The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which represents all e-commerce entities, has requested the Government to open up e-commerce services to address the dual challenge of economic revival and public health issues.

IAMAI’s suggestions for opening up e-commerce are based on the current containment model of zoning.

For green Zone, IAMAI has suggested that all e-commerce entities abiding by the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) may be permitted to operate at par with other establishments following similar SOPs. This would help to facilitate sales of all possible items, without any requirement for passes or permissions.

For orange Zones, IAMAI has suggested that delivery of all goods be allowed based on passes for vehicles and on the basis of company authorisation as is being done in some states.

IAMAI has further suggested that individual passes should be done away with as there is high absenteeism of workforce due to wage protection leading to under utilisation of the passes issued by the authorities.

In the red zones, IAMAI stated that all e-commerce entities are allowed to sell basic “essentials”.

The association has suggested allowing sales of items such as kitchenware; electronic appliances such as mixies, grinders, water coolers and water purifiers (those not requiring installation); laptops, chargers, routers, computer peripherals; coolers and other summer products; mobiles; stationery; innerwear; apparel and footwear; Home Lighting (LED bulbs) among others,

IAMAI has said that delivery of extended essential items in red zones can be based on vehicle passes and e-commerce may be permitted to deliver at the periphery of containment zones or housing clusters within large containment zones, it added.

IAMAI represents all e-commerce entities including, horizontal Multi Brand Product Retail Trading (MBRT) platforms, vertical MBRT platforms, Single Brand Retail Trading (SBRT) and Direct to Consumer services (D2C) services.

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