ICT in Mitigating Challenges of Life Amid COVID-19 and Emerging Business Opportunities

ABSTRACT

The entire human life is passing through a very bad and unprecedented phase of the pandemic called COVID-19. It is a chronic disease that occurs because of "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)". The entire world has witnessed a very bad phase of life which has never happened before on this massive scale. COVID-19 has made the entire human life challenging. Millions of people got affected around the globe and many lost their loving ones while fighting with the deadly disease. The two critical challenges of the pandemic are there are no known treatments for COVID-19 and secondly, its transmission from one person to another is very prompt. Therefore, to control the deadly spread of the pandemic the countries have adopted complete lockdown for months, people were isolated and quarantined to control the spread of the disease. Several terminologies such as lockdown, quarantine, social-distancing, home isolation, and Corona waves can be heard around. In all these necessary measures to control the virus taken by the government the entire humankind suffered and still suffering from several challenges towards living a normal life. In this entire disaster, information communication technologies (ICTs) have shown a significant contribution in mitigating the effects and challenges caused due to COVID-19. In the present study, efforts have been given on highlighting the role of ICT in overcoming the challenges of life caused due to COVID-19 with the help of studies that took place in the pandemic duration. The study has also shown that how the extensive inclination of the people towards the use of ICTs helped in emerging new business opportunities. The present study is a conceptual study that will help in leading to another study. A research model has been proposed in the study which can be further tested in upcoming studies. The outcomes of the study can be helpful for the decision and policymakers especially those who are working in the area of ICT. The ICT industry can learn many things that can help focus more on the expansion of business opportunities.