At a time when the Covid19 pandemic has deprived the public to have easy access to service providers, the Investment and Development Authority of Nagaland (IDAN) has come up with a solution.
IDAN has rolled out a portal to capture the local service providers such as electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and barbers so as to enable the citizens of the state to utilise their services.
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The service providers can register in the portal and the citizens requiring their services can directly connect with them.
Developed by young Naga programmers, the portal, Yellowchain, was rolled out by IDAN CEO Alemtemshi Jamir on August 6.
To register, one has to access the website www.yellowchain.in using an internet browser from the phone, laptop, or desktop.
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The Yellowchain App can also be downloaded from the Yellowchain site.
The portal received over 33,000 hits in just five days, Jamir told this correspondent.
The former Nagaland chief secretary, Jamir, said: “With big companies like Amazon capturing the big markets, our target is small-time retailers, especially those people who have returned to the state because of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
“Our main aim is to rope in the returnees who were working outside the state. The software is designed for the local service providers,” he said.
When asked how many of the service providers have registered in the portal, Jamir said he has not kept track of it.
He said the registration process has started and hoped that many of the service providers would soon join in.
He urged the returnees with skills and trade professionals to register in the Yellowchain portal.
However, a Naga entrepreneur, Tsungro Walling, said he is not aware of any such portal.
When it was brought to his notice, he was quite ecstatic and said it would help the Naga entrepreneurs in using their services.
He said he would share the information with his friends.
Engaged in carpentering for over 12 years, Walling, 35, said he owns a carpentry shop at Nepali Khashiram in Dimapur but had to close it due to the Covid19 pandemic.
He was without work for almost three months.
However, he was lucky to have got an order through a relative to make household furniture. Now, he is busy with the work for the last one month at Chekiye village here.
A self-taught carpenter, Walling has two youths working under him and makes varieties of state-of-the-art furniture by using electrical tools and designs from YouTube.
He encouraged the unemployed Naga youths to utilise their skills and said he is ready to engage those who have interests in the trade.