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By:

Bhaskar Nath Biswal

13 May 2026 at 8:30:30 pm

E-Commerce’s Hidden Threat

The modern Indian marketplace no longer echoes exclusively with the chaotic bustle of traditional bazaars. Instead, it thrives within the silent, instantaneous clicks of smartphone screens. From monthly groceries to high-end electronics, digital retail has fundamentally altered how households across the country consume goods. This transition has undoubtedly unleashed unprecedented convenience, democratizing access to products for millions living outside metro cities. However, this...

E-Commerce’s Hidden Threat

The modern Indian marketplace no longer echoes exclusively with the chaotic bustle of traditional bazaars. Instead, it thrives within the silent, instantaneous clicks of smartphone screens. From monthly groceries to high-end electronics, digital retail has fundamentally altered how households across the country consume goods. This transition has undoubtedly unleashed unprecedented convenience, democratizing access to products for millions living outside metro cities. However, this hyper-connected landscape has also exposed a deeply troubling reality. As digital storefronts expand, so does the shadowy ecosystem of cybercriminals eager to exploit the trust and vulnerabilities of unsuspecting shoppers. The digital transaction, once celebrated as a triumph of modern engineering, is increasingly fraught with unseen hazards. Protecting consumers from e-shopping fraud has now become an urgent national imperative. Fraud Surge The sheer scale of India’s e-commerce revolution provides vital context for why online shopping has become such a high-stakes arena. Recent market estimates indicate that India’s e-commerce economy has surged well beyond $140 billion, driven by over 300 million active digital shoppers. Projections show this user base rapidly swelling toward 400 million, largely fuelled by deep internet penetration, affordable smart phones and seamless payment infrastructure like the Unified Payments Interface across Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. Yet, this remarkable surge in commercial volume has been mirrored by an equally dramatic escalation in cybercrime statistics. Official records from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal reveal that citizens have filed over 3.8 million cyber fraud complaints, representing staggering financial losses exceeding Rs. 36,000 crore, with a significant portion stemming from fraudulent online retail schemes. Perhaps most alarming is the historical recovery rate, where less than one percent of stolen funds is successfully returned to victims once transactions cross cyber borders. Despite the pervasive presence of online threats, digital consumers frequently fall into predictable traps that expose them to severe risk. A primary misstep is the failure to maintain basic password hygiene, with millions of shoppers reusing weak or identical passwords across multiple e-commerce platforms and email accounts, enabling attackers to execute swift cascading breaches. Furthermore, shoppers frequently bypass critical verification steps in pursuit of speed, such as failing to verify whether a website domain uses secure, encrypted connections before typing in card credentials. Another widespread oversight is performing financial transactions over unsecured public Wi-Fi networks in cafes or transport hubs, which allows bad actors to intercept sensitive data packets in transit. Many consumers also neglect regular software updates on their smartphones, leaving unpatched security vulnerabilities wide open to malware. Above all, emotional urgency remains the greatest weakness. Impulsive buyers frequently ignore glaring red flags, such as suspicious payment requests or unverified seller profiles. Decoding Scams Recognizing that awareness is the frontline of defence, key industry players and digital safety advocates have begun taking structured action. A prominent example is the consumer handbook, ‘Your Guide to Safe Online Shopping’, developed by Safer Internet India and commissioned by Amazon. The initiative aims to demystify complex cyber security concepts and provide consumers with actionable, real-world tools to navigate the digital marketplace safely. The handbook shines a bright light on the most prevalent fraudulent tactics currently plaguing buyers. To combat these threats, the safety guide emphasizes a multi-layered approach to consumer protection. It urges shoppers to verify web addresses meticulously, refrain from sharing one-time passwords and avoid conducting transactions off authorized brand platforms. Equally important, the guide bridges the gap between technical vigilance and legal empowerment by outlining explicit consumer rights under Indian laws and detailing formal grievance redressal mechanisms. A sustainable defence against online shopping fraud requires an integrated, multi-stakeholder strategy that aligns consumer awareness, corporate accountability and robust law enforcement. E-commerce platforms must continue investing aggressively in advanced artificial intelligence tools to detect cloned websites, eliminate fake merchant accounts and intercept suspicious payment flows before they reach consumers. Concurrently, regulatory authorities and law enforcement agencies must strengthen real-time intervention frameworks, expanding initiatives like the 1930 cyber crime helpline and emergency account-freezing protocols to minimize financial damage when breaches happen. On the demand side, continuous public awareness campaigns, modelled after comprehensive handbooks, must reach deep into semi-urban and rural regions where first-time internet users are most susceptible to manipulation. Ultimately, building a safe digital shopping environment is about preserving trust. Only when digital literacy keeps pace with technological innovation can India truly reap the economic rewards of its e-commerce revolution without sacrificing the security of its citizens. (The writer is a former college Principal and Founder of Supporting Shoulders, an Odisha-based non-profit Trust. Views personal.)

Incineration to Plasma Pyrolysis: Machines That Safeguard Public Health

Effective treatment is the shield that prevents biomedical waste from turning into a public health disaster.

In the earlier stages of biomedical waste management, we saw how waste is first segregated into colour-coded bags at the point of generation and then carefully collected and transported under strict safety measures. These steps are vital to prevent accidental exposure and to ensure that different categories of waste reach their respective processing streams without mixing. But segregation and transport alone do not neutralise the dangers hidden in biomedical waste.


It is now the operator’s job to further ‘treat’ this waste as per the protocols and specifications described in the BMW Management Rules of 1998 and 2016.


Treatment is essential to get rid of all the deadly infectious pathogens that are lingering in the tissues and fleshy parts, amputated parts, materials soaked in the blood and other body fluids, etc. Such pathogens that have been lying dormant in these organs and tissues for a long time might be waiting eagerly for an opportunity to spring back and invade and infect the healthy human body. So before they get such an opportunity, destroy them! That is the whole purpose of treatment at CBWTF. There are different types of equipment and machines used for treatment. The following is a brief introduction to these machines.


Incinerator: Incineration is a thermal process that transforms medical waste into inorganic, incombustible matter, thus leading to a significant reduction in waste volume and weight. The main purpose of any medical waste incinerator is to eliminate pathogens from waste and reduce the waste to ashes. However, certain types of medical waste, such as pharmaceutical or chemical waste, require higher temperatures for total destruction.


Medical waste incinerators typically operate at high temperatures between 900 and 1200°C. Developing countries like India usually use low-cost, high-temperature incinerators of simple design for the stabilisation of healthcare waste. The most reliable and predominant medical waste incineration technology is pyrolytic incineration, also known as controlled air incineration or double-chamber incineration. The pyrolytic incinerator comprises a pyrolytic chamber (primary chamber) and a post-combustion chamber (secondary chamber).


Most of these incinerators are diesel-fired. These incinerators are specifically used for treating the contents of yellow bags. These bags containing incinerable waste are loaded in the pyrolytic chamber through a front-opening door either manually or using a conveyor belt. In this chamber, the waste is thermally decomposed through an oxygen-deficient, medium-temperature combustion process with temperatures ranging between 800 and 900°C, producing solid ashes and gases. The gases produced in the pyrolytic chamber are burnt at high temperatures ranging between 900 and 1200°C by a fuel burner in the post-combustion chamber or secondary chamber using an excess of air to minimise smoke and odours. The flue gases from the secondary chamber then pass through air pollution control devices such as a venturi scrubber for complete elimination of particulate matter, if any. Finally, the smoke is released into the air through a 100-foot-tall stack or chimney. The ash is transported to a landfill for deep burial. Advantages of this technology include a relatively lower and affordable cost and almost a 99 per cent reduction in the volume of the waste being treated. In the past few years, technologically advanced incinerators have been manufactured in India that aim for zero pollution through emission.


Plasma Pyrolysis: This system uses a plasma-arc torch to generate the plasma energy, which can generate heat reaching temperatures as high as 1650°C to 11000°C. However, this is a relatively new technology and has very little track record. While some specific pyrolysis technologies show promise, others have not achieved performance and emission levels claimed by manufacturers, and others have not worked at all.


Whether through proven methods like incineration or newer approaches such as plasma pyrolysis, the ultimate goal remains unchanged: to eliminate pathogens, safeguard public health, and ease the environmental burden of biomedical waste. I will be exploring more technologies in my next article. Until then, wishing you a safe and healthy weekend.


(The author is an environmentalist.)

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