Can India's Retail Industry Survive The Covid-19 Lockdown

At a time where the entire nation and world has to be on lockdown, industries and business owners are looking towards the government to provide support in order to sustain businesses and salaries of the employees. Globally, governments have announced multiple incentives for the businesses within the retail sector – however, no such announcements have been made in India so far.

- Sanjay Vakharia

The losses for the retail industry alone have crossed $30 billion in the fortnight, and the number is only rising. Will retail companies be able to survive this shutdown?

The COVID-19 has slowed down the economy. The unprecedented global crisis is creating a further negative impact on the already low consumer sentiments that the retail sector had been tackling. The complete lockdown, a necessity from the health care perspective; has only further damaged the businesses at large.

The retail industry is the second largest employer of the country, and provides for a large segment of the population. To put things in perspective, small and medium-sized firms alone employ about 400-450 million people and undertake a monthly business of about $70 billion.