When larger businesses are short of funds, they delay payments to suppliers, shifting the shock farther down the line. Banks are giving short shift to struggling and more vulnerable businesses, which are required to post more collateral when existing working capital limits come up renewal. All this can pose enormous difficulties for small business; many of them could close down. As these are labour-intensive units, unemployment could increase. Effective social security measures are not yet available to cover such unemployed; retraining programs are largely inexistent.   

Managing this requires economy-wide advance action on Keynesian lines.

The writer is a Congress MP

More on specific measures in the concluding installment