Advisory Council on adoption of open network for e-commerce holds first meeting

A nine-member advisory council, set up by the government on steps required to design and accelerate the adoption of an open network for digital commerce (ONDC), held its first meeting on Friday, according to CAIT. Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) Secretary General P Khandelwal is one of the members of the council.

The council deliberated on several issues concerning the formation of the ONDC platform and setting out basic fundamentals of this platform, CAIT said in a statement.

The confederation said that a platform like ONDC will certainly liberate the e-commerce business of the country from the vicious clutches of certain global e-trailers.


"Being an open network it will empower not only small businesses with the adoption of e-commerce as an additional business stream but will also give various choices to the consumers for obtaining quality products with competitive prices. It will encourage local commerce to a larger extent," Khandelwal said.

He said that there is a need for a regulatory or monitoring mechanism to ensure that this platform should not be overpowered by big companies.

The nine members of the advisory council include Nandan Nilekani from Infosys, National Health Authority Chief Executive Officer R S Sharma, QCI Chairman Adil Zainulbhai, Avaana Capital Founder Anjali Bansal, and Digital India Foundation Co-Founder Arvind Gupta.

ONDC aims at promoting open networks developed on open-sourced methodology, using open specifications and open network protocols independent of any specific platform. It is expected to digitise the entire value chain, standardise operations, promote inclusion of suppliers, derive efficiencies in logistics, and enhance value for consumers.