Tech Tonic | 10 minute deliveries and Amazon Now

IN the past times few years, thither has been a sure high spirits, and rightly so, as a new government mandate asked India’s quick commerce, or Q-commerce platforms, to refrain from making promises about “10-minute delivery” as part of their primary pitch to customers. A big shift. Rightly so, because safety and well-being of delivery partners is paramount. Nothing that we order is worth someone risking their life and well-being over. The guidelines that change the approach to quick-commerce are very welcome indeed. The advisory, issued to curb misleading or aggressive delivery-time claims, does not actually ban fast deliveries.What it does is far more sensible — there is an attempt to actively discourage platforms from making often extreme delivery time guarantees a central part of their pitch, especially when such claims can indirectly embolden unsafe working conditions for the delivery partners. That distinction matters. Unfortunately, much of the public discourse seems to have missed two important points. First, your next Q-commerce order can still arrive in under 10 minutes, quite legitimately. Second, Amazon, which is aggressively expanding its Amazon Now service, appears to be operating as if these guidelines simply don’t apply to it.Also Read: Tech Tonic | Why do we still crave a BlackBerry phone?Let’s deal with Amazon first. At a time when Blinkit (owned by Eternal), Swiggy Instamart and Zepto have quietly scrubbed explicit time guarantees from their primary app banners and marketing copy, Amazon’s app continues to prominently flash “10 minutes” across multiple Amazon Now banners. This isn’t subtle. It’s impossible to miss for anyone using the Amazon app — something I’ve attempted to illustrate in the image above this column (all screenshots taken on the morning of January 15, 2026 in a fully updated app version). Mind you, these aren’t estimates of delivery based on the exact pincode location, time of day, order load and so on. These are static banners, flexing 10 minute delivery muscle.Amazon has not responded to requests for comment at the time of writing. But step back to take a broader look, and this stance is nigh impossible to defend. It has been several days since the Ministry of Labour and Employment made the new guidelines clear. Competitors have adjusted their messaging. Amazon cannot surely reasonably argue that Amazon Now sits outside the Q-commerce universe. It is, by design, a direct competitor to Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto.When Amazon Now officially rolled out across Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai in September last year, the company made its intent abundantly clear. The service is built on a network of around 100 micro-fulfilment centres, optimised for ultra-fast delivery. “ We launched Amazon Now in Bengaluru earlier this year, delivering essentials in just 10 minutes. The response has exceeded our most optimistic expectations, with daily orders growing at 25% month over month and Prime members tripling their shopping frequency after they begin using Amazon Now,” said Samir Kumar, Vice President and Country Manager, Amazon India, at the time.The second point requires nuance. Many users will still see delivery estimates of 10 minutes — or even less — on Blinkit or Instamart today. That does not violate the advisory. The government has not outlawed fast deliveries, if it is humanly and logistically possible. A lot of this is based on where the Q-commerce partner is sourcing your order from — the dark store or sourcing location may be in a building adjacent to your residence or office, and the delivery within a handful of minutes may well be possible without risking the crucial human element in this sequence of events between you placing an order, and receiving that order.Also Read: Quick commerce platforms to drop ‘10-minute delivery’ vowI am reminded of a post by Eternal’s founder Deepinder Goyal from a while ago, in which he explained the basis of the 10 minute delivery promise. “It’s not enabled by asking delivery partners to drive fast. Delivery partners don’t even have a timer on their app to indicate what was the original time promised to the customer,” he had written at the time, further explaining, “After you place your order on Blinkit, it is picked and packed within 2.5 minutes. And then the rider drives an average of under 2kms in about 8 minutes. That’s an average of 15 kmph.”Goyal, while insisting that it isn’t a race against the clock for delivery executives, referenced “the sheer complexity of the system design which enabled quick deliveries” as something that’s difficult for everyone to understand, particularly from the outside. Make of it what you will, but Goyal does insist that every delivery partner has medical and life insurance available to them, and there is no penalty for not delivering on time.In practice however, we often hear stories from delivery partners that illustrate a messier, often opaque tale — one of virtual nudges, perceived pressure, and incentives that may not explicitly punish delay but could reward speed. The way these services work, it is difficult to get a clear grip on the exact nature of these dynamic elements. That disconnect is precisely why the government’s intervention matters, and why platforms must be seen to respond in both letter and spirit.That thought brings me back to Amazon. By continuing to trumpet “10-minute delivery” as a pitch, Amazon risks undermining the very intent of the government’s advisory. If this is to find position or gain customers by behaving as an outlier, it is not a good look. The government is nudging Q-commerce to enter a more mature, responsible evolution in India. Doing it well should be a priority, over doing it quickly.(Vishal Mathur is the Technology Editor at HT. Tech Tonic is a weekly column that looks at the impact of personal technology on the way we live, and vice versa. The views expressed are personal.)