The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on MSMEs in the Uttarakhand State

Abstract

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have significant potential of job opportunities. It reduces the earning imbalances between locations and enables people to be financially secure and to earn money from jobs, especially in scattered places, like in Uttarakhand, which comes with its own geographical challenges, being a hilly state. The livelihood becomes more challenging when it confronts some natural disaster or pandemic like Covid-19, as was globally observed in 2020. This work is an attempt to examine the impact on small and medium-sized businesses, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in the state. The impact of the pandemic is studied on the employment, number of units and investments in the MSMEs of the state. The study was carried out using SPSS 20 software, and the pre- and post- pandemic data, from 2015 to 2024, was analyzed by computing CAGR (compound average growth rate). A severely ill impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was observed in the number of units, employment and investment in the MSMEs in Uttarakhand, during the period of study.