AS the contours of a digital economy become clearer, the one powerful fact that emerges is that the Net will offer enormous business opportunities. It's travelled a long way from being the playground for tyros and scientists to becoming the battleground of corporations and governments. Estimates of e-commerce have ranged from $6-10 billion by the millennium. And the above facts demonstrate powerfully that e-business is more fact than fiction in tomorrow's India. However, recent surveys have also identified several issues which could well determine the future of e-commerce in India.
E-commerce is more than just buying and selling. It's about rewiring a whole set of relationships between consumers and producers, between corporations and within them, and between government, business and civil society. In fact, the Net is a huge business superchannel; anyone who doesn't tap it is actually losing revenue and opportunity, both at once. This apart, its single biggest potential comes from existing networked computers; and the corporation which will truly make a killing will be one which makes these computers talk to each other in a common language, leverage the business potential of each and maintain security. Databases and networks can be opened up to others, provided there are sufficient levels of security to prevent hackers from penetrating them and causing damage. Security, speed and reliability are the key factors which will determine the spread and nature of e-commerce.
What are the general principles on which e-commerce legislation should be based?
Several countries are struggling with variants of the Uncitral Framework but essentially, the common parameters of these boil down to the following :
What's required to be put in place at the implementational level to make e-commerce possible?
First and foremost, trust. When consumers and producers engage in a transaction, they seldom think about it, yet it's the principal force underpinning digital transactions. What matters is authenticity: that the parties to the deal are who they claim to be, that the cash is 'good' and the receipt genuine, the goods are what they were claimed to be; security and privacy: that the data underlying the transaction is protected against hacking; integrity: the message received is the same as the one sent; guarantee: the message sent is actually received by the addressed party; and lastly, non-repudiability: that the sender can't deny having sent the message. The real challenge lies in ensuring these by putting in place systems and mechanisms which bolster trust when business is conducted between parties with no prior knowledge of or dealings with each other, and making such transactions inexpensive.
Indeed, Schumpeter's logic of the perennial gale of creative destruction, the broad underlying force of capitalism, would come shining through now more than ever before and force companies to innovate and compete. Comparison shopping shall give consumers the supreme power to compare and shop across several shopping malls, which may be physically located in different countries.
Ultimately, what has to be assured is that the security, scalability and extensibility of design allow the successful marriage of commerce and technology.
In sum, digital commerce promises to revolutionise not merely the retailing, marketing and advertising of products but most of all the forces which shape world capitalism itself. Indeed, the fact that the future is digital is staring everyone in the face. Governments and firms must move forward from being connected to actually leveraging the power of the Net by using it for transactional activities and processes. And thereafter, Dr Johnson shall not be alone in his applause. Indeed, he could well say that in the case of e-commerce, all belief is against it, but all argument for it !
(The author is an IAS officer. These are his purely personal views.)
