| | APRIL 20218IMPACT OF COVID-19: A CHALLENGE OR AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE INDIAN MANUFACTURERSBy Uttam Malani, Executive Director, Centuary Mattressesndia is witnessing a newfound, insatia-ble demand for Indian brands and their home-manufactured products. The country is inching forward in the global manufacturing landscape and is attracting at-tention thanks to its manufacturing potential, which was earlier untapped. India accounts for only 2 per cent of the global manufactur-ing, clearly underutilizing its potential. Sev-eral factors and government initiatives are now helping in promoting manufacturing in India. Initiatives like Atmanirbhar Bharat or Make in India or Vocal for Local gained mo-mentum because of the sheer national sen-timent and as the immediate reaction of the recent pandemic and the cause for it. The dislike for Chinese products fuelled by anger and the national sentiment is kin-dling the popularity of Indian made products. The corrective measures taken by the Government of India have eased a bit on the economy and steps taken for sustaining GDP. But the bigger challenge placed in front of Indian manufacturers is maintaining the supply vs demand and cost-effectiveness, in which China is in a stronger position. Moving from our ser-vice-oriented nation to the indigenization of products can prove to be highly rewarding. It is imperative that all the manufactur-ing organizations need to keep a healthy bottom-line, it is also important to stream-line the capital to ensure a proper fund flow. During this crisis time, we need to have service level improvisation and meet the demand vs supply for smooth function-ing. Companies need to have robust inward and outward inventory management sys-tems. However, we feel that it may take some more time for the retailers to adapt to the changing environment.Coming to the preference, Indian prod-ucts are not only favored due to the national sentiment but because the products and ser-vices provided by major players in the industry are gradual-ly proving to be of international quality. Stating that Indian talent is now strong enough to compete with global players is no understatement. A lot of companies have wisely used the lockdown to upskill and train their pool of talent. Those who have seen this opportunity to globally benchmark and elevate their workforce will stand far ahead of the rest of the pack ­ when the air clears and the consumer sentiment stabilizes.We need to simplify and adopt relevant and effective pol-icies and ensure that all the states in India accept and follow IVANTAGE POINTUttam Malani
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