COVID-19 and the measures to prevent its spread brought about most unprecedented public health and socio-economic crisis in our lifetime. On the economic front, most vulnerable are the people engaged in the informal sectors and in small trade and commerce. In India more than 110 million people are employed by country’s 63 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). It is the second largest employment generator after agriculture. Indian MSMEs produce more than 6,000 products for local and global consumption. The announcement of country wide lockdown dragged MSME owners, employers and external stakeholders in u n e x p e c t e d times, have had negative impact on supply of finished goods, p r o c u r e m e n t of raw material and availability of employees to work in production and supply processes, debt r e p a y m e n t s ,
w a g e s / s a l a r i e s , statutory dues, etc. As it appears, a substantial section of MSMEs in India may default on debt under the emerging scenario of an extended lockdown — but each sector will face different challenges.

Ambiguity in future trade and bounce back of new normal is keeping 37 financial institutions at bay for extending any new financial lending or cover potential risk. This all-round uncertainty needs a push by government, to boost market confidence and bring back regular cash flow in economy. Many enterprises lay-off their workers because of inability to pay salaries, vacate their offices due to incurring expenses and halt their production due to stopped demand.

The Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission (ABM) was launched to face two burning issues simultaneously; one being boost to MSMEs and other being less dependent upon foreign nations. Out of 15 relief measures declared under this package, 6 were entirely focused to empower MSMEs. It is not known how much impact the ABM created as far as West Bengal is concerned where 14% of India’s MSMEs are located. With this backdrop in mind, the Institute of Social and Cultural Studies, (ISCS), India organized a research Based Conference on “The Impact of COVID-19 on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise in South Bengal’s Trade, Commerce and Economy” on a hybrid platformon 12th December 2020.

In his Welcome Address, Sri Arindam Mukherjee, Director, ISCS articulated that the severity of the problem related to Covid 19 induced the Institute to enlarge its scope of activities to the field of public health and economics. The distinguished speaker Sri Gautam De , Regional Director, RTC, ICCR, Kolkata narrated the loss of self-employed jobs as corona virus spread. The Guest of Honor Dr. K. Rangarajan, Professor and Head, Centre for MSME Studies, Kolkata Campus, Indian Institute for Foreign Trade explained the linkages within the MSME and how it suffered as Covid 19 spread. The Key Note Speaker Professor Rajagopal Dhar Chakraborti, former Director IISWBM, Kolkata viewed that Covid 19 targeted the old and people with co morbidities and its impact on the health of productive labour was minimal. The suffering was essentially a short-term economic downswing and would bounce back as we had enough antibodies through herd immunity and /or mass vaccination programs.
The business session started under title “Mapping the Threshold of COVID-19 on MSME’s, Trade and Commerce of South Bengal” , moderated by Dr Ranajoy Bhattacharya, Professor, Indian Institute for Foreign Trade with distinguished speakers, Ajeya Bandyopadhyay, Partner, Infrastructure and Government Advisory, KPMG(India) , Ms KekaSarma, General Secretary, The Bharat Chambers of Commerce, Shri P.K Das, Dy. Director, MSME-DI, Kolkata, Sri Ritwik Mukherjee, Senior Assistant Editor, Financial Chronicles, Kolkata and Shri Firoz Ahmed, Assistant Director, MSME-DI, Kolkata. Ms KekaSarma, Secretary General, Bharat Chamber of Commerce observed that Southern Bengal was massively hit by super cyclone International Webinar on India-Nepal in Present Times while the whole globe was passing through corona catastrophe .

She explained how the thousands of small,units producing colourful LED lights fitted along designs sketched on fibreglass board in Chandannagar virtually faced closures owing to the regulations on the imports of electronic intermediaries from China. She suggested several measures to rejuvenate MSMEs in South Bengal. The second business session was titled, “Instrumenting New Normal growth demography for South Bengal’s MSME’s, Trade and Commerce” and was moderated by Prof. Jyotish Prakash Basu, former ViceChancellor and Professor of Economics, West Bengal State University Barasat with Swami Vedatitananda Correspondent, Polytechnic College and Skill Development Centre, Shilpamandir, Belurmath, Dr.Sreerupa Roy, Assistant Professor of Economics, Dept. of Economics, Krishnanagar Government College, Nadia, West Bengal , Dr.Subhasis Bhattacharya ,Professor of Economics, Sidho- Kanho- Birsha University, Purulia and Dr. Bhaskar Goswami, Associate Professor, Dept. of Economics, University of Burdwan a distinguished speakers.

Swami Vedatitananda in his paper , Impact of lockdown on MSMEs in Bengal, viewed that MSMEs which werelabor intensive had suffered the most. There was unprecedented migration of labor as a consequence of lockdown. People who had picked up valuable skills moved away from the production line on COVID-19 fatality apprehensions. Lots of people who migrated to other states returned to their families in West Bengal with no sustainable livelihood. Cash flow was another constraint for local MSMEs, whatever reserves they had all gone with committed expenditures. He recommended a complete loan waiver could only save these employment providing units. Cost of doing business had increased exponentially due to lockdown. The new health and safety compliances had added to the cost.

Dr Bhaskar Goswami, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Burdwan views the crisis as twofold: one was the crisis resulting from the health pandemic and the other was the economic crisis as a manifestation of COVID pandemic. He felt that the MSMEs were in healthy shape till 2016 but three exogenous factors -demonetization, the GST regime and the Covid 19, all came in a sequence to shake the very survival roots of the MSMEs. Only time could tell whether MSMEs could survive in a formal economy with stiff competition from the large business houses.

Prof. Jyotish Prakash Basu, Professor of Economics, Dept. of Economics, West Bengal State University, Barasat, Kolkata, in his paper , Impact of COVID-19 on MSME in South West Bengal viewed that India’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) was largest in the world after China. MSMEs fostered rural industrialization , reduced regional imbalances, provided huge employment and acting as the ancillary units of the large industries , contributed significantly to the socioeconomic development in India. He too found problem like low liquidity or crunch of cash flows and lack of workforce as daily-wage earners shifted to their villages. The paper mentioned ‘Pottery activity’, Beekeeping Activity’ and Agarbati Making project’ under Graminodyog Vikas Yojana(GVY) scheme.

The objectives of these schemes were to enhance the capacity building of the artisans and workforce involved. The appropriate implementation of such schemes might achieve self-Reliant India or Atmanirbhar Bharat, he thought.
Sreerupa Ray, Assistant Professor of Economics, Krishnagar Government College made an analysis of the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis over the Cutlery Cluster of Jhalda, Tassar Silk Cluster of Raghunathpur and the Handloom Cluster of Santipur. Her findings were: most of the MSMEs operated outside the formal network, the units rarely maintained accounts, paid taxes or adhered to regulatory norms.; credit funding generally came from informal source; revenue dropped while costs of production increased sharply; capacity utilization was very low; digitalization of production or sales was very low despite the use of smart phones. She suggested immediate governmental intervention as way out.
The Valedictory Session was addressed by Dr.Asim Pada Chakraborty, Chairman, ISCS, India.