Tryst With Destiny
Progressive Grocer|October 2017
India’s economic outlook over the next decade offers a promising period of faster growth, acquisition of new capabilities and the creation of more diverse and optimal tools of production. Bustling with energy and ideas, the country’s young and aspiring populace and its growing bulge of digitally savvy middle class is impatient for growth and change. India’s retail industry, which is amongst the fastest growing retail markets globally, is actively scouring for growth potential and new opportunities. Higher disposable income and an increase in consumer spending, an expanding base of mobile users and e-commerce penetration, positive regulatory environment and a burgeoning middle class present the retail sector in India with tremendous potential for growth and for tapping new opportunities.
Premjit Mohapatra
Tryst With Destiny

Even as the future appears rosy, there are many challenges along the way that could derail the sector’s onward trajectory on the path of growth and profits. To secure its future and surmount the challenges, the industry needs to focus on building better capabilities, develop appropriate skills and cultivate a winning mindset to create new solutions that will keep the retail sector on the path of sustainable growth.

With this backdrop, the eminent panelists at the inaugural session of India Retail Forum that concluded in Mumbai recently set out to discuss and deliberate on the opportunities and challenges that await the retail sector in India and how the industry can plan for the future to achieve the growth trajectory that its various stakeholders so aspire.

Participants in the thought-provoking and candid discussion were Govind Shrikhande, Chairman, IRF’17 and CCA and MD, Shoppers Stop; Krish Iyer, President & CEO, Walmart India, IRF Chairman 2016; Harriet Green, OBE, IBM General Manager of Watson Customer Engagement, Watson Internet of Things and Education; Arvind Varchaswi, Managing Director, Sriveda Sattva Private Limited; Philip Auld, MD, Tata Trent; and Shashwat Goenka, Retail Sector head, RP-SG Group. The panel discussion was moderated by B.S. Nagesh, Founder, TRRAIN.

This story is from the October 2017 edition of Progressive Grocer.

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This story is from the October 2017 edition of Progressive Grocer.

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