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NPCI to invest Rs 10 crore, own 9-10% stake in government’s ONDC initiative

In all, ONDC will have 20 stakeholders including private and public sector banks like Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and Axis Bank. The paperwork for 17 entities was done by March, according to sources. For the remaining three, which include NPCI, it will be done in the next 10 days.

ET Now Digital

Updated Aug 31, 2022, 11:28 IST

NPCI to invest Rs 10 crore, own 9-10 stake in government’s ONDC initiative

New Delhi: National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, will own 9-10 per cent stake in India’s ambitious open e-commerce initiative Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).

The organisation is close to picking up the stake and will likely invest around Rs 10 crore in ONDC. Approvals for the same are already in place and the process is likely to be completed in the next 10 days, people in the know of the development told Economic Times.

Apart from NPCI, stakes in the Centre-backed project will also likely be picked up by the government’s National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) and Bank of India. While ONDC chief executive Thampy Koshy declined to comment on this, sources confirmed the matter to Economic Times.

ONDC aims to do the same for retail what UPI did for payments, as it is based on the concepts of decentralisation, openness, and greater user utility. It will take on the likes of e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon India to reduce their share in the local market an give a boost to small businesses.

Both organisations are already working very closely and NPCI becoming a stakeholder will further strengthen that, said a person aware of the plans, adding that the deal is not done to make investment gains though.

NPCI chief executive Dilip Asbe is part of the ONDC advisory council.

ONDC stakeholders

In all, ONDC will have 20 stakeholders including private and public sector banks like Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and Axis Bank. The paperwork for 17 entities was done by March, according to the person cited above. The remaining three, which include NPCI, will be completed in the next 10 days.

The platform is looking at a public launch in September and has commenced the groundwork for enabling business-to-business (B2B) commerce transactions on the network. B2B trade platform Rapidor and a retail tech firm Signcatch will kickstart the B2B business on the network.

Earlier this month, US-based technology corporation Microsoft became the first major multinational company to join ONDC platform. The tech behemoth plans to introduce social e-commerce or a group buying experience in the Indian market through the entry.

Microsoft said that it will roll out a shopping app for Indian consumers, along with their social circle.

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