to voting , poll dynamics showed that by March 2019 , “ net future expectations about the economy clocked a positive 48.6 per cent ” as people were more optimistic about the larger economic course of the country in the likely event of Modi ’ s second coming .
With the median age of India ’ s population being 30 years , this aspirational demograph has gone past the roti-kapda-makaan basics of the last century to mobiles , internet and entrepreneurship . As forward planning yields results only after gestation periods of a three to five year lag , policymakers will have to find ways to leapfrog job creation once the new regime is in place by June . India ’ s consumption story has been losing momentum in major sectors like FMCG , cars and twowheelers and services activity — slipping to multi-quarter lows as income stagnates — which is reflected in declining rural demand . The next Government will be confronted with the challenging task of lifting investment sentiments by remonetising the economy as consumption fuels jobs and income from job-earnings fuels consumption in turn .
Policy-makers have a key role to play in fostering an enabling environment that supports innovation for both agrientrepreneurship and microentrepreneurship . Consider this : The combined market cap of the three largest IT companies of the US — Apple , Microsoft and Amazon — equals India ’ s GDP and importantly , just the Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba ’ s m-cap equals 20 per cent of our GDP . These growth models necessitate that policymakers fire on all cylinders with newer paradigms to kick-start innovation and growth in the IT enabled sectors as also focus on the nascent digital platforms as job-creators .
The focus of this article is specifically on rural e-commerce as a propeller for job-creation . This will need public privatepartnerships with the likes of Amazon , Walmart , Reliance Retail and other e-commerce platforms on a national scale . The nascent e-tail market in India is projected to grow at 30 per cent annually , targeting $ 73 billion by 2022 . Herein lies the biggest untapped job-creation potential , a prerequisite for which is deepening electronic payments through smartphones
in order to reduce cash payments and encourage digital mode of transactions for online commerce .
China embarked on creating rural jobs a decade ago by implementing the ‘ Taobao ’ model for expanding employment avenues , alleviating poverty and vitalising the rural economy by harnessing multiplying effects of digital technology in rural areas . Consequently , e-commerce grew rapidly in China as trade volumes increased from less than 1,000 billion yuan ($ 120.8 billion ) in 2004 to nearly 30,000 billion yuan ($ 4.44 trillion ) in 2017 .
The prototype has thrown surprising results for India to emulate : Though e-commerce is always more developed in urban areas , surprisingly online retail sales in rural areas grew faster than the national average . From 2014 to 2017 , online retail sales in rural China increased from RMB 180 billion to 1.24 trillion ,
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