• The Union government is looking to formally launch the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) this year to “democratise e-commerce” and “to provide alternatives to proprietary e-commerce sites”.

ABOUT ONDC

• Background- The government wants to change the fundamental structure of the e-commerce market from the current “platform-centric model to an open-network model”.
• The ONDC is an open source network set up modelled after the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) project that is seen as a success by many.
  • The UPI project allows people to send or receive money irrespective of the payments platforms on which they are registered.
  • Similarly, the government wants to ensure that buyers and sellers of goods in the e-commerce market can transact regardless of the platforms on which they are registered.
• It will enable local commerce across segments, such as mobility, grocery, food order and delivery, hotel booking and travel, among others, to be discovered and engaged by any network-enabled application.
• It is an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• It consists of-
  • buyer-side apps where consumers can place orders,
  • seller-side apps that onboard merchants and display their listings, and
  • logistics platforms that handle deliveries.
• Thus project ONDC is mainly aimed at curbing “digital monopolies”.
• ONDC could give a huge booster shot to smaller online retailers and new entrants.