$5-Trillion Economic Dream
PAPER -3 INDIAN ECONOMY
Why You Should Know?
• The wait for India to become a $5-trillion economic powerhouse by 2024-25 (FY25) is going to take longer than what the finance ministry had originally intended, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• The vision will instead be achieved in 2028-29 (FY29), reveals the IMF data, illustrating a four-year delay.
• India would become a $5-trillion economy by 2025-26 or the following year (2027-28, or FY28), on the back of 8-9 per cent sustained growth rate in real gross domestic product (GDP).
The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• However, the IMF data conveys that the economy will be $4.92 trillion in FY28, clearly alluding to the fact that the target will be realised in FY29.
• This is notwithstanding the paring down of the real GDP growth rate forecast for India. IMF had assigned it at 8.2 per cent, from the earlier 9 per cent for 2022-23 (FY23).
• In nominal and rupee terms, the IMF projected the economy to grow 13.4 per cent in FY23-a prognosis much higher than the Budget assumption of 11.1 per cent.
Other Major Points
• IMF seems sanguine, contrary to the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee (MPC), in envisaging economic growth.
• The MPC slashed the projection for real GDP growth rate to 7.2 per cent for the current fiscal year, against the earlier 7.8 per cent.
• However, with the MPC raising its estimation for the inflation rate to 5.7 per cent, from the earlier 4.5 per cent, the nominal GDP growth rate is seen at 12.9 per cent for FY23, against the earlier 12.3 per cent.
• The IMF’s projection for nominal GDP growth rate (in rupee terms) will not sustain at 13.4 per cent during the years following FY23. In fact, the projected growth rate will keep dropping each year. It will come down to 10.6 per cent by FY28.
• However, the IMF expects the rupee to depreciate rapidly. For the current year, a dollar will mean +81.5, against 77.78 in the previous year.
• This will go up to 94.34 in FY28, highlights the data. Bank of Baroda Chief Economist Madan Sabnavis, however, concurs with the CEA.
• He says there was major loss due to the pandemic in 2020-21. Whatever recovery happened has not been as sharp as one would have wanted it to and what the other countries witnessed.
• Moreover, with the Russia-Ukraine skirmish seeing little or no signs of let-up, things are further inchoate than they were before the start of the year, he adds.
• Under these conditions, the normal target of making the economy a $5 trillion in size by FY25 is definitely not achievable.
• The RBI in its recent report estimates the output losses on account of the pandemic at 252 trillion in the past three years. It expects economic losses to recover by 2034-35.
Other Major Points
• The IMF was established in 1944 in the aftermath of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
• 44 founding member countries sought to build a framework for international economic cooperation.
• Today, its membership embraces 190 countries, with staff drawn from 150 nations.
MGNREGA
PAPER -3 INDIAN ECONOMY
Why You Should Know?
• Indicating a turnaround in the employment situation in rural areas, the number of households seeking work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in April was 11.15 per cent lower than in the equivalent month last year.
Major Points
• However, the data also reveals that compared to pre-pandemic years, a disproportionately large number of people – 23.26 million households in April – are still seeking work under the MGNREGA.
• In April 2021, 26.18 million households had sought work under the scheme while in April 2020, the number was 13.41 million.
• The April 2020 data is not strictly comparable to that of other years because work sites could not operate during much of that month on account of the first lockdown.
• The drop in the number of households seeking work under the MGNREGA might be due to the migration of manual casual labourers back from rural areas to the cities where almost all economic activities, including in contact sectors like hotels and airlines, have resumed in full strength.
• Also, the severity of the fourth Covid wave hasn’t been acute so far, which is fuelling demand in other sectors.
• The coming months demand for work might go down even further but the fact that still over 20 million households – in the comparable pre-pandemic month it was 16-17 million – were looking for work under the scheme showed that things had not normalised.
• Meanwhile, civil society activists and others have been pointing out that the money allocated for the MGNREGA in the Budget for FY23 is inadequate and could lead to demand getting artificially suppressed.
About MGNREGA
• The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), also known as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) is Indian legislation enacted on August 25, 2005.
• The MGNREGA provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage.
• The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), Govt of India is monitoring the entire implementation of this scheme in association with state governments
• This act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living below poverty line in rural India.
• It attempts to bridge the gap between the rich and poor in the country. Roughly one-third of the stipulated work force must be women.
• Adult members of rural households submit their name, age and address with photo to the Gram Panchayat.
Key facts that users should know about MNREGA
o MGNREGA guarantees hundred days of wage employment in a financial year, to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
o Individual beneficiary oriented works can be taken up on the cards of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, small or marginal farmers or beneficiaries of land reforms or beneficiaries under the Indira Awaas Yojana of the Government of India.
o Within 15 days of submitting the application or from the day work is demanded, wage employment will be provided to the applicant.
o Right to get unemployment allowance in case employment is not provided within fifteen days of submitting the application or from the date when work is sought.
o Receipt of wages within fifteen days of work done.
o Variety of permissible works which can be taken up by the Gram Panchayaths.
o MGNREGA focuses on the economic and social empowerment of women.
o MGNREGA provides “Green” and “Decent” work.
o Social Audit of MGNREGA works is mandatory, which lends to accountability and transparency.
o MGNREGA works address the climate change vulnerability and protect the farmers from such risks and conserve natural resources.
o The Gram Sabha is the principal forum for wage seekers to raise their voices and make demands. It is the Gram Sabha and the Gram Panchayat which approves the shelf of works under MGNREGA and fix their priority.
Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index
PAPER -3 INDIAN ECONOMY
Why Should You Know?
• India’s manufacturing sector witnessed faster growth in April, sequentially, due to quicker increases in production and factory orders, as well as renewed expansion in international sales.
• The S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose from 54 in March to 54.7 in April. This comes as relaxation in Covid restrictions continued to support demand.
• The index was, however, marginally lower than 54.9 in February. The April PMI data pointed to an improvement in overall operating conditions for the 10th straight month.
• In PMI parlance, a print above 50 means expansion, while a score below 50 denotes contraction.
Other Major Points
• Meanwhile, inflationary pressures intensified, owing to elevated global commodity prices due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
• Input prices increased at the fastest pace in five months, while output charge inflation hit a 12-month high.
• Lima further added that this escalation of price pressures could dampen demand as firms continue to share additional cost burdens with their clients.
• With capacity pressures among Indian manufacturers remaining negligible, shown by a marginal rise in backlogs, there was a slight increase in employment during April.
• It added that a vast majority of survey participants reported unchanged workforces from March levels.
• There has been a gradual yet consistent easing in momentum since the beginning of CY22, and high global commodity prices add to downside risks to the growth ahead.
• Even as India is still leading the Asian emerging markets in PMI, overall business confidence remained subdued by historical standards.
The Purchasing Managers Index
• The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) is a measure of the prevailing direction of economic trends in manufacturing.
• The PMI is based on a monthly survey of supply chain managers across 19 industries, covering both upstream and downstream activity.
Fani, a Rare Summer Cyclone
PAPER -1, GEOGRAPHY
Why Should You Know?
• Fani, a rare summer cyclone and one of the strongest to hit India in 20 years, came raging down the Odisha coast, the state was prepared.
• The storm, with wind speeds touching over 200 km per hour, damaged power lines, uprooted trees, blew roofs off buildings and left 64 people dead.
• But it could have been many times worse-as the 1999 Odisha super-cyclone had shown; that storm had claimed over 9,600 lives and caused damage worth $2.5 billion to the state.
• Today, the Odisha model of disaster preparedness is globally lauded and emulated.
About NDMA
• The Government of India (GOI), in recognition of the importance of Disaster Management as a national priority, has set up a High-Powered Committee (HPC) in August 1999 and also a nation committee after the Gujarat earthquake, for making recommendations on the preparation of Disaster Management plans and suggestion effective mitigation mechanisms.
• The Tenth Five-Year Plan Document also had, for the first time, a detailed chapter on Disaster Management.
• Similarly, the Twelfth Finance Commission was also mandated to review the financial arrangements for Disaster Management.
• On 23 December 2005, the Government of India enacted the Disaster Management Act, which envisaged the creation of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), headed by the Prime Minister, and State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) headed by respective Chief Ministers, to spearhead and implement a holistic and integrated approach to Disaster Management in India.
Joint Conference of Justice Resolutions
PAPER – 2 INDIAN POLITY & GOVERNANCE
Why Should You Know?
• Poor governance is adding to judiciary’s woes he large number of vacancies in the appointment of judges is a wellknown systemic weakness of the Indian judicial system.
• Less acknowledged is the leading contributory role that governments at the Centre and states play in compounding the problem.
• That was the blunt analysis by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana addressing the joint conference of the chief ministers and chief justices of the high courts at New Delhi.
Major Points
• In his forthright address in the presence of the prime minister, who had inaugurated the conference, Justice Ramana pointed out that the government accounts for half the pending cases in court.
• He added the striking point that if all wings of the government did their job properly, not only would fewer cases come to court but the judiciary would be spared the unwilling role of having to make policy pronouncements on a range of issues, frequently crossing the Lakshman rekha separating the powers of the legislature, executive and judiciary.
• Justice Ramana specifically pointed to the fact that the burgeoning dockets of land and revenue disputes are symptomatic of the fact that rural and urban bureaucracies are not functioning optimally. But he also pointed to the absurdity of fights between government departments, or between state-owned companies and the government ending up in court.
• The more serious problem that he highlighted, however, was the wilful weakening of the processes of democratic functioning that result in the lack of thought-through legislation. The paucity of public consultation, whether within Parliament or among civil society, is evident in the growing number of appeals before courts.
• Justice Ramana pointed to frequent ambiguities in laws that end up in court for interpretation when the opinion of legal departments could just as well have been sought.
• No less concerning is the growing abdication of legislative responsibility by lawmakers that has resulted in laws being pushed through Parliament without adequate debate or consultation.
• The feat of state legislative Assemblies passing laws in record time without a single debate has been well known for some years. Now, the decline of reasoned debate in Parliament has become a serious issue.
• Justice Ramana stated the obvious by pointing to the need to debate Bills clause by clause and “threadbare” before enacting laws to minimise the scope for litigation.
• It is no coincidence that several consequential and controversial laws that have been rammed through Parliament in recent years have all ended up in appeals before the Supreme Court — the Citizenship Amendment Act, the reading down of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, and the three farm laws, which, of course, the government subsequently repealed.
• To this weakness, Justice Ramana added the rising tide of contempt petitions because court decisions are not implemented.
• As he pointed out, deliberate inaction by governments despite judicial pronouncements is not healthy for democracy.
• One case in point is the states’ failure to implement a 2014 Supreme Court directive to immediately release under-trial prisoners who have served half their term without the completion of their trial.
• This is a serious issue given that Indian jails are overflowing with under-trial prisoners. When poor governance at all levels is added to the problem of poor court infrastructure, the average Indian is not just being denied delayed justice but any justice at all.
Chief Justice of India
• The chief justice of India officially the chief justice of the Supreme Court of India, is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian federal judiciary.
• The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation with the outgoing chief justice, the next chief justice, who will serve until they reach the age of sixty-five or are removed by impeachment. As per convention, the name suggested by the incumbent chief justice is almost always the next senior most judge in the Supreme Court.
• However this convention has been broken twice. In 1973, Justice A. N. Ray was appointed superseding 3 senior judges. Also, in 1977 Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg was appointed as the chief justice superseding Justice Hans Raj Khanna.
• As head of the Supreme Court, the chief justice is responsible for the allocation of cases and appointment of constitutional benches which deal with important matters of law.
• In accordance with Article 145 of the Constitution of India and the Supreme Court Rules of Procedure of 1966, the chief justice allocates all work to the other judges who are bound to refer the matter back to them (for re-allocation) in any case where they require it to be looked into by a larger bench of more judges.
• On the administrative side, the chief justice carries out functions of maintenance of the roster, appointment of court officials and general and miscellaneous matters relating to the supervision and functioning of the Supreme Court.
• The 48th and present chief justice is N. V. Ramana.
How many CJI are in India now?
• There are a total of 48 chief justices of India that have served since the establishment of the Supreme Court of India in 1950, which superseded the Federal Court of India.
• The current Incumbent and 48th chief justice of India is Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana, who entered office on 24 April 2021.
• The Chief Justice of India and the Judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President under clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution.
What is the qualification of CJI?
• He/she must have served as a judge of a High Court (or High Courts in succession) for at least five years, or he/she must have served as an advocate of a High Court (or High Courts in succession) for at least ten years, or he/she must be a distinguished jurist in the president’s judgment.
Power Crisis
PAPER -3 INDIAN ECONOMY
Why Should You Know?
• Large Outstanding dues of power generation companies (gencos) to coal companies may be playing a role in the current power crisis as state gencos had total outstanding dues of about Rs 7,918.7 crore to Coal India, as of April 18.
• Sources said Coal India reduces supply of coal to power houses from states with high dues when there is inadequate production or there are not enough railway rakes to meet demand.
• Low coal stocks at a majority of India’s thermal power plants have led to power outages across several states including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Jharkhand, and Bihar.
• High demand for power due to the economic recovery post Covid and sweltering heat across major parts of India, in addition to low power supply from imported coal-based plants due to high international prices, have strained India’s domestic coal supply chain.
• Coal-based power is currently meeting about 73 per cent of India’s power demand. On Sunday, 102 of 173 thermal power plants that are monitored daily had critically low inventory levels.
Major Points
• The Coal Ministry has maintained that the stock of domestic coal in the country is sufficient to meet the demand for power generation.
• The Indian Railways, which is the primary transporter of coal to power houses, has cancelled 753 train trips till May 25 to prioritise the delivery of coal for power generation.
• According to government sources, the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company alone has outstanding dues of Rs 2,608.1 crore.
• The West Bengal Power Development Corporation Ltd has dues of Rs 1,066.4 crore, Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd (a government of Jharkhand undertaking) has dues of Rs 1,018.22 crore.
• Other state gencos with large dues to Coal India include Tamil Nadu’s TANGEDCO (Rs 823.9 crore). Rajasthan’s RRVUNL (Rs 429.5 crore) and Madhya Pradesh’s MPPGCL(Rs 531.42 crore).
• The ongoing power crisis has led to long power outages in several states. On Friday, India hadan energy shortage of 214.12 million units and a peakshortage in power generation capacity of 8,120 MW.
• In the last week of April, Jharkhand was the state worst affected by electricity shortage with supply failing to meet 16.8 per cent of power demand in the state while Rajasthan(13.3 percent), Haryana (12.3 per cent), Bihar (7 per cent) an and Punjab (6.9 per cent) also faced shortages of over 5 per cent of total electricity demand. The Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh faced a shortage of 12.4 per cent of demand.
Power crisis?
• An energy crisis is any significant bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to an economy.
• In literature, it often refers to one of the energy sources used at a certain time and place, in particular those that supply national electricity grids or those used as fuel in vehicles.
Current energy crisis?
• The 2021–2022 global energy shortage is the most recent in a series of cyclical energy shortages experienced over the last fifty years.
• It is more acutely affecting countries such as the United Kingdom and China, among others.
Delhi airport second busiest in the world
PAPER -3 INDIAN ECONOMY
Why Should You Know?
• Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi emerged as the second busiest airport in the world in March 2022, toppling the Dubai International Airport, according to travel data provider OAG.
• IGI saw a total of 36.11 lakh seats deployed by various airlines. The top 10 busiest airport rankings by the OAG are based on the total domestic and international seat capacity and the frequency of flights.
• The airport replaced Dubai International Airport which witnessed 35.54 lakh seats. Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) retained the top position with 44.22 lakh seats.
• IGI also climbed 21 spots compared with March 2019. While the number of seats deployed in March 2019 for Delhi airport was not immediately available, government data from the Airports Authority of India show that total domestic and international passengers at the airport in March 2022 was 92% (50.7 lakh) of the numbers seen in the corresponding month in 2019.
Indira Gandhi International Airport
• Indira Gandhi International Airport is the primary international airport serving Delhi, India.
• The airport, spread over an area of 5,106 acres is situated in Palam, Delhi, 15 km south-west of the New Delhi Railway Station and 16 km from New Delhi city centre.
• Named after Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India, it is the busiest airport of India in terms of passenger traffic since 2009.
• It is also the busiest airport in the country in terms of cargo traffic, overtaking Mumbai during late 2015.
• As of now, it is the one of the world’s busiest airports by passenger traffic.
• It is the second busiest airport in the world by seating capacity, having a seating capacity of 3,611,181 seats, and the busiest airport in Asia by passenger traffic handling nearly 37.14 million passengers in 2021.
Covid Deaths in India : CRS Report
PAPER – 2 HEALTH SECTOR
Why Should You Know?
• India’s Covid deaths rose in 2021, compared with 2020, and so far this year, the country has already registered 42,207 deaths.
• India reported 332,492 deaths due to Covid in 2021, compared with 148,994 in 2020, reveals the Civil Registration System (CRS) report 2020 released.
• At a time when reports claim that India has raised concerns around the methodology used by the WHO on reporting Covid deaths by various countries, the publication of the CRS report assumes significance. So far India has reported 523,693 deaths due to Covid.
• According to CRS, the overall death registration (including deaths due to Covid and non-Covid) increased by 475,000 in 2020, compared with 2019.
• Registered births, decreased from 24.8 million in 2019 to 24.2 million in 2020-a drop of around 2.4 percent.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
• Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
• Most people infected with the virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment.
• However, some will become seriously ill and require medical attention. Older people and those with underlying medical conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, or cancer are more likely to develop serious illness. Anyone can get sick with COVID-19 and become seriously ill or die at any age.
• The best way to prevent and slow down transmission is to be well informed about the disease and how the virus spreads.
• Protect yourself and others from infection by staying at least 1 metre apart from others, wearing a properly fitted mask, and washing your hands or using an alcohol-based rub frequently. Get vaccinated when it’s your turn and follow local guidance.
• The virus can spread from an infected person’s mouth or nose in small liquid particles when they cough, sneeze, speak, sing or breathe.
• These particles range from larger respiratory droplets to smaller aerosols. It is important to practice respiratory etiquette, for example by coughing into a flexed elbow, and to stay home and self-isolate until you recover if you feel unwell.
Submarine
PAPER -3 SECURITY
Why Should You Know?
• France’s Naval Group, one of five shortlisted Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) for the Navy’s P-75 India (P-751) project to build six conventional submarines within the country, announced it would not bid for the project.
• The reason, Naval Group said, was that the Request for Proposal (RFP)”requires that the fuel cell AIP be sea proven, which is not the case for us yet since the French Navy does not use such a propulsion system.”
• AIP refers to Air-Independent Propulsion, a technology for conventional-that is, nonnuclear – submarines.
What is the P-751 project?
• In June 1999, the Cabinet Committee on Security approved a 30-year plan for the Navy to indigenously build and induct 24 submarines by 2030.
• In the first phase, two lines of production were to be established – the first, P-75; the second, P-751. Each line was to produce six submarines.
• The contract for P-75 was signed in 2005 with the Naval Group, then known as DCNS, in partnership with Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL).
• The first Kalvari Class (Scorpene Class) submarine under the project was commissioned in December 2017. Another five submarines have been built since; the final one, Vagsheer, was launched last month, and will be commissioned by late 2023.
• While P-75 deliveries were delayed, P751 has seen long delays even before it has kicked off. The first Request for Information was issued in 2008, then again in 2010, but the RFP was issued only in July 2021.
What is the status of the project?
• A Navy representative told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence in 2019-20 that we are slightly behind the curve” on P-751.
• The final bids-one each by the SP in partnership with an OEMare yet to be finalised. The project faces choppy waters; the Naval Group has already announced it is pulling out, and sources said the Russian and Spanish companies might also not proceed with their bids.
• Among the concerns, as Naval Group said, is the requirement to demonstrate a seaproven fuel cell AIP.
• While some manufacturers may have the technology, it may not have been proven at sea yet. Some analysts believe that while the RFP was clear about these conditions, it is possible that the OEMs were expecting certain concessions in the requirements eventually.
• Another problem for the OEMs, sources said, is the transfer of technology, which is built into the process under the SP model. Sources believe that the OEMs are unwilling to share all their expertise, especially the niche technologies that they have built.
• As things stand, sources said, only ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems and the South Korean company seem to be in the fray.
• According to experts, evenifall goes smoothly here onward, the earliest the first P-751 submarine can be commissioned is around 2032.
Why does the Navy want AIP subs?
• Issuing the RFP last year, the government said it “envisages indigenous construction of six modern conventional submarines (including associated shore support, Engineering Support Package, training and spares package) with contemporary equipment, weapons & sensors including Fuel-Cell based AIP (Air Independent Propulsion Plant). advanced torpedoes, modern missiles and state of the art countermeasure systems.”
• AIP, it said, “has a force multiplier effect on lethality of a diesel electric submarine as it enhances the submerged endurance of the boat several folds. Fuel cell-based AIP has merits in performance compared to other technologies.”
• Simply put, AIP technology allows a conventional submarine to remain submerged for much longer than ordinary diesel-electric submarines.
• All conventional submarines have to surface to run their generators that recharge the batteries that allow the boat to function under water.
• However, the more frequently a submarine surfaces, the higher the chances of it being detected. AIP allows a submarine to remain submerged for more than a fortnight, compared to two to three days for dieselelectric boats.
• While the six P-75 submarines are dieselelectric, they can be fitted with AIP technology later in their lives.
• By the time P-751 is completed under the 30-year project, India is projected to have six diesel-electric, six AIP-powered, and six nuclear attack submarines (yet to be built).
• India has been working to develop AIP technology indigenously as well. A tableaux of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at this year’s Republic Day parade showcased AIP.
• In March 2021, the Defence Ministry had said DRDO had achieved an “important milestone in the development of Air Independent Propulsion (AIP)System by proving the land-based prototype”.
• However, experts have certain doubts about DRDO’s AIP prototype, and many fear it may not be ready even by the time the first KalvariClass submarine comes for refitting starting 2024.
• Around 10 countries have developed or are close to building AIP technology, and almost 20 nations have AIP submarines.
What submarines does India have now?
• India has 16 conventional diesel-electric submarines, which are classified as SSKS. After the last two Kalvari Class subs are commissioned under P-75, this number will go up to 18. India also has two nuclear ballistic submarines, classified SSBN.
• Of the 16 SSK, four areofShishumar Class, which were bought and then built in India in collaboration with the Germans starting 1980s; eight are Kilo Class or Sindhughosh Class submarines bought from Russia (including erstwhile USSR) between 1984 and 2000; and four are Kalvari Class built in India at MDL.
Open Network for Digital Commerce
PAPER – 3 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Why Should You Know?
• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade’s (DPIIT) went live with its Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) project last week on a limited scale, enabling small merchants and mom-and-pop stores in some parts of the country to access processes and technologies that are typically deployed by large ecommerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart.
• This is being seen as a step in the direction of making e-commerce processes open source, thus creating a platform that can be utilised by all online retailers and vendors.
What processes are expecting to be opensourced with this project?
• Several operational aspects including onboarding of sellers, vendor discovery, price discovery and product cataloguing could be made open source on the lines of UPI.
• An executive of an ecommerce company has said that if mandated, this could be problematic for larger e-commerce companies, which have proprietary processes and technology deployed forthese segments of operations.
Where has ONDC gone live and which companies are involved with it?
• Duringits test run, the platform expects to onboard 150 sellers in places such as Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Bhopal and Shillong.
• The platform basically works on two ends – the seller side and the buyer side. On the seller side, players such as enterprise resource planning company Go Frugal, digital business platform Digiit, etc are involved, while the buyer side interface is being built on Paytm.
• The middle of the interfaces hosting the buyers and the sellers. So far, the buyer side interface is being hosted by Paytm, whereas the seller side interface is being hosted by other players like Go Frugal, etc.
• When a buyer searches for an item on the Paytm app, for where OND Chasg one live, the app will connect to the ONDC platform, which will connect it to seller side interfaces that will list out all the sellers that have listed that particular
• item. On the ONDC, there will be several other backend partners such as logistics service providers. enterprise resource planners, e-commerce store hosting service providers, etc.
Who is behind this project?
• The ONDC project was commissioned by the DPIIT through the Quality Council of India (QC).
• The building blocks of this project were designed by a nine-member advisory council that included Infosys co-founder and chairman Nandan Nilekani, National Health Authority CEO RS Sharma, QC chairman Adil Zainul bhai, National Payments Corporation of India’s CEO Dilip Asbe and others.
What does the DPIIT intend from the project?
• The DPIIT has said earlier that the ONDC aims at promoting open networks developed on open-sourced methodology, using open specifications and open network protocols, independent on any specific platform.