Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

Welcome to another edition of Tech x Policy. 

When we first kicked off this newsletter five weeks ago, we weren’t sure what kind of a response it would get. But if your emails are anything to go by, it has certainly struck a chord with many of you. So please keep the feedback and ideas coming!

So far, we have delved into India’s long-pending cybersecurity strategy, Twitter’s India business case, Google’s antitrust defence playbook, and the highly debated Digital Personal Data Protection Bill. (You can check all our previous editions here.)

Today, Anushka breaks down the mobility foray of India’s ambitious digital commerce project—ONDC. And, Pratap has an interesting question. 

Let’s dive in.

ONDC’s mobility plans may run into a data wall

By Anushka Jain 

Early this month, on 4 November, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri flagged off the integration of the Kerala Open Mobility Network (KOMN) with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). 

This is kind of a big deal for the ONDC, which is an ambitious Union government-driven project to create an open, interoperable network for trading all kinds of goods and services. Sort of a Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Unified Health Interface (UHI)-type solution for digital commerce. 

Here’s what The Ken wrote back in August:

So far, however, the network hasn’t onboarded any transport/mobility services player. Until KOMN.

And if the presence of the Union minister wasn’t enough to signal ONDC’s national ambitions for its mobility foray, its Managing Director T Koshy’s statement on the launch makes that pretty clear. This, he said, would be “a catalyst for the expansion of open mobility networks across India.”

Like I said, ambitious.