Context

Invest India, India’s national Investment Promotion & Facilitation Agency, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has launched The Invest India Business Immunity Platform.

About

• The Invest India Business Immunity Platform, is a dynamic and constantly updating platform.
• It keeps a regular track on developments with respect to the virus, provides:
  • latest information on various central and state government initiatives
  • gives access to special provisions
  • answers and resolves queries through emails and on WhatsApp
• The Business Immunity Platform (BIP) is the active platform for business issue redressal, operating 24/7, with a team of dedicated sector experts and responding to queries at the earliest.
• The platform also includes frequently asked questions on important aspects like locations of COVID-19 testing, special permissions and other location-specific information.

The portal also maps and highlights the response mechanism put in place by leading Indian companies such as sanitation of staff vehicles, placing orders in alternate markets, disabling biometric attendance systems, setting up of medical task force, requesting trainees to go home, business continuity plan, barring entry of visitors, suspension of air travel, usage of video-conferencing and tele-conferencing, developing online solutions and other unique initiatives.

Invest India: Invest India, set up in 2009, is a non-profit venture under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. As the national investment promotion and facilitation agency, Invest India focuses on sector-specific investor targeting and development of new partnerships to enable sustainable investments in India.  Invest India has also announced a partnership with SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) for responding and resolving queries for MSMEs.

Reason behind the launch:

• The platform, hosted on the Invest India website, is designed as a comprehensive resource to help businesses and investors get real-time updates on India’s active response to COVID-19 (Coronavirus).
• While COVID-19 continues to disrupt normal life, the impact of this crisis on businesses across the country is being continuously assessed.
• The government, for its part, has issued timely guidelines for businesses. Business owners have been trying to grasp what these guidelines mean for their businesses.
  
  

Significance of the platform:

• Information at doorstep: This Business Immunity Platform aims to help people get access to all the information they require while staying in their comfort of their homes. With this platform, Invest India aims to bring facilitation at doorstep.
• Creating a chain: This platform also provides the ability to join the dots to find matching suppliers with required supplies and for innovators, startups and MSMEs to show case their solutions.
• Experts’ strategies: It is also a platform to hear from the experts on business strategies to be adopted during such times.