Amid controversy over USPresident Donald Trump's comments linking the use of Tylenol and other related paracetamol products by pregnant women to autism in children, experts and industry executives say that since India's export of the drug to the US is less, it will hardly affect the country's pharma exports to America.
"Big retail outlets are welcome. We have got no doubt about it. Our experience in the past one year is that they are able to give better price to farmers and they are able to give consumers better products at an affordable cost," CM Y S R Reddy said.
Big retail is fine tuning its strategy to win over critics and corporate social responsibility drives are providing it with the means.ITC and Reliance have already launched projects to recruit street hawkers, the main adversaries of big retail. And now Bharti Mittal has opened a retail innings of its chain, Easy Day, in Ludhiana with something similar.
What has come as a bigger blow for small traders in the commodity market is the 'invasion' of big retailers into the commodity market. This is hurting them more than the Centre's new regulation curbing stock holding and the effects of VAT. In fact, entry of big retailers has created a new dimension in the commodity market, particularly in the last two years. The small traders hold them responsible for the current scenario in the market, including steep rise in prices.
The Centre on Thursday began the first phase of retail sales of onion at a subsidised rate of Rs 35 per kg to provide relief to Delhi-NCR and Mumbai consumers from rising prices of the kitchen staple. NCCF and NAFED, which are maintaining a buffer stock of 4.7 lakh tonne onion on behalf of the government, will undertake the retail sale through their own stores and mobile vans. Onion will be sold at 38 retail points in Delhi-NCR and Parel and Malad in Mumbai.
Uttar Pradesh Udyog Vyapar Pratinidhi Mandal president and Rajya Sabha MP Banwari Lal Kanchal said said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce was studying the impact of big malls on small retailers and is expected to submit its report to the central government soon. He is one of the committee members. Kanchal claimed that, in the last five years, an estimated 20 million traders had been rendered jobless due to the sprouting of big shopping malls in the country.
With consumer spending in the US and Europe recovering, many retailers, who typically place orders four months in advance, have started revisiting their suppliers in India.
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance group has struck acquisition deals worth $4.2 billion with a dozen companies in just two years to expand its retail business. The latest purchase was of a majority stake in Justdial for Rs 3,497 crore. Elaborating on his acquisition strategy a few weeks ago during the AGM, Ambani stated that one of the key planks would be to acquire businesses that enhanced Reliance's offerings and experiences to customers and that they would be both physical and digital.
West Bengal is home to 43,000 Durga Pujas, and the business around it is a major economic driver.
The study conducted for the government, following allegations that big retail was squeezing neigbourhood retailers out of business, showed that the latter's turnover and profit dropped 8 to 9 per cent initially, but the adverse impact weakened over five years. Significantly, the report states that a total of 151 small shops have closed down over a period of 21 months, which is about 4.2 per cent of annual closure of retailers.
The way the story went, customers would get dramatically lower prices for everyday groceries (something that takes up 45 per cent of the household budget) and farmers would earn at least a third or more as big retailers began procuring from them directly. But none of this has really happened, and may not either.
The threat may be a decade away, but it has brick-and-mortar sellers rethinking their strategies and banking on the govt to regulate online companies.
Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum to open over 3,000 outlets this year. Even losses of over Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) per day from selling automobile fuels have not stopped government-owned oil marketing companies from expanding their retail network across the country.
Industry estimates suggest that over the next four years, organised retail in India will receive investments in excess of $25 billion from domestic and foreign players, taking the size of organised retail to $ 75 billion.
IndianOil would get into retail trade in a big way this year, leveraging on its nation-wide network of petrol stations, as it seeks to make non-fuel business a driver of growth, company officials said on Monday.
The government decision to cap sales by cash-and-carry players to their group front-end companies at 25 per cent of overall sales can force these wholesalers to reduce their investment plans by around Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion) in the immediate term, consultancy firm KPMG said.
Real estate players say they are in talks with companies to build their customised stores in India.
Even in the face of protests from trade groups, escalating real estate costs and pressure on margins, the march of domestic retail chains continues unabated.
Despite the controversy over the entry of foreign retail giants, the government has cleared foreign direct investment worth only $3.1 million in retail between February 2006 and May 2007.
The Opposition party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Thursday said India's millions of family-owned traders must learn to work with large modern shops and online retailers, in comments that could signal a shift in thinking.
our vision is to focus more on quality, providing more value for money, and a world class shopping experience for our customers.
According to the Economic Survey 2012-13, which was tabled by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament, as far as small retailers are concerned, organised retail already co-exists with small traders and the unorganised retail sector.
At the moment, big retailers are concentrating on China because the retail sector there is more advanced, especially in terms of infrastructure, says Kim Culley, COO, Express Avenue.
India 's government has obviously never heard the maxim: "Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today". The government routinely defers decisions by commissioning studies of thorny issues in the hope they will have blown over by the time a report is filed a year later.
The government on Thursday said 18,600 toys have been seized in the last one month from major retail stores, including those of Hamleys and Archies, at airports and malls across India for lack of BIS quality mark and use of fake licences. Meanwhile, consumer protection regulator CCPA has also issued notices to three major e-commerce players -- Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal -- for alleged violation of toys quality control order, it said. Since January 1, 2021, the government has made it mandatory for toys to conform with safety norms specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), a national standard setting body.
The agriculture ministry, in the last few weeks, issued guidelines and letters to states to ensure agriculture and food products reach consumers in a timely manner, while farmers don't have to come to the mandis to sell them.
Big retailers are openly talking of plans to harness the power of big data, even reporting those in annual reports as part of a long-term strategy.
Where do the four members of the Supreme Court appointed panel to interface with farmers stand on the Modi government's farm laws?
The sobering news is that retailers - including big firms like Reliance Retail - and exhibitors are contemplating issuing force majeure notices to shopping malls and real estate owners, and are in discussions with them to formulate an action plan for sharing the financial burden of the lockdown.
MotherCare, the baby and maternity clothes retailer that annually sourced garments worth Rs 100 crore from a single exporter in Tirupur, filed for bankruptcy in the UK and will close all its 79 shops in that country. It was the latest world-famous brand to pull down Tirupur's fortunes.
FDi helps a tiny minority in our country, says Hema Swaminathan, Assistant Professor, Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore.
Goenka is hoping Spencer's will break even by the second quarter of 2013-14.
Tesco, which has a franchise agreement with Trent Hypermarkets for the latter's back-end operations, is believed to be interested in investing in those hypermarkets
Industry estimates R-Day sales are eight times the usual for big retailers.
The need to modernise supply chains is pitted against visions of how big retail would devastate small shops.
Formulation of food recall procedures in case of unsafe or hazardous products, mandatory compliance with GAP (good agricultural practices) for big retailers, labelling changes for packaged food items, organic food certification, setting water quality standards and verification of claims by food supplement companies are among the major reforms being planned by the sector regulator and the government.
Some analysts believe convenience stores could be challenged by digital grocery in the future.
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