The e-com debate in India

A thinking man's guide to the state of ecom in a nation of shopkeepers

News reports about consumer e-commerce are getting increasingly heated as you can see from headlines a few days ago, comparing Amazon.com with the East India Company, an official Government of India press release last week promising to “democratize digital commerce”, and the news reports from China saying the Chinese government has fined Alibaba, its star e-commerce giant, $2.75 billion for “violating anti-monopoly rule violations”. Then there are reports that the Indian government is considering establishing an independent regulatory authority for e-commerce such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India is for the capital markets.

I can’t but wonder what is