TWO TARGETS WITH ONE ARROW

The just-made pact between Centre and Zomato on home delivery of street food will serve vendors and consumers in equal measure.

In what must be the sweetest deal ever for the millions of foodies in India, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has joined hands with Zomato for home delivery of street food in six cities. As a part of the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNibhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme, the MoHUA entered into a Memorandum of Uunderstanding  with Zomato, to bring street food vendors on its food-tech platform.

In a statement, MoHUA said that initially Zomato and it will together run a pilot program by on-boarding 300 vendors across six cities – Bhopal, Ludhiana, Nagpur, Patna, Raipur and Vadodara.

“The street vendors will be helped with PAN and fssai registration, training on technology/ partner app usage, menu digitization and pricing, hygiene and packaging best practices. Upon the successful completion of the pilot, MoHUA and Zomato plan to expand this initiative across the country in phases,” it said.

As per the MoHUA, this will give street food vendors online access to thousands of consumers and help these vendors grow their businesses.

The MoHUA also launched the Mobile Application for PMSVANidhi se Samriddhi- Socio-economic profiling of PM SVANidhi beneficiaries and their families to link them to various Central government Schemes.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has restricted consumers from stepping out and forced them to follow physical distancing norms. In the given scenario, it is important to connect Street Food Vendors with technology-enabled platforms to help them grow their business, thus helping them gain financially,” said the ministry.

In a first-of-its-kind initiative, MoHUA entered into an MoU with Swiggy on October 5 last year and it is now joining hands with Zomato to empower street food vendors with digital technology.

The MoHUA has coordinated with the key stakeholders, including Municipal Corporations, FSSAI, Zomato and GST officials to ensure that street food vendors are facilitated in completing the necessary prerequisites for this initiative.