“Our cement division is having a great quarter,” said my friend who works in a large group with interests across multiple sectors. I was surprised. This was a conversation happening in July 2020.

       Major cities were still in some form of lockdown. Construction activities were down to the bare minimum. From my office I could see the huge residential project coming up next door had stopped adding floors at the alarming speed they were working at till March 2020. If big projects in cities like Mumbai and Delhi had ground to a halt, who was buying all this cement? My friend explained ...