Cyclone throws business out of gear in TN

CHENNAI, INDIA: Cyclone Nisha, which struck districts in Tamil Nadu for the whole of last week leaving almost every street flooded and killing almost 70 people, had a severe impact on the IT business across the state. The cyclone that lasted for one week brought business in Ritchie Street to a complete standstill. The street was doing brisk business despite the slowdown, until the cyclone.

Last Thursday and Friday, almost every dealer across the city and various parts of Tamil Nadu, including Vellore, Cuddalore, Puducherry, Kumbakonam, Nagapattinam districts was unable to bill even a single product as the rain lashed heavily, preventing people from stepping out of their homes.

"It was the dirtiest week of business in the history of Chennai," claimed Sajan Kankaria, CEO, Kankaria Computers, Chennai. He said that the market could witness huge filtering where many dealers wouldn’t be able to do business. "Already only 10-12 people are doing business in the market in Chennai and it will come down further. There has been no cash billing happening in the market since last four weeks. Adding to the agony, the rain too has played spoilsport, where no customer walk-ins were recorded," said Kankaria.

Claiming that not even a day’s worth of business has taken place in an entire week, Yashpal Jain, CEO, Devraj Computers informed that the market was literally empty without the presence of customers.

"It was the worst week for us, where at the end of the day we did the same amount of business we do on a regular day. Though most of our shops were open, we were closing by 3PM or 4PM in the evening," he informed.

Vinod Jain, CEO, Computer Planet too claimed that there wasn’t any business for almost three to four days during last week due to the incessant rain. "The market wasn’t totally closed, but many of our staff didn’t turn out and it was totally a dull week for the market. We are just trying to get back on track from last week, where only 30 percent business was recorded," Jain said.

Rathna Kumar, CEO, CCS Infotech said that the retail business was affected to the core. "We couldn’t expect any customers to come and buy any products, as we ourselves were struck in the floods for almost three to four days and couldn’t come out of our homes. There wasn’t any business and we couldn’t even think of it in this rain," Kumar averred.



Luckily though partners informed that stock was not damaged as they had been moved to a safe place.

Dealers in the upcountry regions like Trichy, Tirunelveli, Tanjore, Cuddalore districts too suffered a huge setback to their business due to heavy rainfall. To aggravate problems, most of these places were disconnected from the rest of the state due to power and telecom outages.

"Most dealers’ shops were surrounded by water. There was hardly any business in and around Puducherry and Cuddalore districts. Few dealers also faced hardships as water entered their premises causing damage to the stocks," informed M Sridhar, CEO, Sukkra Traders, Puducherry.

Claiming that the market was already down by 50 to 60 percent due to the slowdown, H Naushad Basha, Proprietor, Premier Systems, Tirunelveli said that the heavy rainfall was an added agony for dealers in and around the town.

"Already the market is almost dead in the upcountry regions due to various financial problems across the globe and this rain has further aggravated the situation. Since Diwali, we have seen only 40 percent of business happening, and even that percent wasn’t recorded last week due to rain," Basha informed.

Most of the regions in Tanjore and Nagapattinam districts suffered power cuts for the whole of last week. "Roads were disconnected and there was no power for the entire week. We couldn’t even imagine any business happening in our districts," said R Ramesh Kumar, Proprietor, RB Computers, Kumbakonam.