Gainers from the pandemic maelstrom

It’s not all poetry either, as the middle-class gent is discovering.
A railway worker sprays disinfectant on Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express train in the wake of coronavirus pandemic at a railway yard in Kolkata Monday March 16 2020. (Photo | PTI)
A railway worker sprays disinfectant on Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express train in the wake of coronavirus pandemic at a railway yard in Kolkata Monday March 16 2020. (Photo | PTI)

It can’t be all negative. There’s a positive side to this curfew. As we drift into the second week of enforced confinement, each of us is learning to discover the ‘home’ and its many crevices, the children we had forgotten to play with, and the books we had flagged to read but never got around to. Beyond the window and balcony, the crystal clear mornings without the dust are indeed a treat; more so, if it is after the koyal’s wake up call.

It’s not all poetry either, as the middle-class gent is discovering. Without his maid, cook and driver, he has to slave buying the morning sabzi, maybe clean the dishes, swab the floors and hang out the washing. If there is one big benefit this coronavirus tragedy has thrust on us, it is a possible change in attitude. A renewed learning how the masses of simple, struggling workers – the dhobi, the cleaning maid, the newspaper and milk delivery boys, the municipal drain cleaner – held the city together. Yes, we all said it for form; but it’s only after days of shutdown and when forced to perform the simplest functions that the realisation is now dawning on how the collective labour of the ‘great unwashed’ holds up our pulsating urban sprawls.

TAPAS RANJAN
TAPAS RANJAN

Sectors that benefit As most sectors of the economy slip into the doldrums, there are also those sectors that are milking the opportunity as more than half the world’s 7.8 billion people slip into various forms of physical confinement. The obvious gainer is the pharmaceutical industry. Like the shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which are on the rise. It is a company working with the US Department of Health to find a t r e a t - ment for coronavirus. More immediately, the need to keep fit and to burn time for those caught at home has spiked the demand for fitness equipment as well as apps that provide guidance to yoga and access to online health consultation.

The Chinese buying site, JD.com, reported that during the worst period of shutdown in China, sales of skipping ropes rose 56 per cent, dumbbells 60 per cent and yoga mats soared 150 per cent. With gyms no longer an option, home workouts are in. Food supply for those in isolation is a major snarl. Restaurants have been shut but takeaways, along with the app-based delivery companies, have found an opportunity. Prepared food and beverages show flat demand because of the suspicion of what may be inside.

On the other hand, grocery delivery and recipe apps have been growing in leaps and bounds. In China, downloads for Alibaba’s grocery delivery app ‘Fresh Hema’ peaked in February with 1,00,000 downloads in a single day, compared to an average of 29,000 per day during 2019. Those with a contactless delivery service are doing even better. For Swiggy and Zomato in India, closure of restaurants and the attack on delivery boys, shut them out for a while. However, with takeaways beginning to function, they are back and growing.

Etailers on the swing Interestingly, Amazon and Flipkart, now owned by Walmart, maybe on the cusp of a revolution. Amazon, after it flopped out in China because of competition from Alibaba and JD.com, has been looking to India to diversify its revenue. Before the COVID- 19 pandemic started, these companies were facing major regulatory heat with bans on exclusive sales with third-party merchants, bans on sales of products in which they owned equity interest, and restrictions on discounts and cashback offers.

Post the curfew, these bans are likely to be relaxed as India struggles to ward off recession. Unfortunately, the coming downturn is likely to push a large segment of smaller retailers and e-commerce rivals out of the market, which will translate into a gain for Amazon and Flipkart. Another segment benefiting is digital streaming. Entertainment on call provided by Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Voot and Zee-5 are flying.

Data usage by these platforms has grown so fast that by March 24, the telecom operators were pleading with them to voluntarily reduce internet consumption so as to not crowd out other users. As sports events and physical entertainment programmes vanish, the virtual world of mobile gaming too is taking a leap.

Perhaps the biggest winner in the new play will be the remote learning and teaching aids as schools and learning institutions shut shop. ‘Remote Work’ as the new office culture is also in. As virtual offices evolve, does it mean the end to commercial real estate as an industry? And finally, the demand of news and information has exploded exponentially. The newspaper and news television have been dying slowly. Even electronic news has been struggling. Now, like a bolt from the blue, there is a hunger to know more about the new, invisible enemy. News is back in fashion; how to monetise it is another matter.

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