Majority of urban Indians consider banking and online home repairs as important essential services during the lockdown, and nearly 75 per cent of respondents told a survey they were satisfied with the available essential services.

According to the survey by market research and data company YouGov, nine in 10 urban Indians picked banks as the most essential service during the lockdown from a list of businesses providing non-essential goods and services.

Banking was followed by online home repairs, which was considered crucial during this time by around three-quarters of respondents.

The onset of summer and the need for AC and fridge servicing could be the reason for placing greater importance on this need, the survey noted.

The survey said many people considered newspapers and magazines as well as pet stores to be of higher importance (61 per cent each) in the current scenario than the availability of alcohol and cigarettes.

The need for pet stores and services is more urgent for Tier I residents (with 66 per cent) than Tier II (57 per cent) and Tier III (59 per cent) residents. The demand for pet stores is lower in south India.

The survey was done from data collected online by YouGov Omnibus among 1,000 respondents in India from April 21 to 24 using YouGov’s panel of over 6 million people worldwide.

At a time the Union home ministry has disallowed online platforms from selling non-essential commodities, many consider the online sale of kitchen appliances (40 per cent), gadgets (33 per cent) and body or skin care products (35 per cent) as essential.