CyberMedia takes the lead in efforts to bring ICT products under essential items

CyberMedia is India’s oldest tech media house and has always been at the forefront of pushing new technology in India like Wi-Fi and Linux initiatives in the past. Similarly, we were also the first to realize that during the current Covid-19 lockdown, when it came to the all-important Work-From-Home culture, mobile phones, laptops, tablets, and other Information and Communications Technology (ICT) products were in fact essential.

Since WFH is imperative to make sure the Indian economy does not come to a standstill, the devices mentioned above would have to be brought under essential products. This issue was first raised by DQ Channels on 9 April when many industry associations including ICEA, MAIT, and FAIITA had reached out to the Government and urged that their plea be considered.

Industry body NASSCOM shared a key report by Dataquest on 20 April requesting the Government to expand the list of essential items to include ICT products required to facilitate WFH. Also, on the same day NASSCOM brought the issue to the government’s notice through the following tweet: “With most of us working/learning from home, access to basic equipment is absolutely critical. Urge govt to consider basic requirements like office chairs, routers, laptops/desktops, etc as essentials for e-commerce deliveries.” Furthermore, Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, also retweeted the DataQuest report.

The government has now noticed the seriousness of this issue and is contemplating action on the same. MeitY secretary Ajay Sawhney has written to the Home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla “for including electronic products needed from home and online learning namely mobile phones and related components, desktops, laptops, tablets, servers, storage devices, enterprise networking equipment in essential goods category”, according to PTI.

Including PCs, laptops and mobile phones in the essential category will allow e-commerce companies and retail stores to sell such devices during the lockdown which is the major pain point of those who are working from home.

MNCs, BPO firms, and IT-ITeS providers are looking at ways to let their employees work from home until July. While the entire nation is working from home for an extended period, it is essentially important that the demand and supply of laptops, PCs, mobile and other ICT products should be available to all.

By Ankit Parashar