The Indian government is doing a feasibility study to integrate all its related platforms with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to ensure that larger benefits go to buyers and sellers and a robust e-commerce ecosystem is built to withstand any disruption in the physical market. One such experiment may come up if the government finds it legally and technically feasible to link e-NAM (electronic National Agricultural Market) with ONDC.

As the government’s e-NAM has connected 1,389 mandis (agriculture market yards) across the country, an integration may help farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) to navigate both e-NAM and ONDC simultaneously to buy and sell produce, sources said. After acquiring skills, many FPOs have forayed into trading of farm produce to increase their turnover for viability.

One FPO from Maharashtra while sourcing spices from its own district has ventured into buying chillis from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, to meet its customers’ demand and opportunities for selling the produce have widened manifold after the Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) enabled such FPOs to join the ONDC platform, sources said.

ONDC tops 5-m mark

.An official stated that discussions are on with multiple Ministries to enable their ecosystem to leverage ONDC.

ONDC has been witnessing growth in adoption both in terms of transactions and onboarding of sellers. In December, the platform crossed 5 million-mark in terms of monthly transactions. It is expected to grow to 6-8 million transactions per month. It has been averaging 1.5 lakh- 2 lakh transactions per day.

Over 2 lakh providers of services and goods had a presence on ONDC until December and the pace at which new sellers are onboarding the network has increased.

Over 50 per cent of the transactions on ONDC are contributed by the mobility sector. In terms of the retail segment, food & grocery and fashion are the key contributors.

The network initially began with food, beverage and grocery categories and gradually it has expanded to include mobility, fashion, beauty and personal care, home and kitchen and electronics appliances among others. While the mobility and food and grocery segments have been growing rapidly, sources said categories such as financial services and B2B transactions are expected to also further expand in width and depth. There has also been a strong focus on enabling onboarding of small and medium enterprises as well as rural sellers.

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