National Retail Trade Policy

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