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The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), in collaboration with Google Cloud India, Antler in India, Paytm, Protean and Startup India, announced an initiative called 'Build for Bharat'.
The initiative aims to tackle diverse challenges in digital commerce, promoting industry innovation to develop practical solutions in this space. 'Build for Bharat' intends to tap into India's technological and entrepreneurial potential with an expected participation of 200K+ participants representing startups, companies and colleges. Prioritising a participative and ecosystem-driven framework, the initiative is organized at a national scale across 50+ cities with top experts, leaders, venture capitals and incubators onboard. To kick-start the initiative, an event took place on Monday, unveiling the problem statements for participants and extending an invitation for registration. Covering retail, mobility, F&B, financial services and logistics sectors, the initiative is designed to deliver three distinct outcomes. They are: Category 1: 'NextGen Ventures'' is designed to supercharge venture creation on ONDC. Open to aspiring founders exploring multiple ideas or early-stage founder teams working on an idea, this track provides a pathway to raising capital, launching, scaling companies, and incubating new businesses. Category 2 includes scalable solutions and invites participation from organisations or individuals, including students, with a focus on solving friction points faced by network participants. Category 3 includes foundation solutions, exclusively for college students (18+) to identify proof of concept for the friction points faced by network participants. There are benefits for winners in each of these categories. T Koshy, MD and CEO at ONDC, said, "We are excited to organize this nationwide initiative focused on building innovative solutions for India's rapidly growing digital commerce ecosystem. Initiatives like 'Build for Bharat' will unleash the talent and potential of India's startup and student communities to drive meaningful impact at scale. Through grants, investments and recognition, we hope to nurture the best ideas into sustainable businesses." Incorporated on December 31, 2021, ONDC goes beyond the current platform-centric digital commerce model where the buyer and seller have to use the same platform or application to be digitally visible and do a business transaction. ONDC is a non-profit company established by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to develop open e-commerce. Bikram Singh Bedi, Managing Director at Google Cloud India, said, "Google Cloud is committed to empowering India's entrepreneurial energy and technical capabilities. The 'Build for Bharat' initiative provides a platform to develop scalable solutions that can transform the digital ecosystem on a large scale. By bringing together students, startups and businesses, we aim to foster collaboration and innovation towards an inclusive digital economy." (ANI)
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