Centre Asks DPIIT To Build An ONDC-Compatible Tool For Local Businesses

In a recent Rajya Sabha meeting, the Parliamentary standing committee requested the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to build a strategy that can help small businesses create a technical tool compatible with ONDC’s protocols.  

The standing committee said that by doing so, the ONDC will be moving closer to the Centre’s goals of onboarding small homegrown businesses.  

According to the Business Standard report, the committee in a report named ‘Promotion and Regulation of E-Commerce in India’ said that the DPIIT’s ONDC initiative is ambitious and revolutionary. 

Further, it also pointed out loopholes including onboarding of existing ecommerce and compatibility as well as interoperability of existing apps of buyers and sellers that need to be fixed to make ONDC a successful initiative.

Launched in April this year, ONDC is working on a pilot basis in 35 cities including Noida, Faridabad, Lucknow, Pune, Chennai, Kannur, Bijnor, Bhopal, Chhindwara and Kolkata, among others.

The report stated, “However, the ONDC strategy paper is silent on these issues and does not lay out a road map/strategy for addressing these issues.” 

The Parliamentary standing committee also raised concerns about the lack of clarity given by ONDC to resolve customer issues related to transactions and delivery of inadequate products. It also highlighted that small Indian businesses will face difficulties in competing with discounts and sales offered by ecommerce giants. As a result, these businesses will be forced out of the ONDC network in the long run. 

The committee has asked the DPIIT to give clarifications on the above-cited issues. 

Recently, ecommerce platform Snapdeal inked an onboarding agreement with ONDC to join its network. In addition, the ecommerce player is aiming for a PAN-India launch by next month.

Besides, ONDC is also in discussions with nearly 200 companies including Dunzo, Paytm, Meesho and Flipkart subsidiaries to onboard them on its network. 

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