Goyal was speaking virtually at the launch of a three-day Grand Hackathon of ONDC and NABARD where early stage startups will participate and solve two problem statements to bring ecommerce to agri tech. Rewards worth Rs 1.2 crore will be given to the winners.
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Stating that farmers’ welfare and doubling their income is a top priority, he said, the more we enable our farmers to get access to farm inputs, to get connected with markets using technology and innovation, the faster our economic growth will be. Even though conceptualised and led by the government, ultimately ONDC will be implemented by private initiatives, he said. ONDC will help small traders, farmers and sellers participate in the market with an equal footing as large players. This will break the barriers that large platforms are enjoying and enable small players to enjoy the fruits of digital technology, he said.
As ONDC builds interoperability of different platforms, it provides greater choice to choose from a variety of products, near people’s place of stay or where they require it, he explained. With products offered on different platforms, via different modes of logistics/payment, we will be able to see a revolution in the marketplace, he said.
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“It will also eliminate a lot of malpractices like algorithms that are often used by Big Tech who literally force consumers to certain suppliers, who are able to prefer suppliers over others, who are able to have higher commissions from certain people and then promote their products as against giving a choice to the consumer of all suppliers equally,” he said.
This will also help the mom and pop stores, the small retailers all over the country thereby protecting the livelihood of crores who are otherwise threatened by the advent of Big Tech, he reasoned.
Goyal recently met participants of the beta version trials of the ONDC platform which is currently ongoing in Coimbatore. ONDC went live in Lucknow two days back. It is the sixth city after the five pilot cities that it initially went live in on April 29.
“Now neighbourhood kirana stores will not only compete with the modern stores but also increase their income. ONDC will be crucial in democratising the agricultural value chain and digital transformation of the agri sector. A farmer from Himachal can now be connected to all markets across the country and the world, Goyal said.
This will also help the consumer choose quality and price, delivery and payment mode.”I have also
suggested that we look at local languages and regional languages in ONDC so that more and more people can comfortably use the services of digital e-commerce,” he said.
NABARD Chairman Dr GR Chintala said NABARD is a big developmental financial institution posting Rs. 7.5 lakh crore balance sheet annually. “We work for the Farmer Producers’ Organisation and Off Farmer Producers’ Organisation. We also work for the empowerment of women but they do not have the market that they’re looking at. This is where NABARD thought ONDC could solve all the problems. Products could be standardised this way, could be catalogued and put on the network. What we have put into ONDC is nothing compared to the exponential market it will create for us,” he said.
India has 140 million farmers and they produce quite a lot but they’re still at the mercy of the market. “Can we create a sustainable solution by creating a sustainable market? ONDC is going to help farmers and artisans to discover prices which they were denied for centuries,” Chinthala said.
