Saturday, 22 June 2024, Bengaluru, India
The government of India plans to launch a new scheme to help micro and small businesses join Open Network for Digital Commerce and online product selling. The MSME ministry announced this trade enablement and marketing scheme with an amount of Rs 277 crore to focus on these small enterprises expanding their online business and using digital means by joining the ONDC scheme, as reported by the Economic Times.
The initiative is taken by the government to help these SMEs compete in the digital landscape which reduces the overall expenditure at low commissions in the online marketplace. The ministry is aiming for 5,00,000 MSEs using this scheme and will be on work till 2027. These startups will be offered subsidies by seller network participants to help them cover service costs such as managing accounts, packaging, and logistics.
ONDC is an open protocol-based network that was launched under the aegis of the department for the promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in 2021. The network helps companies with local commerce across various sectors including mobility and grocery by providing services at a lower cost in comparison to other platforms. ONDC reported a 23 percent increase month-on-month for its transaction platform in May. The platform claims to have done more than 89 lakh transactions last month in retail and ride-hailing.
Earlier this year, ONDC also launched a DigiReady Certification Portal in partnership with the Quality Council of India to help MSMEs. The portal aims to help small enterprises join the ONDC platform as sellers. Various known startups including Paytm, PhonePe, Ola, and Meeship also integrated some of their services with ONDC. Indian e-commerce is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 19 percent and cross the $400 billion mark by 2030 this is why the government is trying to boost small companies into the digital marketplace.
Conclusion
Trase marketing scheme has been announced by the government of India to help small and micro businesses go digital and join the Open Network for Digital Commerce. The government will use an amount of Rs 277 crore to focus on these small enterprises to expand their online business and use digital means by joining the ONDC scheme. This will help MSEs to compete with other e-commerce companies in the digital landscape which reduce the overall expenditure at low commissions in the online marketplace. Under this scheme, these startups will be provided with subsidies by seller network participants to help them cover service costs such as managing accounts, packaging, and logistics. This will help sellers to connect with the ONDC network and provide them with services including the creation of a product catalog, and managing payments and accounts. The network helps companies with local commerce across various sectors including mobility and grocery by providing services at a lower cost in comparison to other platforms. ONDC also launched a DigiReady Certification Portal in partnership with the Quality Council of India to help small businesses and make them join ONDC as sellers.
