LACK OF CLARITY IN FDIPOLICYIN ECOMMERCE: IMPACT ON FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF INDIA’S ‘BRICK AND MORTAR’ RETAILERS

1. Introduction With the advent of technology, life style changes are occurring at a faster pace than ever before. Whilst men in the primitive era resorted to subsistence agriculture for survival, rapid innovations in technology have resulted in different ways to enable men to earn their bread and butter. The most conspicuous example in the contemporary era is that the hitherto „Brick and Mortar‟ retail shops have given way to virtual/online retail shops which have become immensely popular with the consumers. In the past two decades, governments all over the world have begun to bring about reforms in order to remove bottlenecks, with a view to improve the overall performance of their economies. The Indian economy too opened up in 1991 within the framework of liberal economic reforms. The globalization of Indian economy and the rapid advances in information and technology have opened up vast business avenues and transformed the whole world into a global village.As a result, a number of foreign investors have shown a keen interest in investing in the Indian economy. The reforms which have been undertaken by the Indian government since 1991 have unleashed the potential growth of the economy, stimulated international trade and Foreign Direct Investment(FDI), which has been one of the most common methods of foreign investment in the Indian economy. Further, as India is a signatory to World Trade Organisation‟s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which includes wholesale and retailing services, it was imperative that the Indian government opened the retail trade sector to foreign investment; a decision which has been extremely controversial as it affects Fundamental Rights of small retailers.