The pandemic has proved to be the ultimate “disruptor” for the entire world. Businesses in all countries across the world are facing immense challenges due to the problems of conducting business in nationwide lockdowns and social distancing. However, surprisingly, there are several consumer brands that are doing surprisingly well in the post pandemic situation.

Sales of Tractors has gone up as farmers across the country have had to increase dependence on mechanized solutions for farming. The lack of public transportation too has added to the increase in tractor sales as tractors are being used as rural transport vehicles. Two wheelers, and small car segments have also shown growth, as many people want to shift away from their dependence on public transportation.

Many foods companies to have been doing particularly well. Parle has been adding record breaking sales and many namkeen and instant food manufacturers are enjoying great growth rates. I and my family have been experimenting on specialty cooking at home and we often swap recipes with friends doing the same. Millions of Indians now make use of many packaged ingredients to make meals at home. Manufacturers of products like herbs, seasonings, sauces and ready mixes are now having to ramp up production to meet the fast rising demands.

The online pharmacy sector is also witnessing much action now. Although the sector has been existing for a while now, there is now a huge focus on the segment with large and small players entering the segment. Customers are demanding delivery of medicines at home and more than willing to go through the online process of uploading their prescriptions in order to get the delivery of medicines at home. Operating in a similar space, online medical testing and medical consultation apps like Practo, Credihealth and Lybrate are now witnessing a huge surge of sign ups as customers want to avoid the risk of going to hospitals and clinics and want to take advice from doctors online especially for not so serious ailments.

Adding on to this, medtech companies have played a crucial role in cushioning the impact of COVID. Customers are buying equipment for home use directly from med tech companies. The new slew of med tech products aimed at home users of digital infra-red thermometers, oximeters are an addition to homes where there is a suspicion of infection or even as a precautionary measure.

The digital education space is witnessing one of the most exciting of phases. Several online learning companies like Toppr, Vedantu, BYJU’s, Whitehat Jr, Unacademy, are showing rapid growth and enrollments have surged almost trebled for the sector since the first phase of lock down in March 2020. These companies are expected to have a record year due to the physical shut down of all the educational institutions like schools, colleges, universities and coaching centers in the country. These companies have adopted aggressive customer communication campaigns to take advantage of the situation.

The online grocery segment is witnessing massive action. Many of them like Big Basket, Grofers, Milkbasket have seen a sharp jump in deliveries. So lucrative is the growth in the category that other ecommerce players are jumping into the fray. Walmart backed Flipkart has launched “Flipkart Quick” a hyperlocal delivery service which delivers grocery to customers in 90 mins. Not to be left behind Amazon is putting more focus into its ‘Amazon Pantry’ and ‘Amazon Fresh’ offerings and Swiggy, one of the leading food delivery platforms launched a trial run of its quick grocery delivery service in Gurugram called ‘Swiggy Instamart.’ In fact even as the lockdown was in progress, both BigBasket and Grofers were in the news for announcing plans to hire 10,000 and 4,500 workers respectively.

The entire OTT industry is going great guns. In fact many of them have launched new plans aimed at select audience niches, based on language, data usage and number of devices. Clearly, more time at home has translated into more time on entertainment. Another factor for the growth of OTT has been the availability of low cost data driven by companies like Jio and the bundled offerings of content that the company provides to customers as value adds.

Online gaming is also booming, as millennials are using stay at home as an opportunity for honing their gaming instincts. Responding to this, gaming companies are launching newer products to keep responding to the rapidly growing market. The stay at home has prompted young and old alike to get addicted to these games and the PUBG ban came as a disappointment to young and old alike. It remains to be seen if there is any solace in FAU G – pun intended. News reports say that the industry is expected to grow at the rate of 47% by FY 2022. By 2024 it is expected that the Indian gaming industry will be valued at $3,750 million.

It is no surprise that many of these sectors are dominated by Indian companies. This certainly ties in well with the government’s Aatmnirbhar campaign and also bodes well for the revival of the economy.