“Companies were convinced that the resurgence in sales will be sustained in coming months, as indicated by a strong upturn in input buying amid restocking efforts.”
Both output and new orders, which tracks overall demand, grew at their sharpest rates in more than 12 years and foreign demand expanded at its quickest pace since December 2014.

But firms cut staff for the seventh month in a row, a streak not witnessed since the survey began in 2005, signaling a quick recovery in the consumer-driven economy may be a distant possibility.

A total of 74,91,513 people have recuperated from COVID-19 so far taking the national recovery rate to 91.54 per cent while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.49 per cent.

The number of active cases of COVID-19 remained below 6 lakh for the third consecutive day.

There are 5,70,458 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country as on date which comprises 6.97 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

“There have been a lot of learnings from the lockdown, and a lot was also said that after the 21-day lockdown the virus spread will stop or with temperature going to 40 degrees Celsius, it will stop. Did it stop? So, the learning from that exercise has been that it is impossible to wipe off COVID-19 transmission through a lockdown as the virus has spread through the community,” he said when asked if lockdown-like restrictions could be imposed if spike in cases continue.

The other learning from the lockdown has been that the use of mask is an effective way to reduce the spread of the infection, he said.

“The economic impact of pandemic would have been much more if our tax collection system had not improved. During the last year, we have taken measures like faceless assessment, faceless appeal, SFT (statement of financial transactions), restriction on cash withdrawal by imposing TDS (tax deducted at source).

“So the unscrupulous people who were evading taxes, now it has become harder for them. These would incentivise people to furnish correct tax information,” he said.