After tying up with Swiggy last year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has now entered into a memorandum of understanding with Zomato to empower street food vendors with digital technology and facilitate greater income-earning opportunities for them on the food-tech platform.
As part of Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNibhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme, the ministry has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Zomato, the online platform for ordering and delivery of food in India, to onboard street food vendors on its food-tech platform, a ministry statement said. This will give street food vendors online access to thousands of consumers and help them grow their businesses. MoHUA has also launched the mobile application for PMSVANidhi se Samriddhi- Socio-economic profiling of PM SVANidhi beneficiaries and their families to link them to various central government schemes. Under the MoU, MoHUA and Zomato will initially run a pilot programme by on-boarding 300 vendors across six cities – Bhopal, Ludhiana, Nagpur, Patna, Raipur and Vadodara. The street vendors will be helped with PAN and FSSAI registration, training on technology/ partner app usage, menu digitisation and pricing, hygiene and packaging best practices.
COVID-19 pandemic has restricted consumers from stepping out and forced them to follow physical distancing norms. In the given scenario it is important to connect street food vendors with technology-enabled platforms to help them grow their business, thus helping them gain financially, the ministry statement said.
