Shopping for skills
5 lakh retail professionals will be needed in 3 yrs

Organised retailing, which is set to grow to a $24 billion industry by 2010, will require 5,00,000 trained hands to run hypermarkets, super stores and wholesale cash and carry facilities in major Indian cities, a national think-tank has said.

"Proliferation of retail will require at least half a million trained people in the next three years, while supply chain management will become a strategic issue in the industry that will witness cut-throat competition," Indian Institute of Materials Management's (IIMM) founding member Tej K Magazine has said.

He said in New Delhi recently the bulk of the workforce to be employed at the front-end and back-end operations of the retail stores would be picked up from the economically lower strata of society.

"At the formal level, only Annamali University has begun a course in retail management while the Indira Gandhi Open University is also planning such a course," Magazine said, adding that the IIMM too was offering training programmes in retail management.

The institute, which is expecting 1,000 material and supply chain management experts from India and abroad at its annual convention at Chandigarh in November this year, said over 80 per cent of finances in the government and private sector projects are handled by these professionals.

According to a recent CRISIL study, the Indian organised retail industry is set to treble to 24 billion dollars in the next three years.

While the government has not allowed foreign direct investment in retail, major domestic industrial houses like Reliance Industries, Future Group and the Rahejas are expanding their retail network. Besides, the Bharti Group has signed a joint venture with the Wal-Mart of the US for cash and carry (wholesale) business in retail. — PTI