By CNBCTV18.com Jun 27, 2022 6:35:47 AM IST (Published)
Since 2017, the World MSME Day has been observed annually on June 27. MSMEs account for 70 percent of total employment in most middle-income countries.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns and restrictions on movements worldwide caused the Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME) sector massive losses.
In several cases, the small and medium-sized businesses had to lay off employees or shut down completely. For a country like India, where the job market is heavily dependent upon the MSME sector, this was a double whammy -- people losing livelihood and companies going out of business.
While businesses have been on the recovering mode for a few financial quarters now, new challenges, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict and inflation, are again testing the resilience of the MSMEs. According to the United Nations, the MSMEs led with the aid of women, youth, ethnic minorities, and migrants were the most impacted during the pandemic.