Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the entire nation is in a 21-day lockdown where people have been asked to stay at home. E-commerce website, Flipkart has announced that it will suspend services temporarily, however, it doesn't provide any clarity on when one can expect the services to resume. Logging onto Flipkarts home page, one can read, “Hello Fellow Indians, We are temporarily suspending our services. Your needs have always been our priority, and our promise is that we will be back to serve you, as soon as possible. These are difficult times, times like no other. Never before, have communities stayed apart to stay safe! Never before, has being at home meant helping the nation! We urge you to Stay Home and Stay Safe! We will get there. And we will get through. Together.”
The above statement is in line with what the government has requested, the closure of all nonessential services. There is no information on when Flipkart will resume its services. Amazon, Flipkart’s biggest competitor in India has also stopped the delivery of all nonessential items. But unlike Flipkart, Amazon will still deliver essential items.
It must be noted that by services, Flipkart will stop the delivery of goods purchased online. Other services such as video streaming, bill payment, and online mobile games are still active via the Flipkart app.
Other online services like Bigbasket have also suspended activities. Milk Basket which is a popular grocery delivery app in Delhi NCR has not delivered essentials today but has said that it will try to deliver essentials like vegetables tomorrow, 26 March. Milk is one of the commodities that is still out of stock on Milk Basket.
A lot of service providers are doing their part to ensure people can work from home. Reliance Jio, MTNL, BSNL and more are helping with internet connectivity and data packs to ensure smooth connectivity. Streaming services are reducing streaming quality to avoid network congestion and Services like WhatsApp and Instagram are also doing their part to keep users informed and entertained respectively.