India cites 470 crore ONDC orders as FDI and PLI investment hit new highs

India reported $94.53 billion in FDI in FY2025-26, while government data cited more than 470 crore cumulative ONDC orders. The update signals continued policy support for domestic manufacturing and digital-commerce infrastructure relevant to retail operators.

— Source publishedFri, 25 Sept, 2026, 14:05 IST·First seen Fri, 25 Sept, 2026, 14:47 IST·Source Times of India · Business

What happened

India reported record FY2025-26 FDI of $94.53 billion. PLI schemes drew Rs 2.40 lakh crore of investment, while ONDC recorded more than 470 crore orders,

Key facts

  • $94.53 billion FDI in FY2025-26
  • $843 billion cumulative FDI from FY2014-15 to FY2025-26
  • Rs 2.40 lakh crore PLI investment
  • Rs 23.8 lakh crore PLI production and sales
  • Rs 15.2 lakh crore PLI exports
  • More than 14.6 lakh jobs
  • More than 470 crore ONDC orders

Why this matters

Corporate-development teams should prioritize partnerships or acquisitions in ONDC-enabled commerce, logistics, payments and merchant-tech providers positioned to benefit from policy-supported ecosystem expansion.

What to watch

  • Monthly ONDC order growth by category, average order value and repeat-purchase rates.
  • Merchant activation and retention, especially among organized retailers and national brands.
  • Evidence that buyer-app and seller-app incentives are declining while order growth remains durable.
  • ONDC fulfillment SLAs, cancellation rates, return rates and dispute-resolution performance.
  • New FDI, PLI and domestic-manufacturing announcements in retail-relevant sectors such as electronics, apparel, food processing and logistics.
  • Policy changes affecting marketplace foreign ownership, inventory models, data sharing or network interoperability.
  • Pilot ONDC storefronts in price-sensitive, standardized and high-frequency categories before expanding assortment.
  • Build catalog, inventory and order-management integrations that can support multiple buyer apps without manual operations.
  • Use expanded domestic supplier capacity to renegotiate private-label and exclusive-brand sourcing contracts.
  • Benchmark ONDC customer-acquisition, cancellation, return and fulfillment costs against major marketplaces and owned channels.
  • Prepare differentiated pricing, loyalty and fulfillment propositions to limit margin erosion from more transparent network commerce.