Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma launched the 'ONDC Digidukan' mobile application at an event held at Birla Auditorium, Jaipur, on 20 June 2026, marking Rajasthan's formal entry into the Open Network for Digital Commerce ecosystem for small and medium traders.

Addressing the gathering, the Chief Minister said the 'double engine government' — a phrase used to describe alignment between the BJP-led state and central administrations — is working with commitment to promote technology-based good governance, ease of doing business, and investment promotion. His remarks, delivered in Hindi, stated: 'डबल इंजन सरकार तकनीक आधारित सुशासन, व्यापार सुगमता और निवेश संवर्धन को प्रोत्साहित करने के लिए प्रतिबद्धता के साथ कार्य कर रही है' ('The double engine government is working with commitment to promote technology-based good governance, ease of doing business, and investment promotion').

Context

ONDC, or the Open Network for Digital Commerce, is a Section 8 company promoted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the central government. Incorporated in 2021 and launched in live pilots in 2022, ONDC was designed to allow small retailers to receive digital orders without paying the high commissions typically charged by large e-commerce platforms.

The 'ONDC Digidukan' app is Rajasthan's state-branded interface built on this open network. CM Sharma stated the app will help small and medium traders access new markets and expand their businesses — a goal that aligns with the network's original mandate of democratising digital commerce.

Policy Backdrop

The launch sits within a broader national digital infrastructure push that traces its roots to the Digital India programme launched in 2015, which laid the foundational connectivity and identity stack later leveraged by initiatives such as UPI for payments and DigiLocker for document storage. ONDC represents the next layer — an open protocol for commerce itself.

Several BJP-governed states have rolled out similar ONDC-linked buyer or seller applications, framing them as deliverables of the 'double engine' model. Rajasthan's Digidukan follows this pattern, positioning the state government as an active facilitator rather than a passive beneficiary of central digital infrastructure.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries are small and medium traders and MSMEs across Rajasthan who currently lack the resources to list on large private e-commerce platforms or absorb their commission structures. By plugging into the ONDC network, these sellers gain access to any buyer-side application built on the same open protocol — widening their market reach without platform lock-in.

CM Sharma called on traders to adopt digital technologies and empower themselves in keeping with changing times, signalling that the government intends to follow the launch with outreach to the trader community. Birla Auditorium in Jaipur — a prominent venue for state government events — provided a visible, high-footfall setting for the rollout.

What's Next

The immediate metric to watch will be onboarding numbers: how many traders in Rajasthan's districts register on the Digidukan app and begin transacting in the months ahead. District-level adoption drives are the typical next step in state ONDC rollouts, and transaction volumes over the next two quarters will indicate whether uptake moves beyond the launch event.

Broader ease-of-doing-business rankings and investment sentiment in the state could also be influenced if the app achieves meaningful scale, reinforcing the government's stated priority of making Rajasthan a more attractive destination for commerce and investment under the #AapnoAgraneeRajasthan campaign.