TNF India – West organised a webinar for providing a macroeconomic outlook in the ongoing COVID-19 situation on June 26, 2020. Titled ‘Finding opportunity in the face of adversity – an economist’s view’, the speakers at this webinar were Roopa Purushothaman, chief economist and head of policy and advocacy, Tata Sons, and Vishal Vaibhav, general manager, economics and policy advocacy, Tata Sons. More than 500 Tata employees participated in this webinar through the medium of Microsoft Teams.
The host for the event, Shreyas Desai, deputy general manager, Tata Business Excellence Group, welcomed the participants. The opening remarks for the session were given by R Mukundan, MD, Tata Chemicals, and chairman – TNF West, in which he discussed how people are adapting to the COVID-19 situation.
Ms Purushothaman’s address threw light on some of the overall macroeconomic trends that are being seen across the world in the current situation. She highlighted that economic activity across the world is picking up faster in developed markets than in emerging markets, and among all the sectors, the service industry is quite badly affected by COVID-19. In terms of investments, riskier asset classes like equities have outperformed safer heavens like government’s securities, gold and dollar since the reopening of the lockdown, she said. Ms Purushothaman also shared her views on global trends in the post-COVID-19 situation, which include digital acceleration with a focus on virtual; rebalancing of supply chains (rise in local and traditional); pivot towards home base (work from home); reimagining life transitions; increasing importance of healthcare systems and a consolidation across businesses.
Mr Vaibhav discussed the trends being observed in India and how the pandemic has affected the country, causing its real GDP to contract sharply since the past four decades. Both speakers also answered questions asked by the participants through a Q&A session.
At the end of the webinar, S Padmanabhan, executive chairman, Tata Business Excellence Group, gave closing remarks and a vote of thanks.
