Parul
The true marker of a nation on the right trajectory used to be only a combination of trade statistics, agricultural output, job creation, etc., While these criteria points are still relevant today, the emergence of the digital revolution has taken a higher priority than all of the above globally. A quick example of this higher priority can be seen in China where the digital economy accounted for 40% of their overall GDP.
India has taken progressive steps equivalently through the Gati Shakti
Initiative where all modes of logistics regarding trade ranging from
railways, air transfers, and the sea are connected through one digitised
channel. Following this vision, the government of India has introduced an
innovative initiative called ONDC, aimed at small and medium businesses
(SMEs) all over India.
The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is a network that operates on an open protocol. Its purpose is to facilitate local commerce across various sectors, including mobility, grocery, food ordering and delivery, hotel booking, and travel, among others. This network allows any application with network capabilities to access and interact with these segments, enabling them to be discovered and engaged. This will create a level playing field in ecommerce for millions of small and medium businesses all over India and will minimise the dominance of monopolies such as Amazon, Flipkart, etc.
Consider ONDC as the UPI equivalent for e-commerce. What UPI has done
for fintech in India, is what ONDC will do for e-commerce as well.
By utilising open-source protocols, ONDC aims to counteract the potential
for monopoly within the e-commerce ecosystem. In the platform-centric
model of e-commerce, Kirana stores, which serve as the backbone of the
Indian retail system, often face a disadvantage due to their limited
technological capabilities. While expressing his views on the same, financial
expert Kishore Subramanian said that “ONDC will create fair competition by providing such businesses with access to processes and technologies typically deployed by large e-commerce platforms. As more of these sellers go online, their digital visibility and reach will increase across the e-commerce network”.
ONDC can offer further support to small business owners by standardizing
key operations such as inventory management, order management, and
fulfilment. This standardization helps reduce the costs associated with
conducting business online. The initial pilot executions of ONDC took place
in Delhi, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Bhopal, and Shillong. The plan is to
expand ONDC’s coverage to 75-100 towns across India within this year. Over
the next five years, ONDC aims to onboard 900 million buyers and 1.2
