Why, as transparency is not a virtue in the business process, there is a vested interest in keeping these relationships in place. That's why most e-xchanges insist that real world industry structures stay put. Both parties still prefer to deal with old customers. It's a phenomenal opportunity to reach a large number of buyers at a lower cost. Sophisticated use of trading communities will only emerge when buying can be integrated into back-end systems.
Indian companies have a long way to go in terms of setting up technical platforms.
The silver lining is that starting on a clean slate is much easier. Whatever the case may be, the sea of B2B sites in India must be ready to change, and change again-or die.