Sri Vijaya Puram, Nov. 12: A one-day, hands-on Capacity-Building Workshop on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was held today in the Conference Hall of the Directorate of Industries, to help the Sagarika team take its product live on ONDC. The event was attended by the officials and staff of the A&N Emporium Sagarika as well as beneficiaries/sellers of the Sagarika Emporium.
Smt. Ritu Singh, Director of Industries addressed the gathering and informed that with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), the Sagarika Government Emporium would transform from a localized, tourist-dependent hub into a pan-India digital storefront. Historically, the local artisans crafting wood, coconut shell and seashell handicrafts relied almost exclusively on seasonal footfall of tourists, however ONDC breaks this geographic isolation, allowing these self-employed island craftsmen to reach buyers across the country through any ONDC-compliant app, ensuring year-round demand and livelihood stability.
Shri Praveen Choudhary, Vice-President, ONDC, and Ms. Tamanna Sharma, Programme Manager, ONDC, addressed the gathering and extended their good wishes. Speaking on the occasion, they informed that the open network provides a cost-effective alternative to traditional e-commerce giants. By eliminating steep commission fees and offering multi-lingual digital support, ONDC enables Island’s artisans to sell their authentic handicrafts at fair prices while keeping a larger share of their profits.
The technical session began with a recap of the recommended model of Sagarika as an umbrella brand and aggregator, with a seller app and mainland warehousing. Five sessions followed on catalogue and packaging, marketing and visibility, logistics and warehousing, pricing, and a live demonstration of the white-label seller app. Participants benefited from practical, hands-on guidance on preparing product listings and meeting labelling and compliance requirements, on reaching buyers across the network, on moving stock from Sri Vijaya Puram to the mainland, on building prices that keep the producer’s earnings in view, and on operating the seller app. The Sagarika team and officials also received a clearer picture of the support ONDC will provide towards onboarding onto ONDC.
The Department expressed its appreciation to the ONDC team for their visit and their support in helping the artisans of Andaman & Nicobar in getting awareness on the ONDC initiative.