{"id":34237,"date":"2018-10-30T16:28:35","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T10:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34237"},"modified":"2018-10-30T16:28:35","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T10:58:35","slug":"india-mulls-national-e-commerce-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/india-mulls-national-e-commerce-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"India mulls national e-commerce policy:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-business\/india-mulls-national-e-commerce-policy\/article19964550.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India mulls national e-commerce policy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is considering drafting a comprehensive national e-commerce policy to develop an ecosystem that would support exports and protect consumer interests.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) was working on a paper on e-commerce, which will soon be put in public domain for debates and comments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, starting negotiations on WTO rules in e-commerce would be premature as the contours of this space are still in the dark,&#8221;, according to the Sudhanshu Pandey, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce &amp; Industry.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several countries were enthusiastic about negotiating multilateral rules to govern international trade through e-commerce. However, such rules could hurt the interest of most developing countries, including India.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>India\u2019s position:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is in favour of promoting e-commerce, rulemaking for domestic e-commerce, developing an ecosystem to support exports and protecting the consumers\u2019 interest.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The developed countries including the US are pushing for inclusion of new issues like investment facilitation and e-commerce in the WTO\u2019s ministerial meeting held in Argentina in December<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India may be very hesitant to be party to e-commerce related negotiations at the WTO level, but the country has been more receptive to such negotiations in at a regional level, particularly the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (Rcep) the proposed free trade agreement with the 10-ASEAN countries (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and its six Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) partners, viz. Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Korea and India.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Global e-commerce market:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Global e-commerce market was estimated at $25 trillion of which trans-border component was a minuscule 5% \u2014 meaning the remaining 95% was domestic e-commerce trade.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The size of the Indian e-commerce market was just $30 billion<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The varied arms of the Centre were trying to address the issues pertaining to their domain to help in formulating an overarching national policy for e-commerce.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Challenges:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were many challenges in starting international negotiations; the key areas which India needed to look at include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data flows, server and data localisation,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Transfer of technology and mandatory sharing of telecom infrastructure.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several nations were in favour of continuing in line with the Work Programme on E-Commerce approved in 1998.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India needed a harmonised approach at both the WTO and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations while balancing its interests. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is E-Commerce?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Electronic commerce or e-commerce is a type of business model, or segment of a larger business model, that enables a firm or individual to conduct business over an electronic network, mainly from the internet.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Electronic commerce operates in all four of the major market segments: business to business, business to consumer, consumer to consumer and consumer to business.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E-Commerce processes are conducted using applications, such as email, fax, online catalogues and shopping carts, electronic data interchange (EDI), file transfer protocol and web services and e-newsletters to subscribers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Electronic commerce emerged in the early 1990\u2019s and its use has increased at a rapid rate. Today the majority of companies have an online presence.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Some statistics related to e-commerce:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With $ 681 billion in online retail sales in 2016, China is the largest market for e-commerce globally, followed by the US, and the fastest growing one is India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has an Internet user base of about 243.2 million as of January 2014.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite being third largest user base in the world, the penetration of Internet is low compared to markets like United States, United Kingdom or France but is growing at a much faster rate, adding around 6 million new entrants every month.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In India, cash on delivery is the most preferred payment method, accumulating 75% of the e-retail activities. \u00a0The retail market in India is expected to rise from 2.5% in 2016 to 5% in 2020. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Types of e-commerce:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are several types of electronic commerce. The most common is <\/span><b>business to consumer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, in which a business sells products or services directly to consumers over the Internet.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another type of electronic commerce is <\/span><b>business to business<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where companies sell products or services to other companies over the Internet.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Consumer to business<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> electronic commerce involves consumers selling products or services to businesses.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is <\/span><b>consumer to consumer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> e-commerce, which is where consumers sell their products to other consumers.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Some advantages of e-commerce are given below:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Faster buying and selling procedure, as well as easy to find products.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Buying and selling day and night<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More reach to customers, there is no theoretical geographic limitations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No need of physical company set-ups<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Easy to start and manage a business.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customers can easily select products from different providers without moving around physically.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E-Commerce helps in creating new job opportunities due to information related services, software app and digital products.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E-commerce offers the consumer or enterprise various information they need, making information into total transparency, and enterprises are no longer is able to use the mode of space or advertisement to raise their competitive edge.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Some disadvantages of e-commerce are given below:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The invention of faster internet connectivity and powerful online tools has resulted in a new commerce arena-E-Commerce. E commerce offered many advantages to companies and customers but it also caused many problems.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The issues and problems which affect the development of Internet, e-commerce and e-business applications are discussed below:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no guarantee of product quality<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mechanical failures can cause unpredictable effects on the total processes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As there is minimum chance of direct customer to company interactions, customer loyalty is always on a check.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are many hackers who look for opportunities, and thus an e-commerce site, service, payment gateways; all are always prone to attack.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E-commerce is lack of human interaction for customers, especially who prefer face-to-face consumption<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Security and Privacy issue:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Internet is not a particularly secure place. The information is widely published throughout the Internet which can be used for criminal and near-criminal activities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second aspect is that since the Internet is an open system, details of its underlying technologies are freely available to anybody. This means that the way data passes through the Internet is in the public domain; the consequence of this is that, theoretically, anyone with the right tools can eavesdrop on data passing from one computer on the Internet to another<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conflict of laws in cyberspace is a major hurdle for harmonization of legal framework for e-commerce around the world.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Net Neutrality Issue: \u00a0<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Net Neutrality is a principle which advocates that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or changing deferentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Solutions:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E-commerce readiness: It is essential to fully understand the payment and logistical infrastructure, consumer behaviour, retail opportunity and technological developments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scope of growth: It is also important to look at the internet penetration, demographics of the online buying population.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Barriers to entry: Players should understand the regulatory environment and connect with solution providers, content distribution networks, and digital agencies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Competition: There is also a need to do an in-depth assessment of what competitors are doing, their online strategy and the nature of each offering.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India mulls national e-commerce policy:\u00a0 Context: India is considering drafting a comprehensive national e-commerce policy to develop an ecosystem that would support exports and protect consumer interests. Introduction: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) was working on a paper on e-commerce, which will soon be put in public domain for debates and comments.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/india-mulls-national-e-commerce-policy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">India mulls national e-commerce policy:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704894132},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}