Thursday, September 19, 2013: Kapil Sibal, Communications and Information Technology Minister emphasized that there is need of digital literacy among the traders so as to upgrade and modernise entire retail trade of India. The Minister stated that the change in business scenario demands facelift of the domestic trade in India as well as across the globe and hence, e-governance among traders has become the need of the hour. “e-Governance promotes transparency and provides smooth conduct of business operations and also have higher government accountability. There is a need to create an enabling eco-system among the domestic trade for its sustainable development in a holistic and integrated manner,” Business Line quoted Sibal.
An effort is being made in this direction by the Ministry of IT and Communication and Communication and Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which are considering a joint project in order to encourage digital literacy and adoption of IT skills among the business community. An announcement was made by Sibal that participant of Ministry of IT with Communication and CAIT will be termed as ‘E–Vyapar.’
National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology is executing the project in cooperation with CAIT. Department of Electronics and Information Technology is funding the project. CAIT informed that workshops will be organised by different States so as to spread awareness among the traders. As per CAIT, Indian retail constitutes nearly 15 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with over five crore small shopkeepers and more than 22 crore dependent on these across India excluding low-cost kiosks, push cart and foot path vendors.
Presently, overall retail market in India is estimated at Rs 20000 billion (Rs 20 lakh crore) with just five per cent in the organised sector and the rest in the self-organised sector. Moreover, programmes have been initiated by firms like Google to bring small and medium shops in the online space as part of its ‘India Get Your Business Online’ campaign since last two years.
