FM Sitharaman to meet trade and industry to assess Coronavirus impact
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will on Tuesday assess the impact of Coronavirus, presently endemic in China, on Indian trade and industry, the Finance Ministry said on Friday. The Finance Minister would be meeting industry associations on Tuesday along with Secretaries in the Ministry, the ministry said in a tweet, retweeted by her.
Sitharaman has cancelled her engagements in Bengaluru scheduled on Tuesday for the meet but her programmes in Hyderabad and Bengaluru on Sunday and Monday respectively remain as scheduled, the tweets said.
While so far the potential loss to India from Coronavirus has not been assessed by the government, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) recently said it does not expect the outbreak to materially affect Indian corporates' supply chains in the near term, provided it remains contained in the Hubei province. In case the virus is transmitted over the next three to four months, the extent of supply chain disruptions globally could be higher than that during the 2003 SARS outbreak.
The quantum of impact on sectors would be contingent on the nature of the business activity and the nature of linkages the rest of the world has with mainland China.
Coronavirus outbreak is an opportunity for India to expand exports, Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said recently.
