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Homegrown ecommerce marketplace Flipkart said on Tuesday in the past three months, over March – May 2021, it has hired 23,000 people across the country in various capacities across its supply chain, including delivery executives.

“The growing demand for ecommerce services across the country as people continue to remain indoors to fight the virus has necessitated a ramp-up of our supply chain, creating thousands of employment opportunities,” said Hemant Badri, Senior Vice- President, Supply Chain at Flipkart.

The company said in a statement it is also undertaking training programmes for its direct hires in various aspects of the supply chain.

Through a mix of classroom and digital training, enhancing their understanding of supply chain management, these trainings are being undertaken through mobile applications such as WhatsApp, Zoom, and Hangout, along with Flipkart’s own Learning Management System, it was stated.

Last week, traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) urged the government to investigate the “blatant” violation of FDI and taxation rules by ecommerce major Flipkart, alleging that the Walmart-owned firm had “creatively” restructured its business model to exercise control over inventory and retail prices.

Flipkart was violating FDI policy “by creatively structuring its marketplace business model and creating a facade in order to exercise control over inventory and retail prices, a practice expressly prohibited by the FDI Policy on ecommerce”, CAIT said in a letter to Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.

This warrants an immediate investigation and strict action from the Indian government, including tax authorities, CAIT added.

When contacted, a Flipkart spokesperson said as a marketplace, Flipkart’s endeavour has always been to use technology and innovation to facilitate the buying and selling between lakhs of local sellers/MSMEs and over 300 million customers in a transparent and efficient manner.

“We will continue to operate with the same transparency, and in line with India’s FDI and regulatory framework, while creating new livelihood opportunities and jobs…With more than three lakh sellers on the Flipkart Marketplace, our seller partners are an integral part of the ecosystem,” the spokesperson said.