Open network for e-commerce: Beneficial for sellers and consumers?

Today, someone having a Google Pay account can send money to another person who uses PhonePe, because both are using the common Unified Payments Interface or UPI platform. The government is planning a similar experiment in the e-commerce space, which is currently dominated by Amazon and Flipkart. Open Network for Digital Ecommerce, or ONDC, promises to provide a playing field to small merchants too.

Its proponents say that ONDC will move Indian ecommerce away from the current platform-centric model, dominated by market leaders Amazon and Flipkart, to an open network.