AP in Rs. 1,500 crore deal with retail giants

Trade & Policy

AP in Rs. 1,500 crore deal with retail giants

The Andhra Pradesh government, which signed MoUs with four retail giants involving an investment of Rs 1500 crore, announced that it was the first state in India to unveil an exclusive policy on retail business. Retail chain operators Walmart, Future Group, Arvind Lifestyle and Spencer’s, who signed the MoU, would generate more than 25,000 jobs, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said, addressing a breakout business on ‘Ease of Doing Business —A Retail Case Study’ at the CII Partnership Summit here on Monday.

Maintaining that organised retailing had bright prospects to be increased to 80% from the present 8%, he said retail operators should learn from how e-commerce business had gained momentum in India. He said the retail policy focused on cost effectiveness of various products and employment generation and added that after agriculture and dairy, retail business had good prospects for providing livelihood to many.

Naidu said Walmart had faced some teething problems in the state, but they had been sorted out. He called for innovative ways of retailing and suggested that the retail operators make use of self-help groups of women. He also wanted that rural economy would grow once retail business was extended to those areas. He wanted retailers to encourage value addition and launch programmes for skill development of farmers.

Lauding the vision of Naidu and his announcement to launch the retail policy, Retailers’ Association of India CEO Kumar Rajagopalan said Andhra Pradesh was the first state to encourage retail business in a systematic way. Walmart India CEO Krish Iyer said it was a misconception that big retailers would gobble up kirana shops. He said, “In fact, kirana shops will be strengthened, as they can sell quality products to customers at cheaper prices.” He added that his company had opened as many as three stores in AP and had plans to open another 15 in the near future.

Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani, Raheja Corporation Group President Neel Raheja, RPG Retail CEO Mohit Kampani and Aditya Birla Group CEO Vishak Kumar, who spoke, wanted more incentives for retail business due to their huge contribution to the economy and employment generation.