FOOT IN PRIVATE CAPEX DOOR

India Inc’s captains hope economics will continue to have an edge over politics even in an election year

- RISHI RAJ

FOR INDIA INC, hope springs eternal. If F 2023 started with a hope of revival, growth and a pickup in private capital expenditure, the mood of corporate leaders before the world ushers in another new year is upbeat. Most have figured out uncertainty will remain the only certainty, but more importantly, have taken it in their stride.

The optimism at the beginning of 2023 wasn't without reason. Businesses had faced disruption in 2020 and 2021. Just when things started to look up, Omicron, a new strain of Covid, surfaced towards the end of 2021, leading to a sombre mood in the initial months of 2022. That the new strain was not lethal and vaccination was an effective check would have helped, but the onset of the Russia-Ukraine conflict upset the supply chain management of companies across sectors and inflationary pressures rose.

However, as 2023 progressed, hope translated into reality to a large extent. Supply chain issues, underlined by a semiconductor shortage, were overcome and sectors like automobile and electronics registered one of their best periods of growth. For most months of the year, domestic air passenger traffic surpassed pre-Covid levels of 2019. In short, normalcy had returned across sectors and usual economic forces were at play.

This was evident from the performance of India Inc during the July-September quarter.