After UPI, India is going to launch another digital platform that will transform the national economy. This time in the form of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
While UPI is for banking transactions, ONDC will be for commercial purposes. It will be operated and managed by a private non-profit enterprise.
In the review meeting for the project on Tuesday presided over by Piyush Goyal, DPIIT secretary and ONDC advisory council members suggested the idea of such a private entity.
The main focus is to help MSMEs through digital tools which are to be provided by the new digital platform. But the main focus of the project is to democratize e-commerce, i.e., to end the monopoly of Amazon and Flipkart in the e-commerce sector.
The main idea of this system is that people can conduct commercial trade on the digital platform regardless of their registration. For example, a buyer registered in Flipkart may directly purchase from a seller registered in Amazon.
The main reason for such a platform is that e-commercial platforms have dominated and discriminated between sellers and only promote the ones they have indirect stakes.
The government wishes to level this field. Through this the buyers can access the sellers without having to switch between platforms, thus making platforms redundant. They hope this will help the traders in the MSME sector.
They will also provide them with the tools for conducting business with ease.
For example, a shopkeeper can declare the number of items he has with himself in this common platform. In that way, he can attract buyers to this open platform, who otherwise would be spread out.
DPIIT expects it to digitize the whole value chain, standardize operations, promote the incorporation of suppliers, determine efficiencies in logistics and enhance incentives for buyers.
Through this, they hope to convert e-commerce infrastructure to open one with no barriers for the traders.
It is a departure from a platform-centric framework to an open-source framework. In this environment, small-scale and middle-scale traders can access digital fields with ease.
The code of conduct and operating reference within the system would assure a free and fair trading environment.
The standardization of products and information in the ONDC will be done by a group of experts under the Quality Council of India. There are a few volunteers from MSMEs too, and a gateway is opened for them.
DPIIT has approved a budget of 10 crores for the project.
But critics say that this platform is a solution for searching for a problem.
In this environment, any seller can list their products across any platform. Even the thrill of online buying is checking the prices across the websites and coming to a better decision. This enhances the platform itself.
When that is taken away what is there to maintain its quality.
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