The CEOs of top 115 companies who met at CII’s National Council earlier this week indicated the revival of business sentiment and a gradual rise in expected corporate performance in a poll, raising hopes that a steady recovery of India’s economy is on the anvil.

The CEOs, who took the poll, included representatives from across sectors such as metals and mining, manufacturing, auto, pharma, health and leading services sector including ITeS, health hospitality tourism and e-commerce, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said on Sunday.

“A steady recovery of the Indian economy is on the anvil as corporate India restarts business and economic activity with lockdowns being increasingly relaxed in many parts of the country,” the chamber said.

India Inc is now estimating a capacity utilisation of more than 50 per cent in the second half of this financial year, it added.

However, according to the CII, governments, both at the Centre and states, would need to focus on livelihoods in addition to lives, and hence efforts need to be made to stall the practice of sudden and ad-hoc lockdowns. “It is important to allow a complete opening up of the economy for demand to pick up which in turn will propel capacity utilisation,” the CII said.