Power generation growth slows down, mobility hit

People back to spending more time at home

Weekly economic indicators show signs of slipping amid calls of a fresh national lockdown.

Growth in power generation over 2019 is down to singledigit figures. It had shown over 15 per cent growth before the fresh wave of Covid-19 cases. Patients are being added now at a daily rate of around 400,000. Electricity generation dipped last year amid the lockdown as industries shut down. Many companies have announced breaks in production, and electricity generation growth seems to have accordingly slowed down.

The industry has reportedly called for stricter national curbs to control the pandemic.

The amount of time people spent at home is now on par with what was seen during the first series of national lockdowns last year. They are now spending 21 per cent more time at home than they did in pre-covid times, show mobility numbers that search engine Google releases with a lag. The latest figures are as of April 28.

Traffic in major cities, too, has taken a hit. Traffic congestion in Mumbai and New Delhi are both down 83 per cent. This is based on data from global location technology firm Tomtom International. The numbers have slipped as cases moved up.

Business Standard also tracks nitrogen dioxide emissions. The pollutant comes from industrial activity and vehicles. It is down in both Mumbai and Delhi. Figures were worse last week ( see chart 4, 5).

The railways had suffered during the lockdown last year. This has meant a low base effect coming into play for the numbers seen this year. There is a rise in both the amount of goods carried and the money that the Indian Railways makes from freight. There is more coal and coke being carried than was seen during the same period last year. Minerals and ores also report higher numbers, as do cement and related products.

Business Standard tracks these weekly indicators as a way of getting a sense of how the economy is doing. Official macroeconomic data is often released with a lag. Analysts globally have been tracking similar high-frequency indicators. They give a sense of the fast-changing situation on the ground amid the pandemic.

Google uses anonymised location data to track visits to various categories of places across countries during the pandemic. All data, except the Google numbers, is as of May 2.