New Delhi, Nov 27 (KNN) The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has set up a steering committee to formulate, implement and provide policy oversight on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), which is essentially an e-commerce business platform being developed with the government’s backing.

According to DPIIT order accessed by KNN India, ‘The steering committee, will initially build consensus and, once the project gets underway, ensure that it continues to meet the set vision, goals, and objectives.''

The committee is headed by a senior DPIIT official and includes representatives from the Department of Commerce, the Ministry of Electronics and IT, the Ministry of MSME and the NITI Aayog. Quality Council of India Chairman Chairman Adil Zainulbhai, NPCI Technology CEO Dilip Asbe and NSDL Technolgoy CEO Suresh Seth are also part of the committee and will provide domain expertise. Apart from CAIT, a representative of the Retailers Association of India will also be part of the committee to give industry inputs.

The DPIIT has assigned the work of carrying out a pilot for ONDC to the Quality Council of India (QCI)

''Let there be a competition between equals at even level playing field and the proposed open architecture will certainly meet this end and will transform the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Digital India, Vocal on Local and Atmnirbhar Bharat,'' said Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT).

Khandelwal further said that the traders do not afraid from any competition but certainly have concerns over the manner in which the predatory pricing, deep discounting, funding the losses, having arrangement with Brand Companies for selling certain products exclusively on ecommerce platforms, controlling inventory and vicious nexus of the Banks with ecommerce companies for giving cash backs etc. are the business activities which are prohibited.

"We are sure that Open Network Digital Commerce will be a unique and innovative e-commerce business platform and the small businesses will have ample opportunity to adopt and accept the online market as an additional business avenue for them,'' said Bhartia, National President of CAIT.

The ONDC is a digital project of the government to redefine the e-commerce landscape in the wake of a large number of complaints of malpractices being conducted by existing e-commerce companies.