The first thing at the E-biz India 99 conference was the turnout. Huge - to the extent that finding a seat and holding it was difficult. Probably goes to show the interest among the business and IT community about e-commerce. I managed to find a seat up front, 3 or 4 rows from the podium because I arrived early.

The inaugural session was about the 20-point programme laid out by Nasscom for the growth of e-commerce in India. 
Dewang Mehta, President of Nasscom, in his inaugural address had said that with the development in communications, the world has now become the 'global village'. E-commerce gives the opportunity for businesses to attain global standards of efficiency, quality and innovativeness and serve the global market. Studies have shown that one new 'e-customer' is being added every 1.5 minutes world-wide.

The regular business sessions started after that with the second session titled 'Extending E-business to your business'. This was chaired by Vijay Mukhi, the Internet 'guru', as he is referred to. The start was pretty momentous, with the announcement of the formation of the electronic business association. This association aims to promote and facilitate the proliferation of e-business in India. Vijay Mukhi, VSNL and Rediff on the net are some of the members behind this. (www.eba-india.com.).