Service Sector, in the present time, has become the backbone of the country’s economy. It is also known as the tertiary sector and is among the three sectors of economy. Service sector is now the largest and fastest growing sector in the world and India as well. It has emerged as the ascendant sector in the Indian economy. Hence, it has provided large scale employment opportunities to a lot of individuals. India’s service sector covers a wide variety of activities, such as hospitality industry/tourism, mass media, healthcare/hospitals, public health, pharmacy, information technology, retail, education, and services associated with construction.
COVID-19 has impacted the economy to slump down to its worst, not only India but in the whole world. This has impacted the service sector the most. Businesses were temporarily shut down, huge numbers of jobs were cut off, and a lot more problems were faced by the employers of the service sector. Only there was surge in telecom market and it was the most benefitted sector among all other sectors.
Impact of COVID-19 on service sector:
The COVID-19 has worst impacted each and every sector of the market including the service sector as well. Economy plunged down to its lowest in March-April, which has affected the service sector the most. Employment had the worst impact on the pandemic. For India, the report estimated job loss for 4.1 million youths. Among corporates, the small and medium enterprises segments (SMEs) were hit hard.
“The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent introduction of lockdown measures continued to weigh heavily on the Indian service sector in July. Business activity and new orders dropped again, with the rates of decline remaining rapid overall,” said Lewis Cooper, Economist at IHS Markit.
Despite the relaxation in COVID-19 restrictions, India’s service sector activity remained muted for the fifth month in a row in July. Service providers made further job cuts.
IT:
While COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted world economies, it certainly is leading to the emergence of some key megatrends. Some of these trends emerging are in the IT sector and manufacturing sector. Management of various IT companies like Infosys, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Coforge have indicated a strong demand environment for the IT sector. The SEO, analytics, social media marketing and advertising will have a huge impact in the post COVID era in terms of market sizing and capturing, CRM and the day-to-day purchase trends.
Telecommunications:
The importance of having a strong telecommunications network during this lockdown had also been acknowledged by the government. Telecommunications, internet services, broadcasting and cable services, IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) are the essential services and are exempt from the lockdown.
Despite lockdown restriction, the telecom market saw increase in demand due to remote working needs. A lot of subscribers were added to Jio, and the company even landed the highest FDI deal in the Indian tech sector with Facebook.
Digital Marketing:
COVID-19 has halted many business processes. A lot of advertising went from electronic media to digital platforms. New OTT platforms provided some lucrative packages and also a thrust over internet access with a vastly growing number of devices. This phenomenon has paved the way for websites like Netflix and Amazon to collaborate with existing similar platforms viz. Disney-Hotstar.
Education has seen a drastic change in the pandemic. Online classes were the only means to communicate. Site speed has set to play a huge role as faster websites offer better SEO, and hence, better conversion rates, which plunges down the cost per click.
MSME:
MSME is second largest employment producer and acts as a cradle for entrepreneurs and innovators with considerable support in strengthening business management. The announcement of country wide lockdown dragged MSME owners, employers and external stakeholders in unexpected times, where no one had experience to handle this kind of situation. There was a huge disruption in the MSME due to the pandemic. Micro enterprises, especially the service sector, were affected. As per the reports by McKinsey, the estimates suggested a GDP growth of 5 per cent in the best-case scenario and a drop close to minus 1 per cent in the worst-case scenario.
SM marketing tools make job easier to compile, post content, track and dominate social media. Most appropriate usage of Google Adsense, Analytics, SEO and other marketing and connectivity tools will be the last option to promote the brand.
After government lifted all the COVID-19 restrictions, economy recovered rapidly. GDP was in spike. The service sector helped to turn the tide by creating opportunities for greater income, food security, productivity, employment, investment and trade. India regained its status as the world’s fastest growing major economy and is likely to retain that title this year.