Govt to study impact of big retailers on kiranas
on December 19th, 2007 at 5:09 amNew Delhi: The government may open up the $330-billion retail market in the future after being convinced that ‘kiranas’ (small grocery stores) will not be affected by big retailers.
Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai said the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has engaged an agency for an in-depth study on the impact of FDI in food retail on mom and pop stores, and its report is expected in March next year.
“’The report aims to analyse the nitty-gritty of foreign investments in the domestic food retailing threadbare. We would take its recommendations into account before we go for further FDI in the retail industry. The bottomline would be the complete safety of our traditional small retailers vis-a-vis big players and FDI,” Sahai said on the sidelines of the two-day conference on ‘Winning with Intelligent Supply Chains’ here on Monday.
He allayed fears that big retailers were not going to spell doom for small players.
“This myth has to be cleared,” Sahai said, adding that opponents of organised retail – which could play a key role in changing the agriculture scenario of country – were ill-informed.
Interestingly, the minister called for an India model of retailing that protects the kiranas from the big retailers in
order to give a fillip to the food processing sector and suggested that the retail biggies should come up with a proposal so that mom-and-pop store owners and retail suppliers become part of retail expansion in the country.
“Some people, particularly ex-politicians without job, are making cheap slogans against organised retail without actually realising that they were hurting the farmers. Kiranawalas are everywhere and they are not being harmed at all,” he added.
Sahai said the government’s main aim was to provide jobs to the farmers, which could happen in a big way when retailing industry grows in India.
