Amitabh Kant discusses transportation of essential goods with e-commerce, logistics firms

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Wednesday interacted with handful of e-commerce and logistics companies to understand how their expertise can be put to use to ensure steady supply of essential commodities and services at a time when the nationwide lockdown has been extended to May 3.

Abhiraj Bahl of UrbanClap, Pradeep Parmaweswaram of Uber India, Punnet Bhirani of Ola were the key participants among half a dozen players who interacted with top government officials including the principal scientific advisor K VijayRaghavan.

"E-commerce and logistics companies have an important role to play in terms of supply of essential commodities and services during the COVID-19 pandemic," Kant said during the interaction which lasted for an hour.


The idea is to use their network of delivery boys to deliver essential items from kirana stores to the doorstep of the needy. Even state governments and local administration can use this network to deliver grains and pulses from public distribution network to consumers.