ONDC is an ambitious project. It basically wants to empower mom-and-pop shops and kirana stores. It has been rolled out on a pilot basis on April 29, 2022. It has an aim to reduce the dominance of e-commerce players such as Amazon and Flipkart. It aims to provide level playing field to all kind of sellers — big or small. These would be able to list and sell their products on this platform. It too applies to buyers who will be given wide array of choices. There would be UPI for payments. There is no issue of gateways.

Practically, there some loose ends. There is no clarity about accountability. Amazon and Flipkart accept the accountability and the sellers are not accountable. The delivery time, cancellation of the order and return of the product are guided by the policy of the platform. In case of ONDC, there seems to be no such mechanism. Supposing, a kirana store delivers the product late to a consumer. Who takes the responsibility?

Bigger sellers can afford the discounts, which smaller players cannot. Thus how will they be able to compete with the bigger sellers?

In the pilot project, the sellers apps are Gofrugal, Growth Falcons, Digit and eSamudaay which are connected to ONDC. The logistics is being handled by Goodbox. Buyers use Phonepe and Paytm to get into the network and buy. The sellers in the pilot are 150. They want to onboard millions of sellers spread across the cities.

The pilot will teach the way the projects runs — the SOP for it. There is an investment of Rs.255 crore into ONDC equity from some 20 entities.