E-commerce has revolutionised the retail sector in India and will play a major role in the country’s growth story going forward, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said Tuesday.
According to a PTI report: He further noted that driven by the growth in India’s retail market, the country’s GDP will also witness an increase and result in more job opportunities.
“E-commerce market has brought a revolution in India’s retail sector and nobody can stop it now,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.
According to Kant, India is currently growing at over 7 percent and if the country has to grow at 9 percent, then e-commerce market will have to play a major role.
Recently, the Central Statistics Office (CSO), revised downwards country’s growth estimate for the full fiscal (2018-19) to 7 percent from 7.2 percent.
According to a report by Deloitte India and Retail Association of India, India’s e-commerce market will touch US$ 84 billion in 2021 from US$ 24 billion in 2017 on account of a healthy growth in organised retail sector.
Kant noted that traditional retail market and modern retail market (e-commerce) will co-exist in India even as the consumer behaviour is changing.
Speaking at the same event, trader body CAIT’s Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said the current e-commerce is greatly vitiated by online companies by indulging into predatory pricing, deep discounting and lose funding.
“The Government should constitute the regulatory authority for e-commerce and cash on delivery service for e-commerce should be banned,” Khandelwal was quoted by PTI as saying.
On February 23, the Government released the draft national e-commerce policy proposing setting up a legal and technological framework for restrictions on cross-border data flow and also laid out conditions for businesses regarding collection or processing of sensitive data locally and storing it abroad.
The 42-page draft addresses six broad issues of the e-commerce ecosystem — data, infrastructure development, e-commerce marketplaces, regulatory issues, stimulating domestic digital economy and export promotion through e-commerce.
