Fair Price Shops From Two Himachal’s Districts Onboard ONDC

Fair price shops from two districts of Himachal Pradesh – Una and Hamirpur – will onboard open network for digital commerce (ONDC) via a pilot programme launched by the department of food and public distribution (DFPD).

As per ET’s report, citing ONDC’s chief executive T Koshy, “The DFPD is funding the programme as a pilot with the help of MicroSave, which provides hand-holding support to fair price shops, and nStore as the technology partner.”

nStore is the tech platform which offers integrated digital order-to-deliver and customer engagement solutions to traditional, online and mobile retailers. 

On the other hand, MicroSave is a consulting firm which has been working with NPCI and some public sector banks to create an ecosystem to boost digital transactions in the villages across the country.

The first order was placed on February 06 across 11 FPS in the Himalayan state of which five are in Una and six are in Hamirpur districts. The programme will be further expanded across the rest of the state.

The DFPD, gradually aims to cover the whole country through the programme. 

Through this programme, the customers in the remote locations will be able to access the groceries and other essentials available in the FPS through the network. This, according to Koshy, will in turn help the shops to increase their utilisation and boost revenue. 

Now on, household groceries available in kirana stores will be available in the FPS through ONDC and buyers will be able to purchase these through apps like Paytm. 

Adding to this, Koshy further said that Chennai metro has turned out to be the first in the country to have onboarded ONDC and Kochi metro is expected to join in about a week. 

Chennai metro’s technology partner, ride hailing app Yaary, which launched mobility services in Hyderabad recently on ONDC will be the first technology service provider on the network to offer seamless metro integration.

This comes at a time when several digital and tech businesses are joining the network.

Recently, Tata Neu also joined ONDC to venture into the online food ordering service. 

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