India lockdown day 1: Experts discuss challenges and solutions

Almost two months after India reported its first positive case of coronavirus, the number of confirmed cases has risen above 560. The number of active cases now stands at over 500.

However, yesterday India witnessed a slight dip in the number of cases detected, compared to COVID-19 confirmations in the last few days.

As number of cases rise, a nationwide lockdown has come into force today. On the first day, several essential service providers, who are on the exemption list, have reported harassment at the hand of local authorities. There have been reports of the local police stopping, and in some cases, beating up delivery personnel.

The Retailers Association of India (RAI) has written to state governments, urging the chief ministers to intervene so that essential goods are accessible to citizens without any hindrance.

Centre has also taken note of these concerns. DPIIT secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra, speaking to CNBC-TV18, has said that the Centre has received feedback and it is working with states to address the challenges. He also said that states have been asked to allow home delivery personnel with identity cards to deliver food and pharmaceutical products. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) too has issued an advisory to states for setting up help line numbers by states for smooth delivery of exempt services.

In fact, states have swung in to action. In Delhi, the government has issued e-passes for essential services. In Gurugram, all police officials have been instructed to cooperate with online delivery services. In Bengaluru, the police commissioner will meet stakeholders this evening.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant also assured that the Centre would ensure that supply chains remain intact and that essential items reach every citizen. Centre has also stepped up its efforts to prepare the healthcare infrastructure for the rising number of coronavirus cases.

Meanwhile, India has banned the export of hydroxychloroquine and formulations made from it. However, exemptions will be allowed in the case of advance license issued till yesterday.

In order to ramp the production of ventilators, the Centre has reached out to multiple auto companies like Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki.

Meanwhile State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of India (BoI), Union Bank and Indian Bank have announced emergency credit lines for customers who have been hit due to coronavirus. The credit lines will help borrowers tide over liquidity crisis.

The central government is also working on a package to tackle the economic impact of coronavirus. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has told CNBC-TV18 that the Centre will soon come out with measures that will have an impact for job creating sectors like aviation, travel, tourism and hospitality.

Jayesh Ranjan, IT Secy, Telangana; Deepak Bagla MD and CEO of Invest India; Ananth Narayanan co-founder and CEO of Medlife and Kumar Rajagopalan CEO of Retailers Association of India (RAI) discussed the challenges on day one of the nationwide lockdown in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

Speaking about the situation at the mandis, Ranjan said, “In Telangana, it is mostly distribution problem, which will get resolved by late afternoon. Supplies are adequately available, there are provisions both in the mandis as well as at the port level. It is only a matter of getting the distribution chain right and hopefully, with the kind of movement passes that we are issuing – that too in a very simplified manner – it should settle down very quickly.”

“We are looking for suppliers of the essential materials, be it masks, be it ventilators and we are matching them up as the state governments and the hospitals are requiring it, even beds in the hospitals. Not just looking at existing suppliers but also at companies, which are willing to change their current product line to start making these supplies. There is a special team doing it. This is also for all start-ups and innovators,” said Bagla.

According to Narayanan of Medlife  multiple cities are now open and operational. The good news is that the government and the police have been very responsive. "The two requests that I would have is – one, physical violence needs to be prevented. For players like us, it becomes increasingly hard then to get the rest of the employees to come in and go out and do deliveries. Second, the passes that are getting done – we are also recipients of it in Hyderabad. Issuing that pass and issuing that across state is important. Another thing is that we do need to make sure that the first-mile-operations also need to happen, otherwise we will start to run out of stock,”  added.

Rajagopalan said, “We have got multiple retailers across the country who sell essential products. Those retailers need some more help. Every single government authority has been helpful and clear about it. However, when the individual policeman meets up with an individual who is walking on the road, is that particular policeman very clear? We have seen issues on that account. People coming to the retail stores are very scared to come out. That is one thing that we need to avoid. Unless this whole pass system gets done – I am very hopeful that by tomorrow morning we should come back and say that things are better - there is no need to panic but this is where the issue starts.”