{"id":42042,"date":"2024-08-22T01:03:55","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T19:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=42042"},"modified":"2025-10-04T17:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T12:05:08","slug":"discussion-on-e-commerce-sector-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/discussion-on-e-commerce-sector-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Discussion on E-commerce Sector in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>What is E-commerce?<\/li>\n<li>Key Factors Promoting the Growth of E-Commerce in India<\/li>\n<li>Government Initiatives to Promote E-commerce in India<\/li>\n<li>Concerns Regarding E-Commerce Sector in India<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Aiming at the largest online retailer in the world &#8211; Amazon, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry voiced concerns about the rapid expansion of the e-commerce sector in India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>What is E-commerce?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Meaning: <\/strong>E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advantages:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>No geographical barrier:<\/strong> Delivery of products is taking place in the remotest part of the country, which has brought suppliers and customers closer together &#8211; boosting output and creating ideal competition.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lower cost: <\/strong>Due to decrease in miscellaneous expenses and increase in economy of scale, cost of the products also gets reduced.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Personalization and product recommendation:<\/strong> Customers can learn more about the products thanks to the feedback and remarks system.<\/li>\n<li><strong>For business:<\/strong> Advantages include an expanded customer base, increased sales, extended business reach, and the convenience of recurring payments and instant transactions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Disadvantages:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Security and privacy issues:<\/strong> The general acceptance of e-commerce buying habits is hampered by the lack of strong encryption techniques to protect identification, personal data, and financial transactions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Limited customer service:<\/strong> Compared to e-commerce websites, physical storefronts make it easier to resolve concerns and determine whether a product is suitable.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Regulatory concerns:<\/strong> The lack of clarity regarding the laws governing online sales creates mistrust between consumers and sellers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Limited understanding of product suitability:<\/strong> Buying things online eliminates the opportunity to physically handle them. Instead, one must rely exclusively on digital photos.<\/li>\n<li><strong>There is lesser accountability on part of e-commerce companies:<\/strong> The product quality may or may not meet the expectations of the customers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Key Factors Promoting the Growth of E-Commerce in India:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Price &#8211; A trump card for Indian e-commerce players:<\/strong> As most of the products that are available online are cheaper than the same products available offline.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Payment options:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Government of India\u2019s <strong>Digital India<\/strong> initiative has been a key factor in enhancing internet penetration across the country.<\/li>\n<li>With the advent of digital wallets and <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/upi\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>UPI <\/strong>(Unified Payments Interface)<\/a>, the payment options have grown over the years.<\/li>\n<li>However, the <strong>Cash on Delivery (COD)<\/strong> is prevalent in India due to a large amount of cash being circulated in the economy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Domestic consumption: <\/strong>India\u2019s growth story driven by domestic demand and the high consumption of the aspirational Indian consumer has ensured the growth of e-commerce.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Language: <\/strong>Most e-commerce portals in India are in English and that has played a big role in the growth of the industry, as India has the largest English-speaking middle-class population.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Government Initiatives to Promote E-commerce in India:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Since 2014, initiatives like <strong>Digital India, Make in India, Start-up India, Skill India, and Innovation Fund<\/strong> have supported the growth of E-commerce in the country.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Government e-Marketplace (GeM): <\/strong>It is an online platform for public procurement in India that was launched in 2016 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.\n<ul>\n<li>Its objective is to create an inclusive, efficient, and transparent platform for the buyers and sellers to carry out procurement activities in a fair and competitive manner.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>National Retail Policy:<\/strong> In order to administer offline retail and e-commerce in an integral manner, the government had identified five areas in its proposed national retail policy &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li>Ease of doing business,<\/li>\n<li>Rationalisation of the licence process,<\/li>\n<li>Digitisation of retail,<\/li>\n<li>Focus on reforms and<\/li>\n<li>An <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-open-network-for-digital-commerce-ondc\/\" target=\"_blank\">open network for digital commerce (ONDC)<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>ONDC:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It has been built to promote open networks for all aspects of the exchange of goods and services over digital or electronic networks.<\/li>\n<li>It uses open specifications and open network protocols independent of any specific platform.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Consumer Protection (e-commerce) Rules 2020:<\/strong> It directed e-commerce companies to display the country of origin alongside the product listings.\n<ul>\n<li>In addition, the companies will also have to reveal parameters that go behind determining product listings on their platforms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>5G: <\/strong>Heavy investment made by the Government in rolling out a fibre network for 5G will help boost E-commerce in India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Concerns Regarding E-Commerce Sector in India:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>According to a Pahle India Foundation\u2019s report \u2018Net Impact of E-Commerce on Employment and Consumer Welfare in India\u2019,\n<ul>\n<li>E-commerce is growing at an annual rate of <strong>27%<\/strong>, meaning that e-commerce <strong>will double every three years.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Online vendors have <strong>generated 15.8 million jobs<\/strong> in India (including 3.5 million for women), with about 1.76 million retail enterprises participating in e-commerce activity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry (at the launch of the report) claimed that this growth of the e-commerce sector in India would be the consequence of &#8220;<strong>predatory pricing<\/strong>&#8220;.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Predatory pricing is a practice<\/strong> (generally by a new player in the market) of keeping prices superficially low to undercut competition and gain market share.<\/li>\n<li>He singled out <strong>Amazon <\/strong>for indulging in predatory pricingand selling products directly to consumers even though it isn\u2019t allowed to do so.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>According to the minister, this might cause &#8220;<strong>social disruption<\/strong>&#8221; because it would <strong>negatively affect an estimated 100 million small retailers nationwide.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q.1. What is the UMANG app?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) app is a government app that allows Indian citizens to access a variety of services from the Indian government on a single platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q.2. What is BHIM app?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is a payment app developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and launched in 2016.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/business\/Industry\/amazons-investment-in-india-to-make-up-for-its-losses-not-to-support-indian-economy-piyush-goyal\/article68550149.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Commerce Minister Goyal warns rapid e-commerce growth could cause social disruptions, hit millions of retail stores and jobs<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/business\/massive-growth-e-commerce-social-disruption-piyush-goyal-9525467\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry claimed that the expansion of the e-commerce sector in India would be the consequence of &#8220;predatory pricing&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":42043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-42042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}