As noted by the Economic Times, after Wednesday’s notification to allow non-essential deliveries, several retail bodies lobbied for its retraction. After Sunday’s clarification, the commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal tweeted that this decision will create a ‘level-playing field’ for small retailers.
States must ensure smooth movement of the entire supply chain of essential goods, including by e-Commerce#IndiaFightsCOVID19 Details: https://t.co/HUl20aNFPu pic.twitter.com/BgsE1bMGyU — PIB India #StayHome #StaySafe (@PIB_India) April 19, 2020 Earlier this week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the extension of lockdown until May 3 to curb the coronavirus spread. However, new guidelines published by the government suggest that ecommerce companies can start delivering non-essential goods from April 20. Last month, when Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown, the government restricted ecommerce firms to deliver only essential goods such as food, groceries, staples, and medical supplies. These new relaxations will let people order other items such as electronics, mobile phones, and clothes from online retailers again. Walmart-owned Flipkart said in a statement that it’s working with sellers to prepare them for safe packaging and delivery: Our seller support team is providing constant counsel and on-ground support to sellers on our platform to help them resume operations in a few days. While you may be able to order these non-essential products, with a backlog of thousands of orders with these companies, you might get a high wait time for your order. Earlier this month, Flipkart had teamed with Uber for grocery deliveries, it’s not clear at the moment if this partnership will extend to delivery of non-essential items. This new development would also provide much-needed jobs for gig workers who might have had to suffer heavy monetary losses due to the lockdown.
