The Economic Survey 2022-23 says that Government E-Marketplace (GeM) and Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is significant in democratising digital payments.
India’s ONDC is considered the UPI for the Indian e-commerce ecosystem. The main aim of ONDC is to democratize and promote an open network for all aspects of the exchange of goods and services. ONDC is based on an open-sourced approach, with open standards and open network protocols that are platform-independent.
ONDC’s foundations are open protocols for all aspects of the entire chain of activities in the exchange of goods and services; it is similar to a hypertext transfer protocol for information exchange over the internet, a simple mail transfer protocol for email exchange, and a unified payment interface for payments.
The Government E-Marketplace (GeM) attained an annual procurement of Rs 1 lakh crore in FY22. This is a 160 per cent increase compared to FY21.
GeM has also taken many steps to onboard products of Self-Help Groups (SHGs), tribal communities, artisans, weavers, and MSMEs. About 57 per cent of the total business on GeM has come through the MSME units, and female entrepreneurs have contributed over 6 per cent.
The open network system will make the e-commerce landscape more inclusive, accessible, and experience-driven for all consumers and sellers, especially for small businesses that will exercise more freedom in business decision-making, the Economic Survey added.
“The government is committed to keeping pace with the digital landscape developments including those related to legislations and frameworks. While the digital journey started with Aadhaar as a medium for service delivery at the doorstep, UPI strengthened the digital payment infrastructure. With other initiatives like CoWIN, e-RUPI, TReDS, Account Aggregators, ONDC, etc. at different stages of implementation, India has developed a unique and cogent digital story to tell” the Survey said.
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