Impact of covid-19 on global supply chain with special reference to the Indian

Abstract

COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, emerged first during December 2019 in Wuhan, China and then gradually spread to regions all over the world leading to its declaration as a Pandemic by the WHO on 11 March 2020. Individuals infected by the virus was found in good numbers throughout the world and hence, keeping in mind the immense communicable nature of the virus, severe restrictions were put in place by the Governments in terms of travel, social gatherings as well as commercial activities with an aim to flatten the highly increasing COVID curve. In some countries, the measures were stricter wherein the immunologically weak individuals were shielded, victims were treated, and an attempt was made to develop “herd immunity” (large number of recovered individuals and hence, less chance of spreading) among the citizens. The differences in the strictness of the policies and the rapidity with which the authorities imposed and relaxed the measures reflect the difference in assessments of public health risks as well as the socio-economic impacts of the various policies. In this study, various quantitative as well as qualitative methods would be employed to find out the supply-chain effects of various containment strategies across countries and industries and the nature in which pandemic related economic losses would be distributed across global supply chains will be studied as well. Also, the various strategies made by companies to make their supply chains sustainable in the face of any future problems would be examined as well in the light of the COVID crisis.