A study on likely impact of FDI on Indian retailing sector

Retailing sector in India has undergone significant transformation in the past 10 years. This sector witnessed significant developments from small unorganized family-owned retail formats to organised retailing. In spite of the recent developments in retailing & its immense contribution to the economy, retailing continues to be one of the least evolved industries and the growth of organised retailing in India has been much slower as compared to rest of the world. Multi branding retailing is one of the sectors where Foreign Direct Investment is not allowed. There is an intense discussion on pros and cons of opening up this sector to FDI. There have been protests by trading associations and other stake holders against allowing FDI in retiling; however with high GDP growth, increased consumerism and liberalization, India is being portrayed as an attractive destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in retailing. The objective of this study is to evaluate the likely impact of FDI across different retail segments. The study also looks at the challenges and possible threats to unorganized and organized domestic retailers from entry of foreign players. Impact of the entry of foreign players on employment, prices, sourcing, technology and efficiency etc are also discussed. This study would help to prospective researchers to know various entry routes of foreign players, likely impact of FDI on retail sector.