The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is now live in Meerut from today.
ONDC is a Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) initiative. It is not an application, platform, intermediary, or software but a set of specifications designed to foster open, unbundled, and interoperable open networks, thereby eliminating the dependency on a single platform. It aims to enable e-commerce for sellers of every scale and size across India by making the operational capabilities required for eCommerce available at scalable costs, stitched together by Network Participants enabling the network, ONDC said in a statement.
Anyone can join the ONDC, including startups, small-scale sellers, regional players. This allows undiscovered local sellers to gain visibility across all buyer applications of the ONDC and have an equal opportunity to compete with large-scale sellers in India.
The Meerut launch event was attended by additional DPIIT secretary Anil Agarwal, among others.
In Meerut's beta launch, four live buyer applications would allow consumers to transact via ONDC (Spice Money, Mystore, Paytm and IDFC First Bank).
"Starting from Bengaluru, we're excited to expand ONDC beta to Meerut, given the existing number of sellers already adopting ONDC here. We hope that with the Beta rollout today, more sellers and local businesses will join ONDC in Meerut, and will pave the way for bringing the vision of Vocal4Local to reality in UP and across India.” T Koshy, the MD & CEO of ONDC, said.
