Indian govt-backed ONDC independent director Arvind Gupta steps down

Arvind Gupta, a founding member and the first independent director of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), has stepped down from the government-backed e-commerce platform, adding to a growing list of senior-level departures in recent months.

Gupta’s exit, which occurred last month upon the completion of his three-year term, follows the resignations of managing director and chief executive Thampy Koshy, non-executive chairperson R.S. Sharma, and chief business officer Shireesh Joshi.

ONDC, an ambitious initiative designed to democratize digital commerce in India, is governed by a board of directors and an advisory council comprising founding members, government nominees, shareholders, and independent directors.

“I was a founding member of ONDC and the first independent director. I completed my three-year term as an independent director and decided not to continue further,” said Gupta, who is also the head and co-founder of the Digital India Foundation.

In a statement to The Economic Times, ONDC acknowledged Gupta’s contributions: “Arvind Gupta, a key founding member of ONDC, has played an instrumental role in shaping ONDC and guiding its early growth. After completing a full three-year term of impactful guidance as an independent director, he has decided not to continue in his role.”

Gupta’s departure leaves ONDC with three independent directors: Adil Zainulbhai, chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission; Anjali Bansal, founder and chairperson of Avaana Capital; and Ritesh Tiwari, executive director of finance and IT and chief financial officer at Hindustan Unilever Limited.

The string of executive exits comes amid signs of declining transactional activity on the network. ONDC’s retail order volumes, which reached 4.34 million in April, fell by 6.2% to 4.07 million in May. Similarly, logistics orders executed through the network declined to 2.32 million in May from 2.41 million in the previous month.

ONDC, which aims to create a unified open digital commerce infrastructure, was envisioned as an alternative to dominant e-commerce platforms by enabling interoperability between buyers and sellers across various applications. Since its inception, the network has positioned itself as a foundational piece of India’s digital public infrastructure, much like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in financial services.