Companies do not want to lose out by delaying a switch-over to electronic commerce, which is expected to account for transactions worth $102 billion across the world by year 2002, says Srinivas Kulkarni, a manager with the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), one of India's largest software companies. However industry believes the real push will come when relevant laws are framed and proper infrastructure is in place.

Once that happens, industry chambers say, the Net and the latest technology will drive the market. Indian businesses, however, are unwilling to sit smug and wait for things to happen. The FIEO and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry(FICCI) have been conducting workshops and seminars to sensitise businesses on the importance of e-commerce and the need to switch to electronic data interchange (EDI) for documentation and transactions.

According to estimates of the India subsidiary of International Data Corporation (IDC), the world leader in information technology (IT) market research, e-commerce in India is expected to account for $160 million worth of transactions by 2001, from a negligible $2.8 million in 1997.

In the e-commerce sector, the more lucrative area is the business-to-business -- rather than the business-to-individual --transactions, emphasised Kalpana Kar, director of MicroMedia, a division of Microland, the Bangalore-based enterprise networking company.

Shekhar Dasgupta, country manager of Oracle Software, said it was absolutely imperative for Indian organisations to be prepared with the technology to address business-to-business e-commerce to insure wider market coverage. This segment is growing at over 30 per centannually. Of the worldwide e-commerce transactions this year, the business-to- business component was estimated to have contributed a total of $19 billion.

Dasgupta said Indian companies need to implement business-to- business e-commerce solutions in order to build a long-term and sustainable competitive advantage. If India has to occupy a significant portion of the growing e- commerce market, it has to invest in advanced Internet technologies that would allow for Web-based relationships to go beyond the traditional home page shopping, an analyst said.

Ajit Balakrishnan, chief executive officer of Rediff-on-the-Net, a popular shopping site, said that in a bid to sustain itself in the market, his organisation has begun to accept credit cards to make on-line payments as in the West. Security issues have been addressed with a technology which insures safety in the transactions, he said.

An FIEO official said it is encouraging its members to switch to e-commerce as many overseas companies have begun toinsist that Indian exporters operate through EDI. "There have been cases where potential overseas clients have refused to deal with companies that do not have EDI," he said. "We do not want to lose out on our competitiveness in the growing e-commerce world," he said.

EDI is preferred as it provides a structured and machine-processable form over the Internet. This eliminates wasteful paperwork and helps complete the transaction faster. Estimates have shown that paperwork alone eats into seven per cent of the value of the total goods traded.

K K Bajaj, an IT specialist with the National Informatics Center (NIC), a government-owned network, said EDI would allow Indian exporters to maintain "just-in-time" inventory which would enhance profit margins.

Today, there is uniformity and standardisation in the EDI format which has eliminated confusion in transactions. Three years ago, the NIC and the Indian Customs developed and implemented an EDI system that introduced a form of paperless trade.

Manu Parpia, aformer president of the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT), told IANS in a recent interview that EDI at Delhi customs had not only speeded up clearances but also cut down on corruption. Customs house agents and exporters now send bills of entry, shipping documents, invoices and other trade-related papers through NICNET's EDI network.

The introduction of an IT-related bill in Parliament in the winter session is expected to spur the growth of e-commerce. The bill is expected to legally recognise digital transactions and digital signatures. Some hurdles, however, remain.

According to Dewang Mehta, executive director of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), the IT bill will address some of the problems inhibiting the growth of the sector -- particularly the digital signature and encryption of messages on the Internet -- "but the basic bottleneck to the growth of e-commerce remains, a lack of infrastructure."

Analysts with FICCI point out that currentlaws are ill-equipped to deal with e-commerce. The outdated Indian Telegraph Act, for example, does not have any provision for the routine transfer of encrypted data on normal lines, they said.

The Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), the government monopoly operating international gateway services, provides unsatisfactory services, besides charging some of the world's highest tariffs for leased lines, said FICCI in an official note to the government.

It also said business transactions, which are governed by the Indian Contract Act and the Sales of Goods Act, have to be brought under new rules because these do not recognise E-commerce.