Rural demand is driving growth of e-commerce sector: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Rural demand is driving growth of e-commerce sector: Ravi Shankar Prasad

E-commerce is rising in India phenomenally. The rural demand is driving the growth of e-commerce sector in India. This is a result of spreading Banking, Mobile and Internet services across the country. With the penetration of these services, delivery of money orders and letters to the masses has phased out. Only official documents are being delivered by the postmen. Thus, we assigned them a new job of delivery of goods purchased online on various e-commerce portals, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for IT & Electronics and Law & Justice said at an ASSOCHAM event, International Technology Summit 2017 held in New Delhi today.

The e-commerce industry is leveraging the vast network of India Post available in the country. Around 90 percent of 154,939 post offices are based in rural India, serving the rural populace.

Speaking on the fast growing digital economy, the Minister said, the Government is trying to push Indian digital economy to US$ 1 trillion in the next 5-7 years and also two consultant firms are working on its roadmap.

All this is happening because Indians have passion for technology. India has emerged as the 3rd biggest start-up movement in the world and the best young brains are now creating jobs through start-ups said the Minister at the Summit.

He said, the BHIM app is a great example of Indian innovation in the field of affordable simple financial technology. He said this in itself is a great success story for world. Concerns about Cyber Security are real and we all must work together to deal with this. We must make cyberspace safe and secure.

The number of mobile phones added in India over the last 2.5 years equals the population of Italy or France.

Of the targeted 2.5 lakh gram panchayats are to be connected via optical fibre under the national optical fibre network programme, now called ‘BharatNet’, around 1 lakh have already been connected.

Pushing government’s Digital India campaign, he asserted that digital governance is good governance as it ensures fast delivery of services. Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) uses technology for ensuring that poor people get their entitlement without corruption. Today you can take an appointment in many big hospitals online. There is no need to stand in long queue”, the Minister added.