How tech firms are helping build robust local supply chains amid Covid-19

Now that many areas are out of bounds for big retailers for various reasons, is there an opportunity for local kiranas?

• Tom Abraham, who runs a grocery retail outlet at HSR Layout in Bengaluru, thought of shutting it down as his shop attendants went back to their native place in Bihar after the lockdown was first announced. Plus he was facing problems in sourcing inventory.

• Samir Wagadwala, who owns a kirana shop in the Mumbai suburbs of Andheri (East), didn’t find it viable to deliver just one or two orders at the doorstep of customers even as fewer people turned up at his store. Plus getting around the locality freely was a problem.

• On her part, 77-year-old Mohana Kumari, who