ONDC Partners MeitY’s Common Service Centres To Take Ecommerce To Rural Areas

The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY) Common Service Centres (CSC) to take ecommerce services to rural areas of the country.

As part of this partnership, CSC’s e-Grameen will join the open network as a buyer application, allowing citizens in the rural parts of the country to access ecommerce services.

CSC services will become a part of the ONDC Network in two phases. In the first phase, it will be onboarded as a buyer-side platform. In the second phase, sellers registered on the CSC platform will be able to receive orders via ONDC Network. 

Commenting on the partnership, ONDC CEO T Koshy said, “We are delighted to see Common Service Centers on the ONDC Network, heralding a new chapter that empowers local entrepreneurship. Through the trusted and widespread network of CSCs, millions of citizens will now have access to essential e-commerce services.” 

The Indian government launched CSCs in 2009 to take digital services to underserved rural and remote locations where availability of computers and the internet was negligible or mostly absent. 

The scheme was relaunched in 2015 as CSC 2.0 to expand the outreach of CSCs to all gram panchayats across the country. Currently, there are over 5.9 Lakh CSCs across India, of which over 4.68 Lakh are in rural areas.

“Rural India is fast transforming due to digital empowerment. Now, ecommerce services will be able to reach isolated rural areas thanks to this relationship with ONDC. This partnership will create a new wave of opportunities to increase e‑retail penetration to its maximum potential in rural India. This will pave the way for inclusive development in the far-flung areas of the country,” CSC SPV’s managing director and CEO Sanjay Kumar Rakesh said. 

While ONDC, a part of the India Stack, has been constantly expanding its offerings as well as participants on the platform, it has largely been a city phenomenon till now. In December, Minister of State (MoS) for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash said the network was live in 500 towns and cities across the country. 

As such, the partnership with CSC will help ONDC bolster its presence in the rural parts of the country. 

Earlier this week, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy also said that despite the growth in the ecommerce sector over the last few years, its penetration remains at only 7-8% of India’s retail market.