Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday, 30 October 2026, chaired a high-level CEO roundtable in New Delhi bringing together over 40 leaders from major FMCG companies to chart a shared roadmap for digitising India's General Trade ecosystem through ONDC's DigiDukaan initiative. The meeting, convened by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), underscored the Centre's push to embed neighbourhood kirana stores into a modern, digital supply chain.

Where DigiDukaan Stands Today

DigiDukaan has onboarded over 21,000 retailers connected to more than 450 brands across Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Mumbai as of September 2026 — up from over 12,000 retailers in the previous quarter. That near-doubling in active retailers within a single quarter signals accelerating adoption, though scaling beyond pilot cities will be the more demanding test.

What Goyal and DPIIT Said

'ONDC's DigiDukaan shows that when open digital infrastructure is built around the needs of the small retailer, adoption follows. Let this become another case study where the world can learn from India,' Goyal said at the roundtable. He added: 'By making procurement simpler and more transparent while strengthening our distributors, we can help kiranas free up working capital and grow. I invite the FMCG industry to work together and take this to every corner of Bharat.'

Amardeep Singh Bhatia, Secretary, DPIIT, described open digital infrastructure as central to accelerating retail digitalisation at scale. 'ONDC's DigiDukaan is an important step in this direction, demonstrating how an open, interoperable network can enable neighbourhood retailers to access digital procurement opportunities and participate more effectively in the evolving digital economy,' Bhatia said.

How the Platform Works

DigiDukaan digitises kirana stores as buyers rather than sellers. Through a single digital interface, retailers can discover and order products across multiple brands, distributors, and wholesalers, with greater visibility into pricing, trade schemes, and product availability. Crucially, the platform is designed to work alongside — not replace — existing distributor networks, addressing a longstanding concern in the trade that digital intermediaries disrupt rather than augment ground-level commerce.

Vibhor Jain, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ONDC, stated: 'We are digitising kiranas as buyers, while strengthening the existing distributor network rather than replacing it.'

Industry Representation at the Roundtable

Senior representatives from Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Coca-Cola India, ITC, P&G, Marico, CavinKare, Pidilite, Britannia, Adani Wilmar, LT Foods, Anmol Industries, Haldiram's, Emami, Veeba, and Nilon's participated. Logistics providers, technology partners, and ONDC network participants also attended the Bharat Commerce Chintan Shivir.

Why This Matters for India's Retail Economy

India's General Trade channel — the sprawling network of neighbourhood kirana stores — supports the livelihoods of millions of small retailers and remains the dominant route to market for FMCG companies in semi-urban and rural India. Digitising procurement addresses a persistent friction: kiranas have historically operated on opaque pricing, delayed credit settlements, and limited visibility into distributor trade schemes. This is the kind of structural inefficiency that erodes working capital for small businesses over time. Notably, DigiDukaan's approach of building on ONDC's open, interoperable network rather than a closed proprietary platform distinguishes it from earlier e-B2B attempts that struggled with exclusivity and margin conflicts.

With the pilot now covering three cities and the government signalling a national rollout, the initiative's ability to replicate results in Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets — where digital literacy and last-mile logistics are more constrained — will determine its real scale and impact.