Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, is of the opinion that the utility and relevance of digital commerce can be well understood by the fact that out of approximately 60 million internet users in India, nearly one third of this number are doing financial transactions over internet. Since mobile phone is the most widely used technology in India, it is imperative to develop an appropriate regulatory environment to leverage mobile phone in the financial inclusion. It was discussed in the inaugural session of the National Conference on Digital Commerce, organized by IAMAI earlier today.

Digital Commerce holds huge importance, especially for the Indian economic structure. There is a lot of potential for the rural population as the outreach is very important to enable the rural population to gain maximum without having to spend so much by saving on fuel, time and effort etc. Through digital commerce the rural user can access services and data easily and effectively. All we need to look at carefully is to create a robust and safe infrastructure for carrying out this activity of users though online or mobile gateway.

eBay India emphasized on the robust nature of technology behind digital commerce and also highlighted critical aspects that would further help in improving the overall e-commerce experience in India. Fast internet connection, if provided at lower prices can give a boost to digital commerce regime. Another area with huge scope for improvement is: Logistics. There is a huge opportunity for further proliferation of digital commerce by improving the logistics of delivery mechanism. Electronic payments system could also improve this potential of digital commerce.

IRCTC have also presented its views and experiences in this area during the inaugural session. IRCTC is a hugely successful model for digital commerce. They have seen a growth of 40 % to 50 % in IRCTC’s online transactions. IRCTS has registered transactions of around 10000 crores INR in just the past one year. It is also to be noted is that the credit cards might not be the natural or preferred way of carrying out online transactions. Only one third of the total transactions happen through credit card. Net Banking, Prepaid cards are the other options that are by and large the preferred mode of transactions online.

With regards to challenges ahead of digital commerce, banking organizations and ISPs at the infrastructure level need to look at their systems and processes in order to make digital commerce experience more easy and effective from the perspective of consumer.

Security is also one issue which is acting as a challenge at the mindshare level of internet users. Although threats are growing and getting increasingly dangerous, but technology is available to enable secure e-commerce experience. Technologically, economically and socially e commerce should be a huge success in India.