Invest India, India’s national Investment Promotion & Facilitation Agency, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has launched The Invest India Business Immunity Platform. The platform, hosted on the Invest India website, is designed as a comprehensive resource to help businesses and investors get real-time updates on India’s active response to COVID-19 (Coronavirus).

This dynamic and constantly updating platform keeps a regular track on developments with respect to the virus, provides latest information on various central and state government initiatives, gives access to special provisions, and answers and resolves queries through emails and on WhatsApp. The Business Immunity Platform (BIP) is the active platform for business issue redressal, operating 24/7, with a team of dedicated sector experts and responding to queries at the earliest. Invest India has also announced a partnership with SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) for responding and resolving queries for MSMEs.

While COVID-19 continues to disrupt normal life, the impact of this crisis on businesses across the country is being continuously assessed. The government, for its part, has issued timely guidelines for businesses. Business owners have been trying to grasp what these guidelines mean for their businesses. Realizing the uncertainty that the Corona crisis has caused among businesses, the platform was launched on 21st March,2020.

The platform also includes frequently asked questions on important aspects like locations of COVID-19 testing, special permissions and other location-specific information. The portal also maps and highlights the response mechanism put in place by leading Indian companies such as sanitation of staff vehicles, placing orders in alternate markets, disabling biometric attendance systems, setting up of medical task force, requesting trainees to go home, business continuity plan, barring entry of visitors, suspension of air travel, usage of video-conferencing and tele-conferencing, developing online solutions and other unique initiatives.

Mr. Deepak Bagla, MD & CEO, Invest India has said “This is a platform for all of us to get together in the face of this unprecedented challenge of COVID-19. The team is working towards finding clarifications and solutions in a rapidly evolving scenario, especially from the perspective of business continuity for the business community. This platform also provides the ability to join the dots to find matching suppliers with required supplies and for innovators, startups and MSMEs to show case their solutions. During the past 48 hours we’ve had over 30,000 visitors across 40 countries and 50,000 plus hits on our website. The platform is seeing an average time spent of nearly 5 minutes. Since yesterday the team has been working actively on over 200 business requests for business continuity and immunity. It is also a platform to hear from the experts on business strategies to be adopted during such times.”