Recovery tracker: Attendance at workplace rises to pre-Covid levels

Power generation also moves higher than the previous week

Workplace visits have risen to levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.

It is now 0.43 per cent higher than was seen in early 2020. This is only the second time since the first national lockdown that it has shown such a rise. The other occasion was October 31, 2021 when it came in 0.71 per cent higher. It moved down after that and has been closely watched amid the emergence of the new Covid-19 variant Omicron.  Search engine Google uses anonymised location data to see how people are moving during the pandemic. Retail and recreation visits also came in higher than pre-Covid levels (see chart 1).

There was a five per cent uptick in power generation based on reporting day data. The weekly numbers moved up from the output a week before. Power utilities across the country generated 3596 million units of electricity on average per day during the week ended December 12, 2021, up 5 per cent from 3,430 MUs a week ago. The power generation last week was 7.8 per cent higher than in the corresponding week in 2019 and 4.9 per cent higher than generation in the corresponding week in 2020 (see chart 2).

The Indian Railways showed a higher growth in the quantity of goods it carried. The latest number was 7.1 per cent compared to 4.7 per cent in the previous week. The amount of money it earned from carrying goods, or freight revenue, grew 11 per cent compared to 6.2 per cent in the previous week (see chart 3).

Traffic congestion in major cities was stable at the previous week’s levels, shows data from global location technology firm TomTom International. Mumbai’s traffic congestion was down 29 per cent from 2019. New Delhi traffic is down 17 per cent (see chart 4).

Business Standard also tracks nitrogen dioxide emissions. It comes from industrial activity and vehicles. Higher levels can point to faster growth, and vice versa. Delhi emissions were 26 per cent below 2019 levels. Mumbai emissions too remained muted (see chart 5,6).

The weekly economic indicators provide a current picture of the economy ahead of the release of more detailed data from authorities. Official macroeconomic data is often released with a lag. Analysts globally have been tracking similar indicators to understand the situation on the ground as different governments put in place measures to control the Covid-19 pandemic.  Google releases mobility data with a lag. The latest is as of December 8. All other data is as of Sunday, December 12.