ONDC push for MSMEs among key promises in BJP manifesto

Over the past year-and-a-half, multiple new-age companies such as Paytm, Ola, PhonePe, Meesho, Magicpin and Shiprocket have taken to ONDC

Using the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to enable small businesses across the country would be one of the priorities of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government if it returns to power for a straight third term, according to its poll manifesto.

“We will encourage small traders and MSMEs to adopt ONDC and expand their businesses using the power of technology,” said BJP’s manifesto for the upcoming general elections.

“We will integrate women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) with ongoing initiatives such as One District One Product (ODOP), Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), Ekta Mall, ONDC, GEM, One Station One Product, enhancing better market access for their products,” it added.

Multiple tech unicorns, such as Paytm, Ola, PhonePe, Meesho and Shiprocket, have taken a bet on the government-backed ONDC that is aimed at breaking the stranglehold of a few players like Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato and Swiggy on online retail in the country.

Meanwhile, the volume of monthly retail purchases on the ONDC has grown six times in the last six months to hit 3.6 million in March, compared to over 600,000 in September last year.

ONDC is operational in 588 “countable cities”, which are the cities or districts with more than 100 orders a month in the last 3 months. This is approximately 70 percent of cities in India. The platform has fulfilled transactions in over 800 cities in India.

Ride-hailing through ONDC is now live in seven cities: Bengaluru, Mysuru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai and Kochi. The launch of metro ticket booking on ONDC in Chennai is being seen as a crucial step towards multimodal mobility through the network.

The BJP asserted earlier this week that its manifesto recognises the aspirations and needs of the rising middle class, and identifies opportunities for them and promises to create conditions for a better quality of life.

The ruling party has promised better cities, higher quality infrastructure, faster and better digital infrastructure, controlling pollution, investment in technologies of tomorrow and better living conditions, it said, adding that the middle class will benefit a lot from these, it said.

Its promise of encouraging the creation of new satellite townships near metro cities, boosting transit-oriented development, building unified metropolitan transport systems, ensuring water-secure cities, leveraging best practices for waste water treatment and eliminating open landfills will address immediate liveability concerns of the middle class, the party said.

It has also promised in its manifesto, which was released on Sunday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders of the BJP, high-value jobs not just in big cities but in tier-2 and tier-3 cities besides leveraging tourism to promote local entrepreneurship and jobs.

The manifesto's focus on increasing the number of Global Capability Centres (GCCs), Global Tech Centres (GTCs) and Global Engineering Centres (GECs) and making the country a global hub will also help the middle class, who will benefit also from the resolve to make housing more affordable.