Certain technology services, IT hardware manufacturing allowed from April 20: Here are details
The Home Ministry guidelines issued on Wednesday allow certain commercial and private establishments to continue operations after April 20. These include IT and IT-enabled services with up to 50 per cent strength, data and call centres for government activities, Gram Panchayat level Common Service Centers (CSCs), and e-commerce companies. The manufacturing of IT hardware has also been allowed. The guidelines do not include private call centres.
In the first set of lockdown guidelines announced on March 24, “telecommunications, internet services, broadcasting and cable services, IT and IT-enabled services” was allowed, that too with the mandate to work from home as much as possible. “Delivery of all essential goods” was also allowed.
After these guidelines were announced, numerous online delivery staff were assaulted and stopped from traveling after which local administration and police had to step in to institute mechanisms for allowing home deliveries. However, the companies could resume operations only in a staggered manner, concerned for the safety of their workers.
While Flipkart Supermart “delayed delivery slots due to an unforeseen increase in demand”, other e-commerce companies such as Amazon have had to limit deliveries to essentials. In some cities, delivery persons from Amazon, FlipKart, Swiggy and Zomato are still working. The new guidelines may help ease the hiccups that these companies experienced after the announcement of the first lockdown phase.
With the lockdown in force, several companies and establishments have continued their operations by having their employees work from home. This shift has tested the country’s Internet bandwidth and has required all stakeholders from government data centre operations to Silicon Valley companies to take measures to optimise for the available resources. YouTube moved its mobile videos to standard definition while others like TikTok and Star India removed the high definition viewing option altogether. Facebook also announced reduced bit rates (the speed of uploading and downloading) for videos, noting a surge of over 50 per cent globally. IT Departments in states like Kerala have also taken steps to ensure the steady flow of data traffic.
Meanwhile, with several key meetings happening over video conferencing, the National Informatics Center (NIC) has been utilising an American app called Videyo, while many other government arms use Cisco, Zoom and Skype to sustain operations. The IT Ministry recently put out calls for a domestic built video conferencing software.
India currently has roughly 500 million online users. India’s gadget manufacturing felt the lockdown effect, due to the closure of factories and assembly sites.
INDIAN EXPRESS
