The past 3 years have seen a rise in the number of companies' embracing e-commerce technologies and the Internet in India. Most e-commerce sites have been targeted towards the NRIs with Gift delivery services, books, Audio and videocassettes etc., Major Indian portal sites have also shifted towards e-commerce instead of depending on advertising revenue. The web communities built around these portal sites with content have been effectively targeted to sell everything from event and movie tickets the grocery and computers. The major in this services being Rediff on the net (www.rediff.com) and India plaza with started a shopping section after their highly successful content site generated WEB visitors. In spite of RBI regulation, low Internet usage e-commerce sites have popped up everywhere hawking things like groceries, bakery items, gifts, books, audio & videocassettes, computer etc. None the major players have been deterred by the low PC penetration and credit card usage in India and have tried to close the success worldwide of online commerce. BPB publication went online selling its complete range of computer books about 2 years ago, it might not have the success of either Amazon.com of Barnes and noble. but they definitely have promised the cause of e-commerce in India with at least 1 to 5 web sites like India bookshop coming online.
This is not to say that the e-commerce scenario has been bad in India as highly successful e-business like bababazaar and India mart have proved. Indian Banks too have been very successful in adapting EC and EDI Technologies to provide customers with real time account status, transfer of funds between current and checking accounts, stop payment facilities. ICICI Bank, Global TRUST BANK AND UTI-Bank also have put their electronic banking over the internet facilities in place for the up coming e-commerce market speed post also plain to clone the federal express story with online package status at any moment in time . The future does look very bright for e-commerce in India with even the stock exchanges coming online providing a online stock portfolio and status with a fifteen minute delay in prices. Today with RBI regulations we are seeing stock transfer and sale over the Net with specialized services like 5paise.com and walletwatch.com. Though with security and encryption being proven Technologies for transfer of funds over the Internet, the Indian Government still has problems with 'Digital signatures' and verification processes over the Internet. This combined with RBI norms and regulations has proved to a major handle for e-commerce even though VSNL India's monopolistic ISP does want to jump on to the electronic transaction bandwagon with the advent of private ISP's and India new and positive attitude towards IT and the prime ministers new 'IT policy " the future is very positive in India for doing commerce with an - e. | |
