Bengaluru, April 4 : The government's Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform will democratize ecommerce for millions of small retailers in India, paving the way for the rise of more dedicated distribution and logistics companies, Infosys Chairman and Co-founder Nandan Nilekani. According to him, ONDC will not be limited to a few players but everyone in India a person owning a small grocery store, a small electronics retailer or a restaurant owner -- bringing millions of such people on the e-commerce marketplace and buyers will come from any consumer app.

"Today, India has achieved financial inclusion in about seven-eight years with homegrown technologies like Aadhaar, UPI, QR code and more. The next step is to connect millions of small retailers to mainstream ecommerce with ONDC to create a robust digital public infrastructure," Nilekani said during a PhonePe launch event. The fintech major announced the launch of a new Shopping app called "Pincode", built on top of the ONDC platform.

The app will focus on hyperlocal commerce and is now available for download on Google Play Store and App Store. Pincode is currently live only for customers in Bengaluru and will launch in other cities very soon, said the company. Nilekani said that the government is going to democratise ecommerce to take it to the masses.

PhonePe said ONDC can foster the rapid growth of a new hyperlocal ecommerce business model. Apart from local buyers and sellers, such a model will also benefit other ecosystem participants like the last mile logistics and inventory management players

"Pincode is built on the ONDC network, which allows us to generate demand for merchants digitized by various seller platforms in an inclusive manner, while creating new opportunities for growth and driving innovation at scale," said Sameer Nigam, CEO and Founder PhonePe.