So how was the Covid year for the construction equipment industry? As for several other industries, it was a year that began with a shock and “had deep impact”, as Deepak Shetty, Deputy CEO and MD of JCB India, puts it.

But the real challenge is how the industry is emerging from it? Has it been a V-shaped recovery that most industries have been dreaming of? Or at least, is the construction equipment industry seeing green shoots that might indicate a V-shaped recovery? Shetty says that after a “standstill” period for the infrastructure industry, demand suffered a deep impact.

Yet, JCB India was one of the players that actually braved the pandemic by taking it head-on, it would seem, since it launched the industry’s first dual-fuel CNG Backhoe loader in India right during the last quarter. Shetty helps us understand the thinking that went behind the launch.

How is the government’s stimulus package helping the construction equipment industry? Shetty reveals why the package is good, but what shape it must take to drive the economy forward.

It has been often said, including by those in the corridors of political power, that Covid- 19 presents opportunities. Can the pandemic itself be an opportunity for our sectors, and if so, how is construction equipment geared to take advantage of it?

Shetty tells us that those opportunities could be coming from unexpected quarters, and perhaps less explored areas. Indeed, a large part of our Q&A with him hinged on innovation—that trusted partner in a crisis.

To read the interview, click here.