OUR BIGGEST FOCUS IS TO GIVE SMALL BUSINESSES ACCESS TO LARGE MARKETS

The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) aims to democratise ecommerce by bringing small businesses and unorganised retailers online and increase India's ecommerce penetration to 25 per cent. T. Koshy, CEO, ONDC in a conversation with Annurag Batra, Editor-inChief, BW Businessworld and Arjun Yadav shares the project's journey and the potential of this network in revamping India's digital commerce space. Excerpts:

- Arjun Yadav

Please tell us more about how the idea of ONDC came about?

The Open Network for Digital Commerce’s genesis is due to the pandemic. During Covid-19 triggered lockdowns and disruptions throughout the chain, and businesses were challenged in reaching markets and getting goods. The Ministry of Commerce and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) understood this concern and began exploring ways and means to bridge the gap between sellers and buyers. They put together a team that deliberated on creating something that would completely transform the market. That’s when the idea of ONDC came about, which aimed to change how digital commerce is done in India. The team’s philosophy was not to create something proprietary but build an open-source foundation. They then looked at the backend protocol that was already available as the standard protocol used by many sectors such as mobility and health and asked whether ONDC could adopt it with the idea of creating an open foundation.

How do you describe ONDC and what’s the progress of its rollout?