Nandan Nilekani looking to help Indian small merchants with Open Network for Digital Commerce
Nandan Nilekani is looking to help small merchants with ONDC
Nandan Nilekani is no stranger to both innovation and multi-billion-dollar projects. The 66-year-old is probably the most well-known for founding tech giant Infosys along with N. R. Narayana Murthy and he even played a major part in developing the Aadhar biometric ID system for the government.
The accomplishments continue for Nilekani as also helped in the introduction of United Payment Interface (UPI) – a payment structure which is used by giant companies like Google and WhatsApp.
However, the latest project for Nilekani is to save the online retail market of India from the challenge of mammoth e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart and to provide the local shops an online platform that will allow them to participate in the space of digital commerce.
The project currently known as Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) will reportedly be an open network for small merchants to directly provide their products to traders as well as consumers.
With companies like Amazon and Flipkart providing door-to-door service at breakneck speeds, the market has become skewed in their favour and this has directly impacted the smaller merchants.
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But, with the application and adoption of ONDC, the consumers will have to able to look for a number of services at the same place and it will provide a space for all traders to showcase their products. As a result, it will become a direct competition for foreign companies who currently occupy around 80 per cent of the entire e-commerce market of India, according to News18.
According to the report in Business Standard, the ONDC network will soon be rolled out with government assistance and the first five test cities will be Delhi, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Bhopal, and Shillong. However, the plan for the government is to expand it to 100 cities within the next six months.
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