More people reporting to work than at any time since March 2020 lockdown

Power generation, rail numbers head higher

Amount of electricity generated: Up. Goods that the Indian Railways carried: Up. Number of people reporting to work: Up

Several weekly economic indicators rose higher in the latest week, despite concerns around the Omicron variant.

Weekly power generation was the highest in nearly two months based on reporting day data. Power utilities across the country generated 3,673 million units (MUs) of electricity on average per day during the week ended December 19 – up 2 per cent from 3,596 MUs in the previous week. Power generation in the latest week was 12.2 per cent higher than in the corresponding week in 2019 and 5.2 per cent higher than the corresponding week in 2020.

The quantity of goods that the Indian Railways carried, too, grew 8.8 per cent year-on-year for the latest week. Growth had been 7.1 per cent in the previous week. The money the Railways made from carrying these goods, or freight revenue, grew 9.6 per cent compared to 11 per cent previously.

Workplace visits were 3.9 per cent higher than they were in early 2020 before the pandemic took hold in India. Search engine Google collates mobility numbers based on anonymous location data. Retail and recreation visits were higher than the previous week. Essential shopping was marginally lower, but is still 48 per cent higher than the initial part of 2020.

Business Standard also tracks emissions of nitrogen dioxide. It comes from industrial activity and vehicles. Higher numbers can point towards greater activity. Delhi emissions were 31 per cent higher than 2019. This is higher than the previous week. Mumbai emissions, based on Bandra locality data, remained muted.

Traffic congestion trended lower ahead of Christmas holidays and the year-end, shows data from global location technology firm TomTom International. Mumbai traffic was down 31 per cent compared to 2019. New Delhi’s was 20 per cent below 2019 levels. Traffic numbers were higher for both cities in the previous week.   

Business Standard tracks these weekly indicators to get a sense of how the economy is currently doing. Official macroeconomic data is often released with a lag. Analysts globally have been tracking similar indicators. It allows them to understand the situation on the ground as different countries impose restrictions to control the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, France and Germany have imposed additional restrictions to limit the spread of the Omicron variant. Google data is released with a lag. The latest is as of December16. All other data is as of Sunday, December 19.