Exemptions not enough to defend projects from corona

Published April 29, 2020

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By admin

SOURCE: ENS

Like many other industries, the lockdown has hit the defence manufacturing sector hard despite essential works in the sector exempted from restrictions. “It will have a 10-15 per cent impact in terms of delays in delivering products or services,” said a source in a defence public sector undertaking. An assessment of the impact and strategies to deal with it will be discussed only after the lockdown is completely lifted, sources added.

In defence PSUs, works on most projects were stopped after the lockdown was imposed and they shifted their focus to keeping essential operations and helping the administration in fighting COVID-19. Small private manufacturers are the worst hit. “Nearly 90 percent of work is stopped,” said Prasad M J, co-founder of Bengaluru-based Accutech Enterprises that supplies components to HAL and many other Indian and foreign defence firms.

The Karnataka Government had earlier issued a circular allowing defence and aerospace firms to resume works, but those in the industry claimed there was no clarity and it was not possible for most of them to restart work due to the lockdown, the sources said. Companies like Accutech had stopped their works a day before the nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24 as there was a lot of uncertainty and most of their employees went to their native places after state government imposed lockdown in some places, including Bengaluru.

Prasad said the state industries department has allowed them to resume work. “Most of our employees cannot return to Bengaluru due to restrictions and we are in the process of getting required permissions,” he said. Former Chief of Training Command, Indian Air Force, Air Marshal (Retd) B K Pandey said the effect will be serious and across the board, from small and medium enterprises to big firms. “Small companies that supply components to big firms will be in serious trouble. It is a question of their survival. They can’t continue to be viable. “Stating that the lockdown may even delay the induction of new aircraft and systems into the forces, Air Marshal Pandey said, however, that it may not be a serious concern as such delays are common in the sector. On their part, many smaller companies may have to wait for the lockdown to end to resume operations. Once the lockdown is lifted, they hope to bounce back with increased vigour.

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