New Delhi, Oct 26 (Mayank Nigam) A non-profit entity led by private sector participation for scale-up and rapid deployment of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is one of the key recommendations that have emerged in a review of the ONDC by Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, on Tuesday. The ONDC is an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to digitize the entire value chain, standardize operations, promote inclusion of suppliers, derive efficiencies in logistics and enhance value for consumers. The task has been assigned to the Quality Council of India. Stakeholders in the meeting which was also attended by Anurag Jain, Secretary of DPIIT, suggested that a non profit company be set up with private sector participation to provide a start-up mindset for a population scale implementation.
The entity would be enabled by a management with a futuristic vision, leadership with a deep understanding of commerce, the power of cutting edge technology and driven on a mission mode to drive change. Stakeholders were of the view that a non-profit company structure removes any incentive for owners to drive for profit maximization, keep focus on ethical and responsible behaviour while providing for trust, rigorous norms of governance, accountability and transparency. The role of the entity would be to develop the network by adopting and building enabling technology and encouraging wide-scale voluntary participation by eco-system players. To ensure network discipline, a code of conduct and rules of network based on principles of consumer protection, fair trade and regulatory conformity would be established by the entity. The other responsibilities of the non-profit company include providing foundational services for managing the network like digital infrastructure for the network, common registry, certification of participants and certifying agencies, grievance redressal. The entity would develop and operate reference applications for buyers, sellers and gateway for market activation and support SMEs in their digital transformation by developing readymade tools to help existing software applications quickly adapt to the network.
The ONDC project has moved significantly forward since its inception, as Goyal was apprised, with a team of experts established by QCI for execution in a mission mode and a number of small and medium enterprises brought on board as volunteers to complement the ONDC team. An ONDC gateway has also been established. About 20 entities covering all network components are at various stages of on-boarding and DPIIT has approved a budget of approximately Rs 10 crore for initial work on the project. Expressing satisfaction with the progress made, Goyal has called for compressing timelines for bringing this network to a fruition, ensuring wide participation from the ecosystem and creation of an institutional structure which would conduct itself in an ethical, cooperative, democratic and responsible manner. He directed that special efforts be made to build trust in the ONDC network and elaborate mechanisms must be put in place for dispute resolution. Among those who participated in the meeting were and members of advisory council of ONDC including RS Sharma, CEO of National Health Authority, Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of Quality Council of India, Dilip Asbe, MD & CEO of National Payments Corporation of India, Suresh Sethi, MD & CEO of NSDL-e Gov, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO of Retailers Association of India, Arvind Gupta, founder of MyGov and Anjali Bansal of Avaana Capital.