Dominick Rodrigues
Come Diwali 2020 and the festival of lights that bring a sparkle of joy everywhere will also highlight hope for all including industry and businesses, governments and families throughout the world where people – especially Indians — celebrate it as a victory of good over evil while observing traditions across centuries that include lighting oil lamps, bursting crackers, giving gifts and family/friends get-togethers.
While Covid-19 displays itself as a deadly spoilsport to the Diwali season, people are hopefully looking forward to derive the maximum joy in celebrating their favourite festival while adhering to safety measures against the virus in the easing of lockdown.
Even as parts of North India including the country’s capital Delhi are reeling over the smog created by farm fires and other reasons, environment-protection measures launched by concerned authorities like banning burning of fireworks — that may add pollution to the smog – are not likely to dampen the diwali celebrants’ enthusiasm in their religious fervor that also highlights other ways of enjoyment like parties, shopping, gifting, exchanging sweets and so on.
Mumbai – the ‘economic hub of India, home to film capital ‘Bollywood’ and the “Movers and Shakers” in Industry and Finance — may also be witnessing the ‘Who’s Who’ of the film industry and businesses celebrating in their own way as they did over the years, albeit differently from the ‘hoi polloi,’ through private parties galore that often witness exchanges of not only hugs and airy kisses, but often money in amounts that could even sustain the revenues of a small nation.
Corporate India too is expected to be making the most of this festival to drum up business and customers for their products, that have been witnessing low key sales due to lack of movement of both staff and manufacturing facilities – brought about by the pandemic – that has been eased somewhat by the lifting of lockdowns.
Meanwhile, even as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman unloaded the Government’s bag of financial goodies for India, ASSOCHAM described Aatmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 as a good Diwali gift from the government that will push job creation and stronger recovery of the economy.
“Government’s continuous support and the new announcements under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Yojana 3.0 will make the road to recovery post-pandemic stronger and facilitate and incentivize job creation, and provide much relief and impetus to housing and infrastructure sector,” Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani, President ASSOCHAM, said while reacting to the announcement of the 7th major stimulus package after pandemic by Sitharaman that highlighted 12 measures to counter the effects of Covid pandemic lockdown on the economy and people.
“Strong growth and an increase in demand have propelled the economy on a rebound. “The effects of previous announcements Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan 1.0 & 2.0 are clearly evident by the RBI’s prediction of a strong likelihood of economy returning to positive growth in Q3 rather than Q4 earlier by the quarter,” he said, adding “The measures announced by the Minister bring a relief the infra and housing industries were looking forward to. It would certainly push the sluggish demand in the housing sector and will also address the issue of unsold inventory in the sector, while also pushing the infrastructure sector out of the doldrums. The tax relief will take some pressure off the end-user and also the provider. The additional outlay of Rs 18000 crore for PMAY over and above the budget estimate will help lakhs of Indians in the urban and semi-urban area to fulfill their dream of a home in such a dire situation.”
The center has announced tax relief for developers and first-time homebuyers for houses up to Rs 2 crore till June 30, 2021. And the differential between circle rate and agreement value in real estate income tax had been increased to 20 percent to boost housing sales. Government is also going to infuse Rs 6,000 crore of equity in debt platform of National Infrastructure Investment Fund (NIIF), which will help NIIF raise Rs 1.1 lakh crore by 2025 for financing infrastructure projects. NIIF will also raise equity from private investors.
“We also welcome the very thoughtful decision of the FM to extend the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for MSMEs, businesses, MUDRA borrowers and individuals (loans for business purposes), till March 31, 2021. The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) — offered to 10 champion sectors and Credit Guarantee Support Scheme for the healthcare sector and other 26 stressed sectors affected by the pandemic — will help revive these industries and ensure their survival,” he observed.
Hiranandani noted that by providing fertilizer subsidy of Rs 65,000 crore to farmers and Rs 900 crore for the research& development of Covid vaccine, the government has once again highlighted its focus on the core issues while taking care of the rest of the problem. “The total stimulus provided by the Government and RBI is 15 percent of the GDP, which has been our demand and suggestion right from the beginning,” he reiterated. So far the government has announced Rs. 29.87 lakh crore stimulus packages in 7 installments since the Covid lockdown.
He further said that the overall sentiments in the country and oversees is positive and that will help India draw more investments in the coming future for the better. “The strong economic indicators are there for everyone to witness as Moody has also decided to reassess India’s growth numbers,”
he added.
Sujan Hajra, Chief Economist and Executive Director, Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Brokers, described the Finance Ministers announcement it as Incremental vs. big bang approach. “The Finance Minister’s announcement is the seventh instalment of stimulus measures announced by the government and the Reserve Bank of India. Rather than providing stimulus through one big announcement (like most other countries), the Indian government and the Reserve Bank of India have opted to roll out supportive measure at different points of time depending on the state of the economy. Giving the uncertainties on the pandemic front and also the varying pace of economic recovery, we think this is the right move.”
“This stimulus package is another attempt to boost income, employment, consumption and investment. At the sector level, special focus has been on residential real estate, infrastructure, export-oriented and import substituting industries. Measures range between additional budgetary allocation (e.g. MGNRERA and capital investment), more credit/funding to businesses (e.g. recasting of emergency credit scheme), regulatory dispensations (e.g. on gap between circle rate and purchase rate for houses) and production-linked incentive scheme.”
“The measures announced are in the right direction. In terms of the overall stimulus measures announced so far by India, the size is comparable with most other major countries — especially those from the emerging market economies. Yet, given the considerable fiscal slippage (consolidated fiscal deficit at 12-13% of GDP in FY21e), the scope for direct fiscal support has been limited. Our quick estimates suggest that the additional fiscal support through today’s measures would be less than Rs.500 billion (0.25% of GDP). Consequently, like the earlier stimulus measures, majority of the stimulus relates to liquidity and credit measures. With bank credit growth hovering in the 5-5.5% range, the credit channel does not seem to be working very well.”
“Economic recovery in India since relaxation of lock down measures has been encouraging and ahead of expectations. In certain segments of the economy, the current situation is already better than what prevail in the same period of last year. That said, the overall economy is yet to recover fully.
Eyeing the title of Most Eco-friendly and inclusive festive gift this season, Kocoatrait has curated “The world’s most planet-friendly gift box”. About eight-months of testing and trials costing Rs 2.5 lakhs witnessed the development of this eco-friendly product which comprises of 4,5,9 or 12 Kocoatrait ‘Zero Waste’ chocolates made of organic Indian cacao beans with intriguing flavours; Chocolate wrappers which are ‘Up-cycled’ by using reclaimed cotton and Cacao shells that are generated during roasting of beans; Printing of chocolate wrappers done at V-Excel Educational Trust, Chennai which aims to support the inclusion of individuals with special needs; Eco-Friendly, Water-based inks used in the printing where no additional branding/printing is done on the outer boxes; Housed in a specially-designed sustainable and reusable palm leaf box made by M.Rm.Rm Foundation, Chennai which helps and includes traditional crafts-women in rural Tamil Nadu find their place in the economic mainstream; Chocolates wrapped in recyclable paper bubble wrap; and finally Delivery across India — for the 1st time in the world — in a tree/paper free Bagasse (sugarcane) paper-based outer box; Planet-friendly, Starch-based ink used in the boxes; Eco-friendly Paper tapes used for packaging; and finally, Shipped across India using Bluedart ‘Overnight’ service and ‘No Contact’ Delivery.
Being planet friendly and Inclusive has been a priority for Kocoatrait since inception of the brand in 2019 which produced Kocoatrait, the world’s 1st Zero Waste & sustainable chocolate. “For years, India has been accumulating a lot of plastic and non recyclable waste during the festive season. Our efforts redefine ‘planet-friendly’ and inclusive festive-gifting in India while setting a benchmark for the industry,” said Nitin Chordia, co-founder of Kocoatrait Sustainable Bean to Bar chocolates, and also India’s 1st certified chocolate taster
“We launched Kocoatrait in Amsterdam in 2019 but felt that ‘Sustainable’ chocolates and inclusivity were the missing pieces. Today, the consumer contributes to saving the planet and enjoys being inclusive while spending on a bar of Kocoatrait Zero Waste chocolate,” said Kocoatrait founder Poonam Chordia.
“Having prevented 50 Kgs of plastic wrappers from polluting landfills is how we measure the impact of our Circular Economy Model effort on climate change. We now operate the only one of its kind virtual chocolate tasting club in India with an aim to connect Chocolate Lovers with Chocolatiers,” observed Nitin and his wife Poonam (a trained chocolatier) who has initiated Cocoashala — a chocolate school helping chocolate-lovers discover the basics of chocolate and beyond.
Entrepreneur Kavita Shenoy, Founder/CEO, Voiro, expressed happiness at — despite the pandemic – growing into an organization with new customers and new talent. “What the pandemic has brought to the fore is the starkness at work, she said adding “Voiro’s platform is a key driver for multiple teams in workflow automation and provides unparalleled intelligence across stakeholders in Sales, Ops, Planning, C- Suite and Finance teams. Within a year of its launch, Voot decided to bring us on board because firstly we were persistent and secondly they had quickly realized the need to scale and keep their team nimble. Our objective was to harness the power of data to track, provide technology solutions that could help them scale operations.”
