India has taken great strides to transform itself into the world’s fifth largest global destination in the retail space. As we try to successfully build a vibrant retail environment, it is necessary that the government, industry, academia and all the relevant stakeholders come together to discuss the blueprint for how this sector should evolve.
Against this backdrop, CII organized the 9th India Retail Summit: Resurgence of Retail in the COVID impacted World, providing the necessary platform for stakeholders across the world to converge and embed their ideas to help usher in a new era of competitiveness of the Indian retail segment.
Addressing the inaugural session of the summit Shri Som Parkash, Hon’ble Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Government of India stated that DPIIT has been in close consultation with the industry and have been working on a draft National Retail Policy to strengthen the overall ecosystem. Government of India is striving to release one in the near future, and there are three areas that we need to focus on when we create one: Ease of Doing Business, Adoption of Technology and Infusion of Capital. The DPIIT is also working towards creating a regulatory compliance portal that will act as a bridge for industries and government to minimize burdensome compliances. He further added that the Indian retail sector is one of the most dynamic and fastest growing sectors in the economy where the growth is primarily being driven by the entry of new companies and the rapid evolution of e-commerce.
The Factors driving growth of retail include: healthy economic growth, changing demographic profile, increased disposable incomes, urbanization and change in consumer tastes and preference stated Mr P. Narhari, Secretary- MSME & Commissioner Industry, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh. Government of India has taken initiatives to improve the retail industry where the Ministry of MSME has brought retail under priority sector lending under RBI guidelines. He highlighted four major challenges that will result in the evolution of the retail sector: E-Commerce, contact less delivery, empathy marketing, and user-automation. He further added that to enhance MSME competitiveness to reach the global value chain, we have a dedicated department in the Government of Madhya Pradesh set up in 2016 that seeks to formulate policies to create an enabling environment for retail policies.
Mr Shashwat Goenka, Chairman, CII National Committee on Retail & Sector Head – Retail & FMCG, RP- Sanjiv Goenka Group stated that the Indian retail sector has emerged as one of the growth drivers of the Indian economy, and has become a fast-paced industry due to the entry of several new players. It contributes 11% of the GVA to overall GDP and is one of the largest employers, directly employing close to 11% of the total working population. The Indian Retail sector is projected to become a USD 1.3 trillion economy in the next few years. He further added for the need of a comprehensive retail policy. There are four key areas that that we would like to see be taken up under the National Retail Policy. These are: Ease of Doing Business, Modernization and Adoption of Technology, Improved access to capital and Employee Upskilling.
Mr Marzin R Shroff, Chairman, CII Retail India Summit & Managing Director and CEO, Eureka Forbes Ltd spoke on how we have seen a bounce back in the retail sector, and how the post covid world has made the industry resilient.
Mr Mohit Kampani, CEO, More Retail said that industry is witnessing structural changes. The pandemic has taught us how to leverage our assets better.
Mr Varun Khaitan, Co-founder, Urban Company emphasized that the things technology can do; cannot be in anyway replicated offline. The consumers in the country wanted a change in the way the services were provided keeping the quality at par of the prevailing services.
Mr Vineet Gautam, CEO, Bestseller India shared his views during the Plenary Session on Sustainability and said Sustainability needs to be the core part of the design. The organisations should have the mechanism to track, and this should be built in the DNA of the organisation.
CII is committed to making India Aatma Nirbhar, with the Indian retail industry leading the way.
18 November 2021