The assurance comes from the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, which says the arrival of big retail chains would not hurt the smaller guys in any significant way.
NEW DELHI: The small fry need not fear the big. The assurance comes from the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (Icrier), which says the arrival of big retail chains would not hurt the smaller guys in any significant way.
Icrier came to this conclusion after a study on the retail sector.
Still, the government has asked the think-tank to broadbase its study, asking it to find out ways through which the unorganised sector can access easier credit and perhaps look for alternate models of doing business.
Icrier, which recently made a presentation to Ajay Shankar, secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), is now working on these two additional parameters.
"The government has asked us to also look at how the unorganised retail sector could have access to credit," Icrier director and chief executive Rajiv Kumar told DNA Money.
Non-availability of credit is a critical constraint, he said.
Interestingly, the CPI(M) had raised these very issues recently in its proposal on the National Retail Policy. The party had recently proposed that a comprehensive retail policy that addresses the needs of small retailers, "especially in terms of access to institutional credit and knowhow to upgrade their businesses" was required.
It also suggested a floor-sharing format between large and small retailers (one way of offering alternate business model), levy of cess on goods sold by large retailers and creation of a fund from the revenue so generated to provide infrastructure support, financial assistance or cheap credit for unorganised retailers.
Icrier had been commissioned by the government to conduct a comprehensive study on the impact of large retail chains - domestic as well as multinational - on the smaller, mom-and-pop stores.
In its preliminary report, Icrier found that unorganised retailers are unlikely to lose their advantage in the long run and the impact of the large players on the turnover and profitability of smaller retailers would taper down gradually.
With the additional parameters, Icrier expects the study to be completed by the middle of October, after which it would be submitted to the government.
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