India, June 29 -- As prices climb every month and the festival season draws closer, S. Karthikeyan, Charter President of Confed-ITA, says the coming quarter will show exactly which vendors are willing to protect India's general trade IT retailers. Speaking on the sidelines of the Confed-ITA Summit 2026 in Puducherry, he traces IT retail's journey from neighbourhood shops to quick commerce, and explains why a shop counter still offers something no app can.

At the Confed-ITA Summit 2026 in Puducherry this June, where more than 1,800 IT dealers from across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry gathered under the theme "Innovate, Collaborate, Elevate," much of the talk on the sidelines had little to do with celebration. Vendors spoke of rising component...