Coronavirus impact: Reinventing traditional business from the living room

Entrepreneurs from traditional business communities in the country are using their time in lockdown to embrace change ahead of an imminent recession

Ubai Lokhandwala, a retailer and wholesaler of soft furnishings in Surat, had never really felt the need for a website before now. Started in 1999, his Furnishing Centre drew from his family’s 150-year-old history of making curtains and table cloths. The store in Zampa Bazar relied on walk-ins. When the lockdown began, like all entrepreneurs in categories not deemed essential, for some days the veteran entrepreneur was forced to stay put and twiddle his thumbs. “I was concerned not just for myself, but for the entire community. How would we manage cash and business?”

Over the last two weeks however,