NCUI taps Google Cloud to launch an e-commerce application for cooperatives
Cooperative body National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), on Saturday, partnered with Google Cloud to launch its e-commerce application for Indian cooperatives.
The launch took place at the two-day 17th Indian Cooperative Congress (ICC) on July 1 in New Delhi, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The cooperative body, which has educated and trained more than 8.5 lakh Cooperatives in India with a total membership of more than 30 crore people, said that it was looking for a scalable platform like Google Cloud to host this e-commerce platform for cooperative products for its users.
“The e-commerce platform was built on Google Cloud and will provide a scalable, easy to use and robust technology for economic empowerment of the Cooperatives and their members by providing easy access to currently inaccessible buyers,” the company said in a statement.
Bikram Singh Bedi, Managing Director, Google Cloud India said, “NCUI were seeking a cloud partner who could offer scalability, open-source technology, and a collaborative approach to enhance their operations. We are confident that our cloud platform will provide a seamless experience for their users.”
Vina Tech Solutions, a Google Cloud partner worked with NCUI to design and develop the application on Google Cloud platform.
The platform will help the Cooperatives to sell their products across geographies without any intermediaries. The platform will also provide complete training and capacity building support to the members for onboarding on the portal and in areas of packaging, branding and accessing the welfare schemes of the government.
“Powered by robust and scalable technology, the launch of the e-commerce application will enable Cooperatives and their members an easy access to buy and sell their products to buyers across the country. We are positive our partnership with Google Cloud will enable us on our digital transformation journey and economically empower the Cooperatives,” Sudhir Mahajan, Chief Executive, NCUI said in a statement.
Bedi added that the “partnership will promote economic growth and empowerment of both the Cooperatives and their members.”
Further, it would lead to the development and a common platform for all the small cooperatives to compete in the market of big players and will also enable consumers to choose the right product under their preferred price segment.
The announcement comes only days after its first I/O Connect event in Bengaluru, India, where the tech major unveiled a range of AI tools and technologies aimed at promoting growth and innovation among local developers. One of the key announcements was the launch of an accelerator program for the Indian government’s e-commerce initiative, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The accelerator program, offered through Google Cloud, aims to assist digital sellers in building and scaling their digital commerce operations.
Google Cloud has earlier said that it is building products and innovations unique to the Indian market as adoption grows across sectors.
Both NCUI and Google Cloud aim to expand this pilot project to other geographies soon.