Impact of covid-19 on MSME of India

Introduction:

MSMEs contribute 29.7% of GDP of India. “Many micro, small and medium enterprises have
temporarily shut their businesses due to the impact of COVID-19 crisis, shows a survey
conducted by Endurance International Group. The survey drew responses from close to 500
Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the first two weeks of June. One third
of the respondents confirmed that they are temporarily shutting their business until normalcy
resumes.” As mentioned by financial express in one of its article.

India has faced many pandemic in past like Bombay Influenza (Part of Spanish flue-1918),
smallpox-1974, plague-1994, swine flu-2009, Bombay plague and cholera. India has been
fighting since ages with these pandemics. Our country is has worked hard to overcome these
pandemics. We had to fight for vaccination, unemployment, growth rate, inflation rate and many
more macro problems. Coronavirus is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease
2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
WHO declared it as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. More than 131 million confirmed cases as of
5 April 2021 with more than 2.85 million deaths made covid-19, one of the deadliest pandemics
in history. Covid-19 has huge impact on world economy wherein, micro and small enterprises
are tremendously affected.

Abstract

Covid-19 has given birth to the new era of Digital transformation in India. Lockdown having a
huge impact on local shops, started closing down the operations. In comparison to that, few
vendors supplying necessities like dairies, vegetable vendors are still managing well. Hence the
purpose of this research is to give deep insight into this field with special emphasis on following
most affected and least affected industries.

Most affected industries

 Grocery stores and Dairies

 Entertainment - Restaurants/cafes
 Personal care service industry

Least affected Industries

 Healthcare and Insurance (Property & Casualty, Multi-Line, Life & Health)

 Education Industry
 Delivery Services 
Keywords- Impact, Covid, MSME, Small

Objectives of research:
  Impact of lockdown on different sectors and their profitability, employment, revenue and
customer satisfaction.
 Understand government assistance to micro and small enterprises and benefits that have
been actually availed by these enterprises.
 Effect of migration of labors on employers.
 To understand difficulties faced by groceries, dairies, restaurants, cafes and Personal care
service industry.
 To identify opportunities created by healthcare and insurance industry, Education
Industry as well as delivery Services companies during period of lockdown.

Literature review:

(Rathore & Khanna, 2020) It was found the evidence of considerable distress, with 55 %
loss in employment which appear more severe for the smallest firms. Overall, 70 % of firms
surveyed mentioned that they will not survive beyond the next three months if the lockdown
continues. The Objective was to Assess the evolving impact of the COVID crisis on these firms
using Paired t-test, median, Wilcoxon sign-rank and sign-test, highlighting particular areas of
concern that inform policy. It was found that Average reported losses amounting to 17 % of their
past year sales and they have retained only 45 % of the pre-COVID workforce. From the firms
surveyed 38.5 percent of the firms in are micro-enterprises, about 50% are small, and 10 % are
medium enterprise. Post-lockdown, the mean utilization rate was just 11%, with 55% of the
firms producing nothing at all which was 75% capacity utilization before the lockdown. On
average, firms lost about 17.2% of their annual sales due to the lockdown especially smaller
firms. Out of surveyed 14,230 workers out of a total of 27,265 lost their job during lockdown. It
was recommended from respondents that there should be waiving of the fixed electricity charges
irrespective of the level of production, Request for short-term interest free loans (two months to
2 years), deferring and reducing income tax and expediting tax refunds, reducing GST rates,
Assistance in wage payments and relief in payments of premium for Employees’ State Insurance
Corporation (ESIC)

(Shekar & Mansoor, 2020) It was found that more than half the workforce in developing
countries is employed in informal sector which are world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.
According to the ILO report, in India, more than 40 crore informal workers may get pushed into
deeper poverty due to decrease in production and employment figures as a result of COVID-19.
Informal sector was still fighting with consequences of GST and Demonetization, that Covid was
a hard hit. In past also multinational enterprises (MNEs) have tried to reduce their dependence on
informal firms as NGOs, consumer groups and other stakeholders have forced them to take full
responsibility of the chain and making them less dependent on suppliers with lower standards for
work, health and safety. In 2017-18 average wage a casual worker was reported Rs 254.83, and
the average earnings of a self-employed person was Rs 276.09, while that of a regular-salaried
person was 530.76 being a big limiting factor for unorganized sectors. Migrant workers have run
out of work due to business closures and are seen returning to their native places and made
difficult for their family to survive. Muslims constitute the highest share of informal workers,
followed by STs, SCs and OBCs.  The current economic crisis is likely to affect the depressed
groups – STs, SCs and Muslims – the most.
Economic assistance efforts have mainly focused on providing income replacement support and
tax incentives to businesses or individuals. However, these efforts do not reach the informal
economy. Informal businesses do not benefit from tax breaks as they often do not pay all of the
formal taxes. Even reductions in value-added tax can have less impact in the informal sector.
Informal enterprises can pay VAT on the inputs they buy but low-income groups are often less
affected by VAT than is often assumed due to the nature of the exemptions and payment
thresholds.

(Malhotra, 2020) It was found that Covid-19 has affected business growth of foreign,
domestic, small, medium and even multinational companies (MNCs) due to shutdown of
operations. Goods have been lying at ports for weeks, hundreds of cities in the world are in
lockdown, and transportation is experiencing cuts, delays, and cancellations. India's growth in
the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2020 went down to 3.1% due to Covid pandemic. Covid has
huge impact on Education system due to online education. People of India lack the knowledge of
technology and hence suffer in online education. Government is taking measures to fight against
covid and help people. RBI Governor announced ₹50,000 crore special finance to NABARD,
SIDBI, and NHB. Government changed India's foreign direct investment policy protect Indian
companies. The Department of Military Affairs put on hold all capital acquisitions. The Chief of
Defense Staff announced to minimize costly defense imports and give a chance to domestic
production. Women are also struggling more than men as their workload has increased
significantly with them carrying multiple responsibilities without any assistance from domestic
helpers. 61% of Indians face mental health issues due to Covid-19 lockdown. Government has
extended help to different industries in forms of loan, grants or subsidies.

Opportunities created in different sectors are in field of fresh groceries and meat, cold storage,
high quality foreign food and beverage, cooking appliances, dishwashers and washing machines,
sterilization machines, sweeping robots, gaming industry, new ways of disseminating content
and promoting small businesses, online cooking classes, education, sports, and well-being –
virtual classrooms, online fitness classes, Services industry with contact-less systems, enhanced
delivery services, remote banking services.  Medical opportunities created in pharmaceuticals,
supplements, medical devices, personal protective equipment (PPE), telemedicine, smart
hospitals and online consultations, digital medical assistants, apps and mini-apps, self-diagnosing
medical devices. 

(Mahajan, 2020) It was found that the FMCG sector is highly affected by coronavirus
pandemic and employment is affected in India as laborers have moved to their native place due
to coronavirus pandemic. For example, in India, Nourish Bio Foods PVT Ltd has experienced
sales growth of 30 percent between February and March 2020, which includes sales of plant-
based, gluten-free and vegan foods. On the other side, demand is rising at an alarming pace
worldwide for personal hygienic goods such as side sanitary equipment and hand washing in
physical retail and online retail. FMCG companies started introducing smaller packages for
lower incomes of people. With the majority of the population expected to be online, the e-
commerce sector is booming expected to contribute to about 11 percent of FMCG sales by 2030.
Many leading customers claim that more than 600,000 Kirana outlets might have shut down
during lockouts. All India Telecom Retailer Association reports that approximately 60% of the
150,000 stores that sell smartphones have refused to open. Parle Goods recorded closing down in
April and May nearly 10 per cent of the 5.8 million kirana stores which used to sell tea and paan
from home and road corners. Krishna Rao, head of parle category B, has claimed that distributors
have lost their ownership money from the channels. Sunil Kataria, Chief Executive Officer of
Godrej Consumer Goods India & SAARC, expects shop closures to prove temporary even
though the period is unsure. Chemical shops have emerged as a new grocery store since they can
run for longer hours than local kiranas and even modern businesses. Market Research Company
Kantar estimated that during lockdown, almost 35 million households have bought FMCG goods
from chemist shops compared to 25 million in the previous era. There has also been notable
improvement in the sales of health and wellbeing, hygiene and safety enhancing immunities.

(Panchasara & Bharadia, 2020) It was found that GDP growth rate in union budget 2020-21
was 6 to 6.5 percentage, which is now declined to 4 to 4.8 portion (Economic Times, 2020) 69%
of manufacturing enterprises retained their employees, while 25% of total service enterprises and
25% of trading firms surveyed and have retained their employees during pandemic. Retention of
employees in manufacturing is more than in trading or service sector. It has been observed that
maximum impact is considered on the revenue or turnover of the units.  Apart from the sales or
turnover, the pandemic has also impacted the worst in the process of manufacturing and purchase
in trading units.

(Mathew, Ancy, & Jasmine, 2020) Effects of pandemic has been on various industries like
aviation, agriculture, manufacturing sector including automobile sector, food industry hospitality
and tourism sector, Electronics (Being china a significant supplier of electronics produce),
Software industry, Health and technological sector by different ways. The highest impact is on
the food industry as there will be a lack of customers due to fear of contracting viruses, and may
face a 40-50% fall in the revenue. It will take approximately 2 to 5 years for the food industry to
overcome this loss. The next highest impact on the health industry, which has fallen in revenue
of up to 24-34% because of the lack of patients as well as medical staff as the entire workforce
was used to treat COVID -19 patients but this will overcome as this industry is one of the basic
needs of the. On the contract, the Video conferencing and collaboration industry will flourish,
and their revenue will increase up to130%.It shows that technology and necessity related
industries are not impacted much because people don’t have much options left with.

(Saleha, 2020) It was found that, the Government India providing financial help to millions
of laborers and farmer but these people could not get financial help because there is no
systematic data for their identification of these people in India. The objective was to analyses the
most severely affected migrants' worker from unorganized sectors, to provide a reasonable
solution for their betterment, to focus attention on the vulnerability of the unprivileged workers
from the unorganized sectors of the country. It was found that he inclusive rate of unemployment
has increased from 8.4 percent to 23.8 percent in the week ending 29 March 2020.Covid-19 has
not proved to played important role as health crises but also as a financial crises in all over the
world. In India the number of unemployed people has risen from 32 million to 38 million in
total, in which 30 percent comprises from urban and 21 percent from rural areas.

Unorganized sector is having huge impact on few of the industries like construction business,
restaurants, food and agriculture as well as MSME. Government has supported these
unorganized sectors in the form of a 20 lakhs crores package, but the situation is worst for these
sectors; they need direct and immediate support in the form of cash assistance. The Government
should announce carefully targeted stimulus packages for specific areas like MSME, NBFCs,
unorganized labor, and traders to cover a large section of the population and to provide relief to
sectors that generate employment and stability

( Chaudharya & Kumar, 2020) It was found that Covid has led migration of employees to
their native places and it has triggered panic buttons due to unavailability of labor. As per Census
of 2011, there is presence of 10 million child laborers in an Asian country, out of which 62 %
were employed in agriculture. Due to the pandemic, Covid has left huge impact on agriculture
sector starting from borrowings, debts, loans for agro-inputs, machineries. Though few
relaxation has been provided by government in field of agriculture but the problem of migrants is
always at the top, which was prime reason of disruption of major activities.

Jamla Makhdam, a 12 year old girl collapsed and died after walking for 3 days to her home state,
Chhattisgarh due to exhaustion, Jamla had migrated to Telangana to reap chilies beside others
from her village. Due to the pandemic she started walking towards her hometown and died just
an hour before reaching the destination. Another biggest post covid challenge is that, in the
northern states of geographic region and Haryana, there is a season of wheat gathering called rabi
season that employs massive numbers of migrant laborers from the Japanese lands of Bihar and
Jharkhand. It's calculable that geographic region involves 1,000,000 migrant employees and
Haryana concerning 0.6 million employees throughout this rabi season, of whom belong to the
state of Bihar. During this season, crops like wheat, gram, lentil, mustard, etc. are at the
harvestable stage or nearly reaching maturity. This is often conjointly the time once the farm
harvests reach the mandis for certain acquisition by selected government agencies. Moreover,
any severe disruption to any of the perishable products create disruption to the whole supply
chain.

(Rathi & Kumar, 2020) It was found that World Bank and FICO assessment offices have
downsized India's development for the financial year 2021 with the most minimal figures India
has found in 30 years since India's economic progression -1990s. China is the world's biggest
exporter and the second-biggest shipper. It holds 13% of world fares and 11% of world imports.
Up to a great extent, it will affect the Indian business. India is too dependent on china as far as
imports is considered. The most straightforward 20 items which India imports from the world,
China represents large portion of them. India’s imports from china constitutes of approximately
45% of total electronic imports, 33% of apparatus and almost 40% of natural, synthetic. For car
parts and manures, India's import from china is over 25%. Around 65 to 70% of dynamic
pharmaceutical fixings and 90% of individual cell phones are imported originate from China.

Just within a month, unemployment hiked from 6.7% on March 15 to 26% on April 19. During
the lock-down, 14 crore (140 million) individuals lost business. FICCI and expense consultancy
Dhruva had undertaken a research by studying reactions from around 380 organizations over the
parts. They mutually gave the statement that organizations are battling with "enormous
vulnerability" about their future. The authors also talk about major impact, the pandemic has
left on industries such as Concoction Industry due to closure of few synthetic plants in China,
transportation, automobile, Pharmaceutical , hardware, agriculture, travel, It industry as well as
aviation. Government has taken various actions at national level as well as at state levels like in
Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh as well as other parts of country. Government has come up with
many funds, schemes, programs nationwide for migrants, poor people as well as to people
working with MSMEs.

(Chauhan & Shah, 2020) From survey of 375 people, income spending, behaviors,
sentiments and expectations of Indian consumers during coronavirus were explored. According
to a survey by NRF, major customers during the pandemic, have limited their purchase to
necessities or they have majorly shifted to online source, but they have stopped stepping out. It
was found that around 77% of the total sample believed that the pandemic has significantly
affected their buying behavior. Half of the customers have adopted a mixed-mode –combination
of online and offline purchases. COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in upward shift in essentials;
hygiene products and healthcare supplements, immunity supplements, including Ayurvedic
medicines, wherein apparel industry have shifted to discretionary. There is a considerable
slowdown in growth of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). The main reason behind the
same is disruptions in logistics as well as in supply chain. One of the interesting significant shift
is noticed in social media sites and digital channels, products, and services across categories
wherein Netflix, Amazon and similar service providers have showed considerable increase due
to lockdown.

(Shetty, Nougarahiya, & Mandloi,, 2020) The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which
contributes to 30% of India's GDP, is one of the pillars of the Indian economy. The lockdown
had huge impact on informal workers, MSMEs, farmers and the self-employed, who were
suffering lot due to no livelihood in the absence of access to markets and transportation.
Shopping malls and other retailer stores across the country have reduced hours or closed down
entirely. Departmental stores and clothing shops had a hard hit. Tourism, real estate, luxury
goods, Automobile, Aviation, entertainment and Dining, industries are the industries having
highest impact due to avoidance of people towards this segment.

Along with the domestic impact of factory shut downs, reduced consumption and travel
restrictions, India would also be impacted by external factors like– 19 – Weak less exports,
supply chain disruptions, and global financial shocks . It was also found that highly affected 10
countries account for 43% of India's exports and 39% of India's imports and 59% of the world
GDP (World Health Organization, 2020). Sectors having Stable or Increasing Demand are
Essential sectors like FMCG, E-grocers and delivery centers. Discretionary sectors like
Automotive, Apparel, Consumer durables, etc. have Suspended Demand. Sectors with lost
Demand are Service sectors like Travel and tourism, Malls and theatres etc.

(Sondhi, 2020) It was found that Coronavirus has impacted India very severely, the reason
being economy was already slowing down and India was still fighting with problems of
unemployment, malnutrition, low incomes, rural distress, widespread inequality. Impact of covid
on India can be summarized on following sectors. Telecom sector has been key mover by taking
advantage of Remote working, video conferencing, and telecommunications technology, wherein
consumers have withheld making discretionary purchases during uncertainty leaving huge
impact on smartphones Market. Microsoft is benefiting from the huge rise in remote and home
working as well as from the rise in gaming. Social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp,
Instagram and Messenger are booming in lockdown as consumers turn to platforms to stay in
touch and assuage boredom. Huge impact has been on agriculture especially to labor intensive
operations due to non-availability of labor. Few parts of agriculture which are capital intensive
have also been unaffected due to deployment of technology in various activities of agriculture.
Due to novel corona virus government suspended all visas to restrict travelling and people
canceled their leisure plans to avoid risk leaving a huge impact on travel and tourism segment.
Parma, electronics and solar powder have been hugely affected due to its dependence on China.
India‘s API imports from China is averaging almost 70 per cent of pharma-consumption by value
with dependency on imports from China is close to e100 per cent for many critical antibiotics
and antipyretics. China is a major supplier both for the final product as well as the raw material
used in electronics. Solar power project developers in India continue to source solar modules
from China

(Raut, 2020) It was found that COVID-19 had a huge impact on labor market outcomes.
The companies had stopped or cut the salaries of employees, whereas businesses were facing
huge shutdown that it was hard for them to recover the investments. There are more than 30 Lacs
students graduated & 40 Lacs students post-graduated in India every year, and in current
scenario it is difficult to maintain employment of fresh or experienced workforce. According to
ILO the accommodation & food services, business & administrative activities, travel & tourism,
manufacturing, retail and hospitality sectors are at highest risk due to covid. More than 4 out of 5
people (81%) in the global workforce of 3.3 billion are currently affected by full or partial
workplace closures. There could be severe job losses across different sectors in India if
COVID-19 impact continues for few more months. These sectors could be: - Aviation,
travel, hospitality, retail, manufacturing, automotive, FMCG, Food & beverages sectors

(Jakhotiya, 2020) It was found that 60% of Indian population is working in unorganized
sector with either low or no guarantee of job. These people exhausted their savings too in covid.
India's 60% business as well as 70% of employment is generated from the SMEs. Due to fear of
pandemic approximately 25% of labor has migrated to their native places, causing a shortage of
workforce in the manufacturing sector. Prior to covid, India has faced demonetization and GST
two biggest illness of patient-India. A deepening recession, lowering capital formation, rapidly
growing unemployment, and decline in the performance of the manufacturing sector were the
extra symptoms that India was already facing. Effect of covid has been seen in different sectors
such as Industries like automobile, textile, chemicals, construction, tourism, pulses processing,
hospitality are under negative growth. Agriculture industry is facing hard time as farmers are not
getting good price for their produce and consumers are facing shortage of supply. It is difficult
for the farmers also to take care of the corona - affected migrants and continue operations.
Government's schemes to fight corona do not reach the needy people adequately due to Lazy and
corrupt bureaucracy and poor political situations. It was anticipated that except grocery shops &
small community stores, around 15% of MSMEs will face bankruptcy & cause 6%-7% of local
job losses. Few ideas were suggested like to Create fund to pay the unemployed for six months,
Offer cash credit to SMEs and grocery stores, interest free cash loans to small farmers, Facilitate
the movement, shelter & jobs of the migrant labor.

(Akhtar, Niazi, & Mohsin, 2020) It was found that due to the announcement of lockdown,
people rushed to get necessary items such as flour, rice, tea, sugar, pulses-only essential items
and not any extravagant items, which resulted in a drastic fall in demand of non-essential
commodities. Online shopping was heaven to arrange necessities of groceries and vegetables.
Though the sales of personal care, packaged food, and homecare products got a hike during this
period, but the supply chain of these products got affected heavily resulting in shortages. Due to
smartphone penetration and cheaper high speed internet, the Indian Ecommerce market is
estimated to boost to US$200 billion by 2020. According to a survey by NRF are Customer
shopping habits have changed as they prefer online over offline due to fear of stepping out, there
is natural inclination for digital adoption. As a preventive measure Banks/NBFCs should extend
credit limits for small retailers and Digital payment should be promoted. Impact on education
sector is also considered due to closure of school and university for more than 285 million
students. Every institution can’t adopt online teaching methods. Overseas education also has a
large impact as most of all countries have suffered covid impact. Content in the form of videos
and documents, free online resources work for students have emerged as important scope of
education. There is a noticeable jump in the subscription revenues in online gaming, and digital
media since people demand quality entertainment while staying at home. There is adverse effect
on outdoor sources such as events, movies, amusement parks, etc. Shutting down of shops and
malls has resulted in considerable job loss during the lockdown and its effect would remain there
even beyond the lockdown. Further

(Koshle, Kaur, & Basista, 2020) referred 10 articles and found that India is among the 15
most affected economies suffering due to pandemic with a trade impact of 348 million dollars in
total, 129 million dollars in chemicals sector, 64 million dollars in textiles and apparel, 34
million dollars in automotive sector, 12 million dollars in electrical machinery, 13 million dollars
in leather products, 27 million dollars in metals and metal products, and 15 million dollars in
wood products and furniture at 15 million dollars. In opinion of UNCTAD any disruption in
China’s output will have impact on regional and global value chains, being china a central
manufacturing hub. India imports large number of items from china. China has become the
central manufacturing hub of the many global business operations. Any disruption of China’s
output is predicted to possess repercussions elsewhere through regional and global value chains.
Areas suffering due to of coronavirus includes shipping, gadgets, pharmaceuticals, cars, mobiles,
materials, then forth.

Many corporates and even small businesses have given work from home to the employees to
prevent the spread of virus. It was found that India suffered majorly due to its dependence on
china. Impact of covid can be seen in reduction in workforce, consumption, revenue, income,
demand. There is also large impact on food, transportation, healthcare and small as well as
medium business. Other industries which are heavily impacted are vehicle, pharma, hardware,
IT, travel and aviation industry.

(Bansal, 2020) It was found that covid has hit the doors of grocery segment as a result
there has been hike in online purchase of fmcg products, as well as in digital services due to
boost in online shopping. Few brick-and-mortar businesses have shifted to e-commerce. Stocks
were piled for medical supplies like sanitizers, disinfectants and surgical facemasks. Indian
grocery startup Big Basket raised $60 million to meet growing demand due to lockdown. Vipul
Parekh, co-founder of Big Basket shared aggressive efforts to hire more delivery staff to serve
growing demand from customers specially due to migration of employees to hometown and in
contrast, amount of orders of Big Basket has surged by up five times. Big Basket had partnership
with Uber and two-wheeler mobility firm Rapido to deliver groceries.

Big Basket’s rival Grofers has also seen sharp hike in number of orders. Several startups have
expanded to grocery segment to serve more customers and compensate shortfall of core
businesses due to the coronavirus outbreak. In opinion of Grofers, they were able to retain 62%
of customers achieved lockdown. Online grocery has a boom due to the habit of people they had
due to lockdown which broadened the way for e-commerce.

(Kulkarni & Barge, 2020) Surveyed 340 people and used chi square test for analysis out of
which they sensed emergence of online shopping giving cut throat competition to offline market.
During the lockdown, only necessity shops were open which gave customers twp. options to buy
necessities – online or offline. Large customer base choose online over offline, but the other
factors like variety of products and delivery time boost customers to go for offline market,
having the risk of getting infected. Analysis showed results like, p value of 0.012 which
suggested no significant relationship between age and the change in preferences. Chi-square
value is 0.003 (effect of gender on the shift in consumer preferences) indicating statistical
significance relationship.

(Singh, Kumar, Panchal, & Tiwari, 2020) Impact of COVID-19 is seen drastically on
construction, telecom, aviation, automotive, tourism, oil and gas, food as well as healthcare
industry. Pandemic has given rise to pressure on healthcare sector due to delay in developing the
vaccines, shortage of oxygen availability, mechanical ventilation requirement. During the
pandemic food, medicine and medical equipments have been most essential items. These items
can be fulfilled from primary sectors like FMCG, agriculture, healthcare, railway and aviation.
Economic boosters like hospitality, construction, IT, automobiles, and textiles are contributing in
GDP and employment generation to a large extent. Panic customers are piling up stocks, laborers
are migrating and lockdown made logistics disrupted which resulted in supply chain imbalance.
These logistics and supply chain imbalance leading to disturbances to MSME. Contribution of
MSME in GDP and Employment generation has made it backbone of Indian economy. MSME is
also one of the worst affected sectors in pandemic. Roughly 111 million of Indian population,
work in 63.2 million units and they are severely impacted due to suspension of almost all
manufacturing.
In an interview with PWC, (Chandrasekaran, 2020), mentioned that Covid 19 not being a
pre-existing disease, lot of people taking treatment at home and as all health insurance policies
cover hospitalization expenses, there would not be a major impact on the health insurance
companies revenue due to COVID-19 hospitalization claims. Business interruption is covered
under commercial property insurance policy but here physical damage to the insured property is
required to claim and natural losses are not claimed if not covered specifically in policy.
Pandemic had heavy impact on business losses due to shutdown, closures and restrictions but
these can’t be cited as loss of income to claim unless there is physical or material damage. IN n
addition to that many small and medium enterprises are either insured or underinsured. Hence
the insurance sector at present is receiving claim requests majorly related to health insurance.
(Meshram, 2020) As per estimates India will have around 696.77 million internet users in
2020, 54.40 percent of the total population. This may rise 974.86 users by the year 2025 as per
prediction. Online Retail is well known for its global reach, improved customer service, mass
customization, less capital cost, effective and niche marketing, convenience, competitive pricing,
customization, 24*7 shopping, doorstep delivery, online payment. Online grocery market is
leaded by Amazon, Flipkart, Grofers, Big Basket, etc., but lockdown has heavily impacted online
retail due to shortage of stocks, lack of transport and lack of manpower. But on other hand, these
ecommerce retailers are also facing issues like managing inventory, supply chain, offer same
number of brands, limited availability of transport, delivery personnel availability resulted into
delayed deliveries. Due to non-availability of transport, online stores had stopped taking orders.
High cost of attracting new customers and retaining the existing customers is a big challenge.
Cut throat competition among eBay, Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong is a major challenge for
online retailers.
 (Reardon, Mishra, & Nuthalap, 2020) Mentioned that 92% of food
consumption in India is purchased, mainly from private sector, Hence Indian Food supply chain
(FSC) in terms of procurement is huge. In India out of all food consumed, 92% is procured. Out
of all food consumed in India, 60% is consumed by urban customers, where almost all are
procured and none is home produced, while rest 40% of food that is consumed by rural areas,
80% of it is procured and rest 205 is home procured. Now, private SMEs manage 72 to 83% of
food consumption, hence SMEs provide larger employment. Only 21.5% of Indian food
consumption is food grains rest are non-grain that is milk, vegetables, fruits, chicken, fish, edible
oil that is perishable in nature having shorter shelf life. Now talking about covid, its spread
intensifies via human contact and SMEs being smaller in size have considerably great human
contact increasing risk of spread of covid. Covid has impacted Food supply chain mainly by food
security as well as food price inflation.

(Shekam, Singh, & Dixit, 2020) The Pandemic has given a shock to global
beauty industry which includes skin care, personal care, cosmetics, hair care, as well as
fragrances. Hygiene services are prerequisite industry having all basic needs specifically
sanitizers. Himalaya is producing many of the hygiene products which are part of sanitizer
category. Covid has made people sanitize themselves every few minutes or hours. As a result,
Himalaya is setting up new offices to meet these increased sanitizers. According to the WHO
guidelines the personal care includes soap, wet wipes, sanitizers, cleanser for which demand
hiked steadily. Work from home formulated by government had impact also on cosmetic
industry. Personal care services includes maids, home care, animal care, home maintenance,
window washers, Gardener, Trash picker etc. Due to lockdown entry of all such people were
strictly restricted which had heavy impact on their earning as they couldn’t earn for bread for
them as well as for their family.

(Jena, 2020) The well-known pandemic has affected more than 120 crores of students
and youth in entire world. Schools, colleges and universities shut down their operations and
started online education due to social distancing as well as lockdown. In India, not every student
and every educational institute is well equipped with technological advancement and digital
facilities, Therefore, its challenge for the whole education system to cope up with transformation
from traditional education to online mainly due to Unpreparedness of teachers and students.
CBSE postponed all examinations of secondary and higher secondary schools. Government is
taking all measures to ensure that academic activities of do not affect during lockdown. Some
positive things that has happened in education system due to the pandemic - Adoption of digital
technology, chance to develop improved professional skills through online education, creation of
blended learning, use of soft copies of learning material, collaborative work, enhanced digital
literacy, worldwide exposure, time management. Students use social media tools like Google
meet, Youtube live, WhatsApp, Zoom, Telegram, Facebook live etc. for online education.
Secondary education was able to fight battle with various online resources like Diksha portal, e-
Pathshala app, while secondary education did it with Swayam online education portal, Swayam
Prabha and e-PG Pathshala. Still there is need to take efforts to make maximum utilization of
online platforms for education advancement.
Where the world is taking pandemic as illness, economy downfall, problems, poverty, (Pothula,
2021) talked about shining side of the pandemic that is in the field of education. Since March
2020 allmost all schools, colleges and universities are closed, but pandemic opened a way
towards technological transformation. Diversified ways of teaching helps in better
understanding. Though three are many parts of country that suffer from internet connectivity
issues, poorly managed schools and where online education cannot be availed, but pandemic has
accelerated pace of digital technologies for education. Education institutions have been more
technologically equipped. They are motivating teachers and students to adopt technology. Digital
Exams, online sessions, webinars, teleconferencing and digital assessments have become
common. Today teachers, parents, students, administration and companies are being together
towards new era of education.

( Jaipuria, Parida, & Ray, 2020) Found that foreign exchange earnings (FEE) is the
revenue generated by inbound foreign tourists and it is one of the major revenue source for
Indian Government. There was increase in the year-to-year arrival of foreign tourists in India
which decreased by 6.63% in February 2020 and further by 66.42% in March having great
impact on revenue generation. As a result tourism sector has drastically been affected. It was
suggested that if restructuring of tourism sector and policies are not done, then FEE can fall
below USD 1790.53 million or maybe entirely lost but if managed properly FEE can be at least
USD 13351.07 million. The Indian tourism industry is contributing INR 194 billion to Indian
GDP by creating 87.5 million jobs and 12.75% of total employment. Indian tourism sector
witnessed 3.2% growth in 2018, with 10.8 million foreign tourists visit to India with a FEE of
USD 29.9 billion in 2019. It was forecasted that airlines, hotels and restaurants, will show
downfall by 50% in 2020, which might create a significant loss of jobs and revenue. Worldwide
airlines are expected to lose $84billion in 2020 which is more than thrice the loss made during
global financial crisis as per International Air Transport Association (IATA). Tourism industry
includes airlines, and hotels as well wherein, fewer tourists led to closure of hotels, cancellation
of flights, most restaurateurs are facing higher operating costs. Hence sustaining during crisis for
tourism industry is a challenging task.
 (Singh, Pawar, Shekam, & Dutt, 2020) If we talk about the impact of covid
on different industries than FMCG would be the first one to be discussed as it has brought
worldwide emergency in FMCG business. Demand for few products like staple, food and home-
basic items are booming and demand of fundamental items are showing unexpected steep.
Demand for hand sanitizers and hand washes and other cleaning items are expanding at an
exponential rate. Food and refreshment business processing food and beverage, packaged, fresh
vegetables and fruits are expected to create hike in demand. Apart from that as there is increase
in large number of people staying indoors, number of prepaid orders online are increasing. Cafes
and retail food foundations are suffering due to lack of food supplies, lockdown as well as
workers. Other industries to suffer are extravagance, fashion, customer gadgets, tobacco and
mixed beverages as they downsized or stop their operations. Recreation providers as well as
travel industry are expected to suffer as people will be more averse to spend on costly tickets.
According to Vivek Gambhir (MD & CEO-Godrej Consumer Products Ltd.), Pandemic has
drastic impact on FMCG but this emergency has given a way to development of other new
FMCG items related to wellbeing insurance and cleanliness.

(Gupta & Goplani, 2020) Discussed about government decision of closing down
educational institutions, schools and Colleges and how it affected students as well as the system
as a whole. The authorities initiated in creating awareness among students like frequent hand
wash, respiratory etiquettes including cover mouth while coughing / sneezing, use of tissue or
sleeve of shirt covering the upper arm, avoiding meeting with other when sick. University Grants
Commission (UGC) issued guidelines to avoid large gathering, wearing mask, use of alcohol-
based sanitizer or soap, 14 days home quarantine for students/teachers who have traveled to any
COVID-19 affected countries and avoiding use of biometric-based attendance. CBSE
rescheduled all board exams of Class X and XII after 31st March 2020. MHRD rescheduled
Universities, Colleges, NIOS as well as other competitive and entrance exams after 31stMarch
2020. DHE under MHRD emphasized on learning by making effective utilization of available
digital/e-learning platforms. Early actions of closing down educational Institutions, cancellation
or re-scheduling of Exams dates was indeed a most required decision for welfare of people, but
the fact can’t be ignored that the examinations so postponed may affect the student's performance
due to long gap between the learning and final exams.

(India, 2021) Found that increasing number of covid cases and death rate trembled the
health system as well as real GDP which was forecasted to grow 9.5 per cent from April 2021 to
March 2022. Punjab and Maharashtra have been the worst affected state during the 2nd wave of
pandemic. Inadequate government measures, people not following health guidelines are not the
only reason of upward shift of Covid cases but number of political, religious and social events,
elections for local bodies, preparation for Assembly elections gave a way to virus to move fast.
In opinion of Fitch solutions believed that export of around 193 million doses of vaccines was at
a stake of health of country as a result of which BJP is facing challenges in the elections and
BJP''s support has weakened across the nation. Instead of Unavailability of beds, oxygen, doctors
and fast pace of spreading virus, Modi administration was resistant to nationwide lockdown in
April 2021, which could have made the situation better.
 (Rai, 2020) Throw light on seafood vendor FreshToHome which deliver seafood and fish
to Indian customers to different locations. FreshtoHome is processing approximately 1.5 million
orders a month with $85 million annual sales making it one of the largest players in the $94
billion Indian fish and meat market. This FreshToHome has secured financing from U.S.
International Development Finance Corporation, which invests in companies in developing
nations. Investors like Ascent Capital, the Allana Group and the Investment Corp. of Dubai had
also made investment in startup FreshToHome. Pandemic has driven people crazy from offline to
online for their daily necessities and groceries, people who could take opportunity of this
pandemic could grow their business in large numbers.
(Bondar, Humenchuk, Horban, Honchar, & Koshelieva, 2021) In an online interview
undertaken with students of higher education from Ukraine and Poland, few important aspects
were observed. In Ukraine and Poland, major higher education institutions are unprepared for a
global pandemic. Though instructions, information exchange and decision-making processes
were appropriate, but the system failed to solve key issues faced like lack of proper pandemic
preparedness, improved learning processes, unavailability of risk management plans and
changing teaching methods to online lectures. The flip side of the coin is, it has also enabled
universities to invest innovative education system in support of teaching, interaction and
discussion. Here students’ anxiety, panic, lack of self-discipline, learning material, home
isolation have major impact on effectiveness of curriculum, seminars, courses and assignments.

(Zafar & Perepu, 2020) Impact of covid pandemic is greatly faced by

grocery business, and big basket is one such online grocery store in India, which saw a 900%
surge in orders in month of April 2020. On one side panic people started piling groceries from
online sources and other side companies faced supply chain issues due to sudden hike in demand
as well as migration of employees to hometown. Their infrastructure capabilities, supply chain
and warehouse network and partnership with cab aggregators and restaurant associations eased
manpower requirements maintaining the stock. Lockdowns-an effective way to control the
spread of Covid-19 had drastic impact on the supply chain of food, medicine and other essentials
resulting in long queues for groceries without social distances. In initial period of lockdown,
there was dumping of 15,000 Liters of milk and throwing over 10,000 kg of fruits and vegetables
due to confusion of on what had to be closed and what not. People also resorted bulk buying and
online shopping.

Big Basket’s operation is inventory based model. Purchase id made from giants like P&G, HUL,
and farmers, stocked in warehouses and then sold at profit. Most of these profits were dependent
on products like Fresho, Royal Organic, Happy Chef Gourmet, and more. Big Basket had tough
time when its delivery staff was beaten by police and they suspended their operations. On the
very next day they arranged for I-Cards and got back on wheels at major cities. In a month they
operated at 40% capacity instead of 10% which was earlier. Big basket also faced, major
challenges that other grocery vendors and online platform faced but they faced the issue tactfully
and gained business opportunities.

(BusinessWire, 2021) FedEx Express - world’s largest express transportation

company has proven their efficiency in covid pandemic by delivering critical medical supplies
and equipment all over the world during this crisis. Consistently ranked as world's most admired
and trusted employers, FedEx gives inspiration to more than 570,000 team members to remain
focused on safety, the highest ethical and professional standards. Contribution of FedEx in
numbers can be described as –

 Supporting the transportation of more than 25,000 oxygen concentrators and converters.
 An initial shipment of 1,000 critical oxygen concentrators was delivered New Delhi.
 Donation of Boeing 777F charter flight to move more than 3,400 oxygen concentrators,
converters.
 265,000 KN95 masks for Direct Relief from Newark, New Jersey to Mumbai, India.
 Commitment of $4 million in cash and in-kind transportation support to help.
 Shipment of more than 80 kilotons of personal protective equipment, including more than
2.2 billion masks worldwide.
 Be an integral part of the global vaccine supply chain by delivering COVID-19 vaccines,
related ingredients, and supplies to more than 25 countries around the world.

(Hindocha, 2020) Found that one of the restaurant owner as well as an auto driver had closed
down their business due to pandemic lockdown. People are stuck at their homes and large
population is working from home resulted in very less demand of restaurants, autos and tea
stalls. Such people have to look after their livelihood and their family. For the survival such
people chose to switchover to vegetable business which can’t be suffered much in lockdown
because there was no restriction to keep vegetable shop closed from government. In addition
vegetables, fruits and dairy are such demands which people cannot avoid.
(Gambhir, 2020) While talking about godrej consumer products mentioned that company is
facing challenges due to logistics hurdles and supply chain issues but they are facing hike in
short term demand essentials like sanitizers and hand wash during the pandemic, while long term
demand is affected. It’s important to note that demand for larger packs and online sales have
shoot up. Company is doing the level best to fight with current scenario by ramping production
capacity, producing with third party manufacturers, building excess stock, motivating employees
by incentives, involving them in decision making, allowing work from home. People buying in
bulk in anticipation of shutdown has created temporary spike in demand, but the biggest issue
faced by godrej is due to restrictions, because their input comes from different state and outputs
are sent to different states than sites creating big hurdles. Godrej is having soap factory in Baddi
for which workers come from Haryana and Punjab. It was also suggested that government should
take massive actions like in US and UK. Small and medium business having weal balance sheet
should receive some liquidity support from government.

Conclusion:

From above literature it can be concluded that Covid has impacted almost all the sectors but the
matter of concern is few industries are impacted badly which requires proper planning and
managerial moves by the owners, whereas they are few industries who have been free from
adverse impact of pandemic. These are also segments that could gain by developing
opportunities from the pandemic. Grocery is such thing which is everyday necessity, even in
pandemic its demand might not fluctuate much and pilling habit of conservative consumers help
in increasing demand for groceries but supply chain problems could not let companies meet these
peak of demand. Saloons and personal care takes last in priority when it comes to health, hence
such service providers faced drastic decline in demand. People were so scared to move out of the
house that it directly impacts restaurants, dew of small cafes and restaurants had to close down
due to no demand.

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