The ONDC puzzle: Why India’s e-commerce disruptor isn’t clicking yet

Launched with the ambition to ‘democratise’ digital commerce, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was meant to be India’s answer to e-commerce platform monopolies. It was designed as a public infrastructure project aiming to replicate what UPI did for payments. Backed by major public institutions and designed to empower small sellers and reduce platform dependency, it held the promise of rewriting the rules of online trade.