India’s Covid strategy pays off: Ficci chief

new delhi — Ficci president Sangita Reddy on Sunday said India’s strategy of dealing with the Covid crisis has paid off and the nation’s economy is set to bounce back and emerge stronger.

“The speed, virality and impact of the Covid contagion is unprecedented. There was no standard playbook for pandemic management. The dilemma for governments across the world was creating a balance between protecting lives and livelihoods,” a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry statement quoted Reddy as saying.

“India took the path of a strict lockdown to ramp up health infrastructure and focused on human l i ves.

This strategy has paid off. Science evolved to give better cures, medical infrastructure was created, supplies like PPEs ramped up and our death rate has been contained,” she said.

She was of the view that it’s time for bold actions on the livelihood front. Noting that the recent monetary policy assures that the government and the regulator will do everything it takes to keep the economy afloat, Reddy said: “Let us start pushing our growth agenda vigorously.”

She observed that the PMI for manufacturing and services has recovered to 56.8 and 49.8, respectively, in September. There has been a pick-up in e-way bill volumes, improvement in revenue earning freight traffic of major commodities, positive growth in exports and most significantly, an increase in the September GST collections to almost preCovid-19 levels. —

56.8

Manufacturing PMI reading posted in Sept