RNS: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) is launching a mega CAIT India Literacy Mission (CILM) on large scale across the Country to educate and guide them a need for upgradation, modernisation and adoption of digital technology in their existing business format enabling them to take head on the global MNCs and big corporate houses which are trying to control & monopolise the retail trade & ecommerce ecosystem of India.
The CILM will be launched in Delhi at a grand event on upcoming Teachers Day on 5th September and will be simultaneously launched in all State Capitals by the CAIT State Chapters.
The CAIT has set a target of educating & aware 25 lakh traders with CILM till 15th August, 2023. For this mission, the CAIT has tied up with technology major in the field of online education, company Grapos Edutech to conduct online education in assistance with local level trade associations across the Country for the traders of India. The CILM is in pursuance of the Digital India mission of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
CAIT National President B. C. Bhartia & Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal informed that under CILM project, Grapos Edutech is preparing a special course keeping in mind the needs of the traders, which will be useful for the training. This course will be offered in 12 Indian languages. Special course has been designed to prompt traders across the Country to make optimum usage of digital technology in their business activities including acceptance and adoption of digital payments making India a less cash nation. The designed course will include bringing time needed changed in business format, usage of e commerce, relations with consumers, advantages of better display of goods, keeping the stocks of fast running items, timely compliance of laws, rules and obligations under there on. This campaign will be run across the country through online system. Besides conducting online education, the CAIT and trade associations of the States will also organise workshops, seminars and conferences of traders on a large scale in all the states of the country. In the past also, CAIT had run a similar program through the CAIT Retail School Project which had very positive results among the traders.. To give a final shape to CILM campaign, few senior trade leaders of CAIT from different states are meeting at New Delhi on 2nd September. The CAIT has invited Union Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh,Commerce Minister Shri Piyush Goyal and Human Resource Development Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan to inaugurate this campaign on 5th September at New Delhi.
Bhartia & Khandelwal said that to take this campaign to every nook & corner of the Country, the CAIT is in talks with several Companies which are conducting their respective business through traders, to be a part of this mega campaign through their technology and marketing structure and other special tools.
Bhartia and Khandelwal said that this ambitious campaign will enable the traders to grow their business and increase footfall of consumers, which has become a major challenge to the traders under current scenario.
They said that the way of doing business in the country and at the global level is changing rapidly and to go along with the changes , it is necessary for the traders to bring major reforms in their business pattern. The big threat from global MNCs and big corporates working in retail & e commerce sector is a major concern of the trading community comprising of more than 8 crore traders all over the Country. The CILM will enable & empower the traders to prepare themselves to stand against any competition from global MNCs and others who are leaving no stone unturned in flouting the laws and rules under the nose of the Government in their bid to control, dominate & monopolise both retail trade and e commerce business of the Country courtesy to the Government for not rolling out e commerce policy and the rules and National Retail Policy thereby giving a free hand to foreign companies to damage the traders as much as they can.There seems to be no seriousness among the policy makers to have an early roll out of these two crucial policies.
Equally, the State Governments are responsible for their most lethargic attitude on this issue. In this view,
Bhartia and Khandelwal said that the retail trade across the country is worth about Rs 130 lakh crore every year, which is a big component of the Indian economy and as such CAIT is committed to ensure that no foreign company could become second edition of East India Company and therefore the CILM campaign will prove to be a game changer for the empowerment of the trading community through online mechanism.
