ONDC Will Help Small Retail Survive Onslaught Of Large Tech-Based Ecommerce Firms, Says Piyush Goyal

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Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, on Monday, has said that the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), a unified payments interface-type protocol, will help small retailers survive the onslaught of large tech-based e-commerce companies, according to a PTI report.

“ONDC will help our small retail industry survive the onslaught of large tech-based e-commerce companies. The effort is to encourage small companies and startups to integrate into the e-commerce ecosystem ecosystem. Like UPI democratises the benefits of e-commerce,” said Goyal in a statement.

He also reportedly said that the consumer industry in India, and FMCGs have been victims of indiscriminate low-quality imports because of which people have suffered.

On promoting the manufacturing of high-quality goods, he said the government is working to introduce quality standards in a big way to to domestic manufacturing stand against the irrational competition, increase scale of production and become more competitive, as per the news report.

“Each consumer must commit to good quality, sustainable, indigenous products. Must promote a message of respect for Indian products and opportunities that consumers offer,” he said.

India has been following a very different path of digitalisation which gives high priority to public digital infrastructure. ONDC has the ability to transform e-commerce in the whole world because like UPI it will democratise and make e-commerce available to the common man. To validate this statement, in an ONDC press conference held three months ago, Piyush Goyal had said that, “ONDC connects the 6 crore small retailers all over in the country. The small stores whose existence is under threat will be connected and secured through ONDC.”

ONDC is an open network platform designed to level the digital commerce market in India. A UPI-like open network that enables online businesses and sectors like food delivery, hospitality, grocery, etc to engage with their consumers on a single platform. The Indian government is currently testing ONDC within selected cities with selected vendors.