amitabh.kant@nic.in
Dear
Amitabh ,
Wishing
you good-luck with your meetings today
Regards,
hemen
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Defining E - Commerce
A
report in Hindustan Times ( 15 July 2015 ) talks about a series of
meetings
expected to be held today between Commerce Minister and
different
stake-holders , to define " e-Commerce "
I
am reminded of the story of the 7 blind men , each trying to describe an
elephant
by touching different limbs of the animal
It
was obvious they could not arrive at a commonly agreed upon description,
since
their perceptions differed
Before
trying to define " e-Commerce " , we must first define "
Commerce "
In
pre-historic times , persons produced whatever they needed to survive
Then
they learned to " barter "
things produced by each other
The
only concepts were , " need "
and " surplus "
That
lead to introduction of a concept called " Value
" , which manifested itself in the form of a stick , a weapon , a goat or
a piece of animal skin , till it became , some sort of coin
When
barter gave way to an exchange of some goods ( or service ) , for its perceived
" Value " ( as measured in coins ) , it became " Commerce "
So
, we can conclude that :
"
E - Commerce " is nothing more than "
Commerce " , where such exchange of values , take place electronically ,
as opposed to physically . It still remains Commerce , even when perceptions
differ
Hence , regulations / controls / taxation etc that govern
E-Commerce should , essentially remain the same as in case of Commerce
Ditto
for FDI in e-Commerce
Mere
elimination of an intermediary ( Distributor / Wholesaler / Dealer / Agent /
Stockist etc ) , from the " Supply Chain
" , itself cannot be the determining criteria
A
few years back , when General Motors , tried to sell its cars to end-customers
, directly from its own web site , thousands of its Brick-and-Mortar dealers protested
and even threatened General Motors
GM
had to back-out against the vested interests !
But
when Michael Dell started manufacturing computers in his garage , he took
orders on his telephone and later , on his own web site.
He never appointed any dealers . This model
became a roaring success and heralded the beginning of E-Commerce era ( read ,
" Direct from Dell " )
Under
present guidelines , I suppose , India would allow Dell to set up a wholly-owned
, local manufacturing facility , with 100 % FDI
Now
, if Dell starts selling those India-made computers , directly to end-consumers
, from its own web site , would not that be E-Commerce ?
An e-Commerce with 100 % FDI ?
And
what about 100 % FDI by FoxConn ( Taiwan
) , wanting to set up 10 factories in India , to manufacture electronics goods
, not only for Foreign giants like Apple / Samsung etc but also for local
brands such as Micromax ?
Shall we insist that FoxConn cannot deliver such goods directly to
Indian consumers , based on orders received on , not only web sites of Amazon /
e-Bay but also on local web sites of Flipkart / SnapDeal etc ?
It
is unfortunate that we , in India , always look-up to the discoveries / inventions
taking place in the West ( - and in Japan / South Korea etc )
Had
we encouraged Prof Jhunjhunwala ( IIT -
Madras ) , we could be today , delivering internet thru common electric outlet
in every home , at speeds of 100 mb ! - That
would have Digitized India , 5 years ago !
When
ISRO sent MOM ( Mars Orbiting Mission ) , it did not call it a " Space
Ship "
As
long as the concept of " Ship " defines our thought processes , we
will continue to " Sail in a Sea " - never to traverse the " Space
" !
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hemen
parekh
15
July , 2015
B2BmessageBlaster
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