Recovery tracker: Fewer vehicle registrations, workplace visits dwindle

Electricity generation lower than before as monsoon sets in

Weekly indicators of economic activity showed signs of slowing down amid the spurt in Covid-19 cases.

There were 12,781 cases in the country during the past 24 hours, according to a government release on Monday. There were 8,084 cases a week ago.

Workplace visits declined amid the surge in cases. Search engine Google tracks location data by place category using anonymised location data. It shares information to create a picture of how people are moving during the pandemic. Visits declined to most places, including retail and recreation spots.

Indians registered fewer vehicles during the week. There were a total of 356,998 vehicle registrations, or 15 per cent lower than the same period in 2019.

The number of air passengers also dropped. On an average, there were about 350,000 passengers daily on 2,770 domestic flights during the week. Both figures are lower than the previous week.

Power generation moderated from the high attained last week, as monsoon rains gathered pace in many parts of the country. Power utilities across the country generated 4,574 million units of electricity on average per day during the week ended June 19, 2022 up 14.1 per cent from 4012 MUs generated during the corresponding week in CY19. The generation was however down 4.4 per cent week-on-week.

The Indian Railways recorded higher growth in the quantity of goods it carried. It was 13.4 per cent in the latest week compared to 6.63 per cent in the previous one. Freight revenue was up 21.35 per cent compared to 14.61 per cent growth seen in the previous week.

Monday morning 9 a.m. traffic congestion rose in Mumbai, showed data from global location technology firm TomTom International. It was only 30 percentage points below 2019 levels. New Delhi traffic congestion showed a difference of 42 percentage points. This reverses the previous week’s trend when New Delhi traffic was closer to the 2019 levels than Mumbai was.

Business Standard tracks these indicators in order to get a weekly picture of how the economy is doing. The government often releases official macroeconomic data with a lag. Analysts globally have been tracking similar indicators. It helps to better understand the situation on the ground amid the Covid-19 pandemic which began more than two years ago. The traffic data is as of Monday, June 20. The Google data is released with a lag. The latest is as of June 15. All other data is as of Sunday, June 19.