A nod from the Reserve Bank of India and the Union Ministry of Finance has been given to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)’s acquisition of 10 percent stage in the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), India’s open source platform for e-commerce.
But before having a look at the details of the acquisition, lets dig deeper into what exactly ONDC is and what it aims to do
What is ONDC? Why is it Formed?
It is a non-profit company whose network will enable the display of products and services from all participating e-commerce platforms in search results across all apps on the network. This means for example, if an user is looking for an earphone online, then it will get the results for both Flipkart and Amazon at the integrated platform. Prerequisite being the fact that Flipkart and Amazon integrate their platforms with ONDC.
Its aim is to help millions of small businesses that often lack technological expertise as well as resources to match the discounts offered by heavyweights like Amazon and Flipkart.
NPCI & BOI’s Stakes in ONDC
If sources are to go by, then even the Bank of India is also in the process of investing in the ONDC and may get a 5-7 percent stake.
Not just that, but the open source platform is also in talks with the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) to come onboard as an investor.
At the end of the exercise, ONDC would have raised approximately Rs 190 crore from 20 investors.
The MD & CEO of NPCI, Dilip Asbe will also be the part of the ONDC’s Advisory Council.
There are going to be 20 stakeholders in total. 17 out of those 20 are already on onboard and include the likes of Quality Council of India, Protean (NSDL eGov), BSE Investments, NSE Investments, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, IDFC First Bank, SIDBI, State Bank of India, NABARD, Bank of Baroda, CSC, eGovernance Services India, UCO Bank, Central Depository Services (India) Ltd, Punjab National Bank, and ICICI Bank.