Businesses, offices, schools, movie theatres, railways, airports all ground to a complete halt. India’s GDP fell from a cliff to a heart stopping 23.9 per cent in the first quarter. The stockmarket collapsed to stunning lows. With factories and commercial establishments closed a massive wave of retrenchment engulfed the sectors and migrant labour departed from cities back to the villages. Horrifying visuals of misery threw all to despair.

Real Estate and Contracting dived during the first quarter. Equipment companies focused on deliveries and logistics while production and sales came to a standstill.

Equipment India, along with its sister publication Construction World, moved into a virtual mode and created an information pipeline for the stakeholders. We held over 40 webinars between 31st March and 31st December and kept the industry informed on what was happening in the industry. Our webinar on ‘Construction Technologies Post Covid-19’ witnessed great success with over 1,200 attendees tuning in to hear what our esteemed panellists had to say on technologies making in-roads in construction and their multiple benefits, and what’s in-store going forward. Similar was the case with other webinars. Check out this link for webinars held https://www.constructionworld.in/webinar The world of construction will undergo a transformation with Covid-19. Construction equipment will now not only have to provide for safety features that it has incorporated so far, but automation would be now an essential feature of the fleet.

The scale and pace of infrastructure projects are picking up in our country. The Union Budget has been favourable for the infrastructure sector in more ways than one. Not only the capital outlay for the infrastructure sector was increased significantly, but also several other expectations were also met. This includes further allocation towards the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and the setting up of a new development finance institution (DFI). These will augment the financing avenues for the infrastructure sector and can pave the way for increased private participation thereby supporting the overall infrastructure investment. The gross budgetary support towards capital expenditure has been increased significantly to Rs 5.54 lakh crore in 2021-22 BE (up 34 percent from 2020-21 BE, and 26 percent from 2020-21 RE) with higher allocation towards the infrastructure sector (roads, railways, etc).

The vehicle scrappage policy was passed recently. Union minister Nitin Gadkari termed the policy a boon and said it would lead to a 30 per cent boost to the Indian automobile industry turnover to Rs 10 trillion in the years to come. However, beginning April the BSIV guidelines on emissions kick in which had been deferred on 1st October 2020. So, while the cost burden owing to emission policy has been adverse the vehicle scrappage policy can be a boon. But details are awaited. Coal India has increased its targeted output and mining has been thrown open for the private sector. These are historic changes and will augur well for the future.

The Central government has also provided the capital of Rs 0.45 lakh crore as support for the Infrastructure Pipeline. The increased budgetary allocation and planned capital outlay by the Central government will help increase the pace of infrastructure investment.

However, as the investments planned under National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) are also dependent on state governments and private sector capex, the overall investment could still fall short of the plan, unless supported by States and private sector participation. Of the total expected capital expenditure of Rs 102 trillion towards NIP, projects worth Rs 42.7 trillion (42 per cent) are already under the implementation stage and about 19 per cent are under development. So, the critical ones are the projects worth Rs 32.7 trillion (32 per cent), which are in the conceptualisation stage – which is where the opportunities lie. Non-conceptualised projects of NIP are a huge opportunity.

There has been heightened focus on energy and fuel efficiency features in infrastructure equipment, with a digital push in the recent times. The equipment market has a great opportunity from a possible turnaround in the infrastructure and mining sectors in the coming years. During the pandemic in 2020 and with the Union Budget 2021-22, the government has indicated its intention of strengthening the economic fabric the country by enhancing the thrust on infrastructure be it – mining, roads, corridors, railways, irrigation, logistics. Public spending has been ambitiously set to invoke demand. As construction rises, the demand for heavy construction equipment will continue to rise. Our 13th Anniversary Edition discusses more on these aspects. The cover story focuses on where the demand will be coming from for the construction equipment sector. After all a rising tide will lift all boats.

Here’s to tiding over the crisis and emerging stronger.

Happy reading.