Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal chairs ONDC Advisory Council meeting
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: The ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce), an initiative aiming at promoting open networks for all aspects of exchange of goods and services over digital or electronic networks, is gaining increasing traction from the industry. A total of seven companies- one buyer side app, five seller side apps and one logistics service provider app – have adopted ONDC protocols and built their own ONDC compatible apps. These apps have been able to successfully complete cascaded transactions across the ONDC network during the pilot phase in five designated cities- Bengaluru, New Delhi, Bhopal, Shillong and Coimbatore - in grocery and food and beverages segments.
This information was provided during the meeting of the ONDC Advisory Council chaired by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal to review the progress made in the project here recently. The meeting was attended by Nandan Nilekani, Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman QCI, Anurag Jain, Secretary, DPIIT, RS Sharma, CEO, NHA, Suresh Sethi, CEO NSDL e-Gov, Dilip Asbe, CEO, NPCI, Praveen Khandelwal, SG CAIT, K Rajgopalan, CEO RAI, Arvind Gupta, Anjali Bansal, Avaana Capital and Shri Anil Agrawal, Additional secretary, DPIIT.
Goyal said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stated that the ONDC will open up new opportunities for small traders, MSMEs and businesses. While the pilot phase of ONDC has given promising results with traders who were already digitally present, ONDC must prioritize strategies towards inclusion of non-digital traders, handi craftsmen and artisans so that the benefits of e-commerce may be availed by these sections. The Minister asked the department to launch a pilot with focus on non-digital traders from one single market.
During the meeting it was informed that the ONDC and NABARD are working on a program to bring the agriculture sector to ONDC and as a first step, a hackathon is being organized on 1-3 July to build innovative solutions for FPOs (Farmer Producer Organizations). The Minister said that ONDC may prove to be an invaluable tool to assist farmers find the right prices for their produce. It was also apprised that the Government of UP has actively started working with ONDC to get all the ODOP (One District One Product) products available on ONDC network.
Goyal said that the ONDC network needs to make a robust policy framework for building trust in the network. The National Consumer Helpline records show that major grievances of consumers are related to delivery of wrong, defective or damaged product, non-delivery or delayed delivery, no refunds as promised and deficiency in services promised. All these issues must be addressed effectively. /BI/
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
