India’s fight to become Atma Nirbhar took a new turn with the latest labelling norms which was asked by the Centre. Raising the issue in a meeting with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), e-commerce companies have requested a window of four-five months to comply with the order. This comes at a time when there has been a wide spread protest to boycott Chinese products.
In a virtual meeting with DPIIT, representatives of Flipkart, Amazon, Reliance Retail, Jio Platforms, Tata Cliq, Snapdeal, Swiggy, Zomato, BigBasket and Grofers participated. During the meeting it was informed that this new norm will take good about five months to implement for the companies.
According to the government, this new labelling norm will help the customer to know about the origin of the product which will help customers recognise which is a local and foreign-made product, according to Economic Times.
“In an offline setting, a consumer can pick up a product, see where it was made and take an informed decision. Similar details should be displayed on ecommerce websites,” a senior government official told ET.
The government has asked companies to provide feedback within a fortnight after discussing this new norm with the sellers of their respective platforms.
The government is basing its move on the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011. It is said that the clause will likely be included in the ecommerce policy that the commerce and industry ministry is drafting. It has been said that no company is being arm-twisted but labeling is part of the Atmanirbhar policy
