HOW DID THE ENTREPRENEURS OF MANIPUR COPE COVID-19 PANDEMIC?

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic, undoubtedly was one of the worst cataclysmic events in human history. With total lockdown that was imposed due to the pandemic, schools and offices began operating from home. Entrepreneurs too, with the closure of physical stores began to shift their modus operandi. The present study is based on Covid-19 `s impact on the entrepreneurs, adaptation strategies, and shift towards online home-based business. The study consisted of randomly selected 104 entrepreneurs from the state of Manipur, a North-Eastern state of India. The study was a mixed approach since questionnaire was used to asked to be filled and then at the end of the session interview method was employed. The data is analysed using IBM SPSS software. The results revealed that ninety-one percent of the entrepreneurs were affected by the pandemic. Many entrepreneurs also saw the sudden surge in price of imported products or they weren’t available at all. So, out of them 85.5 percent adopted various adaptation techniques. While 95.19 percent of the entrepreneurs resorted to online business and thirty-one percent of them who did not have home-based business shifted to home business due to the pandemic.