The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has invited ecommerce players such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal to discuss displaying the origin of a product available for sale on these websites, as anti-China sentiment run high in the country.
The meeting will be chaired by joint secretary Ravinder, DPIIT said in an email to e-commerce companies. The meeting will be held through a video conference on June 24, said the email, a copy of which was seen Moneycontrol.
Calls for the boycott of products made in China, India’s biggest trading partner, have only grown louder after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control.
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The move also comes two days after the Confederation of All India Traders urged Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal to make it mandatory for every ecommerce portal to mention the country of origin of each product sold on their platforms.
Most ecommerce companies were selling Chinese goods and consumers was not aware of it. Sharing information on the country of origin would help them make an informed decision, it said.
Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal didn't immediately respond to queries seeking their view.
The government has already mandated its own online marketplace, GeM, to enter the country of origin while registering new products.
The government says the move is aimed at promoting Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat plans but it is likely to have a bearing on products of Chinese origin.
The government has also mandated that sellers, who have already uploaded their products to update the country of origin, failing which the products would be removed.
GeM has also enabled a provision for an indication of the percentage of local content in products. With this new feature, the country of origin as well as the local content percentage information are available for all items.
"The ‘Make in India’ filter has now been enabled on the portal. Buyers can choose to buy only those products that meet the minimum 50 percent local content criteria," the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement.
In the week after the Galwan clash, the government has reviewed several contracts given to Chinese companies and states like Maharashtra have put some investment plans on hold.
Read our complete coverage on the India-China border tension
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