NITI Aayog-in association with Agami and Omidyar Network India and with the support of ICICI Bank, Ashoka Innovators for the Public, Trilegal, Dalberg, Dvara, NIPFP-will launch the first-of-its kind Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) handbook in India tomorrow.

Hon’ble Justice DY Chandrachud, Supreme Court of India, will deliver the opening address and launch the handbook. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, TATA Sons Vice President Poornima Sampath and Sumit Gupta, Head Collections, Udaan, will also be present in the launch.  

The handbook is an invitation to business leaders to adopt ODR in India. It highlights the need for such a mechanism, the models of ODR that businesses can adopt and an actionable pathway for them. 

ODR is the resolution of disputes outside courts, particularly of small and medium-value cases, using digital technology and techniques of alternate dispute resolution (ADR), such as negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. While courts are becoming digitized through the efforts of the judiciary, more effective, scalable, and collaborative mechanisms of containment and resolution are urgently needed. ODR can help resolve disputes efficiently and affordably.

Online dispute resolution adoption: handbook outlines models and an actionable pathway for businesses to implement digital ADR. The handbook promotes Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) for businesses, describing ODR as a digital mechanism for resolving disputes outside courts-particularly small and medium-value cases-by combining digital platforms with alternate dispute resolution methods such as negotiation, mediation, and arbitration, and providing models and an actionable pathway for business adoption.