Impediments to Indian Retail Industry

Although Government of India at their level have taken various initiatives to bring spurt in the Industry like 51 per cent FDI is allowed in single-brand retail outlets and 100 per cent in cash-and-carry through the automatic route. 100 per cent FDI allowed in realty projects through the automatic route etc, however, the last few months have been a bad story for Indian Retailing Industry. The reason, as the whole world is aware of the global financial crisis. Some of the major projects have been stopped or amid completion are still pending. The crises can be a short story and will vanish soon as the major economies have already started showing positive results.

However, India is still lacking in providing skilled manpower to the industry. This has always been a major issue, various government departments have taken major steps to encourage the young rural population to take part in various schemes run by government of India and maximize their level of knowledge and skills. About the young educated group of people, many private run institutions are there. Various business conglomerates are tying up with these educational institutions to teach the retailing concept, new technologies involved, logistics management, Information Technology applications involved in retail business.

Some major institutions offering diploma courses in India are Pearl Academy, NIFT, NID etc. The presence of these institutes and initiatives taken by them promoting retail studies shows the growing interest of students in studying retail. Also, retail come with a package of jobs as for a store you have to manage, storage, logistics, working knowledge of computers etc as mentioned above a lot of people are required which will not only work but by anyway become customers of one or another retail store.

The views expressed are personal views of the author