Govt launches ONDC, an alternative to Flipkart & Amazon, in Bengaluru

To reduce the dominance of e-commerce giants like Flipkart and Amazon, the government today rolled out its big initiative -- Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) -- for public in Bengaluru. With the help of ONDC, government plans to help small retailers and create an alternative to dominant global giants like Amazon and Walmart, who controls over half of India's fast-growing e-commerce market.

Consumers in Bengaluru can now shop from multiple categories of products and services from a single buyer application of their choice. To begin with, consumers can place their orders in two domains - groceries and restaurants - through any buyer apps participating on the ONDC network. Currently, Mystore, PayTM, and Spicemoney are available as buyer apps on ONDC.


It is democratic, cost-effective and empowers buyers and small businesses," commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said in a tweet.


Government feels that ONDC will help in curbing the monopoly of big players and increasing the reach of small merchants.

The commerce and industry ministry launched the pilot phase of the open network for digital commerce in April, in five cities – Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Shillong and Coimbatore. People were allowed to do transactions in these cities.

As many as 20 organisations of national repute have confirmed investments of Rs 255 crore into ONDC. Lenders such as State Bank of India, UCO Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Bank of Baroda have already committed investments.

ONDC is a set of standards for voluntary adoption by sellers or logistics providers or payment gateways.

1. What is ONDC?
   ONDC will enable local shop owners across segments, such as mobility, grocery, food order and delivery, hotel booking and travel, to display their products and services in search results of any app. For example, if both Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart integrate their platforms with ONDC, a user searching for a any product on Amazon would also see results from Flipkart and other sellers on the Amazon app.