India’s largest private association of industrialists and manufacturing leaders is urging government authorities to institute tighter public health regulations to fight the spread of the coronavirus even though they may impact the economy of the nation, Reuters reports.
Uday Kotak, the billionaire managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank and the current president of the Conference of Indian Industry–the Indian equivalent of the influential US National Association of Manufacturers–said at a CII meeting the government needs “maximal response measure at the highest level is called for to cut the transmission links.”
India is experiencing more than 300,000 new cases of coronavirus daily for the last ten days. It’s number of cumulative cases is second only to the United States although it has roughly four times the populations than the US. India was largely spared the impact of the pandemic during the first waves.
Indian businesses have banded together to call for more action to address the virus and to give the health care system time to ramp up its service ability. “At this critical juncture when toll of lives is rising, CII urges the strongest national steps including curtailing economic activity to reduce suffering,” Kotak said in a statement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been reportedly advised to implement a full national lockdown.