The union government is set to discuss with e-commerce companies whether they can display the origin of products sold on their platforms.

The move comes after calls for promoting made in India products, especially in the wake of the Galwan Valley clashes between India and China which turned violent last week, leading to the death of 20 Indian soldiers.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has called a meeting with the industry on Wednesday; and the agenda of the invite sent to companies, which CNBC-TV18 has seen, includes “displaying of origin of products” and “extent of value added in India”.

DPIIT secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra confirmed to CNBC-TV 18 that the department is taking forward these discussions with the e-commerce industry.

“Customers should have a choice to know what they are buying. In brick and mortar stores, customers can check the labelling,” he said. “This is going to be a discussion to see how to go about it.”

Mohapatra did not confirm if it will become part of the ecommerce policy which is still being drafted.

“This will be independent of the policy. If we feel this can be done, it can be added. But I cannot speculate. We are still drafting the ecommerce policy,” Mohapatra said.

Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Paresh Rawal joined the Twitter chorus asking Indian e-commerce platforms to specify Chinese goods as users look at ways to hurt China economically.

“Hello Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and all the other online merchants, if you are selling Chinese goods, kindly ensure that you put a disclaimer on them,” Rawal tweeted. “As your customer, I would like to know the origin of the product that I am buying.”

Also: Amid anti-China sentiment, Twitterati calls upon e-tailers to specify products' source of origin

First Published:Jun 23, 2020 3:13 PM IST