MoHUA signs MoU with Swiggy to bring street food vendors on ecommerce platform
Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has joined hands with online food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy to bring street food vendors onboard at its ecommerce platform in line with the commitments of  PM SVANidhi (Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi). While the scheme provides online access to thousands of consumers, it also helps the vendors grow their businesses and help them become self reliant.
The MoU was exchanged between Rahul Bothra, Chief Financial Officer of Swiggy and Joint Secretary Sanjay Kumar in a webinar session attended by Durga Shanker Mishra, MoHUA Secretary and various other officials of Swiggy and the Ministry. The webinar also witnessed the presence of Municipal Commissioners of Delhi, Chennai, Indore, Ahmedabad and Varanasi through video conference.
The initiative aims to transform the momentum of the business of street vendors in the COVID-19 scenario by facilitating them to serve the customers through online mode. The MoHUA initiative involves FSSAI and Swiggy together with GST officials to fulfil all the required prerequisites. As per the plans, Swiggy and MoHUA will initially on-board 250 vendors across Delhi, Ahmedabad, Indore, Chennai and Varanasi to run a pilot program.
After the MoHUA gets successful in this pilot in these cities, it will further expand this initiative across the country. The initiative is also being seen as an effort to empower the street vendors with the help of digital technology.
PM SVANidhi scheme has been launched to provide affordable loan as working capital to the street vendors whose livelihoods have been shattered due to the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19.
