These enterprises need low capital investment per unit of output generate opportunities for direct and indirect employment can be located in far flung areas, use local natural resources and local skills and meet local needs of a "limited market" for consumer goods and services, nurtures enterprising spirit of the populace, prevent migration from rural areas to urban centers thereby helping tackle social problems of urban slums and social tensions.

Besides, with the increase in population and inability of the agriculture sector to absorb a growing population, all governments, whether of developed or developing countries, have adopted conscious and well articulated policies for promotion of SMEs in view of the need to create self-employment opportunities in this sector. These enterprises already form a significant part of the overall industrial structure of United States, Europe, Japan and the developing world of Asia and Africa. It is estimated that in the United States roughly 80 percent of the new jobs are generated by smaller firms with 100 or fewer employees.

Although Indian SMEs have achieved considerable progress in terms of growth of number of units, gross output, employment generation and exports, yet exports of manufactured goods from India from the small scale sector still constitutes less than 10 percent of the total output of this sector. This is due to the fact that the Indian small entrepreneur hesitates to venture into the export markets due to his inability to undergo risks of international trade. It is in this context that tie-ups among Global Retailers and Indian SMEs in the emerging scenario of the growth of the world economy assume a special significance.

It also needs to be emphasized that the modern sector of the Indian SMEs, which uses latest state-of-the-art technologies, has already developed a niche in establishing sound subcontracting arrangements among large enterprises in India in the automobiles, electrical, electronics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, software development and other sectors

We are confident that with the growth of modern retail, the supplier base will continue to show impressive growth in the coming years. Also, an easing of FDI rules will definitely bring many international players currently sitting on the fence to India. And, will also promote higher investments by international retailers like Walmart, Tesco & Metro. We also foresee a lot of activity in the back-end sectors from aggregators, logistics and warehousing firms.