2 years of Covid pain well worth the gain in longer term: Ajay Singh

Reforms have happened and little bit of optimism on the performance has come because earnings and demand indicators are quite favourable. What kind of transformation do you think India Inc will be able to incorporate — compulsions on one side and efficiency on the other?
I can give the example of the aviation sector which has been one of the most stressed sectors in the time of pandemic. Aviation, travel and tourism companies have found the going tough not only in India, but globally.

Airlines have been forced to try and transform themselves as companies way beyond aviation. In Spicejet’s case, we built the air logistics business in this last one year which has grown 600%. It is creating tremendous value. This would have never have happened if Covid had not hit. So, this is one of the great benefits of a crisis. We have to try and transform ourselves from what we were doing.

Similarly, we are working on healthcare now and we think that those are opportunities we would never have taken up. In a situation like last one year, when companies which have been capitalised and companies that have tried to re-invent themselves are the ones that probably have survived.

The way we look at it, the Covid crisis will probably last us a year or two but sometimes the changes that you make during this period in terms of efficiency, in terms of cost cutting, in terms of much much more automation and in terms of finding new opportunities — those benefits will stay with you for decades. So perhaps these two years of pain are well worth the gain in the longer term.