Dr. Raja Sarkar

21st century is the era of information technology. Be it social networking, banking, ticket booking or e-retailing, the presence of information technology is ubiquitous in our day-to-day affairs. IT has transcended the physical distance between the service providers and the service receivers. It has also provided the consumers the much needed convenience and offered them competitive price for various products and services. In this context, e-retailing has become a major shopping medium for customers specially the younger generations. The tech savvy young generation has taken to e-retailing like a fish takes to water. Even the older generations are becoming comfortable with the use of information technology for shopping purpose. India despite being a late starter, has become a major force in e-retailing and managed to achieve the tag of the fastest growing market in this category within a very short period. Apart from the home grown Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm, Shopclues, the largest e...

Introduction of internet media has changed the way consumers go about shopping . There is a
revolution of sorts in the retail industry in the 21st century India. Internet has brought the
entire world within our grasp. The rules of the game in retailing are fast changing with the
introduction of Information Technology. The e-retailing website is like the entrance door of
the online store where the online seller & the consumer can interact and make transaction
without losing too much time. E-retailing is the alternative platform of selling goods using
electronic media especially internet. E-retaling is a subset of e-commerce. In urban India eretailing
is driven by the urge of shopping without spending too much time. It has been found
that the ever growing internet population in India has contributed handsomely to this new age
shopping channel. The internet helps retailers to expand their customer base to astronomical
proportion. It also enhaces the CRM, cost efficiency and personalization. One can virtually
buy anything from pin to elephant through this channel at any given time of the day (24 x 7).
But even after all these conveniences there is the other side of the coin. Privacy & security
are the biggest drawback of this medium. But with all, we can say that the prospect for eretailing
in India is looking very bright.

21 st century is the era of information technology. Be it social networking, banking, ticket booking or e-retailing, the presence of information technology is ubiquitous in our day-today affairs. IT has transcended the physical distance between the service providers and the service receivers. It has also provided the consumers the much needed convenience and offered them competitive price for various products and services. In this context, e-retailing has become a major shopping medium for customers specially the younger generations. The tech savvy young generation has taken to e-retailing like a fish takes to water. Even the older generations are becoming comfortable with the use of information technology for shopping purpose. India despite being a late starter, has become a major force in e-retailing and managed to achieve the tag of the fastest growing market in this category within a very short period. Apart from the home grown Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm, Shopclues, the largest e-tailer in the world Amazon has also made it into the country. Top retailers like Walmart and Alibaba have picked up major stakes in various e-tailers. The competition has become intense with large discounts and large assortment of products the order of the day. In this context, it has become essential for e-tailers to gauge the consumer behaviour to effectively target them. The present study is an effort to find out the various essential factors impacting e-retail purchase in India and develop a conceptual model for the same.

India's growing economic might in recent years has seen the country adapting its economic
policy towards several countries to enhance its global influence and status to meet the ever
increasing challenges of the 21st century economy. As a result, India-Japan relations have
undergone a tectonic shift which is directed towards building a strategic and global
partnership between the two countries. India and Japan share a special relationship as
fellow democracies with mutual interests and with a similar desire to seek peaceful
resolutions of conflicts and greater economic engagements in Asia. The signing of the
Indo-Japan Economic Partnership agreement (EPA) in February, 2011 and its subsequent
implementation in August the same year was seen as a major breakthrough in the
economic cooperation between the two countries which could boost bilateral trade and
investment relations between two very large economies in the world. The emergence of
Japan as one of the leading economic powerhouse in the world has been possible due to
intricate planning at economic, political and social levels. The economic development of
any country vis-á-vis the rest of the world depends on a number of factors, such as share in
world trade, finance and investment. Current and future economic and population
dynamics in both the countries mean that India-Japan relations will continue to improve not
just politically but also in economic terms. The present paper will try to find the future
prospects and challenges in the economic cooperation between the two nations.

Corporate social responsibility and public relations are nowadays vital cogs in the wheels of communicational and image activity of companies within the context of communities where they operate. Both concepts refer, each in its own representative way, to the process through which organizations choose to communicate with the various stakeholders involved in their activity. While public relations propose to build and maintain a long term positive image, reputation and popularity of the company, so that all categories of public have a most transparent and clear vision of the company and its activity, corporate social responsibility intends to meet various social problems facing the communities where the company operates in order to help improve their quality of life. Producing high-quality goods or services is no longer enough to fully succeed in today’s corporate environment. Corporations are increasingly expected to act ethically in a manner that benefits all stakeholders in their surrounding communities. As an intermediary between corporations and stakeholders, public relation is often involved in realizing these societal pressures. Despite these rising expectations and the abundance of academic research on the topic, confusion and uncertainty continue to surround the popular concept of corporate social responsibility and its relationship to public relations. The present paper will analyze how far corporate social responsibility can be an effective medium to build public relations.

Digitalalization is the adoption of various existing and developing technologies by organizations in consonance
with the changes in internal operations as well as external relationship to provide better customer services and
experiences efficiently and effectively. Projects such as Make in India and Digital India are now the buzzwords
to a better and sustainable industrial and financial growth of our nation. Government is encouraging technology
adoption/upgradation while providing connectivity with high speed bandwidth to bring together every nook and
corner of the country. This has opened up the vast untapped market in India for digital connectivity. Digital
payment services by banks like Unified Payments Infrastructure (UPI), Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM),
mobile money, e-wallets have created a revolution of sorts in the Indian financial market. Adaptation and
implementation of highly capital intensive global technologies, infrastructure and processes are vital in order to
remain ahead of the curve. Transition in financial transactions such as data integrity, authentication (including
third party authentication) and trust factors are gaining importance as a measure of customer safeguarding.
Enhanced customer satisfaction and value through unified customer experiences, faster output, infinite banking
volumes, financial inclusion, operational efficiencies, scale of economy etc. are being sought after, by
leveraging digital technologies. Digitalization has improved the efficiency and customer experience in several
fields including the financial transaction areas. The present paper will try to explore the impact of digitalization
on financial transactions in India.

Cultural tourism is the subset of tourism concerned with a traveler's engagement with a country or region's
culture, specifically the lifestyle of the people in those geographical areas, the history of those people, their arts,
architectures, religions, and other elements that helped shape their way of life. It includes tourism in urban
areas, particularly historic or large cities and their cultural facilities such as museums and theatres. It can also
include tourism in rural areas showcasing the traditions of indigenous cultural communities (i.e. festivals,
rituals), and their values and lifestyle, as well as niches like industrial tourism and creative tourism. It is widely
accepted that cultural tourists spend substantially more than standard tourists do. This form of tourism is also
becoming generally more popular throughout the world, and a recent OECD report has highlighted the role that
cultural tourism can play in regional development in different regions of the world. Cultural tourism has been
defined as 'the movement of persons to cultural attractions away from their normal place of residence, with the
intention to gather new information and experiences to satisfy their cultural needs'. These cultural needs can
include strengthening of one's own cultural identity, by observing the other cultures. The generalization of
cultural consumption on holiday, however, points to one of the main problems of defining cultural tourism. The
difference between cultural visits on holiday (cultural tourism) and cultural visits undertaken during leisure time
at home is vaguely defined. In spite of these problems, policymakers, tourist boards and cultural attraction
managers around the world continue to view cultural tourism as an important potential source of tourism
growth. The present paper will try to explore how cultural tourism can be a viable business model in India and
the existing challenges impeding its growth in the country.

GST or The Goods and Services Tax which is set to roll out from 1st of July, 2017 nationwide in India
is being touted as the single biggest indirect tax reform in the Indian taxation system since independence and it’s
expected to make the tax structure simple with a seamless credit chain. GST is the integrated indirect tax which
is levied on the supply of goods and services. There will be dual GST with the Center and State simultaneously
levying it on the common tax base. The CGST and SGST will be charged on intra-state supplies whereas IGST(
Integrated GST) will be charged on inter-state supplies. The small businesses having turnover up to Rs.20 lakhs
are exempted from registering under GST. All the other taxpayer having the turnover of more than Rs.20 lakhs
(Rs.10 lakhs in case of northeast states) are required to register and pay GST. The GST is based on the “One
tax, one market” concept which should be a welcome step for online marketplaces. In the last decade or so, ecommerce
has seen an astronomical growth and India is pegged as the second biggest market for e-commerce
after China. The e-commerce market in the country is expected to exceed the $100 billion mark by 2020. The
rapid growth in this sector has resulted in conflicts regarding multiple tax issues along with other challenges
such as rising competition, dwindling profit margins etc. They are also facing litigation owing to their
innovative business models. The Government is trying to make the tax structure simple by introducing GST and
promoting trade, while keeping a close watch on tax evasion.

The retail sector is one of the fastest growing sector in India. It is one of the backbones of the economy and accounts for about 10 percent of the country's GDP. The Indian retail market is estimated to be valued at US$ 600 billion and one of the top five retail markets in the world by economic value. The growth of retail sector in India is one of the fastest globally. Indian consumers are very particular about their products. The consumer choices vary based upon their preference towards online shopping versus offline shopping. The internet and traditional shopping both have their own advantages and disadvantages.Online shopping doesn't require traveling long distances, offers more variety, remains functional 24*7, offers huge discounts and extend the facility of customer reviews. On the other hand, traditional shopping allows customers to physically examining products which otherwise online shopping lacks. Consumers may be use both the online and traditional mode of shopping depending on their preferences at a particular moment, which results in fundamentally different behaviours across the two mode of shopping. This article attempts to throw some light on the differences emerging out of online shopping behaviour and offline shopping behaviour.

The Indian telecom sector has evolved over the last two decades significantly. Before
the economic liberalization in the 1990’s, it was the state run service providers BSNL(Bharat
Sanchar Nigam Limited) & MTNL (Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited) who had absolute
monopoly in this sector. Landlines used to dominate the Indian telecom space. Mobile phone users
were very few and they were mostly from the ultra rich and the elite segment. Call charges were
extremely high which kept the ordinary people outside the purview of the telecom service. It was
the economic liberalization which opened the floodgates for private and foreign investments in the
Indian economy in almost each and every sector and the telecom sector was also not untouched by
it. It brought the private players into the telecom space and created a fierce competition which
resulted in an ideal atmosphere for the diffusion of the telecom services among all classes and
segments. It was the trigger for the subsequent telecom revolution in India which ultimately
resulted in India becoming the 2nd largest telecom market in the world with more than a billion
customers. Today it’s the mobile phone which dominates the Indian telecom space and landline is
fast becoming an extinct species. With one of the cheapest tarrifs in the world along with the
numerous value added services, mobile phones have virtually become an inseparable part of our
lives. With the advent of smart phones and the introduction of 3G & 4G services in India, we are
rapidly moving towards a second revolution in the Indian telecom space.

Online shopping is a modern era revolution. It's the latest wonder child of technology. It has taken the entire world by storm. Our own country is also not an exception to that. Lives of the modern consumers have become much easier. They can virtually purchase anything from the comfort of their homes & offices and get them delivered to any location as per their convenience. It has also given them the power to compare the prices offered by different e-tailer and purchase from the one which offers the best deal according to them. Add with that the customer review of different products and you get customers who are more powerful today than the customers of previous decades. So convenience, comparison shopping & easy availability of consumer review is the three pillars of online shopping. But the most important of them all which sets the tongue wagging of all the online shoppers is the huge & astounding amount of discounts offered by these companies. It's like adding more cream to your already existing delicious ice cream. So today's customers are spoiled for choices. Getting quality products at affordable rates have become all the more easier. In this context, we are going to review the journey of the online shopping companies in India so far. We are also going to look at the future prospects of this industry.

The development of Internet has resulted in enormous business prospects and opportunities and given new direction to traditional commercial activities. E-commerce emerged as the need of the hour. The business-to-consumer (B2C) is the most visible and prominent progeny of e-commerce. B2C is a commercial process that starts with companies and ends with end consumers. Online shopping is an emerging area in the field of E-Business and is surely going to be the future of shopping in the world. The benefits of online shopping are well known. The most common incentives for consumers to shop online are convenience, competitive pricing, greater access to information, complementarity of traditional stores and broader selections. Most of the companies are running their online portals to sell their products/services online. Though online shopping has made enormous progress outside India, its growth in the Indian market, which is a large and diverse consumer market, is still not in line with the global market. On-line shopping in India is significantly affected by various demographic factors like age, gender, marital status, family size and income. Substantial amount of research work has been carried out on all these areas. The impact of these factors on online shopping behavior is fascinating to say the least. But the most mysterious of them all is the impact of gender on the acceptance or rejection of online shopping. Do men and women behave differently during the online shopping process or do they exhibit same kinds of behavior during this process? This article will try to throw some light on the extremely valuable but often neglected role of gender in the online shopping behavior of consumers. Introduction: The world is quickly turning into a universal community because of the emergence of Internet and other Internet enabled services. India is not completely reflective of this great phenomenon. While developed and fast developing countries have understood the influence of Internet, India is still taking baby steps towards technological developments. The retail industry growth has been revolutionized by Internet and the rules of the game in retailing are fast altering. The impact of western culture on each and every aspect of our Indian Society is palpable. The lives of common people are making rapid progress not only in metros but also in the normal cities. The collapse of joint family system and growth in the number of families where both spouses are working is on the rise. The result-common men have less time to go to the market for purchasing every now and then. Other reasons like growing traffic jams, late working hours, easy availability of online banking facility and above all the approach of internet at the door step of whosoever desires it. Online retailers have improved their service and consumers have found it convenient. There is revolution in payment mode as well. From payment before delivery it has moved to cash on delivery (COD). Even the delivery pattern has changed. From fixed delivery timings it has moved to convenient delivery timings at the choice of the customer. Indian market is dominated by mostly unorganized players, but there is potential in the area of retail players as well. Entry of bigger players even in the rural areas is paved the way of growth in its sector. There has been rise in the increase of Indian middle class people due to rapid economic growth. Though the Internet using population in India is low in terms of percentage of total population but in absolute numbers it is huge. This gives enormous opportunities for various online shopping companies to tap this segment. The largest Internet user in India is the age group 18-45. Despite of this fact online retailing forms a small portionof the entire Indian retail markets. Market players have to be more positive, quick thinker and pioneering in their approach to make serious inroads into the populace. In the current market, bulk of online sales is in a range of items. This market in India needs to leap to the next level.

The business world is changing rapidly and it is getting restructured at an astonishing pace. Internet penetration has resulted in the commencement of a new era and has brought a completely new and important source of income for small, medium and big companies by servicing their customers through internet whether they are in their work place or at home. It is getting used as an easy and affordable means to transact business without any limitation of time, place or situation. Online shopping has created a new platform for the expansion and growth of business. This study examines the role and impact of aesthetic design in online shopping stores. Designing online shopping sites involves the application of knowledge from diverse fields such as marketing and human-computer interaction. This article is a collation of research findings from different areas to investigate the role of web aesthetics in shaping the mood and perception of consumers in favour of online shopping companies.