Under the aegis of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the Department of Consumer Affairs had issued an order to regulate the production, quality, distribution, logistics of masks (2 ply and 3 ply surgical masks, N95 masks) and hand sanitisers for #Covid-19 management. The Central Government has conferred to the sub-section (2) of section 2A, of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 (10 of 1955), and issued an order, which may be called the Essential Commodities Order, 2020 which will remain in force for a period up to June 30th, 2020 from the issuing date of 13th March 2020.
This move is a result of the rise in demand for these products in the Indian market. The coronavirus threat escalated in India in March 2020 with the first two cases being registered in Bangalore and Delhi. Now the virus has spread all over India with total confirmed cases of over 900 which includes over 20 deaths in the country.
Due to Coronavirus, there is a rise in the demand of certain products like hand sanitizer, masks, gloves etc, and some parts of the Indian market are already facing the scarcity of these products, due to increasing demand. To ensure the product availability in the market, the notification has already brought these products under the Essential Commodities Order, 2020.
Besides this, the government has taken much-needed steps to stop the community transmission of coronavirus, and PM Modi has put the entire nation under lockdown.
In such a pandemic situation, ensuring that the supply chain remains active and fulfils all requirements is a challenging task for all the stakeholders and state governments to ensure the availability of these products. Across the country, the state Food and Drug Administration authorities have fastened up the licensing process of these products, whereas, the stakeholders are working 24X7 to ensure medicines available for all therapies along with mask, hand sanitiser, gloves etc. The industry stakeholder shares insight on strengthening the supply chain.
Sandip Chhettri, COO, TradeIndia.com:
The core idea behind India’s Essential Commodities Act is to ensure the delivery of those essential products —such as foodstuff, drugs, fuel, etc. — the supply of which is obstructed by unethical business practices like hoarding and black-marketing. But ‘essentiality’ is a subjective concept, and at this time of the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, masks and hand sanitizers have suddenly become more essential than anything else, here as well as globally. So, this is a timely decision by our government. The move will benefit consumers, ensuring the supply of genuine products at the right price. No doubt, producers will require some more time to meet the sudden spurt of demand of these products, particularly in certain pockets, but the solution is not far off. Demands must be met, but by genuine products at the right price. We must protect customers from the evil of unethical price rise, hoarding and black-marketing.
Genuine manufacturers will also benefit as the move will discourage counterfeiting. News reports abound these days suggesting that victims across the globe have lost millions of dollars in hands of frauds involving masks and sanitizers. Also, with the Corona-virus now present in 100 countries, some countries are stockpiling while some others have already banned exports of these products altogether. Our government must keep a close eye on this situation, and if required, may need to intervene to support domestic manufacturers and suppliers of these products, which are now essential than ever before.
The whole pharma industry is in one way or another connected to China. The pharma companies should track their inventory more often and should switch to diversified sources for procurement of raw materials, apart from China. And the Pharma companies should consider pushing forward with a long-stalled plan to make more drug ingredients domestically and reduce the country’s reliance on Chinese suppliers.
Vivek Tiwari, Founder, and CEO, Medikabazaar
We at Medikabaazar, understand the fact that there might be situations like this when there will be high demands of particular products to counter specific diseases. With our connections with suppliers, warehouses in different parts of the country and our last mile delivery systems, we are ready to cater to varying demands of prod...
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