Lockdown 3.0: Rural India may drive demand recovery amid Covid-19 crisis

Top executives at auto, tractor and consumer packaged goods firms are optimistic. They are betting on the reverse migration of labourers boosting consumption and prediction of a favourable monsoon.

As vast swathes of urban India remain locked down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, rural India, which is less affected by coronavirus and has been blessed with a record produce of rabi crops, too, holds out hope for recovery. This will especially benefit companies which derive a large part of their revenue from rural areas, say analysts.

“We expect the growth in rural India to be higher than the 1-2 per cent that we have seen in the past,” said Rajesh Shukla, managing director and chief executive at People Research on India’s Consumer Economy, a not-for-profit consumer research firm. A