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Foreign investment and international partnerships become easier to negotiate in an electronic environment, where foreign partners may never need to set foot in the country where they invest. The challenge in such relationships is for domestic partners to secure not only short-term capital but also lasting benefits such as
technology transfer, training and reciprocal market access. Similarly, risks associated with unrestrained markets such as the dumping of sub-standard products may be accentuated in the e-commerce environment and need to be carefully monitored.

Impact on the Workforce

The labour market is one of the areas likely to feel the most profound impact of the economic transformation being brought about by e-commerce. The scope and magnitude of that impact is an open question, subject to debate along many dimensions. On the one hand, if e-commerce generates significant economic growth in general, this should lead to improved employment opportunities across the board. However, the exact nature of employment, and of the skills and experience required to benefit directly from e-commerce, could be significantly different in some industries from the traditional employment mix, meaning that many workers could become displaced, temporarily or permanently, as a direct result of this transformation.

Specifically, the shift from an industrial paradigm to a knowledge paradigm implies that the central base of much economic activity is shifting from industrial production to a knowledge economy. These changes are likely to lead to the elimination, or at least transformation, of many traditional job functions and even entire companies. This presents a short-term risk to workers whose current jobs and skills are concentrated in obsolescent industry segments.

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* Contributed by: -
Sambit Kumar Mishra & Ashok Kumar Chandra,
Ph.D. Scholars,
Institute of Management,
Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur.