Bharat bandh: India Inc losses pegged at Rs10,000 crore

With normal life grinding to a halt in most parts of the country, the opposition-sponsored bandh may have made a strong political point, but it has left corporate India reeling under a loss of more than Rs10,000 crore.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has pegged the loss to the corporate sector at Rs13,000 crore, while the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) puts it at a more conservative Rs3,000 crore. However, the CII estimate could be an understatement, feel experts.

IT companies were directly hit, as the BJP-run Karnataka government gave overt support to the bandh. TV Mohandas Pai, HR head, Infosys Technologies, pegged the loss to Bangalore alone at Rs1,000 crore.

“We took a decision to shut down our operation because the government withdrew public transport. The government, by its action, created a sense of fear and threat of violence in the streets. It’s a big shame that the city had to be close down… We (Infosys) stand to lose close to Rs50 crore,’’ he said.

Girish Paranjpe, joint CEO (IT business) and executive director on the board of Wipro Ltd, also expects a loss of Rs50 crore to his company. “We took the decision (to shut down operations) looking at the convenience of our employees. We stressed on their safety... (we) will recover it by working on an alternate day.”

Going by the significant paralysis the nation suffered on Monday, especially in non-UPA-ruled states, the losses couldn’t but be substantial. Some companies ran operations with a skeletal staff or employees feeding in from home, but most offices remained closed. The bandh had a “significant impact on business and trade in some parts of the country,” CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee said.  

Praveen Sood, chief financial officer, Hindustan Construction Company, said the attendance was thin. ``Of the 50 people in my department, only 10 attended office,” he said.

Infrastructure Development Finance Company saw a similar turnout. Only about 20% of the workforce of 350 showed up for work at its Bandra-Kurla Complex office and even those were primarily from the company’s financial services division.

Parvez Umrigar, managing director, Gammon Infrastructure Projects, said the company had declared a holiday on Monday. “We will compensate this later,” he said. Even Patel Engineering had announced a holiday.

Travel is always a nightmare in Mumbai and such strikes only add to the misery of people, said EVS Chakravarthy, CEO, YOU Broadband & Cable India Ltd. “We had not made attendance compulsory. Those who could make it did come to work at all our 11 operational cities, including Mumbai… In Mumbai, our headquarters, most of our senior executives and management operated from homes, while some actually came to office. The attendance was approximately 10% at our Marol, Thane and Bandra offices here,” he added.

Some, though, put up a brave face. “Our offices are working. Attendance was low but we have not measured it. We have always worked on every bandh because not doing so would be like cooperating with the bandh. We understand that if some employees are not able to come to work. They can take leave for the day,” said Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej group.

“The attendance has been very low at all our offices across the country, but our plants are operational as per schedule,” Debasis Ray, spokesperson of Tata Motors, said. “A day’s bandh has no impact on our business as the delivery of the car can be rescheduled by a day.”

A Kingfisher Airlines official said there weren’t many cancellations. “We are yet to get the complete data of the kind of impact this will have on our revenues. We had combined a few flights for today.”
An NTPC official based in New Delhi said there was no impact and attendance was normal, with staff reaching on time. A senior official of Bhel concurred.

“I don’t think there was an impact in Delhi. I moved around the city for official work,” he said.