IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON VARIOUS SECTOR by - Vaishali Joshi
During the end of 2019, a disease named ‘Coronavirus / Covid-19‘found in, China. Later on, it was spread across the states and to the different parts of the world.Covid-19 has created a horrified situation in the entire world. Also it has caused a fear and is spreading at vast speed around the globe. By April 2020, most of the countries imposed Lockdown or ordered their citizens to stay at home. Everything came at halt, only medical services and basic necessities were allowed. Across the world this disease has caused death to over one million lives all around the world. Due to the Lockdown in the country it has affected many industries and has its adverse effect on people too.
COVID-19 & THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
Due to the lockdown all over the world, where only essential services were allowed to move, in between this pandemic, students who were preparing for their exams came to a halt, as all universities/ Colleges, schools were closed. The Schools and colleges are shut down temporarily in order to take safety measures and to control the spread of virus. Students who were going to appear for their Board exams/ competitive exams were re-schedule due to same. This brought Government to come up with E-Learning programme facility for the students. The Experts in the Education sector have come with innovative ideas to cope with education system during the pandemic.Students who were preparing for the State and National Level Examinations and also final year students from Universities and Higher Educational Institutions. Majority of the measures plan only 6% of the plan and on the other side 14% of the plan to carry out the only part of planned exams while others are postponed or on hold at the moment. The main question arise in the rural areas and their growth. Many factors have to be considered while bringing forth the E-learning techniques in rural areas like old fashioned teaching method, shortage of teachers, poor teacher to student ratio and outdated teaching material. Other than poor staff, there are other issue such as lack of internet facility, no electricity, etc. are the other factors which still need to be addressed in rural district. Even though government has several steps for the progress of online education in such areas, seems like a lot of things yet to be introduced.
Under the 86th Amendment, a new Article 21A was added after Article 21 in the Indian Constitution. In 2009 ‘The Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) was passed by the parliament. Whereas under Section 8 of the Act to provide free and compulsory education, compulsory admission, and ensure that the child belonging to the weaker sections and disadvantage groups are not discriminated against and prevented from pursuing and completing elementary education on any grounds. Due to the pandemic, the government face issues in providing required electronic equipment for the online learning education. Parents find it difficult to provide their children with smartphones, where they themselves struggle to meet ends and e-learning becomes a loaded burden on them. In Kerala, the education department has provided the maximum support to the students amidst the pandemic through online classed named ‘First bell’ which is telecasted through ‘Victors’ channel under the state General Education Department for classes 1 to 12, which is indeed a good alternative for those without smartphones to attend sessions without fail.
Another issue to be taken into consideration is the effect of the use of online platforms on student behaviour especially the students with special educational needs, protecting the students from cyber criminals which may also hack the institutional system and also the procedure for conducting the examinations. Online assessment cannot be secured against academic misconduct and other forms of educational fraud since the opportunities for such students to cheat individually or collectively enhanced when education are conducted online. The pandemic has caused tremendous effect on education across the globe and it has worsened situation amongst the vulnerable communities.
IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON ‘INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW’
The global economy has been shaken in a way that has never happened earlier. Although economists and the policymakers are comparing the present economic slowdown with the great depression and the financial crisis of 2009, the damage caused by the COVID 19 pandemic is far greater and it has a unique nature. COVID-19 has disrupted international trade and global supply chains for essential and non-essential goods and services. The lack of cooperation between countries to tackle this crisis has inflame the economic situation of the world, in turn, adding to geopolitical tensions and distrust between trading partners.
PROBLEMS WHICH CAME DUE TO THE PANDEMIC
As the bank services were disrupted, the transaction of money took place with a delay leading to a pretended financial crisis, people could not open new accounts or were able to do so with great difficulties causing the working class a lot of inconveniences.As the businesses were disrupted, a lot of daily wage workers or labourers lost jobs or did not receive the salaries that they were supposed to receive. There was a lot of cut-down in the salaries that they received, due to which they were unable to meet the demands and the daily living costs as a lot of them had to pay rents, food, and medicine and so on. Their healthcare had also become expensive.Despite the potential for digital delivery of B2B services, many businesspersons and professionals rely on their physical presence abroad to deliver Published in Article section of www.manupatra.com services. Moreover, the installation of foreign machinery and equipment often requires travel of specialized workers – so border restrictions also impede trade in these goods and related services.
Since agriculture is the backbone of the country and a part of the government announced essential category, the impact is likely to be low on both primary agricultural production and usage of agro-inputs. Several state governments have already allowed free movement of fruits, vegetables, milk etc. Online food grocery platforms are heavily impacted due to unclear restrictions on movements and stoppage of logistics vehicles. RBI and Finance Minister announced measures will help the industry and the employees in the short term. Insulating the rural food production areas in the coming weeks will hold a great answer to the macro impact of COVID-19 on Indian food sector as well as larger economy.
Keeping essential supply chains flowing – medical supplies. Trade in medical products represents around 5% of total world trade. Personal protective products represent around 13% of trade in medical products. As more and more people are asked to stay home, many activities have been forced to move from offline to online (O2O), including work, grocery shopping, food delivery, education and entertainment. This new trend could help the global O2O gig economy flourish provided key challenges can be overcome. World’s major economic powers such as the US, China, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Japan and many other rising economies like India, etc. are on the verge of collapse. Economies around the world are ruined and the stock markets have collapsed like never before, the great recession has started and has never seen before and it will continue to damage business except healthcare and consumer goods as they are basic needs.
COVID-19 IMPACT ON JOBS
The casual workers are the most powerless because of the unpredictable idea of their work and their daily wage instalment which are more elevated in the development part. Thousands of retail stores in different parts of the country remain closed for an extended period due to covid-19 lockdown. They have no sales and suffering substantial losses. However the grocery stores are back in the form but with a limited number of customers. Millions of skilled and unskilled immigrants moved back to their hometowns that resulted in shortage of workforce for manufacturing units in the country. Shutdown, layoffs, and salary cut-offs, salary delayed, etc. are the issues people are still facing.
CONCLUSION
Covid-19 has proved to be worst nightmare for humans. The pandemic results loss of millions of jobs in all industries and has a much broader impact than the recession. Worst hit industries are hotels, transports, travel, entertainment, real estate, construction. The Indian government is working on its toes to combat the ill-effects of a pandemic. The online teaching may not be a strong alternative for educational system but it can to a certain extent mitigate and compensate for the inconvenience caused by this petrifying Covid-19 pandemic to the education system. Learning is an ever-evolving process and in this time of crisis, a well-rounded and effective educational practice through the use of technology is what we can count on to adapt to the future, irrespective of its distress.In view of the scale of disruption caused by the pandemic, it is evident that the current downturn is fundamentally different from recessions. The sudden shrinkage in demand & increased unemployment is going to alter the business landscape. Adopting new principles like ‘shift towards localization, cash conservation, supply chain resilience and innovation’ will help businesses in treading a new path in this uncertain environment
REFERNCE
1 Student at Rajarshi Shahu College of Law