Material World Anniversary Debate Series # 2 - A Report


The second in the series was held on 31st August 2005 at Flavors of India restaurant at Kolkata, India. This motion was: For the Indian, E Commerce is a Far Off Dream.

Delivering the welcome address, Rajib Kumar, CEO of the Material World Group summarized some of the plans of the group for the future. In particular, he expressed the management’s intentions to conduct knowledge events more frequently in future.

Setting the motion for deliberation, Kumar stressed that the advent of Electronic Commerce has indeed enabled organizations and customers to shop and order virtually anything online. However if the full promise of e-commerce is to be realized, the goods must reach the buyer just as quickly.

The growth of e-commerce, he said, has to be seen in proper perspective and in appreciation of the realities in India:

A survey finding puts the % of roads available for speedy transportation at a nightmarish 2%.
1.7% of the road network carries 40% of all road traffic; 25% of highway network suffers from congestion

What is the future of e-commerce in India then? He invited the distinguished panelists to throw light on this.

The Chief Guest Prof (Dr.) Sujit Basu Vice Chancellor, Vishwa Bharati University stressed the continual endeavor of Vishwa Bharati to conduct online courses. The Vice Chancellor felt that mindset and technology problems are the major bottlenecks in the process of implementing E Commerce. He shed his own experience as to how technology problems encountered in Bolpur,

Shantiniketan, the internationally revered seat of Tagore learning, had to wait for intervention of experts from Kolkata. Is e-governance a reality in India? Prof Basu wondered.

Dr. Abhijit Sen, Past President of Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry and an engineer from MIT asked the gathering to take note that 300 million Indians still cannot write their names. While projects like ITC’s e-chaupal were a step in a right direction, he added, still lots need to done. B 2 B, Dr. Sen opined, was doing fine but B 2 C is still for the “haves” –those who have access to telephone lines, internet and credit cards.

D K Chaudhuri, CEO, Skytech Solutions responding to the concerns of Dr. Sen & Prof Basu stressed on the alternate devices of accessing the net like TV and mobile phones. Low PC penetration, therefore, he felt, should not come in the way of reaping the benefits of e-commerce.

Khokan Mookerji, Secretary General, Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry was in his usual forthright self and felt that for the “have-nots” e commerce is indeed is a far off dream. The former executive of ITC said that e-chaupal is strong statement of intent. He praised the government, especially the state government for taking significant strides toward development of IT.

Dr. G D Gautama, Principal IT Secretary, Government of West Bengal, speaking against the motion wondered if India is a recognized information technology power in the world how exactly could e commerce be a distant dream? Recognizing that there is indeed a “mindset” barrier toward successful implementation of e commerce Dr Gautama emphatically declared, “I am an optimist”. With PCs available for just 10,000 the benefits of IT shall pervade all walks of society he added.

Preeti Desai, the President of the Internet & Online Association of India was armed with statistics in her laptop. Online Advertising in India was in the order of 107 Crores 2004-05 and shall be 137 Crores 2005-06, she told the gathering. Married men are buying toys and jewelery on net, she added. Well, so are unmarried men, she was quick to add. Desai said that that share wise 63% of the products sold were travel. Kolkata ranked 3 in online Music sales and 4 for Movies she revealed.

Preeti’s stats did the trick it seemed: The motion was defeated by the house.

The Pailan Group and Cyberjug co sponsored the event.