Retail sector on the trot

Nifty BSE | NSE 25/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

With the retail opportunity in India pegged at USD 300 billion, of which just 2.5% is modern retail, it's hardly surprising that many are expanding or eyeing the Indian market.

"We're going to do beauty parlours in malls. We're going to do health clinics and pharmacies in malls. We're going to do gyms. We believe all this will sit well in the malls," says Kishore Biyani, CEO at Future Group.

Adds Krish Iyer, MD (India) at AS Watson Group,"We believe that is an important market for us. At the same time, we need to really understand and watch the government policy on FDI and then firm up our plans."

While the government may dither on allowing Foreign Direct Investment into the country, in the next five years, corporate India will pump USD 22 billion into the retail sector.

Industry watcher, Technopak, predicts the size of modern retail trade will be USD 60 billion to USD 75 billion by 2010.

"The momentum that is being built up in India is unprecedented. What has been done in the US, Britain, Germany and France in 20, 30 or even 40 years, India will see in 10 years,"said Arvind Singhal, Chairman at Technopak. One thing's for sure it will be boom time for consumers.