Govt. to Form Think Tank for e-Commerce, National Policy for Online Commerce is on Cards

In order to Capitalize multi-trillion dollar digital economy and address emerging concerns of ecommerce, privacy and data security, Indian government has moved to develop a ‘National Policy on e–Commerce’.

The Department of Commerce under the aegis of union Ministry of Commerce and Industry has formed a Think-tank to deliberate on developing a framework for the national e-commerce policy.

Besides the apex trade bodies CII, FICCI, FISME and NASSCOM, the think-tank is to also include representatives of  major telecom players, e-commerce companies, e-payment platforms, non-profits like IT for change and ISPRIT and  technology.   The think-tank also has representation from all economic Ministries and RBI.

The Commerce and industry Minister Suresh Prabhu is likely to address the first meeting of the think-tank next week in New Delhi.

Facebook data leak and allegation of possible misuse of private information on e-platforms has put privacy issues on forefront. With elections looming large in India, an urgency may have been felt to have a framework to deal with privacy concerns.

In addition to the privacy and data protection issues, the think-tank may deliberate on issues such as e-infrastructure and data localization, sharing source code, cross border e-commerce, e-authentication among others.