While addressing a session, organised by The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), on the draft e-commerce policy, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant maintained that e-commerce has revolutionised the retail sector in India and will play a major role in the country’s growth story going forward. He also said that driven by the the growth in India’s retail sector, the country’s GDP will also witness an increase and result in numerous job opportunities.
“E-commerce market has brought a revolution in India’s retail sector and nobody can stop it now,” he asserted. According to Kant, India is currently growing at over 7 per cent and further growth will be driven by e-commerce.
Recently, the Central Statistics Office (CSO), revised downwards country’s growth estimate for the full fiscal (2018-19) to 7 per cent from 7.2 per cent.
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, said a report by Deloitte India and Retail Association of India. According to Kant the traditional retail market and retail market (e-commerce) will co-exist in India even as the consumer behaviour is changing.
Furthermore, responding to the concerns of offline traders with respect to the upcoming e-commerce policy, Kant said that the government will protect their interests against any ill practices in the industry.
“It is our job to protect you. As far as e-commerce is concerned it is a revolution. The traders have a wide network even on streets of the country. No one can beat them. However, in the changing scenario, the government will protect traders and on the other hand will also do its best to have linkages between big players and small traders to ensure principle of co-existence.” – Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog
He also stressed upon the importance of going digital.
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.
