We should have minimum gatherings for upcoming elections in five states due to COVID-19: CII

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) chief TV Narendran on Thursday suggested that the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Government should decide on the management of gatherings for upcoming elections in five states which have to be a minimum due to increasing COVID-19 cases.

In an exclusive interview to ANI, TV Narendran, President CII said that the unnecessary crowd will increase the transmissibility of the Omicron variant of coronavirus infection, so we should have minimum gatherings.

Speaking to ANI, CII President said, "This is the matter for Government and ECI but on behalf of Industry, all I can say is we should only have gathering which are absolutely necessary. Unnecessary crowd will increase the transmissibility of the virus. We should have minimum gatherings."

"But then it is the Election Commission and the Government have to decide how to manage it. It is necessary not to disturb the process while at the same time we have to look how to protect the lives," he said.

He was responding to a question that what will be the suggestion to ECI on the upcoming elections in five states as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is spreading in the country.Narendran said that the industry is on wait and watch mode and "as of today I don't see any impact of Omicron variant on Industry and Economy, but will have to see how the next two-three weeks go."

"Second wave of COVID-19 has not impacted much if we compare with first wave. First wave saw a complete lockdown. Impact of Second wave was more on the health and humanitarian side, but there was not much economic impact. Hope that third wave will not be significant," he added.

He further said that we may see uncertainty in next one or two month but after that we will be back on track on economic recovery, investments, growth and consumption.

"Globally we have also not seen any disruptions in the third wave of COVID-19 as we have seen during second wave. Container freight were increased in second wave but now global supply chain are becoming normal. Omicron is milder and we don't need to be scared like we were in Second wave," he said.

He also stated, "Some sectors like hospitality tour and travel industry will have an impact as there are restrictions. We will have to be watchful. We have to keep pushing for the coverage of booster dose to maximum then the impact of COVID-19 will be minimum. Booster dose is rolling out very fast. We are much better prepare to fight with the third wave."

Talking about the Budget expectation which government is likely to come up on February 1, Narendran said that the Centre should continue with their investment in infrastructure sector because it generates demand for other sectors and it also create jobs, increase competitiveness.

"To maintain the consumption trajectory, the government should support the sectors which are much impacted like hospitality, MSME. Third, it should continue his support with schemes like MNEREGA and increase the spending on Healthcare sector," the CII chief said.

He informed that the country still spend only 1.3 percent of GDP on healthcare which should be increased to 3 percent.

"Healthcare is still out of pocket expenses for the comman man. Our long term suggestion is that the government should give focus on areas like climate change, technology, startups. Our suggestion for cost of doing business was that CII can work with the government to develop the cost of doing business so thay we can compare different states," the CII President added.

( With inputs from ANI )

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