And now, PDS fair price shops on-board ONDC

For the first time, 11 Fair Price Shops of Una and Hamirpur districts of Himachal Pradesh on-boarded the free e-commerce platform, Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC), a step aimed at finding avenues of additional income generation for these public distribution outlets.

Sanjeev Chopra, secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution, launched a pilot to on-board the fair price shops (FPSs) on the Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC) in Una and Hamirpur districts of Himachal Pradesh, on Wednesday.

The pilot was launched virtually in 11 FPSs - 5 FPSs in Una and 6 FPSs in Hamirpur districts. This is the first time when Fair Price Shops are on-boarded on ONDC.

Speaking on the occasion, Chopra said the initiative is part of the department’s continuing efforts to transform the Fair Price Shops, providing FPS dealers with additional avenues of income generation along with enhancing beneficiary satisfaction.

This, he said, will bring other benefits by increasing visibility in the digital marketplace, providing access to a larger customer base beyond NFSA beneficiaries, besides the ability to compete with other retailers and e-commerce platforms. 

Besides, this will open a new avenue for both customer and seller to make online purchase and sales of items that are not generally available in the open market.

The success of the pilot being implemented in Himachal Pradesh will help expand the model nationwide. He also complemented MicroSave Consulting (MSC) for its support in deploying the pilot programme.

The department also organised a workshop for the FPS dealers in Una and Hamirpur districts, to explain how to catalogue products, service orders, and commission structure on ONDC etc.