In News
- Recently, The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has sought the views of 16 departments and ministries on its draft national retail trade policy.
- It is aimed at the overall development of all formats of the sector.
About National Retail Trade Policy
- Data:
- India is the world’s fifth-largest global destination in the retail space.
- Body:
- The policy has been envisioned by DPIIT to formulate the national retail policy to promote the growth of domestic trade.
- Aim:
- It focuses on formulating strategies to provide a globally competitive and sustainable environment for overall development of retail trade through targeted efforts.
- The objectives of the policy includes:
- Ensuring easy and quick access to affordable credit.
- Facilitating modernization and digitization of retail trade by promoting modern technology and superior infrastructural support.
- Development of physical infrastructure across the distribution chain.
- Promotion of skill development and to improve labour productivity.
- Providing an effective consultative and grievance redressal mechanism for the sector.
Major Challenges in this sector
- Unorganised market:
- India’s market for retail trade is largely unorganised.
- High complexities:
- A number of laws, compounded by state-level variations in implementation, create immense complexity for retailers, especially those with a pan-Indian footprint.
- This makes it imperative for retailers to ensure a comprehensive pan-India policy is in place.
- Long procedures:
- If we want to set up a store in organized retail, we probably need approvals from 40 different authorities.
- There could be a single window clearance.
- States like Telangana have actually adopted it but it needs to be adopted across the country.
Significance of the policy
- Promote ease of doing business:
- This policy will streamline the retail trade and promote ease of doing business in the retail trade sector.
- E-commerce:
- It will promote e-commerce all over the country.
- Employment generation:
- It will leverage retail trade as a tool for socio-economic development of the country.
- A cohesive national retail policy can help generate 30 lakh more jobs by 2024.
- Skill development:
- It will encourage skill development and create more employment opportunities for all sections of society involved in retail trade.
- Infrastructure:
- It will identify and address existing infrastructure gaps affecting the retail trade industry.
- Investments:
- It will accelerate investment flow to underdeveloped regions across the country.
- The retail industry is likely to see 10 per cent annual growth to reach about USD 2 trillion by 2032.
- Beneficial to all sellers:
- It will bring about a level-playing field for small sellers by providing them access to credit as well as help large, organized retailers with quicker approvals.
- Women empowerment:
- The retail industry is one of India’s largest employers of women which comprise around 25-30 percent of the total workforce.
Way Forward
- DPIIT is also working on formulating a national e-commerce policy to promote the growth of the online retail sector in the country.
- A new industrial policy is also on the pipeline which will be the third industrial policy after the first in 1956 and the second in 1991.
- A cohesive retail policy built on the pillars of simplification, standardization, and digitalization will pave the way for significant growth and accelerate a short-term economic recovery.
Source: BS
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