Paytm, Reliance Industries, Delhivery On BofA's List Of India's Tech Stack Winners
Open architecture platforms don't lead to 'winner takes it all' but help innovative models win, BofA said.
Paytm, Reliance Industries Ltd., and Delhivery Ltd. are among the listed companies that are likely to have benefited from India's Tech Stack, according to BoFA Research.
The open-source India stack, which forms the base for platforms such as UPI, DigiLocker, ONDC, and CoWIN, among others, is aimed at furthering the country's digital public infrastructure beyond its borders.
"The common aspect of these platforms is that they are inexpensive, widely available, interoperable, scalable, and based on open architecture. Besides, they follow the principle of democratisation of access and ensure user or merchant privacy, i.e., consented usage of data," Sachin Salgaonkar, research analyst at BofA Research, wrote in a March 15 note.
The private sector can also leverage these platforms by building applications on top of them, the note said. Open-architecture platforms don't lead to 'winner takes it all', but help innovative models win, it said. Hence, the potential beneficiaries include listed players and "innovative model" startups.
Among the listed companies, One97 Communications Ltd., the owner and operator of payments platform Paytm, benefits from UPI due to "faster customer acquisition", BofA said.
Banks, it said, stand to benefit from the account aggregator framework as their small and medium businesses' and users' reach will increase. Further, banks with better technology upgrades will likely gain share, it said.
Reliance Industries Ltd. also could be a beneficiary from the government's ONDC "given its strong offline network and logistics fleet", while Delhivery Ltd. as a logistics company, should also benefit.
The National Health Stack, which comprises key components such as national health registries, a personal health records framework, and digital health ID, would benefit hospitals and diagnostics firms as it would lead to "faster turnaround and lower insurance fraud".
PolicyBazaar and IndiaMart, two listed leaders among new-age stocks, stand at the risk of increased competition if the government's Bima Sugam and ONDC are successful, it said.
The network effects of this digital ecosystem will be seen in the coming years, BofA said. "Full effects will be visible in the coming years as platforms interface with each other, facilitating seamless offerings."
"The second-order impact from these would likely be seen in supply chains getting disintermediated or loosened up."