Addressing critical issues of the Government

S Mohini Ratna
Editor
VARINDIA

Digitization has touched every aspect of human life. It is altering how organizations are looking at business sectors, markets, services to their customers and ideating towards new businesses.

The Indian retail industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. Retail industry in India is expected to grow up to US$ 1200 billion by 2021. With the exponential growth of e-commerce business has risen a number of regulatory issues and legal questions. Over the past few years, the digital economy has seen a significant increase in the number of e-commerce transactions. With the unprecedented growth of the online retail sector, the need to have an adequate policy to govern it has also arisen. Retailing in India accounts for over 10% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and around 8% of the employment. The introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the demonetization move has further supported the growth of the organized retail industry.

It is absolutely true that both the form of business transaction (On-line and Off-line) would co-exist, since there is scope for both and one can’t exclude the other. The Indian retail industry has emerged as one of the most dynamic and fast-paced industries due to the entry of several new players. The new FDI Rules issued by Department of Industrial Policy and Planning (DIPP) have been introduced which have barred online marketplaces, with foreign investments from selling products from sellers in which the online marketplaces hold a stake. There is an urgent need to have a stable regulatory framework to regulate e-commerce in India.

Publicly, affected e-commerce firms have refrained from criticizing the move. The large e-commerce companies have tried to create a monopolistic situation. With this, the entire retail sector is at risk.

There is a strong representation from various trade associations across the country to pass the draft policy without making any changes in the policy under pressure that gives undue advantage to e-commerce companies.

The Union Budget 2019-20 appears to be a full budget and not an interim budget. The budgetary provision clearly points towards a social focus and building up of the social safety net with significant provisions for the labour in unorganized sector, for small farmers and for rural industries such as fisheries and animal husbandry. However, it tends to ignore the landless farmers who will not be entitled to the annual support of Rs. 6000. Overall it is a social sector focused budget.

The recent incident at Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, which took away lives of over 40 Indian paramilitary men, has sparked a raging debate on how India should respond to Pakistan and what should be India’s next plan of action that has evoked nationwide outrage behind the dastardly attack. Questions are raised about India’s security and intelligence lapses, which has led to this attack.