New Delhi: To challenge giant e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart, the central government is working on a big plan. The government is soon bringing an open technology network (Open Network for Digital Commerce) where small traders and consumers can buy and sell everything. Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and non-executive chairman of Infosys, is working to give shape to this plan of the government. It is being told that Amazon and Flipkart will get tough competition from this network. It is worth noting that both of them occupy 80 percent of the country’s online retail market.
Nilekani says, “This (open network for digital commerce) is an idea whose time has come. We are indebted to millions of small sellers for participating in the new high-growth area of digital commerce. This has helped the government develop the Aadhaar biometric ID system. According to a Bloomberg report, Hemant Taneja, managing partner of Palo Alto-based venture capital firm General Catalyst, said that despite all the challenges, Nilekani was the right person for the job. Taneja further said that Nandan is known for his far-reaching thinking and he will definitely make this plan a success.
Nilekani is part of the nine-member advisory council that will advise the Indian government on measures needed to adopt the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). Nilekani says, “We are creating a new curriculum that aims to change the rules of the e-commerce game.
What is Open Network?
ONDC is an open technology network based on the Open Protocol and allows local commerce in segments such as mobility, grocery, food order, delivery, hotel booking and travel to be traced through 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.
The network will start in these 5 cities first
The new network will be rolled out to select users in five cities – Delhi, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Bhopal, and Shillong very soon. Anil Agarwal, additional secretary, DPIIT, said, “We have identified five cities because we wanted to have a geographical spread across the board. We have a trader base in these five cities, who can understand the intricacies of transactions on ONDC.
