Workplace visits drop, power generation hit

People are staying at home more amid a record rise in Covid-19 cases.

Mobility data shows visits declined to every category of place that search engine Google tracks. It uses anonymised location data to see how people are moving during the pandemic.

Workplace visits are now down by nearly a quarter compared to normal times. This is the lowest point since December. Retail and recreational visits are down

30 per cent. There have been fewer visits to transit stations and people are spending more time at home, according to Google statistics collated by tracker Our World in Data.

Google releases the data with a lag. The latest is as of April 14.

Traffic congestion is down 49 per cent in New Delhi, according to data from global location technology firm Tomtom International. It is down 73 per cent in Mumbai.

The country had seen a 15 per cent growth in the amount of electricity generated in January. This has since dropped to 7.3 per cent. Electricity generation had taken a hit during the nationwide lockdown which was imposed in March last year. It had since recovered before fresh cases began to pile up in the second wave.

India’s cases are nearing 300,000 a day. Delhi announced a lockdown on Monday. Maharashtra has already imposed movement restrictions.

Business Standard also tracks emissions of nitrogen dioxide. It is released on account of industrial activity and vehicles. Delhi’s levels are similar to what was seen around the same time in 2019. The emission levels in Mumbai are down 48 per cent.

The Indian Railways’ functioning had also been affected during lockdown last year. This has helped create a favourable base for year-onyear comparisons.

The quantity of goods carried and earnings both show a surge as a result. Both show gains of 70-95 per cent.

Business Standard tracks these numbers as a means of getting a current picture of how the economy is doing. Official macroeconomic data is often released with a lag. Analysts globally have, therefore, been tracking similar indicators to get a sense of the fast-changing situation on the ground.

All the data above, except for Google location data, is as of Sunday, April 18.

Workplace visits are now down by nearly a quarter compared to normal times