Govt is working on E-commerce policy.DPIIT Secretary

The much-awaited e-commerce policy and the consumer protection rules could soon be released as the policy is in advanced stages of finalization, DPIIT secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh on Thursday at a press briefing in New Delhi. He said the government wants all e-commerce players to become part of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and this initiative is not trying to put anybody out of business, The idea is to democratise the e-commerce for MSMEs and smaller producers in the remote parts of the country and provide them a level playing field, he said.  “It's not that we are trying to put anybody out of business, or we are an upfront competitor to any particular portal or any particular e-commerce provider. We are actually inclusive, we want all e-commerce players to be part of this network,” Singh said.  

Singh said that E-commerce rules and e-commerce policy both will be congruent with each other. That is the idea. That exercise is at a fairly advanced stage. ONDC, CEO Thampy Koshy said that the intention is not to do a price war and kill everything and everyday transactions have risen to 20,000 transactions per day currently from 50 transactions in January this year.Motilal Oswal said in a report said that ONDC could pose a threat to Zomato if it meaningfully scales up across categories, allowing it to achieve greater efficiency. ONDC is being seen as a major threat to food-delivery platforms such as Swiggy and Zomato as it connects restaurants directly to customers. ONDC lets restaurants sell food directly to consumers without the need for a third party.