Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: The Modi government’s pet project to develop open e-commerce in the country Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) on Thursday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Jammu and Kashmir Trade Promotion Organization (JKTPO) to boost e-commerce adoption in the union territory. JKTPO is a government undertaking set up to enable and promote trade-related activities and infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir.

ONDC said the enhanced partnership will strengthen joint advocacy and support efforts to accelerate onboarding of sellers or seller service providers among MSMEs, artisans, e-commerce companies, farmer producer organisations (FPOs), and logistics companies on the ONDC network.

Also read: Apprentices can offer MSMEs cost-effective, home grown talent: TeamLease’s co-founder Rituparna Chakraborty

“The success of ONDC network depends on broadscale participation and in particular we are keen to create easy access for small and medium-sized enterprises to digital commerce,” said T. Koshy, MD & CEO, ONDC in a statement.

“As we join hands with JKTPO, which aims at building and promoting trade in the state, this initiative will serve as a driving force to initiate the participation of all stakeholders in the growing eCommerce ecosystem through the ONDC network,” he added.

The MoU was signed at the 8th India International MSME Startup Expo and Summit 2022 in Delhi. 

Also read: Digital finance company Protium says it has crossed Rs 3,000 crore in loan disbursements

Devansh Yadav, MD of JKTPO said Jammu and Kashmir have tremendous potential in service sector, horticulture products, handicrafts, handlooms and other traditional sectors which contributes significantly towards the economy of Jammu and Kashmir. “Collaboration with ONDC will strengthen the digital ecosystem of the Jammu and Kashmir, provide forward linkages to even small-sized enterprises and more choices to consumers,” said Yadav.

For the uninitiated, ONDC project, which seems to replicate what UPI did to banking transactions to commerce now, is expected to “digitize the entire value chain, standardize operations, promote inclusion of suppliers, derive efficiencies in logistics and enhance value for consumers,” according to the government. 

Essentially, ONDC would turn e-commerce from its current form into an open digital infrastructure, which is highly scalable for sellers and customers to connect with each other, without the barrier of making an effort to switch between two or more marketplaces for a particular product.

The project is set to scale up to more than 100 cities and have several thousand sellers on the platform in six months, ONDC’s Chief Business Officer, Shireesh Joshi had told FE Aspire last month.