Moving past the pandemic

The pandemic has thrown up challenges for maintaining productivity, honouring contracts and keeping workers employed. Mansha Shukla writes about the key considerations for in-house counsel

COVID-19 is preying on thousands of lives and has battered the world economy. The devastating employment rates, slowing economic growth, decline in consumer spending and surge in protectionist investment policies have brought Indian and global companies in travel, aviation, hospitality, automobile and retail to a complete standstill. Others that are surviving are facing widespread challenges including work cancellations, liquidity crises, workplace health and safety issues, and a general decline in valuation.

The Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry is grappling with its unique set of challenges. All production activities and live sports events have come to a screeching halt. While viewer ratings have skyrocketed due to the lockdown, television channels are struggling to broadcast fresh premieres.

As companies in other industries have scaled down their media marketing spends, the M&E sector is seeing a massive decline in advertising revenue – a mainstay of this sector. The circulation of print publications was suspended until the second phase of the lockdown, during which time they have been reduced to publishing electronic versions of the daily news.

Cinema halls and theatres are also battling for survival. How does one prepare for an unprecedented pandemic that has the world staring at a global recession? No one has a definitive solution to navigate the uncharted territory that we are in today.

Mansha Shukla is director, legal affairs, South Asia, at Discovery. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and have been written in a personal capacity.