The virus mutated and Surge in Omicron! The production disruption seeking to cool the manufacturing is again knocking on the door of Pune, India’s one of the mightiest manufacturing hubs. Offering global as well as domestic exports with pan India distribution, Pune, already being struck by the COVID 19 is again amidst the Omicron spike to fight with the potential of its manufacturing facilities.
Located near India’s largest container shipping port to a manufacturing hub and with TATA Motors, Bajaj, Mahindra Mercedes Benz India and Cummins, as leading players to set up the pioneering manufacturing facilities in the vicinity for years, Pune, has been a potential site of investment scope for global industrial players, circumscribing a huge share of India’s manufacturing and ancillary facilities.
Owing to the dominancy in attracting investment from both domestic as well as foreign industries, Pune has been evinced by the presence of various multinational companies and R&D centres in manufacturing like that of Automotive Research Institute of India, along with the availability of the skilled workforce.
Machine Maker spoke to many professionals from the manufacturing sector from Pune to understand the ground reality. The manufacturers are now equipped to face the challenges this dynamic virus throws out, with the learnings from the first and second waves of pandemics. Motilal Sankala, President of Chakan Industries Association, one of the largest industrial belt in the city informed that the manufacturing industries in Chakan are doing well till now. Mr Sankala told that there are not any strict regulations applied as of now, but the industry is ensuring all are using masks and sanitiser compulsorily.
“After evaluating the situation, for now, all the industries under the Chakan Industries Association are doing well. The manufacturing activities have not been affected yet but might start getting affected soon according to the situation.” He also informed that the Government is closely accessing the situation on the verge of addition in the number of corona and omicron patients. “The colleges and schools in Pune are being shut. There is a possibility of facing a difficult situation in the manufacturing sector from February month if the curve is not flattening”, added Motilal Sankala.
In the midst of the Omicron rise, the Industry is now, eyeing how the thrust can be driven out of the government’s incentivizing policies and uplifting the core infrastructure in the form of manufacturing units and Logistics parks which echoes Pune as India’s one of the Oldest manufacturing hub, incorporating the highest mark of global standards. However, the orders of night curfew, banning public gatherings and over-the-night efforts of CSIR-NCL (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Chemical Laboratory) are some of the efforts to prevent the Omicron outbreak. Still, due to the rise in the new variant cases, most of the Industries now fear another cycle of financial lag.
Challenges to the Industry’s resilience
Industrial flexibility, when invoked simply conceptualizes a destination of technological advancement, pioneering infrastructure and skilled workforce that profoundly leads to a suitable industrial destination. Being the epicentre of large industrial clusters like Talegaon, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Bhosari, Ranjangaon, Chakan, etc, Pune, located in Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor owns over 4000 manufacturing units with 400 multinational players in the district. According to the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, over 225 German companies have set up their businesses here making it an industrial hotspot for German Companies.
For years, Pune’s Automotive segment has been ruled by the leading automotive component manufacturers like Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Force Motors, Volkswagen, TATA Autocomp Systems, Continental AG, etc. Not only this, Pune embracing, is R&D facilities such as Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) and Armament Research & Development Establishment a fertile business ground for defence equipment manufacturers and suppliers.
And, the third wave would eventually, affect the state’s industrial scenario which accounts for 18.4% of India’s industrial output making Pune a Gateway of Indian and Multinational Companies.
— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) January 8, 2022
Till now, little restrictions on economic activities and massive vaccination drive were forecasting Pune’s economic comeback, but the new variant Omicron has again put a question of accent postulating the slowdown in manufacturing operations. Pune last day reported around 8000 covid cases taking the total COVID tally of the state to about 11 lakh. Maharashtra reported 207 cases of the new Omicron variant with the 22 in the Pune itself.
Small businesses, MSMEs and SMEs: On the verge of the hardest hit
Being a centre of investment from small to big industrial segments, Pune has a potential cluster of small scale industries of automobile components, agro-processing, Dairy Products, machining, etc. Pimpri-Chinchwad Region, home to Small and medium scale industries has reported 15 out of the total Omicron cases in Pune, intensifying the need for economical restrictions.
Speaking on the possible plight of the Omicron on the Industries and manufacturing to Machine Maker, Atul Gupta, Member of Indian Industries Association said, “Any pandemic has its consequences on manufacturing. As of now, the government has put a lot of restrictions including the sanitization efforts and other Omicron norms. But, the situation worsens and lockdown efforts then the Industry world definitely suffer due to operational disruptions.”
Omicron, rendering the workers battling the woe due to a halt in manufacturing operations, can bring about severe complexities in manufacturing operations. The night curfew and associated restrictions, on one hand, would cause supply chain disruption while on the other hand, it can lead to production difficulties. As work from home policies cannot be fully viable for the small sectors, the restrictions seem to cause a consequent decline in the production efficiency of the sectors.
Not only this, somehow, witnessing remarkable growth opportunities, industry events and trade fairs, giving the local manufacturers a worldwide industrial exposure and their product a global platform is estimated to be affected with the looming Omicron concern over a month, the uncertainties continued to take wisely decisions of postponing the trade events.
As evident from the postponement of the KISAN 2021 – India’s Agriculture Machine Show featuring Tractors, Farm Machinery, Implements and other Automobiles to February 2022 at Pune International Exhibition & Convention Centre, the decisions of postponing the events have been wise, still their delay is not healthy from Industrial aspects.
Public-Private Partnership: Forecast on a finer margin
The pandemic preparedness which the industry came to learn for the last two years is foreseeing to implement more and more manufacturing contingency plans to avoid the risk of supply chain disruptions, which were at the peak during the first and the second wave. During the first and second waves, which no one could predict production level of the Pune continued to increase substantially in December 2021, which the surveys reflect that most of the manufacturers have reached around 90% of the pre-pandemic level of production.
“The self-sufficiency leveraging the capability to offer the global standards was a major lesson that the manufacturing sector comprehended, and consequently, it was reflected in the small sector’s industrial growth. Also, the digital fabrication of the finance and trades led a new way forward,” remarks Dr Surendra Singh, Technical Advisor, Agriculture Machineries Manufacturers Association (AMMA) India, about the learning from the first and second wave of the pandemic.
About the small sector’s industrial framework, he further added, “Allocating the labourers and workers, coming from far off places in the factory or nearby places itself was a big move in fighting the pandemic as they were the prime victims.” The emerging situation of Omicron Rise coincides with the mutual surveillance and monitoring of the manufacturing plans by both the public and private sector to maintain the readiness of the Industrial Infrastructure.
By the end of the march, when India would cross over 50 million jabs, Public-Private Partnership would emerge as a major shield against Omicron’s odd-turn on Pune’s manufacturing. From digital helplines to the facilities set up at Pimpri Chinchwad Region to utilize digital technology for proper monitoring and tracking of the COVID situation in the city, there have been numerous smart strategies adopted by the Pune Municipal Corporation incorporating the digital transformations to combat the new Omicron variant.
Though the Omicron has been a concern for Pune’s Manufacturing scenario, still the digital innovations with the government’s support are capable to make Pune hold the hands of Economic and Industrial development amid a new variant of the pandemic.
