Emerging Trend of E-Commerce in India: Some Crucial Issues, Prospects and Challenges

Since 1991, after economic reforms explicitly took place in India as a result of opening-up of the economy with a view to integrate itself with the global economy, the need to facilitate international trade both through policy and procedure reforms has become the foundation stone of India's trade and fiscal policies. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) as part of the information technology revolution became widely used in the world trade in general and Indian economy in particular. With advancements in technology, there have been changes in the methodology for business transactions. India, being a rapid adaptor of technology is apace with the current scenario of electronic data exchanges and has taken to e-commerce. In view of this, this article tries to present a snapshot of the evolution of e-commerce business indicating the chronological order, category of e-commerce business, description of organizations involved in e-businesses in India, key characteristics of the firms engaged in e-commerce application, to examine the growth of e-commerce in both physical and financial terms, to evaluate the benefits obtained from e-business, to critically analyze the barriers and constraints involved in flourishing e-commerce businesses in India and finally to develop a framework for effective dissemination of e-commerce in India. The role of government should be to provide a legal framework for e-commerce so that while domestic and international trade are allowed to expand their horizons, basic rights such as privacy, intellectual property, prevention of fraud, consumer protection etc are all taken care of. Key words: E-commerce, India, internet, online