The government's decision to allow e-commerce companies to sell all items, including non-essential items like laptops and refrigerators, in orange and green zones will provide relief to people, while helping millions of small and medium businesses and traders to jump-start their businesses amid the lockdown, industry executives said on Friday.
The government has now extended the lockdown till May 17 with a ban on air travel, trains and inter-state road transport. It, however, gave some relaxations for various business activities and people's movement within areas with limited or no COVID-19 cases.
Under the latest rules, e-commerce activities in red zones are permitted only for essential goods, while delivery of both essential and non-essential items will be allowed in green and orange zones during the third phase of lockdown. All major urban centres, including Delhi and Mumbai, have been identified as 'red zones' or areas with large numbers of cases and, therefore, not much relaxations would be applicable to them beyond already permitted ones for those involved in essential services.
"We welcome the government's decision to allow e-commerce in orange and green zones to serve people safely with products that they need and have not been able to access due to the lockdown. Millions of small and medium businesses and traders will now be able to jump-start their businesses and livelihoods across their workforce," an Amazon India spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the company will focus on maintaining the "sanctity of the new guidelines around the red zones".
The company urged the government to consider the positive role e-commerce can play to get customers all priority products they need in the red zones as well, enabling a stronger economic support for the small businesses while prioritising safety.
Under the lockdown that started March 24, the government has only allowed delivery of essential goods, including food, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment through e-commerce platforms. E-commerce companies as well as industry bodies like Nasscom and IAMAI had been requesting the government to expand the list of essential items.
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The latest rules also allow all standalone shops, neighbourhood shops and shops in residential complexes to remain open in urban areas, without any distinction of essential and non-essential.
"The government has taken an insightful decision by opening e-commerce deliveries of non-essential items in green and orange zones," Paytm Mall Senior Vice-President Srinivas Mothey said.
He said customers have been eagerly waiting for some relief in lockdown guidelines to buy products like air conditioners, refrigerators and even summer clothing. People are also keen on purchasing items like laptops, mobile phones, computer hardware and stationery to continue work and study from home.
"This move will give a major relief to citizens... Paytm Mall's offline merchant and shopkeeper base will now be able to get back to running their businesses and safely sell to their customers maintaining all lockdown and social distancing norms," Mothey said.
A Snapdeal spokesperson said the announcement by the home ministry paves the way for a "calibrated" resumption of various economic activities, including e-commerce, in various parts of the country.
"This will help start a gradual process of economic recovery by enabling lakhs of sellers and MSMEs to cater to the demand of users through online and offline channels. At Snapdeal, we are ready and committed to play our role in enabling India to exit this lockdown safely and efficiently," the spokesperson said.
Earlier in the day, the Union health ministry listed 130 districts in the country in red zone, 284 in orange zone and 319 in green zone.
This classification of districts is to be followed by states and union territories till May 10 and then will be revised on a weekly basis or earlier if required. Major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad have been designated as red zones in the new classification.
A district will be considered under green zone if there has been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far or there is no reported case since last 21 days in the district. Red zone districts are those considered to be infection 'hotspots', decided on the basis of number of active cases, doubling rate of confirmed cases and extent of testing and surveillance feedback.
Districts that are neither defined as a red or green zone, would be considered as an orange zone.