This Startup Is Helping Online Retailers Navigate India’s Coronavirus Zones
Legistify has come up up with a live tracker to track latest regulations in coronavirus zones and then maps them with pin codes.
With lockdown restrictions being eased even as the number of confirmed infections mount, how to know what’s being delivered and what’s not? A startup thinks it has the solution.
It was during a discussion with online retailer Snapdeal, whose supply team was in a conundrum about what pin codes are operational for delivery, Legistify came up with the idea of a live tracker to track latest regulations in red, green, orange and containment zones.
“That’s when we decided that why don’t we create a platform which generates a report on a continuous basis by tracking live data to figure out what the zonal changes are and also map it with the pin codes against such zones,” Pratik Mohapatra, co-founder of Legistify, told BloombergQuint over the phone.
Earlier this week, India allowed the delivery of essential and non-essential goods in red zones as the nation entered the fourth phase of stay-at-home orders. In containment zones, only essential items are allowed. And as more people move around and businesses reopen, things are changing rapidly.
Mohapatra thinks that going ahead its platform will play a key role to help navigate the changing statuses of the districts, allowing online retailers and ordering apps to map their deliveries accordingly.
“On May 1, if Maharashtra had 500 containment zones, as of yesterday there were 2,200-2,500 such zones. Things are getting opened but these zones are changing really fast,” he said. “In the coming days, we will see most of the red zones to convert into containment zones, and it will be difficult for e-commerce firms to plan.”
Founded in 2015, Legistify is a legal technology platform that helps people connect with the legal experts online, and also provides technology solutions to track litigation, handling of contracts, and compliances.
Mohapatra said the firm extracts data from different ministry websites and whenever an update occurs, its system picks up the live data and the changes are mapped on their internal database. The dashboard generates an alert and by the end of every day, it sends the updated status to the e-commerce or logistics firm.
Snapdeal said Legistify has been able to help the e-commerce firm in logistics planning by understanding the latest regulations in red, orange, green and containment zones, and also macro details from such area.
The firm is now providing these services to about four e-commerce and logistics firm for a subscription fee.