Govt wants kiranas to be part of ecomm

Minister of Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal, told the head of Amazon India, Amit Agarwal, in their interaction on Tuesday that government wants to better understand accounting practices at Amazon. The minister also quizzed the company on its future investment plans and how it plans to engage with small retailers. This follows the recent inquiry by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has to ecommerce firms about how they can work with small retailers to boost such neighbourhood stores.

A few days back, groups such as CAIT and the All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) complained to the government about online deep discounting and alleged that ecommerce marketplaces violated foreign direct investment (FDI) norms during the festive season.