Govt forms a steering committee which includes CAIT’s Khandelwal Is also a member
Bengaluru, NFAPost: In order to redefine the ecommerce landscape of the country and with a desire to create an Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) in India, the Department for promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT) has assigned the work of carrying out the pilot for ONDC to the Quality Council of India.
This step of the Government was much awaited in the wake of a large number of complaints of mal-practices being conducted by existing e-commerce companies.
Malpractices in ecommerce
To take the initiative further, the DPIIT has constituted a Steering Committee for the formulation, implementation and policy insight of ONDC. The Committee would build consensus among organisations and once the project is underway, will ensure that the project continues to meet set vision, goals and objectives.
The Steering Committee will be headed by DPIIT Joint Secretary and will have representatives from, Gem, Meity, Ministry of MSME, and Niti Aayog. Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) Secretary-General Praveen Khandelwal who is the top vocal advocate for malpractices in ecommerce has also been nominated as the member of the Committee,
Beside Adil Zainubhai, Chairman, Quality Council of India, Dilip Asbe, CEO, NPCI, Suresh Seth, CEO, NSDL and Arvind Gupta, Founder, MyGov, the Steering Committee will also have one representative from Retailers Association of India.
CAIT Secretary-General Praveen Khandelwal while hailing the move of the Government said that the traders of India led by the CAIT have always remained a vocal advocate for neutral e-commerce platforms
“It may provide equal opportunities to one and all to provide easy access to e-commerce not only to traders but even the consumers in a cohesive manner and giving the consumer a right to choose a better product coupled with reasonable price and with efficient and responsible delivery system,” said Praveen Khandelwal.
Deep discounting
He also said let there be a competition between equals at even level playing field and the proposed open architecture will certainly meet this end and will transform the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Digital India, Vocal on Local and Atmnirbhar Bharat.
Praveen Khandelwal further said that the traders do not afraid from any competition but certainly have concerns over the manner in which the predatory pricing , deep discounting, funding the losses, having an arrangement with Brand Companies for selling certain products exclusively on ecom platforms, controlling inventory and vicious nexus of the Banks with ecom companies for giving cash backs etc. are the business activities which are prohibited under Press Note No.2 of FDI policy and thus make e-commerce business an uneven level playing field.
CAIT National President B C Bhartia. said he is sure that Open Network Digital Commerce will be a unique and innovative e-commerce business platform and the small businesses will have ample opportunity to adopt and accept the online market as an additional business avenue for them.
“We offer our compliments to Union Commerce Minister Shri Piyush Goyal and learned officials of DPIIT for conceiving this idea which will be the first e-commerce business model in the world and that too under the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi,” said B C Bhartia.
