Date:14/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/10/14/stories/2006101401121900.htm

Back `Modern retail business will create up to 2 million jobs in next 2 years

Our Bureau

No marketer can afford to ignore India's growth potential, says RAI chief

Bright future!
Consuming class with $100-4800 annual income around 75m households this year
Positive Govt attitude to open, privatise various sectors
Retail biz to create 2m jobs in next 2 years of which more than 50% to be women

MR GIBSON G. Vedamani, CEO, Retailers Association of India, at the BL Club inaugural function at Jansons School of Business, Coimbatore. — S. Siva Saravanan

Coimbatore , Oct. 13

Growing consumerism and availability of manpower are powering the growth of organised retail business in India and no marketer can afford to ignore India's growth potential, according to Mr Gibson G. Vedamani, Chief Executive Officer, Retailers Association of India, Mumbai.

Inaugurating the Business Line Club at Jansons School of Business (JSB) at Karumathampatti near Coimbatore, he said as per Goldman Sachs BRIC's report, India would be among the top five economies in the world by 2050 along with China and Brazil.

Demographic profile

The total number of consuming class with an annual income level of between $1,000 and $4,800 would be around 75 million households by 2006 compared to 29 million households a decade ago. The demographic profile of India is also a great marketing asset. While, as per 2004 data, people in the 0-14 yearsage group constituted 31.7 per cent of the population, the 15-64 years age group forms 63.5 per cent and the people above 65 years constitute the balance. This is a constituency that no marketer can ignore.

He also noted thepositiveattitude of the Government that has been keen to open various sectors and privatise some such as telecom, aviation and insurance. Mr Vedamani said the modern retail business would be creating up to two million jobs in the next two years. The benefit of this growth is that it would create employment at the local level and a significant percentage of them would be first time taxpayers in the country. An important feature of this employment boom would be that more than 50 per cent of these employees would be women.

He estimated that nearly 40 million sq ft retail space would be created over the next five years by existing retailers and the massive investment in infrastructure development would have a cascading impact. Allied activities such as warehousing and distribution would provide growth opportunities and supply-chain development would take place in secondary cities. The country's technological prowess could also help it become the backbone and back-end management of global retail supply chain.

Prof M. Ravichandran, Director, JSB, and Mr D. Rajkumar, Senior Regional Manager-Circulation, The Hindu, Coimbatore, were among those present.