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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