PNB acquires 6 per cent stake in public digital e-commerce platform

Public sector lender Punjab National Bank on Thursday said it has acquired nearly 6 per cent stake in public digital e-commerce platform ONDC for Rs 10 crore.

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is an initiative of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to promote open networks for all aspects of the exchange of goods and services over digital networks.

It is based on open-source methodology, using open specifications and open network protocols, independent of any specific platform.

''Board of Punjab National Bank (PNB) had approved investing in ONDC with an equity participation of 9.5 per cent. Accordingly, the Bank has invested Rs 10 crore for acquiring a 5.97 per cent stake of ONDC in its first tranche, as per the directives of its board,'' PNB said in a release.

ONDC was incorporated on December 30, 2021, with an early investment from the Quality Council of India and Protean eGov Technologies Limited.

It is expected to digitise the entire value chain, standardise operations, promote inclusion of suppliers, derive efficiencies in logistics, and enhance value for consumers for almost all types of businesses, PNB added.

In the existing platform-centric digital commerce model, buyers and sellers must use the same platform/application to do a business transaction. With ONDC's network-centric model, buyers will be able to access all services currently provided by various sellers on different platforms, on a common network, thus making the network interoperable, the lender said.

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