Owning a digital platform has become a necessity for businesses as it ensures visibility to customers. Unfortunately, small businesses lack access to digital infrastructure and the means to maintain an online presence, which prevents them from competing with large and centralised e-commerce giants.

To provide a level-playing field for all market participants, the Government of India launched the ONDC campaign on April 2022. It aims to provide a fair ground for competition to local businesses against dominant sellers.

Protean eGov Technologies Limited, a pioneer in digital public infrastructure (DPI) and population-scale e-governance solutions, has launched a new platform called RISE with Protean. This platform targets streamlining the discovery and application of digital assets like APIs, micro-services, and user journeys, thereby enhancing API use and its integrations for businesses in India.

India’s e-commerce sector has seen sharp growth lately, with more than 6.5% of the overall retail business settled online. Now, anyone can order essential products and services using just a smartphone.

However, small businesses face various challenges in this digital model. Many prominent e-commerce platforms favour sellers providing hefty discounts to their buyers. This indirectly exploits smaller vendors as they cannot match their larger competitor’s price offerings or access a massive pool of customers’ data.

The Indian Government launched the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) campaign on 29th April, 2022 to promote local businesses across numerous sectors. All enrolling companies agreed to operate through a network supported by open protocols. As a result, sellers and suppliers who previously suffered from a lack of scaling opportunities could leverage the integrated technologies to expand their reach.

On October 19, 2023, a heart-warming event changed the course of financial aid distribution in the country. The story is about how an open digital ecosystem ensured that a student in need was able to receive a scholarship to continue her schooling. 

Open Network for Education and Skilling Transactions (ONEST) is an interoperable, decentralized network that aims to democratise education and provide learners the opportunity to access a wide array of educational content and skill development prospects. 

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