Srinagar, July 14: In a move to catalyze the growth of small businesses through digital integration, Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, today chaired a high-level meeting with the CEO of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to explore opportunities for leveraging the ONDC platform to promote e-commerce in J&K.As per the statement issued, the meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production Department; Executive Director, J&K Bank; Secretary, Labour & Employment; Secretary, Tribal Affairs;Secretary in Industries & Commerce; Director General, Budget; Director, Labour & Employment; State Informatics Officer, NIC; Representative from BISAG-N besides other senior officers.During the deliberations, the Chief Secretary emphasized the immense potential of digital commerce in strengthening the local economy and creating new livelihood avenues. He underscored the importance of initiating the digital push with simple, scalable models, and expanding gradually by addressing implementation challenges in a phased manner.Dulloo emphasised on the fact that J&K must embrace the digital shift by harnessing the capabilities of ONDC to empower the small and nano entrepreneurs first to serve locally. He directed the Labour & Employment Department to begin with a hyper-local delivery system within a defined radius around businesses.He also called for onboarding service providers such as electricians, plumbers and other technicians on the digital platform, enabling the citizens to avail their services conveniently here.The CEO, ONDC, shared success stories from other states, including that of Sri Vidhya Handlooms and Himira in Himachal Pradesh and their initiatives taken in Andhra Pradesh where ONDC played a transformative role in supporting the entrepreneurs to reach national markets in shorter time durations. He elaborated on ONDC’s potential to digitize local economy of J&K  and link the same with the national digital market, thereby uplifting key economic drivers here.Speaking on J&K’s roadmap, Director, Labour & Employment, Shahzad Alam, informed that the UT is looking to adopt a hyper-local delivery model within a 3–4 km radius through a seller app developed by BISAG-N. He added that various categories of service providers would soon be onboarded to offer their services through an integrated online hiring platform.Moreover, he said that the Department is contemplating establishment of district and UT-level collection hubs to facilitate the sale and distribution of goods produced by J&K’s weavers, artisans, and other small-scale manufacturers, thereby ensuring better market access and fair value for their products.

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