COVID-19: PARC Robotic Systems in India reopens but still workers stay home

PARC Robotic Systems reinstated their two aluminium part factories in Pune at the western province of India. Bharat Gite, Director of PARC Robotic stated that he spent days servicing idle machines, sanitising his premises and putting in place social distancing norms for staff.

The aluminium component manufacturer is facing a problem that it is becoming tough for their workers to return to their jobs post millions of Indians fled cities for their rural homes or on other cities when the Government of India executed a nationwide lockdown at the end of March’20.

Bharat Gite said: “We haven't heard from customers in the last two months. It's a havoc situation. We don't know what is going to happen."

PARC Robotics Systems has been a supplier company to General Electric Co. (GE), ABB Ltd., and Siemens. Gite said: “Sales orders have dried up. The two factories run by his PARC Robotic Systems Pvt. Ltd. are operating at just a tenth of their capacity and with 30% of labour.”

He added by saying: “The biggest uncertainty is how to bring the workforce back. It will take at least a year for the business to come back on track."

India begins gradually easing lockdown restriction across the country, but Gite experiences show: “Re-opening the economy isn't going to be a straightforward exercise.”

On top of the labour shortages and slack demand, businesses are living with the threat they'll be shut down for several weeks if a single infection is detected, forcing them to proceed with caution. That dispels any notion of a quick recovery in an economy facing its first contraction in more than four decades and hundreds of millions of job losses.

Chandrakant Salunkhe, President of the SME Chamber of India said: "If one person is infected, the whole factory will be closed for 28 days. That is a fear among entrepreneurs which represents small- and mid-sized businesses in the country.”

"Even if I start my factory now, I'll not get raw material. If I have the raw material, I don't have labour, and if I have the labour I don't have orders. The supply chain has broken down."