India Reopens to Reboot Economy

As India enters Unlock 1.0: - the first phase of unlocking the lockdown, shopping malls, restaurants and temples are all set to reopen across the country in areas outside the Containment Zones as directed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). While following social distancing measures, the MHA has asked all establishments to ensure hand sanitizer dispensers at the entrance, marking out specific places where people could queue up, and ensure only asymptomatic individuals are allowed inside. For shopping malls, the ministry has specified maintaining an ambient air conditioning temperature of 24 to 30 degrees and a humidity level between 40 per cent and 70 per cent. Restaurants should encourage takeaways and avoid dine-in as much as possible. They should have disposable menus and disposable napkins for dine-in. The staff for home deliveries shall be screened thermally by the restaurant authorities prior to allowing home deliveries. Entrance to have mandatory hand hygiene (sanitizer dispenser) and thermal screening provisions. Even as the government decides to reopen India for business amid rising cases of coronavirus, malls and retailers are heading into the "unlock" phase with a sense of uncertainty. Malls are expecting footfall to not exceed 20-30% in the first few weeks, even as retailers said they are waiting to renegotiate deals for their stores with the top mall developers. Restaurants, on the other hand, said that it may be a while before they decide to open outlets for dine-in as the restrictions imposed by the government does not make the business viable.