Recovery tracker: Workplace attendance rise as Covid-19 cases decline

Airlines see more passengers, railway numbers show gains

More people are reporting to work than in the early part of 2020 as Covid-19 cases decline.

India’s daily cases fell below the six-figure mark at 83,876 on February 6.

Workplace visits were 7.3 per cent higher than the baseline value for early 2020 before the pandemic took hold, according to mobility statistics from search engine Google. It tracks how people are moving during the pandemic using anonymised location data. Retail and recreation visits also showed signs of coming back (see chart 1).

Traffic congestion was higher than previous week in Delhi on Monday morning at 9am, showed data from global location technology firm TomTom International. It came in at 48 per cent below normal compared to the 51 per cent drop seen in the previous week. Traffic congestion dropped further in Mumbai. The government had declared a public holiday on Monday to mourn the death of playback singer, Lata Mangeshkar. It was down 66 per cent compared to 2019 levels in Mumbai (see chart 2).

Vehicle registrations closed the gap a little compared to the previous week. People registered 3,66,220  vehicles, a 17.6 per cent fall in registrations compared to 2019. The gap was 24.5 per cent in the previous week which had recorded 324,966 registrations (see chart 3)

There were 1.4 million passengers on domestic flights in the latest week, compared to 1.2 million in the previous one. The total number of flights during the week rose from 11,380 to 11,738, reflecting a rising trend (see chart 4).

The Indian Railways registered a higher growth in the quantity of goods carried. It was up eight per cent compared to 7.2 per cent previously. The money it made from carrying the goods (freight revenue) grew 12.2 per cent over the same week last year. It had grown 11.7 per cent in the previous week (see chart 5).

Power generation growth showed small gains over last fiscal even as winter is coming to end in most parts of the country. The power utilities across the country generated 3944 million units of electricity on average per day during the week ended February 6, 2022 (based on reporting day data) up 2.3 per cent from 3855 MUs during the corresponding week in FY21. The generation was however up 9.3 per cent over the corresponding week in FY20. The power generation last week was up 2.5 per cent week on week basis (see chart 6)

Business Standard tracks these indicators as a way of getting a current picture of economic activity. Official macroeconomic data is often released with a lag. Analysts globally have been tracking similar indicators. It gives a sense of how the economy is impacted as different governments imposed restrictions to control the Covid-19 pandemic. Google data is released with a lag. The latest is as of Thursday, 3rd February. Traffic congestion data is as of Monday. All other data is as of Sunday, 06th February.