MoHUA Partnered with Swiggy to Take Street Food Business Online under PM SVANIDHI 

The COVID-19 induced lockdowns and the provisions of avoiding its spread has severely impacted the street food market which plays a vital part in the economy development as it also involves  people coming from rural to urban states for earning and thus improving their livelihood.  In June 2020, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNibhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme for those street vendors who had been vending on or before 24 March, 2020 by providing affordable working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000 to resume their livelihoods after lockdown. Click Here for PM SVANidhi Scheme.

Now, for the further empowerment of street vendors under PM SVANidhi, on October 5, 2020, MoHUA has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Swiggy, a food ordering and delivery platform in India, to onboard street food vendors on its ecommerce platform, a first of its kind initiative. This will provide online access to thousands of consumers and help these vendors grow their businesses across cities. 

• The MoU for the same was inked through webinar by Joint Secretary (MoHUA) Sanjay Kumar and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Swiggy Rahul Bothra, in the presence of Secretary, MoHUA, Durga Shanker Mishra, among others. 
• On pilot basis, this program will be initiated by taking 250 street vendors from five cities viz, Ahmadabad (Gujarat), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Delhi, Indore (Madhya Pradesh), and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh).  Upon the successful completion of the pilot, it will be expanded pan-India in phases.
• Apart from above, Durga Shanker Mishra launched an updated and modified version of PM SVANidhi Dashboard for facilitating better granular view of the Scheme’s performance with additional tools for comparisons.

Key Points:

–For the fulfillment of necessary prerequisites for this initiative, MoHUA has coordinated with the key stakeholders including Municipal Corporations, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Swiggy and goods and services tax (GST) officials.

–In pilot run, the street vendors will be helped with Permanent Account N​umber (PAN) and FSSAI registration. Also training will be provided on partner app usage, menu digitization, pricing, hygiene and best packaging practices. 

Recent Related News:

1. MoHUA has inked MoU with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to make the latter as the implementation Agency for PM SVANidhi.
2. On August 20, 2020, the 5th edition of the annual cleanliness urban survey of India i.e.”Swachh Survekshan 2020 (SS2020)” conducted by MoHUA was announced  in which Madhya Pradesh’s Indore Creates record as India’s cleanest city for the 4th consecutive time while Gujarat’s Surat and Maharashtra’s Navi Mumbai grabbed 2nd and 3rd positions respectively.

About Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA):

Minister of State (MoS) – Hardeep Singh Puri

List of Schemes under Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs – Smart Cities Mission, Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Urban Transport, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).