To reduce the dominance of e-commerce giants such as Flipkart and Amazon, the government launched a major public-facing initiative in Bengaluru, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). With ONDC’s help, the government plans to help smaller retailers and provide alternatives to global giants like Amazon and Walmart, which control more than half of India’s fast-growing e-commerce market.

Consumers in Bengaluru can purchase products and services across multiple categories from a buyer app. First, consumers can place orders in both regions (grocery stores and restaurants) through any buyer app participating in the ONDC network. Mystore, PayTM and Spicemoney are available as buyer apps on ONDC.

It is democratic, cost-effective and empowers buyers and small businesses,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a tweet. The government believes that ONDC will help curb the monopoly of big companies and expand the influence of small businesses.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry launched the Open Network for Digital Commerce pilot phase in five cities of Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Bhopal, Shillong and Coimbatore in April. People were allowed to trade in these cities.

As many as 20 nationally renowned organisations have confirmed investments of Rs 255 crore in ONDC. Banks such as State Bank of India, UCO Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda have pledged to invest. ONDC is a set of standards voluntarily adopted by sellers, logistics providers, or payment gateways.

ONDC will enable cross-domain local store owners to display their products and services in search results from any app, such as mobile devices, grocery stores, food ordering and delivery, hotel bookings and travel. For example, if Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart integrate their platforms with ONDC, users searching for any product on Amazon will also see results from Flipkart and other sellers on the Amazon app.