Some Of The Ecommerce Initiatives Taken By Indian Government In Various Sectors
The Indian Government is suddenly moving towards a more transparent mode of functioning in bureaucracy, government purchases, resource/tender allocation and other such activities. Due to the regular emergence of corruption incidents, the involvement of middlemen in government purchases and other such activities, eCommerce seems to be the right way of business engagement. This is certainly a long way in eliminating the middlemen, illegal money laundering and siphoning activities that used to occur at the time of government and defense purchases. Making online purchase is a smart way to tackle the above situations and ensures speed in procuring various government deals and orders. Moreover, the recent demonetization move impacted the various business sectors and helped in the growth of various digital payment options. All these circumstances have made people and Government realize the importance of eCommerce business in day-to-day life. Here are the various steps that are undertaken by the Indian government for moving towards an eCommerce based purchases. The arrival of Government eCommerce platform- The Indian government under the portfolio of Finance Ministry has approved the creation of a “Government e-Marketplace� (GeM) through the department of Directorate General Supply and Disposal (DGS&D) for government purchases. The platform will be used to host the common used goods and services for government employees. With this eCommerce marketplace platform, the government can easily make online purchases worth Rs 50,000. The purchases that are having the threshold limit higher than Rs 50,000 will be done based on the parameters like lowest price bidding, quality standards, specifications and delivery period requirements.
Setting up of agricultural trading facility-
The Government of India started an online trading platform for farmers in order to connect them to a network of wholesale agricultural markets. In the beginning, only 12 different farm commodities were traded on the online platform but now 21 regulated wholesale markets (mandis) from eight different states have integrated into this platform. For the context of this agricultural eCommerce marketplace, around 7,000 mandis are in the big picture. Marketplace platform for women entrepreneurs-
Apart from this, the Government of India under the Ministry of Women and Child development launched an eCommerce portal for women entrepreneurs known as Mahila ehaat. This eCommerce marketplace platform allows women to enlist and showcase their products online without any additional cost. It is also planning to integrate other eCommerce portals that can provide a larger platform for the purpose of buying and selling. Raising the FDI limit in eCommerce model- In order to increase the participation of foreign players in the eCommerce field, the Indian Government hiked the limit of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the eCommerce marketplace model for up to 100%. The new notification also cleared that the total sales contributed by any group company or a single vendor should not exceed more than 25%. Furthermore, the extension in the FDI is allowed for business-to-business (B2B) sector only and not for business-to-consumer (B2C) basis. For more information about this FDI hike, do take a quick look at the blog that explains the government decision in this FDI policy change. Final thoughts So, if you are into the field of the eCommerce marketplace, you need to take the help of eCommerce marketplace extensions that can help in optimizing the performance of your marketplace store based on Magento, PrestaShop, OpenCart, Shopify, WooCommerce and such others. These extensions can help in performing the various crucial tasks and activities such as management of eCommerce marketplace inventory through alerts, creation of the invoice for sellers/customers, facilitation of PayPal payment on your marketplace store and other such functions. Besides these extensions, involve an effective A/B testing and heatmap tool for your eCommerce site to enhance its web design, user interface, conversion rates, site navigation and product sales. You would not want to wait for the opportune moment anymore as the Government machinery is preparing to go for the eCommerce and cashless way. So, it is definitely your time to act fast now.