In the domestic segment, demand is currently led by rural markets, oil and gas, LPG and B2C segments like roofing and sheeting.
For states like West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, where migration is high, the return of workers could be as much an opportunity as a liability. All states have launched portals to register migrant workers; additional fields like nature of employment and remuneration in the past 2-3 years are being added to help in skill mapping.
'States have done a tremendous job of identifying health facilities for COVID-19 care and equipping them well.'
India's harsh lockdown has left companies grappling with temporary closure, chaotic supply chains and depressed demand. Consequently, business plans have been modified.
For smaller MFIs, resuming operations is more difficult because they haven't got any fresh bank credit sanctioned from their lenders.
In Sandelerbil village alone in the Hingalgunj block in the Sundarbans, around 36 families from the Scheduled Caste community migrated from Tamil Nadu in March, where they had been working in a gas oven factory. A majority awaits dues promised but not paid. The story is no different in the villages of Manipur, Atapur, and Amtoli under the Sandeshkhali block in the Sundarbans.
'Does it mean that till the COVID-19 fight is over, the governor should be non-functional, in sleep mode, and fiddling in the Raj Bhavan while the state is burning?'
Perched in the hills of Darjeeling, the factory was set up in 1874, but has remained shut since 2001. Efforts to reopen the colonial era establishment are now on a war footing.
'It will take six months to one year to move to normalcy, depending on how the pandemic plays out in India.'
'At this point of time, West Bengal is doing better than other states in tackling the crisis. We have a chief minister who herself has hit the streets to do what is to be done, and at the same time ensuring a proper lockdown. She is also trying day and night to set up the requisite infrastructure.'
As the world awaits the end of the global pandemic, rural Bengal might be witnessing a recession unfolding in bits and pieces. With factories and tea gardens closing down, agricultural income falling and storm Aila ravaging a large part of deltaic West Bengal in 2010, migration gradually became a norm.
Factories are shutting down owing to a shortage of labour and raw materials, and a lack of logistical support amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown against the coronavirus pandemic.
The World Bank report said Brand Northeast would build on elements such as healthy living, environmental sustainability, social responsibility, service orientation, among others.
Bandhan Bank is expecting that a little less than 50 per cent of its portfolio will be dominated by affordable housing loans in the next three to five years.
A dedicated jazz club is just what Kolkata needed to get things going. And Skinny Mo's has announced its arrival to the enthusiastic city.
All transfers and promotions for next financial year will be decided by respective banks, not by the merged entity.
According to a 2011 impact assessment study of the programme by Banerjee and Duflo, along with economists Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Jeremy Shapiro, Bandhan's THP results in a 15 per cent increase in household consumption and had a positive impact on wealth and welfare, such as assets and emotional well being.
Banks are also weighing the option of hiring experts for help in specialised areas.
The announcement evoked a sharp response from the UK and Ireland's largest trade union, Unite, which said it would fight for every job and demanded that there would be no compulsory redundancies from Tata Steel.
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