ONDC to provide new wings to India's retail sector: Nandan Nilekani

27 Apr '22

2 min read

Pic: Ismail Sadiron Pictures / shutterstock

The Indian government’s open platform for e-commerce initiative, the Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC), will give new horizon to the retail sector, Nandan Nilekani, one of India’s top technocrats and chairman and co-founder of IT major Infosys, has said. Any businessman would be able to join and offer his services under the ONDC platform.

In his address as the Chief Guest at the Retail Leadership Summit – 2022 organised by the Retailers Association of India (RAI) in Mumbai, Nilekani said that India’s retail sector has benefited immensely from the fast growth of country’s digital economy in the last one decade.

Though the digital payment system was kickstarted in the beginning of the last decade, it gained importance after demonetisation in November 2016, he said. Aadhaar number played a major role in shaping the National Payment Corporation of India’s (NPCI) payment app, UPI (Unique Payment Interface). Every bank customer was verified through the process of KYC based on Aadhaar number. So, the government can now easily transfer subsidy, and provide financial help to crores of people on real time basis through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), he added.

Due to KYC of bank customers and linking of bank accounts with Aadhaar, today customers are able to make payments through UPI easily. “The success of mobile based digital payments can be gauged from the fact that majority of retailers and shopkeepers are accepting payment through QR code via UPI, Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe, etc. Retailers are getting impetus from the fast pace in digital payments and the country is moving ahead towards digital economy,” Nilekani said.

According to him, now the face of the credit system is also going to change as digital credit is emerging fast. KYC verified retailers and customers can get credit instantly. “Retailers can easily take loans from banks and financial institutions. Millions of customers are taking digital credit and shopping under the concept of Buy Now-Pay Later. Obviously, the retail sector is benefiting from this increase in consumer spending.”

Anil Agarwal, additional secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India, said at the summit that the government is planning to launch a pilot project of ONDC. He said that today there are huge possibilities for the retail sector as technological changes are taking place. In an omnichannel world, retailers have to decide their business strategy keeping in mind the expectation and convenience of the customers.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)

More Retail News - India...