THE JOLTING IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN INDIA

Abstract

With the continuously increasing COVID-19 cases beyond 2,00,000 and death toll going beyond 9,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the Corona virus eruption as a pandemic in the very second week of March 2020, which is exactly four months after this virus came into headlines first in December. Almost 165+ countries have been steadily adopting lockdown, and many businesses of the various sectors across the globe have the fear of collapsing financial markets.

The economic maturation in India for the yesteryear had not been up to the mark and now with the pandemic effects clubbed to it, the impact has been jolting. With the rise in unemployment (from 6.7% to 26%), fiscal deficit, RBI cutting on the policy rates to soothe the equity investors, and stave off the coronavirus related recession, the economic growth has gone haywire.

India is currently hosting over 75 million MSMEs and the imposed lockdown due to COVID-19 threatens its massive 43 % for shutting down. This sector which provides 114 million people with employment and 30 per cent to the Indian GDP, is going through one of the tough phases which immediately require actions to liberate this sector from such a big hurdle