OPEN NETWORK FOR DIGITAL COMMERCE (ONDC) - GOVERNANCE
News:
Orders on ONDC grow rapidly as India Post
gears up to join in
What's
in the news?
●
The Open Network for Digital Commerce
(ONDC) is not meant to “to create a price war,” but to “help small enterprises
to get” to a threshold in digital commerce, the network’s Chief Executive
Officer Thampy Koshy told reporters.
Key
takeaways:
●
ONDC activity has grown dramatically -
partly on the back of incentives it has provided to participants.
●
India
Post
may soon join the network, which would bring one of the world’s largest
logistics systems on board.
ONDC:
●
ONDC is a government-backed modular
network for e-commerce, food and grocery delivery, and cabs.
Non-profit
Organization:
●
It was incorporated as a Section 8 (Non-
Profit Organisation under Companies Act
2013) company in December 2021.
●
The Quality Council of India and Protean
eGov Technologies Limited are its initial promoters.
Aim:
●
It aims at promoting open networks for all aspects of exchange of goods and
services over digital or electronic networks.
Objective:
●
ONDC was launched to curb “potential rent seeking” behaviour from top e-commerce
platforms in retail, food delivery and cab aggregation, and leave each part of
the value chain, from cataloguing orders to actually delivering them, to
different players.
Nodal
Authority:
●
Department for Promotion of Industry and
Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of
Commerce and Industries.
ONDC
Model:
●
It is trying to replicate the success of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in
the field of digital payments.
●
The open network concept also extends
beyond the retail sector, to any digital commerce domains including wholesale,
mobility, food delivery, logistics, travel, urban services, etc.
Features:
Interoperability:
●
Under ONDC, it is envisaged that a buyer
registered on one participating e-commerce site (for example, Amazon) may
purchase goods from a seller on another participating e-commerce site (for
example, Flipkart).
●
The platform will allow buyers and sellers
to connect and transact with each other online, regardless of what other
applications they use.
Open-source
platform:
●
It is an open-source platform, which means
that the source code is freely available
to developers, businesses, and other stakeholders.
●
This allows for greater collaboration and innovation,
and ensures that the platform is adaptable to changing market needs.
Incentives:
●
The financial incentives for new participants are leading to ONDC
growing at a pace comparable to the large food and e-commerce retail giants it
is up against.