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Nutrition is included in the Home Science subject, so you can apply for the UGC NET exam with Home Science. ... Candidates who are enrolled in the post-graduation and those who have completed also apply for the UGC NET exam. Aspirants must also follow age criteria for NET JRF i.e. 30 . No limitation for net examination..UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSIONNET BUREAUNET SYLLABUSSubject: Home Science Code No. : 12UNIT-I : FOOD SCIENCE AND FOOD SERVICE MANAGEMENT1. Food science and nutrition.2. Properties of food – physical and chemical properties3. Quality evaluation of foods- objectives and subjective.4. Effects of cooking and processing techniques on nutritional components and other physical parameters, food preservation and application.5. Food pigments and additives.6. Food standards, microbiological safety of food, HACCP, food packaging.7. Perspectives of food service-menu planning, food cost analysis.8. New product development – nano technology9. Food service management of institutional level-hospital, educational institutions, social and special institutions10. Research methods-fundamental issues, concept, need relevance, scope and ethics in researchUNIT-II : NUTRITION AND DIETETICS1. Food groups – balanced diet, food pyramid, macro and micro nutrition.2. Nutrients-role of nutrients in the body, nutrient deficiencies and requirements for Indians.3. Public health nutrition4. Nutrition through life span-physiological changes, growth and development from conception to adolescence, nutritional needs and dietary guidelines for adequate nutrition through life cycle, nutrition concerns.5. Community nutrition, sports nutrition, nutrition in emergencies and disasters.6. Nutritional assessment-methods and techniques.7. Nutritional intervention-national nutrition policies and programmes, food and nutrition security.8. Clinical and therapeutic nutrition.9. Diet counseling and management.10. Research methods- research designs, principles and purpose of researchUnit-III : TEXTILES1. Textile terminologies- fibre, yarn, weave, fabric etc., classification of fibers, yarns and weaves, Identification of fibres and weaves.2. Manufacturing process of major natural and manmade fibres, properties and their end uses.3. Different methods of fabric construction-woven, knitted and non woven fabrics, their properties and end uses.4. Textiles finishes-classification, processing and purposes of finishes.5. Dyeing and printing-classification, method of block printing, tie and dye, batik, roller printing, screen printing, discharge, heat transfer printing and digitized printing.6. Traditional textiles of India-embroidered textiles, printed textiles, woven textiles, dyed textiles of various regions in India. Identification on the basis of fibre content, technique, motif, colour and designed.7. Textile Testing and quality control-need of testing, sampling method, techniques of testing fibres, yarn, fabrics and garments. Testing of colour-fastness, shrinkage, pilling and GSM of fabrics.8. Textile and environment-banned dyes, eco-friendly textiles, contamination and effluent treatment, Eco-label and eco marks.9. Recent developments in textiles and apparels- nano textiles, technical textiles, occupational clothing, zero waste designing, up cycling and recycling.10. Research methods-types of research, descriptive, survey, historical, qualitative, quantitative, analytical and action researchUNIT-IV : APPAREL DESIGNING1. Body measurements-procedure, need, figure types and anthropometry.2. Equipments and tools used for manufacturing garments-advancements and attachments used for sewing machine. Types of machines used and their parts.3. Elements and principles of design and its application to apparel. Illustrations and parts of garments.4. Fashion-Terminologies, fashion cycle, fashion theories, fashion adoption, fashion forecasting and factors affecting fashion.5. Pattern making-drafting, draping and flat pattern making techniques, pattern alteration and dart manipulation techniques.6. Apparel manufacturing-terminology used, seams, techniques and machines used, process of fabric to apparel manufacture.7. Apparel Quality testing-Quality standards and specification, Quality parameters and defects of fabrics and garments.8. Care and maintenance of clothing-principles of washing, laundry agents, storage techniques case labels and symbols.9. Selection of clothing for different age groups. Selection of fabrics for different and uses.10. Research methods-hypothesis testing, types and scopeUNIT-V : RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND CONSUMER ISSUES1. Management-concept, approaches, management of time, energy, money, space, motivating factors, motivation theories, decision making.2. Functions of management-planning, supervision, controlling, organizing, evaluation, family life cycle-stages, availability and use of resources.3. Resources-classification, characteristics, factors affecting use, resource conservation, time management, work simplification techniques, classes of change, fatigue and its management.4. Management of natural resources-land, forest, water, air, water harvesting, municipal solid waste management, concept of sustainable development, SDGs.5. Money management-family income, types, supplementation, budgeting, household accounts, family savings and investment, tax implications.6. Human resource management- functions, need, human resource development-challenges, functions, manpower planning, training need assessment, training methodologies, training evaluation.7. Consumer-definition, role, rights and responsibilities, consumer behavior, consumer problems, education and empowerment.8. Consumer protection- consumer organization, cooperatives, alternative redressal, standardization, standard marks, quality control, buying aids, consumer legislation.9. Entrepreneurship-concept, process, barriers, entrepreneurial motivation, challenges, enterprise setting, project planning and appraisal, enterprise management.10. Research methods-sampling techniques, types of sampling, sampling procedures, probability and non probability samplingUNIT-VI : HOUSING AND INTERIOR DESIGN1. Design fundamentals – elements of art, principles of design, principles of composition.2. Colour – dimensions of colour, psychological effects of colour, colour schemes, factors affecting use of colour.3. Space planning and design-housing need and important, principles of planning spaces, types of house plans, economy in construction, planning for different income groups.4. Building regulations-norms and standards, zoning, housing for special groups and areas, housing finance.5. Housing and environment- building materials- impact on environment, green rating systems, energy efficiency in buildings, energy auditing, indices of indoor comfort.6. Energy as a resource- conventional and non- conventional sources, renewable /non-renewable energy, energy management, national efforts on energy conservation.7. Product design – design thinking process, diffusion and innovation, design communication, ergonomic considerations.8. Ergonomics – significance, scope, anthropometry, man, machine, environment relationship, factors affecting physiological cost of work, body mechanics, functional design of work place, time and motion study, energy studies.9. Furniture and furnishing – historical perspectives, architectural styles, contemporary tends, wall finishes, window and window treatments.10. Research methods-selection and preparation of tools for data collection-questionnaire, interview, observation, measuring scales, ranking and measurement, reliability and validity of toolsUNIT-VII : CHILD/HUMAN DEVELOPMENT1. Principles of growth and development, care during pregnancy and pre-natal and neonatal development.2. Theories of human development and behavior.3. Early childhood care and education – activities to promote holistic development.4. Influence of family, peers, school, community and culture on personality development.5. Children and persons with special needs, care and support, special education, prevention of disabilities, rehabilitation.6. Children at risk-child labour, street children, children of destitute, orphans, child abuse and trafficking.7. Adolescence and youth: changes, challenges and programs to promote optimal development.8. Adulthood, characteristics, changing roles and responsibilities in early and middle adulthood.9. Aging-physical and psychological changes and care needs.10. Research methods-types of variables and their selection.UNIT-VIII : FAMILY STUDIES1. Dynamics of marriage and family relationships.2. Family welfare-approaches, programmes and challenges, role in national development.3. Domestic violence, marital disharmony, conflict, resolution of conflict.4. Parent education, positive parenting, community education.5. Family disorganization, single parent families.6. Family studies-family in crisis, family therapy, initiatives for child development.7. Human rights, rights of children, rights of women, status of women, gender roles.8. Guidance and counseling- across life span and for care givers.9. Health and well being across life span development.10. Research methods- data collection and classification, coding, tabulation, inferential and descriptive statisticsUNIT-IX : COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT1. Basics of communication- nature, characteristics, functions, process, models, elements, principles, barriers, perception, persuasion and empathy, types of communication, levels (settings) of communication transactions, process of listening.2. Communication systems and communication theories- human interaction theories, mass communication theories, message design theories, communication systems, culture and communication.3. Concept of development- theories, models, measurement and indicators of development.4. Concept of development- communication models and approaches, diffusion and innovation, mass media, social marketing.5. Role of communication in development- need and importance, development journalism, writing for development-print, radio, television and internet.6. Concerns of development communication- gender, health, environment, sustainability, human rights, population, literacy, rural and tribal development.7. Advocacy and behavior change communication- concept, theories, models, approaches, application and challenges.8. Traditional, modern and new media for development – folk forms of songs, art, dance, theatre, puppetry, advertisement, cinema, ICTs for development-community radio, participatory video, social media and mobile phones.9. Organisation/agencies/institutes working for development communication- international/national/state and local.10. Research methods-analysis of data through parametric and non parametric tests.UNIT-X : EXTENSION MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT1. Historical perspectives of extension–genesis of extension education and extension systems in India and other countries, objectives of extension education and extension service, philosophy and principles of extension programme development.2. Programme management- need assessment, situation analysis, planning, organization, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.3. Extension methods and materials- interpersonal, small and large group methods, audiovisual aids-need, importance, planning, classification, preparation and field testing, use and evaluation of audio-visual materials.4. Curriculum development and planning for extension education and development activities, Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives and learning.5. Non-Formal, adult and lifelong education-historical perspectives, concept, theories, approaches, scope, methods and materials used, challenges of implementation and evaluation, issues to be addressed.6. Training, skill development and capacity building for human resource development-methods of training, entrepreneurship development.7. Community development- perspectives, approaches, community organization, leadership, support structures for community development, Panchyati raj institutions, NGOs and community based organisations.8. People’s participation and stakeholders’ perspectives, Participatory Learning and Action-methods and techniques.9. Development programmes in India for urban, rural and tribal population groups- programmes for nutrition, health, education, wage and self employment, women’s development, skill development, sanitation and infrastructure.10. Research methods-scientific report writing, presentation of data, interpretation and discussion.

Out of three questions, first two questions are answered here Surbhi Tripathi's answer to What is the Nipah virus, and how is it transmitted?The last question which is most important one to answer is about government's measures on NiV. As India is one of the member state of World Health Organisation so the preparedness for NiV is recommended by WHO will be apt to apply in India:Surveillance, Prevention and Control ofNipah Virus Infection: A Practical HandbookPage No. 18–354. OUTBREAK OR EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE FOR NiV4.1. PreparednessPreparedness in terms of technical and logistical management of a Nipah outbreak is essential in countries with recurrent outbreaks. The best response to a Nipah outbreak is being able to detect cases as early as possible and prevent further infections.4.1.1. Enhancing surveillance during the NiV transmission seasonSurveillance should be intensified during the Nipah season from January through May, when most Nipah outbreaks have been identified. This will increase the possibility of identifying NiV infection and understanding the characteristics of the virus. Blood, CSF, urine and throat swabs are collected from suspected patients and sent to the reference laboratories.4.1.2. Awareness building in hospitals and raising community awareness• Encourage and train health-care workers to maintain standard infection control precautions, e.g., personal hygiene, use of personal protective equipment(PPE), and manage encephalitis or neurological patients appropriately.• Disseminate information to communities through multimedia, leaflets, posters and meetings (group, community and market) encouraging people:o to stop consumption of raw date palm sap;o not to eat fruit partially eaten by bats;o cover the mouth and nose while caring for unconscious patients;o wash hands with soap and water before and after feeding and taking care of patients.4.1.3. Infection control in health-care settings should be in place• Implement standard infection control precautions.• Acquire and maintain PPE stock and other equipment needed in epidemiological investigations and outbreak response.4.1.4. Planning for outbreak response: some major components4.1.4.1. Formation of a multisectoral team 20Since NiV infection is a zoonosis and outbreaks may be associated with multiple factors such as animal reservoirs, sociocultural practices, food habits and possible human-to-human transmission, a multidisciplinary team is needed, and preparation should be done for pre-outbreak, outbreak and post-outbreak phases.A multisectoral team should be built up at national and local levels for the monitoring, evaluation and response to unusual acute public health events and outbreak response, including Nipah outbreaks. The team should have a holistic, multidisciplinary approach consisting of public health personnel, clinicians and laboratory personnel. The multisectoral team may consist of the following professionals (depending on the evolving and country-specific situation) who would bring relevant expertise in outbreak investigation and response:• epidemiologist• microbiologist• anthropologist and/or social scientist• veterinarian• ecologist.National or subnational level – Rapid Response Team (NRRT): The NRRT should be assigned from institutes at the national/provincial level and partner institutes.District/provincial level – District Rapid Response Team (DRRT): The DRRT consists of the head of health services at the district/provincial level and clinical and laboratory expertise, and other expertise from the public health department.4.1.4.2. Evaluate and ensure the supplies for sample collection, storage and shipment of samples:• Assess PPE in stock;• Assess sample collection instruments;• Assess sample storage capacity in the laboratory;• Evaluate laboratory capacity for NiV testing (e.g., biosafety, quality, skills, human resources and consumables for NiV virus testing);• Evaluate hospital capacities for isolation facilities and ability to treat Nipah patients in Nipah-prone areas.4.2. Alert and outbreak investigationThe outbreak investigation should lead to formulation of an appropriate public health intervention as soon as the source and mode of transmission are known. In the meantime, control measures mitigating known risk factors should be implemented as soon as NiV transmission is suspected.4.2.1. Investigation of a suspected case or cluster of suspect cases:4.2.1.1. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for sample collection and transportation in place:• Surveillance physician will take verbal consent from patient or patient’s family member;• Collect 5 ml venous blood;• If possible, collect 3 ml extra-CSF when appropriate;• Aliquot 1 ml serum and 1 ml CSF samples in 1.8 ml cryovial tube. Try to aliquot serum and CSF samples in three cryovial tubes;• Label the cryovial tube with: type of samples (serum/CSF), patient name and identification number, and date of sample collection;• Store the serum and CSF samples in liquid nitrogen if possible, or −20°C freezer for short-term storage if liquid nitrogen is not available;• Ship samples in liquid nitrogen tank or ice pack to assigned centre for laboratory diagnosis;• Store samples in −70°C freezer for longer-term storage;• A list of potential national or international reference laboratories should be pre-established. There can be several for different purposes: a frontline laboratory would be the WHO Collaborating Centre for laboratory diagnosis of viral diseases with BSL 3 or BSL 4 facilities (see list of WHO Collaborating Centres and other institutions for laboratory diagnosis, surveillance and response in Appendix 4).4.2.1.2. Templates of data collection instruments pre-developed and in place for quick useThese templates should include the following:• line listing of all cases;• case reporting form;• questionnaire for case-control studies or other relevant studies;• forms for sample collection.4.2.1.3. SOP for activating and conducting outbreak investigation teamsThis SOP is commonly country-specific as the process relies on the administrative structures and capacity or resources of a given country. Therefore a country-based manual or protocol for outbreak investigations should be in place in at-risk countries forNipah outbreaks. A more generalized national SOP manual for all emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases of international concern could be developed focusing on a mechanism of response and roles and responsibilities of different parties.The following are some of the key components to prepare a team for outbreak investigation:1) National or Subnational Rapid Response Team (RRT) Should an outbreak of NiV virus disease be suspected and/or reported, the National RRT should be activated and should meet together to:(1) Plan and conduct the investigation;(2) Request further technical support if needed (e.g., further analysis and interpretation, risk communication, initiate control).2) Administrative SOP for field work in place: administrative clearance, organize supplies, travel arrangements:• approval/permission from competent authority;• arrangement for accommodation;• arrangement for security, if needed;• arrange vehicle;• supplies:o medicineso sample collection instrumentso PPEo disinfectants, hand sanitizero basic medical and investigation equipment, e.g., stethoscope, thermometer, GPS instrument, etc.3) SOP for rapid mobilization of additional or experts teamsIf the NiV outbreak is confirmed, an experienced Nipah outbreak investigation team comprising an epidemiologist, clinician, veterinarian and anthropologist or social scientist can move to the field within 24 hours of outbreak reporting.4.2. 1.4. Nipah outbreak investigationThe overall objective of investigating Nipah outbreaks is to control the outbreak and prevent future outbreaks. Any Nipah (or suspicion of) outbreaks should be investigated as the disease is of public health concern with potentially devastating consequences.The specific objectives include the following:• to determine the extent of the outbreak;• to characterize the populations at greatest risk and to identify specific risk factors;• to provide practical recommendations to strengthen control and prevention measures.Key steps when conducting Nipah outbreak investigationStep 1: Activate preparation plan for outbreak investigation (details above).Step 2: Confirm the outbreak.One of the first tasks of the initial investigation team is to verify that a suspected cluster of cases is indeed a real outbreak with common cause. Some will be unrelated cases of the same disease, and others will turn out to be real cases of AES or ALRI but of unrelated diseases. This step consists of confirming the diagnosis through visiting the outbreak affected areas to (1) examine the patients and/or review the medical charts to describe and understand the clinical presentation; (2) collect blood, CSF and throat swab samples at the time of admission/ first contact, and follow-up serum samples 2 weeks after the onset of illness for testing.A Nipah outbreak is defined as the identification of at least one laboratory-confirmed case.Step 3: Define and identify cases.The investigators should develop or adapt standardized case definitions appropriate to the outbreak context (see details in standard case definitions). Testing for NiV infection should be performed when there are: (i) clusters of AES due to an unknown agent or (ii) patients with AES due to an unknown agent living in or near NiV zones.Patients with AES should also be tested for NiV infection when they are exposed to a cluster of unexplained neurological/pulmonary illness in animals, such as horses and pigs.Step 4: Case-findingIn many outbreaks, including Nipah outbreaks, the first cases that are recognized are usually a small proportion of the total number. Retrospective and prospective case-findings are crucial to determine the true magnitude and geographical extent of the outbreak.Active case-finding should be conducted:Among close contacts:• A close contact is defined as “a patient or the person who came in contact with a Nipah case (confirmed or probable cases) AND stayed in the room or veranda or vehicle for at least 15 minutes”.• Record contacts for potential follow-up if need be. They are to be followed up in case of occurrence of illness (up to 18 days). Serum specimens should be collected in case of symptom onseto in high-risk groups or in groups exposed to the sourceo through enhancing surveillance in the outbreak area and the at-risk areas for case-finding in the communityStep 5: Evaluate the outbreak in relation to ‘time, place and person’• establish a line-list of current and previous cases;• draw an epidemic curve;• analyse and interpret the data to identify potential sources of transmission.Step 6: Develop and evaluate hypothesesOnce step 5 has been done, investigators should have some hypotheses regarding the source and/or mode of transmission and the exposures that caused the disease. These hypotheses should be compared with established facts.Step 7: Refine hypotheses and carry out additional studiesIf step 6 is not conclusive, these hypotheses can be refined to look for new modes or vehicles of transmission and be evaluated through conducting case–control studies.Step 8: Implement control and prevention measures (see response section below)Step 9: Communicate findings and information about risks (i.e., outbreak report)• Develop an outbreak report and disseminate to concerned authorities.• Learning from the outbreak includes detailing:o new findingso major limitations during outbreak investigation• Resume the activities of pre-outbreak phase.4.3. Additional considerations with respect to Nipah outbreaksWhen the Nipah outbreak is confirmed, the investigation team needs to:• Immediately inform the local, regional and national authorities.• Inform the partners/stakeholders (notably those involved at local level): treating hospitals, patients’ relatives.• Declare the Nipah outbreak to WHO under the International HealthRegulation 2005 (IHR) via National IHR focal points (see detail below in the response section).Notification and assessment of Nipah outbreak and/or cases to WHO should be based on the following four criteria described in Annex II of IHR 2005. A "yes" to any of the four criteria would lead to notifying WHO under Article 6 of the IHR.• Is the public health impact of the Nipah outbreak and/or cases serious?• Are the Nipah outbreak and/or cases unusual or unexpected?• Is there a significant risk of international spread?• Is there a significant risk of international travel or trade restrictions?4.3.1. Conduct rapid risk assessmentSome of the major risk assessment questions should include the following:• What is the risk of occurrence of further cases from the detected outbreak?• What is the risk of spread of the infection?• What is the risk of major impact of the current outbreak on the health-care system?4.3.2. Evaluate the impact of control measuresEach outbreak should be thoroughly investigated, and lessons learnt from each outbreak should be evaluated and documented so that control measures can be reviewed and modified as required.4.3. 3. Develop further research with the objective of identifying determinants of infection or severity and determining modes and dynamics of infectionThe populations to be investigated would be those exposed to NiV:4.3.3.1. Health-care workers (HCWs)There is evidence of nosocomial transmission in India and Bangladesh, and one nurse was positive to Nipah IgM antibody in Malaysia (3, 4). HCWs are to be trained for infection control and prevention (see below). Surveillance should be in place to detect any suspected cases among HCWs. In addition, a study should be conducted to identify asymptomaticcases among HCWs who provided service to Nipah patients. Among these, positive cases should be subsequently compared with negative ones to determine risk factors for infection and understand the dynamics of transmission. Some components of the study could include:• Make a list of HCWs who provided care to Nipah patients.• Take consent from HCWs.• Interview at-risk HCWs using an exposure questionnaire, about 3 weeks after the last exposure to NiV-infected patients.• Collect 5 ml of blood for serology testing about 3 weeks after the last exposure to NiV-infected patients.4.3.3.2. Communities potentially exposed to NiVThe investigation should encourage involvement of multidisciplinary and multisectoral team using a one-health approach. For instance, investigators should have the support of microbiologists and their laboratories to conduct community-based seroprevalence surveys (detection of recent antibody response) to determine the extent of the outbreak via detecting subclinical and/or asymptomatic cases. Asymptomatic cases could be further compared with controls to identify risk factors for infection.Anthropologists or other social scientists with extensive community-based experience could help propose additional behaviour risk factors to be tested in a case–control study. Anthropologists should work with communication/health promotion specialists to develop communication messages combining both local explanatory models and biomedical models using local terms and languages, and deliver the message in such a way that it is meaningful to the community.Veterinarians and eco-health specialists should join the investigation to conduct studies collecting specimens from animals and the environment in the outbreak settings.Zoonotic and environmental investigations during an NiV outbreak primarily aim to determine the primary reservoir, likely source of the virus, route of transmission and the extent of the spread of the virus in animals. Georeferenced positive specimens could be analysed with positive human cases to better understand the dynamics of transmission.4.4. ResponseAs soon as a Nipah outbreak is confirmed, national authorities should implement control measures based on known risk factors. The interventions should be based on a multisectoral approach and include/understand the following strategic objectives:1. Establishment of a coordination committee for outbreak prevention, and control activities and resources mobilization; the role of this committee is to ensure the general coordination of operations. It must clearly define the responsibilities of the various teams and the route of information during outbreak response operations.2. Setting up partnerships with the media to ensure media monitoring and better risk communication.3. Formation of a referral system with the principal objective of easing transfer of cases to the appropriate case-management health-care settings.a. Active detection for new Nipah cases and their transfer to the case-management ward.b. Follow up all contacts during 18 days after their last unprotected exposure to Nipah patient(s) or infected animal or tissue (e.g., laboratory) and their transfer to the case-management ward if they fall sick.4. Set up a social mobilization and medical education programme whose principal role is to inform the public and promote practices that decrease community transmission of the disease.5. At the foci zone, the medical team should ensure safe case management of Nipah patients by complying with the following guidelines:a. Respect patients and their families’ dignity and rights, in particular their right for information on disease and treatment,b. Set up a specific Nipah case-management ward that ensures biosafety of in-patient care,c. Set up infection prevention and control measures for safe patient care,d. Organize the safe transport of patients from their residence to the ward,e. The express consent of patients is necessary for any hospitalization. In the event of patient’s refusal to be hospitalized, the medical team should organize, temporarily, a patient’s care at home with his/her family support.f. Organize safe burials while respecting the funeral ceremony,g. Set up psychosocial support (patients, family, HCWs).6. Outside the foci zone, to prevent secondary foci, the medical team should reinforce standard infection prevention and control measures in health care in all health centres of the affected district and all hospitals catering to the outbreak zone.7. Establishment of links with the animal health sector to:a. Continue monitoring the cause of disease and death in domestic animals and wildlife.b. Test samples and alert public health authorities as needed.c. Control slaughtering/butchering activities of domestic animals and wildlife, at home, and in markets and slaughterhouses.8. Media and communicationa. Designate a spokesperson in the outbreak team.b. Designate a spokesperson at the national level who communicates with national media.c. Regularly update reports to be sent to assigned authority.d. Conduct regular meetings with press and community.e. Distribute information, education and communication material.4.5. In the aftermath of the outbreak (evaluation)4.5.1. Declare the end of the outbreakThe health ministry declares the end of the outbreak. The date of outbreak end is equal to twice the mean incubation period for Nipah counted from the last infectious contact with a confirmed or probable case.The national authorities should use the announcement of the end of the outbreak to acknowledge national and international field teams as well as the media. They should also formally present their solidarity and their empathy to the victims, their families and the affected populations.4.5.2. Writing a final report of the outbreak control activitiesThe report objective is to describe the activities undertaken during the epidemic as well as constraints and difficulties encountered. It should include technical aspects (final epidemiological analysis, clinical investigations, etc.), as well as administrative and financial aspects. The report should be published to achieve wider dissemination of findings and lessons learnt.4.5.3. Archive outbreak documents and files• Gather all the reports, files, photographs, videos and other documents related to the outbreak management.• Store all the documents in a place accessible for their later use.4.5.4. Evaluate the management of the outbreakThe evaluation of the management of the outbreak response will review the performance of the various components of the strategy: coordination, relationship to the media, surveillance system, social mobilization programme, clinical management and logistics.The aim of the evaluation is to determine lessons learnt to improve the future management of epidemics. This evaluation should be led by a team comprising national and technical partners.4.5.5. To resume activities of the pre-outbreak period

1. IntroductionThe outbreak of coronavirus disease-20191 (COVID-19) has severely affected national and global economies. Various enterprises are facing different issues with a certain degree of losses. Particularly, enterprises are facing a variety of problems such as a decrease in demand, supply chain disruptions, cancelation of export orders, raw material shortage, and transportation disruptions, among others. Nevertheless, it is quite clear that enterprises around the globe are experiencing the significant impact of COVID-19 outbreak on their businesses. We argue that major victims of COVID-19 outbreak are the micro, small & medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) because MSMEs, in comparison to large enterprises, usually do not possess sufficient resources, especially financial and managerial, and are not prepared for such disruptions likely to go longer than expected (Bartik et al., 2020; Prasad et al., 2015). Additionally, these firms are highly dependent on their routine business transactions and a small number of customers (Williams & Schaefer, 2013). Hence, many MSMEs are running out of stock, some hardly continue to operate, and some will be running out of stock soon.MSMEs are the backbone of many economies worldwide that provide income and employment generation to a large number of people around the globe. Similarly, in the case of Pakistan, MSMEs2 are crucial for the economy as they constitute over 90% of the estimated 3.2 million business enterprises and contribute 40% to the GDP with over 40% to export earnings (SBP, 2016; Shah, 2018). These businesses are spread all over Pakistan in rural and urban areas and represent a significant portion of agriculture, manufacturing, retail, wholesale, trade, and service sectors. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdowns, Pakistani firms are facing unprecedented adverse effects on their businesses.According to a recent report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (UNCTAD, 2020a), Pakistan would be hardest-hit by the global pandemic of COVID-19. Therefore, this justifies the need to examine the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on MSMEs operating in Pakistan. Additionally, the ongoing pandemic crisis will severely hamper the operations of these businesses because MSMEs are highly dependent on the cash economy, which has been adversely affected by the pandemic (Williams & Schaefer, 2013). Besides, the unavailability of labors, slowdown of productions, shortage of raw materials, and transportation restrictions will have major ramifications on these businesses. This, in turn, will have a significant impact on the national economy as a whole. Hence, a robust policy response is also essential to offset the negative effects of the current outbreak. Till to date, no study has been conducted to examine the global outbreak's impact on MSMEs operating in Pakistan. Thus, this research aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on Pakistani MSMEs. Our study also aims to assist policymakers and practitioners in identifying strategies required to respond to the impact of the ongoing pandemic on MSMEs. Mainly, this study emphasizes to pay more attention to the huge risks brought by external environmental uncertainty to MSMEs and help these enterprises in predicting risks in the early stage of business decision-making and planning, and specify countermeasures.The remaining part of the paper is as follows. Section 2 briefly discusses the impact of the external environmental crisis caused by natural disasters, including floods, earthquakes, and epidemic diseases on commercial enterprises. Section 3 provides a brief overview of the situation of COVID-19 globally and in Pakistan. In Section 4, we discuss the impact of the ongoing outbreak on global and Pakistani economy. Section 5 represents the methodology adopted in this study. Section 6 is dedicated to discussing the findings of the study, followed by policy recommendations in Section 7. Finally, Section 8 discusses the conclusions.2. Impact of external environmental crisis on MSMEsMany external environmental crises had occurred in the past that have severely affected MSMEs globally such as 1953 great floods in Holland, 2005 Hurricane Katrina, 2011 floods in Thailand, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, 2011 Japan Tsunami, and Hurricane Harvey 2017 among others. Further, besides COVID-19, many epidemic outbreaks had occurred globally such as SARS, MERS, Swine flu pandemic (2009 H1N1), 2014 Ebola outbreak, Avian influenza, Salmonella Infantis outbreak, ZIKA outbreak among others (Auzzir et al., 2018; Eggers, 2020; Kim et al., 2020). These crises have a significant impact on the society, economy and MSMEs; moreover, these events not only cause economic losses but also create a severe threat to business continuity. Further, Prasad et al. (2015) argue that due to natural disasters, the disruption of supply chain occurs globally, and in case of significant disruptions, the MSMEs enterprises are adversely affected even if they are not directly affected by a disaster.External environmental crisis such as earthquake, flood, epidemic diseases and other issues adversely affects business activities and their survival (Asgary et al., 2020; Eggers, 2020; Prasad et al., 2015; Samantha, 2018). Moreover, since MSMEs are financially fragile, smaller in size and resources, they are more vulnerable to the environmental crisis than their counterparts, i.e. large enterprises (Asgary et al., 2020; Bartik et al., 2020; Eggers, 2020; Prasad et al., 2015; Samantha, 2018; Williams & Schaefer, 2013). The external environmental crisis can affect MSMEs directly or indirectly. The direct impact includes fatalities, supply chain disruptions, property damage, and loss of inventories. In contrast, the indirect effect includes damage to public infrastructure such as electricity supply, communication and transportation system, and roads leading to increase in production cost and even business discontinuity (Asgary et al., 2020; Eggers, 2020; Hallegatte, 2015; Samantha, 2018; World Trade Organization, 2019). According to the World Trade Organization (2019), since 1998 to 2017, the number of natural disasters has increased tremendously. During the above period, a total of $2.9 trillion direct economic losses have been reported by disaster-hit countries. Further, concerning disaster loss statistics from 1998 to 2017, the U.S. is the most affected ($945 billion) followed by China, Japan, the European Union, India (World Trade Organization, 2019) and Pakistan (Ahmad & Afzal, 2020; Ahmad & Ma, 2020; Hussain et al., 2019).Several studies have reported devastating effects of such events on MSMEs. For instance, the 1999 earthquake in Turkey severely affected MSMEs with damages estimated $1.1–4.5 billion (Asgary et al., 2020). Similarly, the 2011 flooding in Thailand affected at least 557,637 enterprises, along with 2.5 million job losses, and 90% of these firms were MSMEs (Auzzir et al., 2018). Likewise, in Malaysia, due to unprecedented flooding at the end of 2014, more than 13,000 SMEs were affected (Auzzir et al., 2018). Further, Samantha (2018) reported that in May 2016, a tropical storm severely hit western parts of Sri Lanka, which causes huge damage to society, public property and MSMEs. Many developed countries have also experienced similar disastrous effects on MSMEs. For instance, SMEs in the U.K. during the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak, suffered from huge losses, particularly, the non-farming losses were estimated to be 5 billion pounds (for further details, see Bennett & Phillipson, 2004).In a similar vein, Pakistan has also experienced such a devastating crisis caused by external environmental disasters. For instance, floods in 2010 affected not only public and private property but also crops with a loss of $4.5 billion (World Trade Organization, 2019). Pakistan has also witnessed several similar crises in past such as climate change, 2005 and 2008 earthquakes, droughts in 1998 and 2004, etc. (Ahmad & Afzal, 2020; Ahmad & Ma, 2020; Hussain et al., 2019). Moreover, recently in 2015, nearly all main types of natural disasters such as earthquake, drought, flood, heatwave, and cyclone, were faced by Pakistan (Hussain et al., 2019) that severely affected many businesses.Further, several businesses, due to their small size and resources constraints do not reach to the post-disaster stage (Samantha, 2018). Moreover, due to the lack of sufficient governmental support, most MSMEs face financial decline and even go bankrupt. MSMEs have limited capability and resources to recover from such crisis, especially those operating in developing countries like Pakistan with high poverty rate, economic and political instability. Therefore, this study moved its foundation to examine the impact of COVID-19 and suggest policy recommendations for the survival of MSMEs in Pakistan.3. Situation of COVID-19 globally and in PakistanAt the end of December 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown etiology was reported, later the cases were proved to be caused by a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which spread very rapidly (WHO, 2020b). World Health Organization (WHO) soon realized the severity of the situation and declared a “public health emergency of international concern” on 30 January 2020 (WHO, 2020d). Within a short period, the reported cases grew exponentially all over the world; as a result, the WHO declared COVID-19 a “pandemic” on March 11, 2020 (WHO, 2020c). Still, after more than six months, the number of confirmed and death cases are growing rapidly globally. As of July 19, 2020, WHO reported 14,043,176 confirmed cases in 216 countries with 597,583 deaths (WHO, 2020a).The first case of COVID-19 in Pakistan was reported on February 26, 2020. From March 15, 2020, the number of confirmed cases has started rising rapidly due to the arrival of pilgrimage from Iran through Taftan Border. Moreover, the announcement and enforcement of lockdown in Pakistan was made in less than a day, creating turmoil as migrants3 rushed to return to their hometowns, thereby aggravating crowding and preventing social distance impossible (World Bank, 2020b). Further, from March 15–25, 2020, the cases jumped from 53 to 1078 (DAWN, 2020). Since then, the cases are growing exponentially day-by-day in different parts of the country. As of July 20, 2020, a total of 265,083 confirmed cases have been reported in Pakistan, out of which 5599 individuals have died so far (COVID-PAK, 2020). The current data shows that 42.63% (113,007) of confirmed cases are reported in Sindh province alone followed by Punjab province with 34.02% (90,191). Fig. 1 represents the province wise confirmed cases in Pakistan.Download : Download full-size imageFig. 1. Province wise confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Pakistan.4. Impact of COVID-19 on economy and MSMEs4.1. Impact of COVID-19 on the global economyThe impact of the disease on society and economy can be witnessed from the lockdown of cities all over the world, labor mobility restrictions, travel bans, airline suspensions, and most importantly slowdown of the economy. COVID-19 crisis went global from February 21 to March 24, 2020 and still the number of cases is growing rapidly every day. It is predicted that the COVID-19 outbreak will have major ramifications for global GDP growth (Word Economic, 2020). Due to the global outbreak of COVID-19, the global GDP is likely to be affected between 2.3% to 4.8% (ADB, 2020). Additionally, it has also been predicted that the current pandemic outbreak may cause global foreign direct investment to shrink by 5%–15% (UNCTAD, 2020b). Further, according to the UNCTAD report, the world needs a support package of up to $2.5 trillion to cope with the damage (UNCTAD, 2020a). Hence, based on these statistics, the current global crisis will likely be worse than the 2008 crisis (UNCTAD, 2020a).Further, according to International Labor Organization (ILO), almost 25 million people around the globe could lose their jobs (loss of workers' income of as much as USD 3.4 trillion) (ILO, 2020c). A more recent report of ILO shows that lockdowns (full or partial) measures are influencing 81% (around 2.7 billion workers) of the total global workers (ILO, 2020b). “It is the worst global crisis since the Second World War” (ILO, 2020b). Estimates suggest the U.S. would lose three million jobs by mid-summer in 2020, the trend in Europe and other parts of the world will be similar (Siddiqui, 2020). According to ILO the impact of COVID-19 on the economic output of accommodation and food services, real estate, wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles is ‘high’, while utilities, public administration and defense, social work activities, human health, and education is ‘low’4 (ILO, 2020b).COVID-19 will have a more profound effect in developing countries that will make it much more difficult for them to implement effective stimulus without facing binding foreign exchange constraints (UNCTAD, 2020a). Most vulnerable countries are those that have weak health infrastructure, heavily dependent on trade and tourism sectors, heavily indebted, and that depend on unstable capital flows (World Bank, 2020a). Controlling the COVID-19 outbreak will revive the economy, but the risk of continued financial stress is very high even after 2020 (World Bank, 2020a). Further, it has also been estimated that poverty is likely to increase by around 11 million people (World Bank, 2020a). Although the economic impact of the outbreak is continuing and is increasingly unpredictable, it is clear that the situation in developing economies will get worse before it gets better (UNCTAD, 2020a). According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), income losses in developing countries are likely to exceed $220 billion (UNDP, 2020b). In addition, World Bank in its recent report has predicted that South Asia could face its worst economic performance in 40 years with half of the countries falling into a deep recession (World Bank, 2020b). This is the case, particularly for Pakistan.4.2. Impact of COVID-19 on Pakistani economy and MSMEsIt has been reported that Pakistan has lost one-third of its revenue and exports dropped by 50% due to COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown (Junaidi, 2020). Economists warn of recession amid virus lockdowns in Pakistan (Naqvi, 2020). Similarly, the World Bank also warns that Pakistan might fall into a recession (World Bank, 2020b). Due to the ongoing crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Pakistan's real GDP growth in FY20 is expected to contract by 1.3% as national and global economic activity slowdowns abruptly during the last few months of the fiscal year (World Bank, 2020b). Further, in case the outbreak of COVID-19 deteriorates and continues longer than expected, Pakistan's real GDP growth for FY20 may contract by 2.2% before just recovering to 0.3% growth in FY21 (World Bank, 2020b).The biggest and most immediate impact of the lockdown is the halt in business operations. Lockdown was first announced in Sindh province from March 23, 2020. Karachi—the capital city of Sindh province—is considered as the country's largest industrial zone accounted for 30% of total exports. Due to lockdown, out of 2700 factories in Karachi less than 50 were operating on the first working day (Hussain, 2020). Further, Hussain (2020) reported that there are around 05 million people in Pakistan who live just at or below the subsistence line, while there are the masses of largely unskilled or low-skilled people (such as labors, waste recyclers, construction workers, transport workers, and domestic workers) who work in different industries, services, and agriculture, and rely on daily wages to meet their needs. According to the author, around 04 million people are working on a daily wage basis in Karachi alone, besides, it is estimated that around 04 million individuals are also working in Punjab province. These daily wagers have been hardest hit by the lockdowns.After them, there is a class of micro-enterprises (also known as self-employed persons) such as small shop owners, household businesses, and street vendors, among others, who heavily rely on their micro business. These businesses are usually operated by family members in different industries ranging from agriculture to education. Further, these micro-enterprises are considered a part of the informal economy,5 and most of their activity is undocumented. Hence, the accurate number of these businesses is not known. According to the recently available statistics, the micro-enterprises or self-employed persons are accounted for 35.7% (2017–18) of the total national employment (Sohail, 2019, p. 7). Furthermore, 55.6% (2017–18) of these businesses are vulnerable, out of which, more than 87% of employment in agriculture, three-fourths of jobs in wholesale and retail trade, 50% of employment in restaurants, three-fifths of the job in real estate and business, and more than two-fifths of employment in transport and communication is vulnerable (Sohail, 2019, pp. 10–12). For further details about sector wise vulnerability of micro-enterprises (self-employed persons), see Fig. 2. From the above statistics, one can quickly get an idea about the severity of the impact that the COVID-19 outbreak had on micro-enterprises.Download : Download full-size imageFig. 2. Sector-wise distribution of vulnerable employment in micro-enterprises (self-employed persons).Source: Created by authors based on the Pakistan Employment Trends report (Sohail, 2019).After them come the small and medium-sized enterprises. Many small and medium-sized enterprises are also facing huge issues. For instance, the textile and apparel industry has been affected mainly due to the imposition of lockdown. 54% of Pakistan's manufacturing sector exports are beverages, food, tobacco sub-sectors and textile, a reduction in export demand for these sectors will have a disproportionate impact on Pakistan (World Bank, 2020b). In the same way, the agriculture sector is no exception. For instance, wheat crop harvesting usually began in Sindh and southern Punjab provinces in late March until mid of June. Due to the non-availability of labor and transport, this sector also faced several issues. Similarly, in the case of the transport industry, many drivers of local transportation, including bus, taxi, and rickshaw, have been sent home. The closure of businesses and disruption of national supply chains are having a significant impact on the retail and wholesale, transport, warehousing, and communications services (World Bank, 2020b).Likewise, the situation of other industries is no different. Most importantly, during the holy month of Ramadan, many sectors such as clothing, saloons, food, electronics, and shoes, among others, were severely affected. These small and medium businesses are expected to face liquidity issues and hard hit by the ongoing crisis. Additionally, those firms that are still operating their businesses are facing extra cost to buy masks, gloves, and sanitizers, among others in terms of managing the health and safety of employees. Further, amid of COVID-19, Pakistan's currency has been devalued, which poses another threat for the businesses. According to a recent report of the World Bank, Pakistan's exchange rate that remained relatively stable in the fiscal year-20 from June to February has been devalued by 7.3% in March (World Bank, 2020b).According to the Pakistan Labor Force Survey (2017–18), the unemployment rate in the country is 5.8% (Sohail, 2018). However, due to the ongoing crisis and lockdown, the unemployment rate is expected to reach 8.1% during the fiscal year 2020–21 (Siddiqui, 2020). The above discussion indicates that Pakistan will suffer disproportionately. The impact of coronavirus on the global and Pakistani economy will leave deep scars. Therefore, it is extremely important to empirically assess the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on MSMEs to assist policymakers and practitioners to streamline their strategies to help these businesses survive from the ongoing crisis.5. MethodologyWe adopted an exploratory methodology with extensively reviewing the available literature, including policy documents, research papers, and reports in the relevant field. Further, to add empirical evidence, we collected data from micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) operating in Pakistan. The data were collected by administering an online questionnaire due to various reasons including time and financial constraints, and most importantly, due to COVID-19 outbreak and lockdowns. Many researchers also adopted a similar approach and found it useful as well as time and cost-saving (Duarte Alonso et al., 2018; Kühne et al., 2010). To increase the response rate, it was decided to utilize the personal and professional network of researchers. We reached out to potential enterprises through a variety of social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and LinkedIn, including e-mails, and invited them to participate in the online survey. Complete confidentiality was assured to all the respondents so that a large number of enterprises can participate in the survey. The questionnaire was comprised of a total number of 17 questions. The survey included several questions regarding basic information about enterprises and their characteristics (such as size and industry), impact of COVID-19 outbreak on business, decline in sales and profit, survival period, business normalization period, and appeal to the government to ease the burden. Participation in the survey was voluntary and no financial compensation was offered on completion of the survey. Before formally launching the survey, the questionnaire items were pretested among a small sample of business owners to evaluate the clarity and relevance of the questionnaire items to identify and eliminate any potential issues.The data were collected through a snowball sampling technique as it is widely used due to its cost-effectiveness and time-saving benefits (Bo Liu et al., 2014). We collected data during the period from April 09, 2020, to April 21, 2020, through a snowball sampling technique. A total number of 184 MSMEs from different cities of Pakistan participated in the survey and provided their perspective. A descriptive analysis approach was employed for data analysis.5.1. Sample descriptionA vast majority of participants belong to Sindh Province (46.20%) followed by Punjab (13.05%), KPK (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) (9.78%), ICT (Islamabad Capital Territory) (9.24%), Gilgit-Baltistan (8.15%), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (7.07%) and Balochistan (6.52%). Around 90% of the respondents are either the owners of MSMEs or working on managerial positions. In terms of annual sales turnover, over 90% of the participating enterprises have below 150 million PKR annual sales turnover. Further, in terms of employment size, the survey results indicate that over 32% of enterprises employ less than 10 employees, while more than 43% have up to 50 employees, whereas around 12% of the participating enterprises reported that they employ up to 100 employees. This ratio shows that majority of the participating enterprises are MSMEs. Further, over 38% of the enterprises do not employ any daily wager, while over 33% of firms have less than 10 daily wages employees. Additionally, more than 13% of firms have up to 20 daily wagers. In addition, over 8% of participating enterprises reported that they employ up to 29 daily wagers. Hence, a large number of employees would have been affected due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The detail of the sample is presented in Table 1.Table 1. Composition of sample.Percentage of participantsDesignation of participantsOwner37.50%Director13.04%Manager24.46%Assistant Manager14.67%Others10.33%ProvinceSindh46.20%Punjab13.04%KPK9.78%Balochistan6.52%Gilgit-Baltistan8.15%Azad Jammu and Kashmir7.07%ICT9.24%Annual sales turnoverUnder 1 million PKR35.33%1–5 million PKR19.02%6–10 million PKR10.87%11–20 million PKR6.52%21–49 million PKR7.07%50–100 million PKR4.89%101–149 million PKR7.07%150–800 million PKR9.24%Total no. of employeesLess than 10 employees32.61%10–50 employees43.48%51–100 employees11.96%101–200 employees7.61%201–249 employees4.35%Daily wages employeesNone38.04%less than 1033.70%11–20 employees13.04%21–29 employees8.15%30–50 employees2.72%51–100 employees1.63%More than 100 employees2.72%Further, in terms of industry distribution, the majority of the sectors represented in the study are: retail and wholesale (27.72%), agriculture, forestry and fishing (10.87%), restaurant and hotel (9.78%), and consumer goods manufacturing (9.78%) (see Fig. 3).Download : Download full-size imageFig. 3. Industry distribution of the sample.6. Findings and discussion6.1. Problems faced by MSMEs due to COVID-19 or lockdownAs expected, the COVID-19 outbreak has a significant impact on MSMEs operating in Pakistan. Over 94.57% of the enterprises under study indicated that their businesses have been affected in some form by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak or due to lockdown, while, 3.26% expressed no impact and 2.17% of enterprises were unsure about the impact. Those enterprises that were either unsure or indicated no effect of COVID-19 outbreak or lockdown on their businesses were excluded from further analysis. After eliminating these responses, the total sample size becomes 174.The results presented in Fig. 4 reveals that most of the participating enterprises have been severely affected due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Notably, over 38% of the participants expressed that they are experiencing a severe impact on their businesses (ranging from 91% to 100%). When asked about the types of issues6 these enterprises are facing amid of COVID-19, the top five reported problems were financial (67.93%), supply chain disruption (47.83%), decrease in demand (44.02%), reduction in sales and profit (38.04%, 41.85% respectively) (see Fig. 5). A recent study conducted by Harvard Business School also reported that due to the current outbreak, many small businesses are financially fragile (Bartik et al., 2020). Moreover, reduction in demand is possibly due to loss of customer or buyer flow. These results imply that most of the MSMEs are vulnerable to financial, supply chain disruptions, and demand constraints aside from other issues.Download : Download full-size imageFig. 4. Degree of the impact of COVID-19 or lockdown on MSMEs.Download : Download full-size imageFig. 5. Various problems faced by MSMEs due to COVID-19 or lockdown.When particularly asked about the expected decline in sales during 2020, three-fourths of the participating enterprises reported that they expect a decrease in sales by over 60%. In terms of profit decline, over two-thirds of enterprises believe that during 2020 their profit will be decreased by more than 60% due to the COVID-19 outbreak (see Fig. 6). Small firms operating in other countries are also facing similar situations. According to a survey conducted by National Small Business Association, 49% of surveyed small businesses are experiencing reduced customer demand, and 33% are experiencing supply chain disruptions, while 20% are experiencing employee absenteeism (NSBA, 2020). These statistics are not surprising since the gravity of the ongoing issue is even worse than the financial crisis of 2008.Download : Download full-size imageFig. 6. MSMEs expecting a decline in sales and profit during 2020 due to COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown.6.2. Strategies adopted by MSMEs to tackle the current situationThe enterprises have chosen a different variety of strategies to curb the business crisis. Particularly, 31% of enterprises have shut down the business completely, while 19% have partially closed their businesses, whereas 18% of enterprises are planning to apply for a loan. Moreover, 12% of enterprises are continuing to operate their business. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Pakistan, most of the enterprises were instructed to shut down their businesses to contain the spread of the disease. Therefore, many participating enterprises have reported a higher ratio of a business closure. Further, only 4% of participating enterprises expressed that they are planning to change the business line to address the COVID-19 challenge. Additionally, 2% are struggling to work remotely. Working remotely as much as possible is one of the best ways to stay safe and minimize the exposure to get infected. Nevertheless, not all MSMEs have the required resources to adopt such a strategy. In addition, a better and quick way to minimize exposure to the disease is to reduce traveling. The results indicate that 12% of the participants also reported that they have limited traveling (Fig. 7a).Download : Download full-size imageFig. 7. a. How MSMEs are planning to tackle the current situation?b. How MSMEs are planning to tackle Cash flow shortage?During any economic crisis, most of the businesses face a cash-flow shortage; therefore, we asked the participating enterprises to share their strategies to overcome the cash flow shortage. The results show that 43% of the enterprises choose to lay off employees, and 12% preferred to reduce staff salary. Besides, 13% of the responding enterprises plan to shut down the business partially to reduce the cost and manage the cash flow shortage (see Fig. 7b). Considering the gravity of the outbreak, laying off employees and shutdown of many businesses was already expected. A recent study conducted by Harvard Business School also reveals that many small businesses are temporarily closed and have laid off their employees by 40% relative to January (Bartik et al., 2020). These findings indicate that most of the participating enterprises are struggling to survive by various means.When asked about any plan or preparedness to handle such a crisis, over 83% of the participants reported that neither they have any plan nor they are well prepared to handle such a crisis. Only 17% of the enterprises reported that they have a plan to handle the situation. Similarly, a study conducted by the Harvard Global Health Institute regarding the engagement of companies in global health concluded that Fortune 500 companies have minimal engagement in global health as compared to involvement in environmental issues (Horneffer et al., 2020). This highlights that most of the enterprises globally are not well prepared to handle the health crisis caused due to pandemic. There are many examples of natural disasters that have put the national and global economies in recession. Hence, preplanning and preparedness are essential to face future pandemics or other natural disasters. Firms must invest in building a strong crisis management strategy to handle a similar disaster in the future (Gittell et al., 2006; Prasad et al., 2015).6.3. Survival period and time required to get back to normal businessIn terms of survival period during the ongoing outbreak, 32% of enterprises reported that they could survive up to 2 weeks, while 19% of enterprises can survive up to 5 weeks, whereas, around 16% of enterprises expressed that they can be maintained up to 8 weeks. In other words, more than two-thirds of participating enterprises can be maintained up to 8 weeks (around 2 months). Only 2% of participating enterprises reported that under the current condition, they could survive up to 06 months (for further details about the survival period of enterprises, see Fig. 8a). Most of the firms under study are likely to survive up to 02 months only. Similarly, a recent survey regarding the impact of COVID-19 on SMEs operating in the U.S conducted by Senz (2020), shows that 65% of small businesses believe that they cannot survive if the ongoing crisis lasts four months. This means that in case of prolonged lockdowns, there are higher chances that many Pakistani MSMEs could not sustain to survive and will go bankrupt or out of business.Download : Download full-size imageFig. 8. a. Survival period during COVID-19.b. Time required getting back to normal business outbreak or lockdown.When enterprises were asked to estimate (from today when the current outbreak of coronavirus and lockdown are over) the expected time required to get back to regular business, 72% of the enterprises reported that it would take less than 01 month, while 19% of the enterprises expressed that it will take 1–2 months to get back to normal business (see Fig. 8b). As most of the firms under study are micro and small-sized; therefore, once the outbreak and lockdown end, the firms can quickly start their businesses and get back to normal.6.4. Appeal to the government for assistanceWhen asked about the assistance required from the local, provincial and federal government, over 27% of the participating enterprises indicated the need for the provision of loan on the low-interest basis, 24% wants the government to allow them to continue to operate the business, while 23% expressed their interest for the provision of subsidies in utility charges. Besides, over 23% aims to get subsidies on utility charges (Fig. 9).Download : Download full-size imageFig. 9. Assistance needed from local/provincial/federal government.7. Recommendations/suggestions for policymakers and practitionersBased on the findings of this study, we have suggested different policy measures to help MSMEs ease the sufferings. Particularly, our policy measures have been divided into the following four categories:•Protection of employees and information accuracy•Boost economy•Income and employment support for MSMEs•Planning and resilience capability.The protection of employees is very necessary amid of COVID-19 outbreak because the disease is very contagious and deadly. Moreover, in times of heightened tension, information accuracy plays an important role to update the stakeholders about the situation and operation of the business. Due to the outbreak, the Pakistani economy has witnessed an unprecedented slowdown; therefore, the economy must be stimulated by allowing trade to continue (Steiner & Gurría, 2020) to help small businesses survive from the crisis. Furthermore, as our study reveals that most of the MSMEs have been severely affected in terms of income and employment; therefore, they must focus on restructuring their strategies to reduce the economic burden. Additionally, without the assistance of the government, these businesses cannot survive from the crisis. Hence, the government's actions related to supporting MSMEs in terms of income and employment are also necessary. Additionally, building resilience capability and positive social relations are usually regarded as effective strategies for these businesses during disaster times (Gittell et al., 2006; Prasad et al., 2015). Similarly, ILO also suggested that the policy actions must cover the health and safety of workers, economic stimulation, and income and employment support (ILO, 2020a). Therefore, in times of prolonged economic and health crises, the above measures are beneficial for MSMEs to afloat (Fig. 10).Download : Download full-size imageFig. 10. Policy framework.7.1. Protection of employees and information accuracy7.1.1. Health and safety of employees working during the COVID-19 outbreakThe health and safety of workers during the ongoing health crisis is one of the priority areas that MSMEs need to consider. Global evidence shows that the outbreak can be curtailed through preventive measures (MNHS, 2020b) because prevention is better than cure. In this global health crisis, all businesses including MSMEs, must act responsibly and adhere to the national guidelines of social distancing to ensure minimum human contact and hygienic work environment (MNHS, 2020b). Ministry of National Health Services, Government of Pakistan, has already issued several guidelines7 for the health and safety of workers involved in different sectors that must be followed in letter and spirit to contain the spread of the virus in the workplace. Similarly, ILO also suggested that besides economic support, health protection measures for workers, employers, and their families are also necessary; ILO also emphasized the need to introduce and strengthen protective measures in the workplace and the community (ILO, 2020a, p. 7). Occupational safety and health can also be improved through social dialogue between employers, workers, and their representatives (ILO, 2020a).7.1.2. Information accuracy and responsible communicationThanks to the media and internet to be the primary source of pandemic information before its outbreak. However, now the news is spread through social media in addition to traditional news channels. Most of the fake news is spread through social media, and invariably individuals make a personal evaluation of the situation by themselves. As there is a lot of misinformation revolving around us, and people may not be able to sort out all information and make a reasonable judgment, therefore, one has to confirm the real news through multiple sources of information. Before we see the latest news and start to act, we must carefully consider the source of the information. Particularly, firms can play an important role to communicate authentic and reliable information with the relevant stakeholders in a timely manner to avoid any ambiguity. Hence, an effective response to the crisis requires appropriate communication and rapid understanding of the current scenario across different levels of the firm. Moreover, it is also necessary to communicate timely information about the business status (open/closed), working hours of operation, and online/delivery-based options for the customers to reduce confusion and facilitating customer support for local businesses. Further, firms must communicate information related to the health and safety of employees and customers. ILO has also emphasized that accurate, timely, and transparent information is necessary not only for the prevention and treatment of this pandemic but also for the reduction of uncertainty and trust in all economic and social areas, including the workplace (ILO, 2020a). Because a drop or lack of confidence will influence consumer spending and business investment, leading to a slow down and hindering the recovery (ILO, 2020a).7.2. Boost economy7.2.1. Allow trade to continue to operateAnother most essential measure is to allow the trade to continue to operate as much as possible while taking all possible precautionary measures to contain the spread of the disease. This will help to afloat many falling MSMEs and stimulate the economy. Similarly, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also urged governments and business leaders to ensure that lockdowns including temporary restrictions on the movement of local peoples should not hamper the trade, and “borders must be kept open to goods and services” (Steiner & Gurría, 2020). This is particularly important for Pakistan because Pakistan already has a high debt ratio; moreover, due to the devaluation of the currency, the debt ratio is increasing.7.2.2. Home delivery/offline servicesMany enterprises such as restaurants, fast food vendors, bakeries, shopping malls, grocery stores, and other related sectors can focus on providing online ordering services with home deliveries to curtail the business losses and maintain the social distance as much as possible. The relevant enterprises can take benefit from such an opportunity. Additionally, food for health and community workers involved in battling the fight with COVID-19 can also be ordered through local restaurants to help them afloat amid the ongoing crisis.If we take the example of China, there are many Chinese Apps available to order food such as Meituan, Eleme, etc. Even many grocery stores, such as Walmart also started offering home delivery services to survive and ease the business crisis. As in Pakistan, there is no central App to place orders online, the orders can be placed through either telephone, WhatsApp, or Apps wherever available.Some service enterprises can also consider providing home services. For instance, some skilled daily wagers like mechanics can make efforts to survive by offering home services. It has been reported that a motorbike mechanic, who was hard hit due to the shutdown of businesses, is now offering motorbike repair services at home and his business is also booming (for further details see Khan, 2020). Although not all types of repair/maintenance can be done at home, many minor repair and maintenance work can be done without the need of going to the workshop.7.2.3. Online bankingOnline banking can help MSMEs to continue to operate their business transaction without any physical contact. Take the example of China, most of the local small business transactions in China takes place through the two most popular social media Apps known as WeChat and AliPay. These Apps usually do not charge any fee from both the sender and receiver. To encourage local people and businesses to use online banking, there is a need to offer some incentives to users besides cutting the online fund transfer charges. As in Pakistan, very few people use online banking, hence there is a need to spread awareness about such a facility. This, in turn, will allow enterprises to not only save transaction costs but also speed up the transaction process.7.3. Income and employment support for MSMEs7.3.1. Financial assistance and other subsidiesAs our findings reveal that 67.93% of the enterprises are facing financial issues, hence, the government must consider providing loans to these businesses to combat the ongoing crisis. These businesses may not survive during the ongoing crisis without the support of government authorities. Local, provincial, and national authorities can consider providing disaster assistance loans for enterprises impacted by COVID-19. Such loans could be similar to those that are offered during other disasters beyond control such as earthquakes, floods, and other disruptive events to make these businesses more resilient to the disease-related economic disruptions. Such loans can be offered at low interest with long-term repayments to maintain payment affordability. Additionally, there is a need to increase the loan limit allowed to MSMEs. The avenues opened for MSMEs for additional borrowings with lower interest rates may bring high hopes for the survival of these businesses amid ongoing economic crises. Besides, the repayment of loans can also be extended for a longer time to ease the burden. Similar policies have also been implemented by central banks of various countries around the globe such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, U.K., and the U.S., among others (ILO, 2020a). Further, according to ILO, “Italy has introduced […] extensions of deadlines for repayment of mortgages” (ILO, 2020a).Although the facility of low-interest loans is very helpful for firms to afloat, many enterprises may not be willing to apply for such loans due to distrust in the government and anticipated issues with accessing the funds as pointed out by Senz (2020). Another study also reported that many businesses are reluctant to apply for funding because of concerns about administrative complexity, application hassle, and eligibility (Bartik et al., 2020). Hence, there is a need to spread more awareness besides removing the barriers to accessing government funds.i. Payroll overdraftsAllowing payroll overdrafts to MSMEs will also be helpful to keep butter and bread on the table of many workers. Several countries around the globe have initiated similar programs to boost the economy and help small firms to survive through the crisis. For instance, the U.K. has announced a system for 80% of the loan value for small businesses on lending and overdrafts (ILO, 2020a).ii. Unemployment benefitsMany businesses have already laid off their staff. In case of a prolonged lockdown, there are higher chances that other businesses will also lay off their employees and will no longer pay the wages/salaries to employees without performing duties. In this situation, the government must consider adopting unemployment benefits for the persons who lost their job or went bankrupt due to COVID-19 or lockdown. Many countries have already adopted similar policies, for instance, the Philippines introduced Social Security Scheme to pay unemployment benefits to around 30,000 to 60,000 workers estimated to lose their jobs due to business closures or layoffs (ILO, 2020a).iii. Concession or suspension of commercial property rentsMany small business owners do not own the shop they run, hence, during the lockdown period, they are still required to pay the rent, which poses a financial burden on the small business owners. Therefore, property owners may be suggested to either provide concession or suspend the commercial property rents for at least three–four months since the date lockdown was enforced. China also implemented relevant policies to help small businesses survive from the ongoing crisis.iv. Other subsidiesFurthermore, local authorities can also help MSMEs to reduce financial burdens by providing subsidies in business-related utility charges such as electricity, water, natural gas, etc. In addition, the highway toll taxes can also be exempted/reduced to ease the financial burden of transportation enterprises.In line with the above suggestions, it has also been argued that MSMEs should be provided support through financial and tax relief to address the challenges posed by COVID-19 (ILO, 2020a). Financial assistance and other related subsidies will help to reduce job losses and business survival.7.3.2. Telecommuting and flexible workingDue to technological advancement, now we have the technology that allows employees to work from their homes and avoid physical contact. The firms that have such technology should prefer to adopt it as much as possible. Such a strategy will also help firms to reduce several direct costs involved in the physical office working such as property cost, utility, management, etc. which will also improve the resources efficiency. By adopting virtual operations, MSMEs not only can succeed to prevent and control the spread of disease within their work environment but also promote self-management ability among employees (Drucker, 2001).Although not all firms have such high technology and resources to operate business virtually, firms should prefer to reduce physical activities wherever possible to avoid physical contact. For instance, face-to-face meetings can be replaced with teleconferencing. Those firms that are unable to use virtual operations can also prefer their employees to choose flexible timing. Notably, employees can be advised to choose a different and flexible schedule to avoid the crowd and reduce physical contact as much as possible. Additionally, employees should be required to keep a physical distance between each other and avoid physical contact such as shaking hands (ILO, 2020a).Most importantly without provision of uninterrupted broadband services, the telecommuting and other online services, i.e. e-banking, e-commerce, mobile payment etc. will be of no value. Although several local telecom companies are providing different broadband services across Pakistan, there is a need to ensure its uninterrupted availability, especially in rural areas. Therefore, in order to avail online service facilities, it is necessary to ensure the provision of uninterrupted broadband services. This, in turn, requires the provision of appropriate telecommunication infrastructure. Further, multi-stakeholder coordination to avail these services is crucial to enable remote work arrangements and the continuation of commerce.7.3.3. Explore new opportunitiesFirms must closely monitor the situation and look for exploring new markets or offer new products/services to afloat and recover from the crisis. Particularly, firms must think out of the box to offset the negative impact of the outbreak and survive from the crisis. For instance, enterprises in the textile sector can manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE) and respirators. Several textile enterprises have already shifted to produce PPE and respirators in other countries such as China (UNDP, 2020a). This will not only help Pakistan in combating with the COVID-19 outbreak by meeting the increasing demand for PPE and respirators but also will help firms to develop new markets. Besides, perfume producers and distilleries can also turn to produce hand sanitizers (Chesbrough, 2020). There is a growing demand for hand sanitizer worldwide, including Pakistan. Mainly, it has been reported that the demand for hand sanitizers has been increased by 500 times in Pakistan (Asif, 2020). Hence, there is a great opportunity for perfume producers and distilleries to grab this opportunity. Further, firms in the educational sector can offer online courses to afloat and enable students to avoid skipping the semester.7.3.4. Cooperation with other firmsCooperation is one of the critical strategies that MSMEs must consider to offset the negative impact of COVID-19 outbreak on their businesses (Shafi, 2020; Shafi, Sarker, & Junrong, 2019; Shafi, Yang, et al., 2019; Yang & Shafi, 2019). Notably, these firms can consider loaning their employees to other firms in need of labor force to avoid layoffs and job losses (Gardner, 2005). As our findings indicate that 43% of the enterprises choose to lay off their employees, mainly, many enterprises have already laid off their employees, while most of the other enterprises will lay off soon. Therefore, employee loaning can be considered an important strategy to avoid layoffs. For instance, due to a surge in online retailing businesses, there is an overwhelming demand for the labor force (Tianyu, 2020). Thus, firms can lend their idle workers to online retailing businesses to prevent layoffs.7.3.5. Social dialogue between employers and workers organizationsThe role of employers/workers organizations is vital to obey the instructions of the government in containing the spread of disease and avoid business losses. Besides, employers'/workers' organizations can also help in disseminating the information and awareness among the workers for their health and safety. Similarly, ILO also acknowledged that “tripartite social dialogue between Governments and Workers' and Employers' organizations is a key tool for developing and implementing sustainable solutions […]” (ILO, 2020a, p. 3). Additionally, to make policy measures effective, it is necessary to create confidence through trust and dialogue.7.4. Planning and resilience capability7.4.1. Preplanning and learning from experiencePreplanning has always been considered a strategic management decision that helps to fight against uncertainties. Therefore, firms that plan to fight against COVID-19 are likely to avoid huge losses, survive, and maintain their businesses. There is a lack of preplanning to handle such a crisis, as evident from the survey response received from participating enterprises. Over 83% of the enterprises expressed that they are neither prepared nor have any plan to manage such a crisis. Hence, there is a need to spread awareness about the importance of preplanning to cope with similar uncertainties. Although the external factors are beyond control, necessary preventive measures and preparation may help to reduce and control the losses. Preplanning not only helps businesses and employees but the economy as a whole to go through the ongoing crisis. Therefore, MSMEs must consider adopting a plan in advance to prevent the major losses caused due to a similar crisis as soon as possible before it is too late. In addition, like any other major crisis, the enterprises can learn from the experience of the crisis itself and use that experience to plan and prepare for the future to mitigate similar unexpected disasters when they come.Furthermore, COVID-19 pandemic has created wake-up call regarding external uncertainty and environmental degradation in the global social and economic development (Lokhandwala & Gautam, 2020; Mahmood et al., 2020; Shakil, Munim, Tasnia, & Sarowar, 2020). Therefore, it is suggested that the local MSMEs, government and society should have relevant positive measures in risk control and response to avoid adverse impact of COVID on the environment.7.4.2. Build resilience capabilityAlthough preplanning is necessary but considering the uncertainty and complexity of the situation, it may not be sufficient. Therefore, enterprises have to make continuous efforts daily to assess the situation and respond accordingly. For this purpose, firms must possess the resilience capability to bounce back. The resilience capability refers to “(a) the maintenance of positive adjustment under challenging conditions, (b) the ability to bounce back from untoward events, and (c) the capacity to maintain desirable functions and outcomes in the midst of strain” (Gittell et al., 2006, p. 303).Usually, small firms lack knowledge about dealing with sudden disruptions. There is a need for these enterprises to build resilience capability to re-establish themselves, in case they are hardly hit by the disaster. Building such capability can help MSMEs to survive from disasters (Prasad et al., 2015). The enterprises having high resilient capability not only can withstand and absorb the effects of environmental disruptions but also respond to disruptions more effectively and make adjustments even under challenging situations (Lengnick-Hall & Beck, 2005).MSMEs can build resilience capability in several ways. However, the most important factors include preparing cognitively for supply chain disruptions, learning from previous experience, and by exploiting several forms of social capital (Prasad et al., 2015). Cognitive preparation includes constant evaluation of the situation and a high level of attentiveness to disruptions by filtering the information. This will enable firms to find the weak points in the supply chains and perform actions immediately to strengthen the weaknesses leading to increased resiliency. Further, learning from prior experiences is very important to build resiliency. Social capital or network ties can also help firms to access scarce resources and improve the efficiency of information diffusion (Adler & Kwon, 2002; Burt, 1992; Prasad et al., 2015; Shafi, 2020; Shafi, Sarker, & Junrong, 2019; Shafi, Yang, et al., 2019; Yang & Shafi, 2019).7.4.3. Encourage positive employee relationships to enhance resilience during crisisA positive relationship is particularly essential when considering how employees and enterprises respond to crises. Good employee relations are considered as one of the important factors for the success of firms during the crisis (Gittell et al., 2006; Shafi, Zoya, Lei, Song, & Sarker, 2020). Many studies have shown that positive social relationships, trust, and employee caring help to achieve higher productivity and bounce back from crisis. For instance, during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the main reason for the resilience of the Southwest airlines was due to the high importance given to building trustful and cooperative relationships with employees and corporate culture (see, Gittell et al., 2006). Hence, instead of considering layoffs, reducing wages, and other employee benefits for short-sighted profits, firms should consider managing positive social relationships with employees (Brooker, 2001). This will create a sense of loyalty and job security and motivate the employees to work with dedication. Additionally, COVID-19 has also created a high level of uncertainty. In the case of COVID-19, although most common symptoms are very clear, in some cases, it has been reported that symptoms may or may not appear even after 14 days, which creates uncertainty among employees to continue to work, or not. Even after controlling the outbreak and no new case reporting does not mean zero risk. Because still after more than six months, experts are not fully aware of the virus. In this situation, positive relations, mutual trust, and cooperation with employees will create a sense of security and loyalty leading to better performance (Gittell et al., 2006; Shafi, Zoya, Lei, Song, & Sarker, 2020).8. ConclusionMSMEs represent over 90% of the national enterprises in Pakistan and contribute 40% to the GDP, with over 40% to export earnings (Shah, 2018). This study was conducted to examine the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on MSMEs operating in Pakistan in order to assist policymakers and practitioners in streamlining the strategies to ease the burden of the current crisis on these businesses. Our findings underline several issues faced by MSMEs due to the current pandemic. To the best of our knowledge, this research provides first systematically collected information about the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on MSMEs in Pakistan and is among only a few studies in the field worldwide.In our survey, we find that due to the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdowns, many MSMEs have been severely affected. Consequently, these businesses are facing a variety of issues such as financial (67.93%), supply chain disruption (47.83%), decrease in demand (44.02%), reduction in sales and profit (38.04%, 41.85% respectively). Moreover, three-fourths of firms expect a decline in sales by more than 60%, while over two-thirds of participating enterprises are expecting a decline in profits by more than 60% during 2020. Furthermore, in order to tackle with the current situation and cover cash flow shortages, many firms are adopting a variety of strategies such as apply for a loan (18%), shut down the business completely and partially to reduce costs (31% and 19% respectively), lay off employees (43%) and reduce staff salary (12%) among others. In addition, more than two-thirds of participating enterprises reported that they could not survive if the lockdown lasts more than 2 months. Further, 72% of participating enterprises believe that it will take less than 1 month to get back to normal from the date lockdown and outbreak ends. Consequently, MSMEs operating in Pakistan will experience a challenging time at least during 2020.Further, micro-enterprises or self-employed persons are more vulnerable to such a crisis. Over 50% of these enterprises were already vulnerable (Sohail, 2019, p. 7). Due to the COVID-19 outbreak and restrictions to shut down the business, the micro-enterprises have been extremely affected. In addition, those firms that have very low cash reserves are vulnerable and may not survive during the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to mitigate not only the ongoing crisis but also the long-term effects caused due to COVID-19 or lockdowns.Based on the findings of the study, different policy recommendations were proposed to ease the burden on MSMEs. These include protection of employees and information accuracy, boosting economy, income and employment support for MSMEs, planning, building resilience capability and positive social relations. The findings and policy suggestions of our research are relevant to policymakers that seek to assist MSMEs and to owners and managers of MSMEs that seek guidance in managing their business during hard times. Our suggested policy measures may not be enough to help MSMEs to survive during the current crisis, but these measures would be very constructive to ease the suffering of these businesses during a difficult time.Despite the fact, our research provides insightful theoretical and practical implications concerning the impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs, yet some limitations remain in this research that provides room for further research. The sample size of our study was not enough to represent the respective industries. Hence, future research can consider increasing sample size with respective industry representation. Besides, creating social and economic consequences, the outbreak of COVID-19 has created new challenges for the protection of the health and safety of employees and customers along with new workplace operational culture. Hence, future studies can also consider examining these issues to provide more in-depth knowledge about the consequences of the ongoing pandemic on businesses.CRediT authorship contribution statementMohsin Shafi:Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing.Junrong Liu:Funding acquisition, Resources, Methodology.Wenju Ren:Data curation, Formal analysis.Declaration of competing interestThe authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.AcknowledgementThis work was supported by the major project of Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province (2020JDR0166).