employees and clients — loss and Recovery

and some continue to incur expenses even as this report is written—al- most a year after the loods that is a signiicant proportion of their total annual turnover. The assumption then is that these enterprises would take pre- ventive measures to ensure against possible loods recurrence in subse- quent years. However, this study has shown that this hypothesis is not necessarily true for a majority of the enterprises. A quarter of these enterprises have not provided any informa- tion on preventive measures taken, so they may or may not have taken any. Another quarter of the sample enterprises are still thinking about it or believe that the government should provide such preventive mea- sures. A few believe that they are inancially weak and therefore depend on the government for relief measures. The others believe that it is the government’s responsibility to help enterprises cope with the heavy losses during times of disaster. A handful of enterprises have adopted what can only be called a ‘fatalistic’ attitude towards the loods, believing they cannot do anything to help themselves and all help must come from outside. Those enterprises that are still thinking about taking preventive measures, but haven’t taken any so far, view the December 2015 loods as a one-time occurrence and believe that such events are unlikely to recur in the future. As a result, they do not see the need to take any drastic pre- ventive measures. However, a little less than half of the sampled enterprises have taken charge of their facilities and have either begun to or will begin to make changes based on speciic damages or weaknesses in their produc- tion infrastructure. The following are some of the changes in the oing: • Facility infrastructure: Apart from repairing afected portions of buildings which is really a curative step some of the enterprises are increasing the height of their facilities to prevent water from entering facilities in the future. One of them also placed water pumps in their facility so they can pump water out, especially if there is excessive waterlogging. Waiting for the water to drain out naturally is often a long and time-consuming process, preventing enterprises from recovering quickly. Another enterprise stated that they could not make changes to their building since they do not own it. In terms of safeguarding items within their facility, one of the enterprises has raised the height of the slabs on which they place inventory inished goods and raw materials to protect against future waterlogging. Another enterprise has created evacu- ation plans to help protect employees, enabling them to ind safe spaces that do not pose a threat to their lives. • Location – desire to relocate to an industrial estate: Apart from rebuilding the walls of their building, Firm 11 wants a place inside the SIDCO estate. This irm believes that location within that estate will help them add more employees and machines to their produc- tion so they can gain additional clients in the process. • Modiications to insurance coverage: While one enterprise, Firm 11 is considering taking insurance, another enterprise, Firm 7, Firm 4 is a large iT services company in shollinganallur which reported no inancial losses during the loods. Firm 4 has world- and nation-wide locations and over 200,000 employees. in chennai alone Firm 4 has 10 physical locations. several dampeners were established long before the loods took place. any new possession of a plot is preceded by an initial as- sessment of potential disasters and locational vulnerabilities. Two chennai premises were severely water-logged during the loods, and also experience seasonal water-logging, a likelihood that was known prior to establishing facilities there. The locations were selected anyway with business continuity a department in its own right plans and scenario planning being designed from the very beginning. some measures include: • An elaborate employee evacuation plan • Transport and catering facilities for employees during disasters • Alternate communication channels • Re-distribution of work to other locations • Options for employees to work from home • Access to large in-house inancial resources • Detailed and multiple insurance plans With these measures in place, Firm 4 was able create and maximise dampeners for each of the factors detailed in the sec- tion on irm indings. They are in large part attributed to resources which are vast, clearly earmarked, and swift. moreover, insurance was responsive, and able to act quickly on software and iT–based assets: a noted area of unawareness among insurance agents surveying irms in the msme sample. The respondent from Firm 4 commented that recovery plans might have been even more efective and transferable if similar large enterprises in the area had pooled disaster management resources and plans. This is an undertaking for which Firm 6, a medium enterprise in sriperumbudur, was willing to contribute time and money, and is also a potential course of action towards collective dampeners and shared resilience for small and micro irms as well. has modiied its insurance coverage. Firm 7’s earlier insurance covered only their plant machinery; it now covers the total value of the company. • Strengthening supply chains: One of the enterprises, Firm 8, is attempting to insulate its production against future losses arising on account of broken supply chains by identifying alternative sup- pliers. They are in the process of identifying alternative suppliers outside Tamil Nadu, spread across the country, so that suppliers can compensate for each other’s deiciencies. • Changes in hydrology: While it is unclear if enterprises are going to or can change the hydrology of the areas they work in without prior authorization or permission from the concerned government agency, one of the enterprises wants to channelize the route of the water low diferently, so that water doesn’t low into their facility. It is unclear if they are planning to execute this on their own or if this is an ‘ask’ from a government agency. 15 Team social. 2015. This chennai map will show you exactly which waterlogged area, road you need to avoid. The Times of india blog retrieved from: http:blogs.timesoindia.indiatimes.comeverything-socialthis-chennai-map- will-show-you-exactly-which-waterlogged-area-road-you-need-to-avoid bOX 4: how one large it firM was able to MiniMise losses 16 For a breakdown of the number of enterprises in each location, please see annexure 3. 17 Development commissioner msme, ministry of msme, Government of india. [Online] retrieved from: http:www.dcmsme.gov.inssiindiadeination_msme.html. amendments to the act are under consideration. The proposed update can be found here: Press information Bureau, ministry of msme, Government of india. 2015. msme amendment Bill 2015. retrieved from: http:pib.nic.innewsitePrintrelease.aspx?relid=133655 18 initial investment is how the international Finance Group interprets the act in it 2012 report on the msme sector in india: micro, small and medium enterprise Finance in india. 2012. international Finance corporation. World Bank Group. retrieved from: http:intellegrow.comimagesdownloadpublicationPublication20-20 iFc20msme20report.pdf 19 in an analysis of credit and lending in the msme sector, Dulo and Banerjee intepret the act and the oicial claissiication to mean total investment, and use this as the basis of their analysis. Banerjee, a. and e. Dulo. 2014. Do Firms Want to Borrow more? Testing credit constraints Using a Directed lending Program. review of economic studies. 81 2. Pp 572-607 20 Figure 22 does not include damage to documents, inventory and buildings, as most of the enterprises have not provided the monetary value of loss incurred 21 respondent from Firm 21 did not mention the name of the river. 22 Please note that over half the enterprises surveyed did not provide any response regarding access to inputs for production during the waterlogging period. 23 respondent from Firm 5 did not provide any additional information on what ‘quick action’ means. 24 it is unclear what outsider means – it could be municipal workers or any other cleaner who is not directly employed by Firm 27.