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The Indian Council for Research on International Economic
Relations was assigned the task by the Commerce Minister Kamal Nath last
February 'to take into account various aspects of the retail industry
and its affect on several elements of the economy.' It is essentially
a study on big-versus-small rather than foreign-versus-domestic retail.
Conclusions and recommendations of the study, which involved
participation of 1,000 traditional small traders and 2,000 consumers across
the country, according to indiaretailbiz.com
will be submitted to the Government on the 9th May, 2008.
Here are the key findings and recommendations of the
report:
* Although the traditional retail sector,over the years,
will concede a part of its market share to the organised sector, the negative
impact of the organised sector will wear off with time.
* Despite the inroads being made by the organised sector,
the unorganised retail sector will continue to retain 84% of the market
share even in 2013.
* Bottlenecks would continue until the retail trade
is modernised.
* Government should rationalise licensing norms to encourage
growth of organised retail.
Most analysts at the time of assigning the study had
thought it to be a ploy of the government to postpone inconvenient decisions
on the subject of FDI in retail.
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