1. What is ONDC?

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is a non-profit company backed by the government of India to promote open networks for all aspects of the exchange of goods and services over one digital network. The experts believe this will be a game changer in the Indian e-commerce space. The platform will democratise the country's fast growing e-commerce space and provide equal opportunities to all the e-commerce players. The initiative taken by the government will reduce the monopoly, duopoly and revolutionize the e-commerce space by providing opportunities to micro, small and medium enterprises(MSME) which are left behind in capturing the e-commerce market. Currently, the e-commerce space is dominated by U.S. giants - Amazon, Walmart.

2. Why is this considered the next disruptor in e-commerce similar to what UPI did in payment?

In recent years, UPI has become the most inclusive mode of payment in India with over 26 crore unique users and 5 crore merchants on the platform. UPI has disrupted the payment industry in favor of consumers and the economy of the country by removing transaction fees, having zero Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) policy and diluting the control of banks over transactions. Similarly, it is argued that ONDC will do the same by revolutionising the e-commerce space and diluting the control of big players over the e-commerce space. With ONDC a very small retailer will be immediately visible on the platform. The customer can discover any product, service and compare prices based on a unified search feature by using ONDC and thus it won't affect the freedom of the choice of the customers rather it would give more features.

3. How Reliance Retail is planning to enter ONDC?

After Dunzo, Reliance Retail owned last-mile logistics provider Grab.in , has integrated its platform with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). Grab.in is owned by Reliance Retail with 80% stakeholding. Reliance Industries acquired Grab in 2019 and is now housed under Reliance Retail. Reliance Retail backed Dunzo is already integrated with ONDC as one of the logistics partners. Grab's entry on ONDC marks Reliance's formal entry into much hyped network, pitched as a disruptor to break the dominance of U.S. based giants- Amazon and Walmart owned Flipkart by bringing small retailers online. Grab is in the process of starting a pilot project with ONDC and it is in the nascent stage. "We look forward to growing our partnership with ONDC and our focus will be to provide a smooth and efficient delivery experience for our clients across sectors", said Pratish Sanghavi founder of Grab. https://unlistedzone.com/shares/reliance-retail-limited-unlisted-shares/