Digital commerce: Govt sets up key panel to set protocols

Curiously, the council doesn’t have any member from key e-tailers.

The division for promotion of business and inner commerce (DPIIT) on Monday arrange a nine-member panel, together with Nationwide Well being Authority chief government RS Sharma and Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani, to recommend measures to design an open community for digital commerce (ONDC) that goals to curb monopolistic tendencies of e-commerce platforms, amongst others.

The ONDC is anticipated to set requirements for onboarding retailers on on-line market locations in addition to for the availability and supply of merchandise by way of on-line channels. The concept of an ONDC was mooted final 12 months to carry some type of requirements and streamline the nation’s e-commerce ecosystem. At present, totally different e-marketplaces have totally different algorithm, which at instances make it tough for small merchants and suppliers to undertake.

The transfer is the newest in a sequence of adjustments introduced or being deliberate to be rolled out by the federal government for the e-commerce sector. Already, the federal government’s draft e-commerce coverage below the patron safety Act has triggered appreciable unease amongst e-tailers for a bunch of adjustments, together with the ban of “particular flash gross sales” by e-commerce gamers. Final week, commerce and business minister Piyush Goyal stated the federal government may concern a clarification on its overseas direct funding (FDI) coverage for e-commerce “very shortly”. Varied reviews have advised that the federal government may tighten the norms that might drive gamers like Amazon and Flipkart to restructure their current advertising tie-ups.

Final 12 months, the DPIIT had requested the High quality Council of India to provoke a pilot mission on the ONDC.

The panel additionally contains Adil Zainulbhai, chairman of the High quality Council of India; Anjali Bansal, chairperson of Avaana Capital; Arvind Gupta, head of Digital India Basis; Dilip Asbe, MD at Nationwide Funds Company of India; Suresh Sethi, MD at Nationwide Securities Depository Ltd; Praveen Khandelwal, secretary normal, Confederation of All India Merchants and Kumar Rajagopalan, chief government at Retailers Affiliation of India. A further secretary on the DPIIT would be the convenor of the advisory council. Curiously, the council doesn’t have any member from key e-tailers.

“ONDC goals at a selling open networks developed on open sourced methodology, utilizing open specs and open community protocols impartial of any particular platform. ONDC is anticipated to digitise the whole worth chain, standardise operations, promote inclusion of suppliers, derive efficiencies in logistics and improve worth for customers,” the DPIIT stated in a notification.