with Immediate Release of all Achived/UnAchieved Tgts other than increase of the Incentive Amounts."

Kapil Wadhwa,  Director, Champion Computers, said that India should learn from Singapore and not open up at this moment.

Responding to this circular , Shamik Chakraborty, an HRM professional, said that this might be a precursor to  lifting the lockdown after 30th of April, which will help the IT and other FMCG sectors. He pointed out that the government had said that they would lift the lockdown phasewise.

There is a section of channel community that is completely aligned with the government's decisions. They only want to understand for their own benefit why the IT sector has not been recommended for opening.

Swaran Singh, General Secretary, ADCTA, said that IT sector was an essential solutions, products and services sector which provides support to many other sectors such as education, power, health etc. Hence, IT should be ideally included in the recommended list of industries to begin functioning again. However, he and his associates don't have any problem if IT is not included in this list. They support the government's decision completely. But  they would like to know the reason why IT is not included for their own understanding.

The government has been in a dilemma about whether to continue with the strictly imposed lockdown or to allow the economy to function again. In this scenario, it sees the developed countries' model of imposing a lockdown with freedom of movement, with the people themselves taking the responsibility to maintain sanitation and  distance from each other, seems to be a mid-way solution. It is to be noted that the supply chain in the developed countries has remain functional through lockdown and people have not faced scarcity  of goods in any way. They only work from home and while going out, maintain a safe distance and use santisation measures.