Digital Literacy for MSMEs: The traders’ representative body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has launched an online platform National Digital Nagrik Forum to put forward the rights of traders, consumers and other sections of society and to shape policy discourse around the digital economy trade. In a statement on Sunday, CAIT said the forum will help spread awareness about digital regulations while maintaining an “open, safe, trusted and accountable internet ecosystem.”
Talking about the forum, CAIT’s National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said it will focus on five core themes: first, consumer protection and online safety with grievance redressal, second, pitfalls of digital cartelisation and how a level-playing field is necessary to discourage discriminatory and anti-competitive practices in the online world, third, the potential of Indian digital technologies to transform retail and industrial trade along with boosting employment and investment footprint; fourth, principles-based taxation policies for productivity in sectors with high growth potential and to prevent illegal activities, and fifth, studying emerging technologies like Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence to assess their impact on retail trade and protecting consumer interests.
As per the release, CAIT said it will also convene a two-day National Traders Conference at Raipur on August 24-2524 for discussion on the strategy for the National Digital Nagrik Forum and other important issues.
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“The National Digital Nagrik Forum will work assiduously to help realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of ‘Digital India’ vision. It will also play a pivotal role to help the government fulfil its agenda to making an Atmanirbhar Bharat in its journey to becoming a $1 trillion digital economy over the next few years,” said Bhartia and Khandelwal.
“CAIT will involve stakeholders from the corporate and non-corporate sectors, MSMEs, farmers, consumers, experts and technocrats, among other relevant groups within the Forum,” Khandelwal added.
Recently, CAIT had also appealed to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal for an early rollout of the E-commerce policy and E-commerce Rules under the Consumer Protection Act and a new Press Note replacing the Press Note 2 of FDI in the Retail Policy. In a letter to Goyal on Thursday, CAIT had called for an even playing field for traders competing with the “foreign e-commerce companies” against alleged challenges such as uneven competition created by predatory pricing, exclusivity and inventory management.