ONDC has onboarded 400 women-led businesses empowering 50 lakh women’s livelihood
New Delhi: The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has enabled the digital inclusion of about 300 sellers, more than 400 women entrepreneurs and 6 clusters, the Open Network said in a press release on Monday.
With the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), ONDC Network has activated 300 sellers from six clusters across India including Lucknow (Chikankari), Moradabad (Brassware), Kanchipuram (Kanchipuram sarees), Varanasi (Benarasi Sarees), Khurja (Pottery), Bargarh (Sambhalpuri sarees). Within ten months of onboarding, 9 Kanchipuram sellers achieved sales of Rs. 21 lacs, from 10-12 monthly orders previously to more than 180 orders collectively.
The ONDC has onboarded 400 women-led businesses empowering 50 lakh women’s livelihood. Home-grown brands like Kudumbashree, Jharcraft, UBUNTU Consortium, SEWA Federation, Mann Deshi Foundation and many more have onboarded their products onto the Network.
The network has joined forces with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation along with Two Seller Network Participants (SNP’s) — Samhita Social Ventures and Samhita Good CSR Pvt. Ltd, to create ecosystems that support women-led enterprises.
“If the majority of participating artisans, women entrepreneurs, and social enterprises are getting into the digital e-commerce ecosystem for the first time ever, it simply points out the gaps in the existing infrastructure and its opportunities that are accessible to only a few. We are driving economic empowerment with equitable distribution of growth opportunities as our anchor,” said T. Koshy, MD and CEO, ONDC.
The Network also onboarded over 30 social organizations last year including Itokri, Okhai, Rangsutra, Gulaab Jaipur, Very Much India, Gaon Se, Kalapuri, and Iraaloom. It also onboarded 50 Geographical Indication (GI) tagged social sector sellers from the GI pavilion at the India International Fair Trade have been integrated into the ONDC.
Incorporated on 31 December 2021, ONDC is a Section 8 company and an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India to revolutionize digital commerce and retail e-commerce in India. It has around 535,000 sellers across 1,200 cities.
