New Delhi: Alarmed with the possible adverse impact of a third Covid wave in the country caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the Covid virus, the Centre has set up help desks and control rooms to ensure that supply and delivery of essential commodities continue without any disruptions during the Covid times.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and International Trade (DPIIT), which is the nodal department under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, on Friday announced the establishment of different help desks and control rooms to help domestic industry while the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under the Department of Commerce has set up a Covid-19 help desk to help the foreign industry.
The step was taken after the DPIIT took note of the several steps taken by the states and union territories to curb the sudden rise in Covid cases but could also affect the flow of goods and services across borders.
"As a measure of precaution and for supporting our business ecosystem, DPIIT will monitor the status and issues arising (if any) during transportation and delivery of goods and essential commodities due to the restrictions (if any) imposed by various State Governments and union territories,” said an official.
The government said in the event of any manufacturing, transportation, distribution, wholesale, or e-commerce companies facing difficulties in transportation and distribution of goods or mobilization of resources then they can contact the DPIIT officials on designated helpline numbers and email IDs that will be manned since 9 am to 9 pm.
Also Read: Grim milestone: India's logs 1.17 lakh fresh Covid cases, Omicron tally crosses 3,000
India on Thursday reported more than 1,17,000 new Covid cases, the highest since June 5 last year when the deadly second Covid wave caused by the Delta variant of the SarS-CoV-2 virus was raging across the country.
According to the latest official data, the country also recorded 302 Covid deaths on January 6, taking the total Covid death count in the country over 4,83,000.
In order to deal with the rising Covid cases, states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and the national capital territory of Delhi have imposed fresh restrictions which include night and weekend curfews, closure of schools and colleges, reduced activity at public places, among other things.
The fresh outbreak of Omicron variant of Covid virus which was first discovered in late November in South Africa and was declared a variant of concern (VoC) by the World Health Organization (WHO) within days, has led to nervousness in the business and industry due to the possibility of prolonged supply disruptions.
The outbreak of the first wave of Covid-19 in the year 2020 caused a 7.3% contraction in the country’s gross domestic product in the financial year 2020-21 (April-March 2021 period).
Omicron variant of the highly infectious coronavirus has already replaced Delta variant as the most dominant variant in the US and several European countries but in India, the official count of Omicron variant is still considered low at around over 3,000 Omicron cases but the low number of Omicron may be due to the fact all the samples in the country are not sent for genome sequencing labs that identify the exact variant of the virus.
According to officials, the Covid-19 help desk would look into issues related to the department of commerce, directorate general of foreign trade, import and export licensing issues, customs clearance delays, import, and export-related documentation issues and the matters related to banking.
The Covid help desks set up by the DPIIT and the DGFT would also collect and collate trade-related issues concerning other ministries and departments of the central and state governments and will coordinate to resolve the difficulties faced by the industry and businesses.
While domestic industry players facing any issue in supply and transportation of goods may contact the DPIIT help desk at 011-23063554 and 011-23060625 and write emails to dpiit-controlroom@gov.in, foreign industry players may write at dgftedi@nic.in or call the toll-free number 1800-111-550.
Foreign industry players may also submit a ticket at the DGFT website for Covid-19 related issues.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), created under the Disaster Management Act of 2005, is the nodal body for the management of the Covid-19 global pandemic in the country and coordinates with different central and state agencies.
