New Delhi: The impact of COVID-19, has deeply affected the Public Sector Undertaking-PSU’s of India. To understand the challenges and way forward, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized an interactive webinar on “Post Lockdown Strategies for CMDs of PSU’s” with Mr. S K Chaudhary, Chairman and Managing Director, Ircon International Ltd and Mr. Puneet Chawla, CMD Railtel.
Mr. Puneet Chawla, CMD Railtel, deliberated that we are passing through difficult times and we as leaders need to give paramount importance to safe gourd the healthcare, safety, and wellbeing of workers and stakeholders. While working from home has become a new normal, measures like sanitization, contactless sanitizer, and others will be the new things to be there in the office. So, we can say that COVID-19 has brought a lot of changes and we have to make these changes into effect for which some strategies have to put in place so that we can deal with this situation.
Mr. Puneet Chawla further highlighted that during the lockdown period, the government has done a commendable job. The railways have been feeding people, giving shelter to the homeless, transporting workforce, materials, and at the same time maintaining the social distancing norms. The telecom of RailTel is the communication for railways to run. Some of the staff will remain under quarantine for some time and digitalization of office working will lead to productive communication and management in the industry. He further talked about the various initiatives taken by RailTel in developing itself to cope up with the changing times due to COVID-19 like placing e-officer in 160 establishments in railways and 65,000 users are on board and many more.
For the PSU, the next strategy is that the major departments like HR, Operation, Sales, Marketing, and others need to have a digital office and secure network enabling fast decision-making processes. A robust, high definition video conference mechanism needs to be in place to that the interface of the organization is sustained on a remote basis. We have to adapt to the technology to adapt ourselves to this change, said Mr. Puneet Chawla.
Mr. S.K. Chaudhary, Chairman and Managing Director, Ircon International Ltd mentioned that in this era COVID-19, we are having a lot of disruption due to which every industry is facing challenges and threats. The government has given some relief which can help to start the industry. But, the new normal will be digitalization and sanitization.
Talking about the economy, Mr. S K Chaudhary said that the economy of many countries has done down and some industries have been facing losses and slowdown like construction and many more. While some activities have started, we are hopeful that the PSU Sector will bounce back soon and again is the position.
For the 6 months, we will start in a calibrated manner and after that, we will gain the pace. The future belongs to digitization, e-office, and sanitation. There is a need to educate the employees especially the laborers so that COVID-19 spread is controlled and they maintain self-hygiene and sanitation. Automation will help in making the work less human touched and it will be used more in the future.
Dr. D K Aggarwal, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in his presidential remarks deliberated that post lockdown, the economic activities are getting started and most of the activities are starting now. He raised concerns regarding the strategy of these public sectors to post lockdown, the challenges they will be facing and the ways to combat them. The PSU is one of the backbone sectors of the economy and they took India to great heights post-independence. He gave suggestions that can help the public sector to raise their equity, liquidity, and help them to bounce back post the lockdown. PSU has to prioritize their strategies and bounce.
Mr. Sanjay Aggarwal, Sr. Vice President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry delivered a formal vote of thanks to all the esteemed panelists and participants. Mr. Sandeep Aggarwal, Chairman, Telecom Committee, PHD Chamber, gave an overall industry perspective and insights. He raised concerns regarding the issues of workers and laborers, their pressure of earning, and at the same time being the most vulnerable during this pandemic.
Mr. Veenu Jain. Chairman, Railway Committee, PHD Chamber, shared the issues and challenges faced by the industry while also suggesting relief measures and steps to ensure smooth working of the industry in the country.
The webinar was in support of Ircon International Ltd. The webinar was moderated by Dr. Ranjeet Mehta, Principal Director, PHD Chamber. The Webinar was attended by many senior members of PHD Chamber and over 150 industry stalwarts around the country.
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