The year has begun positively for Mangaluru’s startup ecosystem. Following the success of Emerge-2024, organised as part of the Tapasya Beach Festival, Mangaluru city is now preparing for the upcoming event, ‘Build From Mangaluru’. Anup Pai, founder of eSamudaay, a network of software nodes connected on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) protocol said ‘Build from Mangaluru’ is a unique local-first startup accelerator programme on the District Digital Economy Network or DISDECO.
ONDC should have a unique identifier number for each seller like a GST number, TAN number or PAN number, he said. "ONDC should decide which seller app the seller (merchant or vendor) belongs to,” Vamanan said.
With more and more stakeholders rallying behind the idea of ONDC, the promise of an open and unrestricted e-commerce experience is beginning to take shape. But there are significant challenges to be overcome