Suresh Prabhu to chair second meeting of e-commerce think tank on July 30

Commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu will chair the second meeting of the think-tank on e-commerce on July 30 as India moves ahead with its plan to bring out a comprehensive policy on various aspects of digital trade by this year.

The government is also likely to make public the draft e-commerce policy after the meeting and allocate responsibilities to various ministries, as per a member of the think tank.

The think tank includes officials from ministries of commerce, finance, home affairs, corporate affairs, and electronics and information technology, among others, besides representatives from telecom, IT and ecommerce firms including Bharti Enterprises, Reliance Jio, TCS, Wipro, Ola, Snapdeal, Makemytrip, Urban Clap, Justdial, PepperFry and Practo along with industry associations.


It was decided to set up a task force to finalise the contours of a policy for the e-commerce sector at the first meeting of the think tank in April.

Nine sub groups under the task force were formed to deal with issues including competition, regulation, data privacy, taxation and a host of technical subjects like localisation of servers and technology transfer.

Based on the recommendations
of each subgroup that comprises industry and government representatives, it was proposed to create a special group to keep tabs on any violation of its foreign investment policy by online retail platforms besides widening the definition of ecommerce under the framework early this month.

“The suggestions emerging from the task force meeting held will be submitted to the think tank for consideration,” the commerce and industry ministry had said.

As per an official, a cabinet note will be prepared for a decision by the government.