Listing of Rainmatter on ONDC as seller side participants to improve the odds of success of climate-related products/brands

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I am following Nikhil (Zerodha’s Co-founder) on Instagram because of his well-researched, compressed insights related to various industries. However, I have not watched any of his videos from the WTF series. A few days back, youtube suggested one of Nikhil’s video-clip related to ONDC. After listening to ONDC’s explanation, I felt bad because it wasted my 6 minutes. Before that video, I had a vague idea about ONDC but never felt the need to understand it in deep. But after watching a small clip of Think School on Instagram, I follow Think School as well, I decided to clear my thinking and wrote a small essay.

At the end of the essay, I realised Rainmatter should be on the ONDC network as a Seller Participant. As Rainmatter has committed $100 million, I am sure in the coming time - the team will have a strong portfolio of climate-related products/services/brands.

Here are potentially three reasons

  1. Streamline and centralised Climate-related manufacturers/brands/companies
  2. This will allow the team to create a centralized learning open dashboard
  3. Those learning can allow the team to scale the impact to the 1.4 billion Indian population

Even IDFC First Bank has registered itself as a Buyers Participant on the ONDC (I am still figuring out why?).

Read about ONDC: ONDC has the potential to unlock trillion-dollar value for Indian societies

PS: Please share this essay with Nikhil and also request if he creates his version of posts and shares it on Instagram for general public education (that he has been doing selflessly), acknowledge my name - I will gain a few more followers on my Insta profile (lol), okay Sorry!

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The marketing of ONDC is not happening. It was a proposal that got 10 cr in 10 minutes as it was proposed to the Secretary. There is a lot of confusion going on for this stuff. its not very user friendly

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There are a few teething issues but in the long run ONDC might just work out well. Everyone had written off UPI as well in the first few weeks of launch. I think ONDC’s success is more dependent on the network itself and as more folks onboard the better it gets. The more folks use ONDC, the better it gets. So only time will tell if this will play out as most folks claim, but cant write it off so soon, in my opinion.

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We do have a directory created for all products from Rainmatter and others who are contributing to sustainability Agriculture - Services focusing on environment and sustainability in India.

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You are right . I wish it works out well as it can help all of us. They should promote its utility more on TV media and mainstream channels / popular podcasts . Convenience to onboard and educate for its benefits in long run for our country will guide really well . @Pai

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Yes, I remember exploring that directory on day-1, Not only that we also have NGOs who are working closely with farmers. If I am correct, even 10%, the real value creation of ONDC would be for the categories such as Agritech input/output, Sustainable and Climate-related brands/services/products, SMEs etc. The ecosystem will think about these categories in the last which is not very difficult to understand. Therefore we must choose a name and start the listing process on ONDC as a Seller Participant.

We can push the making of money for a few years. However, learning can allow us to truly make a difference for these listed sellers and their impact on nature. I think ONDC is probably the best tool to scale all these solutions and propagate the impact to the last mile. One of the problems most of these solutions face (Sustainable and climate-based products and services) is that affordability is limited to a few because of the higher price point. And Scale is probably the best solution to deflate the price point and make it affordable to billion of Indians and the rest of the world.

Here is the best part: Because ONDC is a self-serving platform, so would not demand many resources. Frankly, I would love to volunteer for this because I have experience running eCommerce (community commerce), and 5 to 6 hours per week would be enough along with a few dedicated resources. I think a functioning seller-side application should be ready in 2 months. This means it will not affect my work at Jile Health. And only work satisfaction from Jile Health can push me to work harder on anything else.

At this point, I have a vague idea for the next 10 years, and if we think long-term, sacrificing short-term gains (which has been the thesis of Zerodha and Rainmatter) - we can create a value of a minimum of $10 billion. In fact, I have also thought of the potential structure.

But I can only give you that picture in a meeting - a physical meeting!

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ONDC has the potential to be greener logistics solution:

Standardise packaging:
Defining the standards of packaging of common sizes & use cases and provide a discount for merchants on the network using these standards.

RE(turn)-commerce:
Ability for customer to return packaging the order is delivered in, with the same order (for one time e-commerce purchases like devices, apparel, books, etc.) or in future order (for frequent e-commerce purchases like food, groceries, etc.). This creates room for reusable packaging in all of logistics.

By simply including ‘return order’ information into an existing order, at the effectively same emissions used to deliver something ONDC could become the no cost supply chain for the startups in the circular economy sectors: REuse (startup like Refillable, Ecovia), REpurpose (startups like Recharka), REcycling (startups like Rescript, Scarp uncle). If any business deserve supply chain services at zero cost, it would be those based in circular economy. Imagine the incentive it would be to create new eco-friendlier startups.

Currently, the value derived from a delivery is mostly only on the delivering leg of the order and not the return leg of the order. Return commerce can derive value from the return leg of an order which can help ONDC offset costs and provide competent pricing in logistics.

At some point re(turn)-commerce can balance the e-commerce and transition to become the basis for more general resource management infrastructure during a climate crisis. If systems of extraction transition into systems of regeneration - this is how it could look like.

Last time supply chains doubled their efficiency was when internet was invented, and it happened over decades of innovation. With simple additional feature, value the logistics infrastructure adds to the economy could be doubled in eco-friendlier way.

P.s. - Would Rainmatter fund a research into the potential of re(turn)-commerce through ONDC and what could packaging standards be?

Appreciate all ideas. :smiley:

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I think the idea holds its ground - ONDC can make logistics greener and cheaper. However, if we break the logistics into individual components you will realise there are a few fundamental components that might be difficult to eliminate.

Is it possible? Can you draw some diagrams on paper and share them here? I am still struggling to form a picture in my mind.

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Currently the logistics infrastructure derives most of it’s value (90% or more) from delivering orders.

Ex: cost of delivery for sellers = ₹50

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Every delivery also provides opportunity to return reusables (food containers, grocery bags, packages, etc).

Ex: cost of delivery for sellers = ₹40; cost of pickup for “buyers” (circular businesses) = ₹10

Some advantages:

  1. Circular businesses can build on reliable return logistics. Many new business models are possible. Just ask any of the startups mentioned above.

  2. If ONDC chooses to keep cost of delivery at ₹50 and cost of pickups at ₹0, it can provide the pickup services (not warehouse, etc) at zero cost to circular businesses. Perfect incentive for startup India initiative!

  3. Cost of delivery for sellers is competitively priced without compromising on quality or relying on govt.

  4. Eventually, whole ONDC infrastructure can be used as a ‘resource management system’ for crisis management (imagine management of resources in disaster hit zones) which is crucial during a climate crisis when resources are further limited.

Hope this helps! :smiley:

Edit: Nothing prevents any logistics providers to do the same for the same value creation. ONDC is an example.

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You are a genius, do you know that? How did you get this idea, why haven’t I thought about this :sob: :sob: ? What you are saying totally makes sense. ONDC is an interoperable network where there is seamless data exchange among all participants and this interoperability can be used to disrupt this current logistic system. I think we are talking about

  • a massive cost reduction in logistics
  • net environmental +ve impact
  • Plastic reduction
  • Packaging Material reduction…

We are taking about massive value creation!

I wrote an essay last year that has all the cells on current logistics please have a look and try breaking this down in multiple components (First Mile + Middle Mile + Last Mile). The Last Mile logistics contributes 48% of the entire logistic cost and that is one of the biggest demons of e-commerce. And it seems with the help of ONDC our nation will have the world’s best logistic system.

I would love to talk to you just to understand how did you connect the dot? Just to make it clear, I can’t invest in fact, I am also knocking doors of @NithinKamath and the Rainmatter team every day to invest in me :star_struck:. But to start, you might not need money for the initial few months :slight_smile:

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This is the OG business where new things are sold and reusables are collected in the same transaction. Growing up, this was the norm; it needs a new shape and form now. @Suman_Jile that is the inspiration for above idea.

‘Return commerce’ isn’t new, we have had it since forever. It’s in front of us, we might have missed to see it. :smiley:

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Damn it Nagaraju (@Nagaraju_G), I envy you more, now. Growing up, I saw this with my eyes in my village, and never questioned or thought about e-commerce from this lens - even though I might have received 10,000+ e-commerce orders.

Antler has started a platform specifically for ONDC. ONDC: Digital Commerce for a New India | Launching the Antler ONDC platform - YouTube I think you should have a look. :slight_smile:

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Not only financial products, whether anyone believes it or not, but almost all categories in digital commerce are going to get disrupted including Climate-based Products, Health, Agriculture etc.

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Like UPI, Google understood the disruptive nature of ONDC @Sagar_Gudekote

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