The last couple of years have seen stupendous growth in spending by the middle class. Going by the just-released McKinsey report, number of wireless subscribers has gone up by 68% to 166 million between March 2006 and this year March. [Left image source] This is a sure indication that more and more people are becoming […]
Quantum jump
If everything goes as per plan, then 3rd week of this month is going to see a watershed development in the history of Kolkata. No, it’s not the opening of another giant mall or plaza, nor it’s the unfurling of a grand plan to revive the city’s infrastructure. We’re by now practiced to hear these […]
Divide in the left
The divide in the left rank is now wide open. After the big brother, CPM, has been rapped hard over the knuckles by the uproar following Nandigram fiasco, the smaller partners have come out of the woodwork to make the best of the situation. A recent example is that of Forward Bloc’s apparent refusal of […]
Retail simmers
The volume of home improvement business that can generate in New Town when it is in full flow can be gauged from the fact that Kishore Biyani owned Future Group is going to headquarter here its less-than-a-year-old Home Solutions Retail. Home Solutions will come in 4 formats – Collection-i, eZone, Home Town and Furniture Bazaar. […]
Gateways to prosperity
Think of an island which is fertile and grows all the food that the people residing there need. It produces fairly good amount of surplus but since it is cut off from and has no communication with mainland, it cannot send surplus food there and has to waste them. While food grows aplenty, the islanders […]
Retail, any which way
Though the ‘SEZ earth’ is shaking in Nandigram, the tremors are being felt in faraway states like Tamil Nadu and Punjab. Another controversial issue may likely be large-format organized retail. Not without reason that the left parties have recently suggested that big retail joints may be allowed only in suburbs. If agreed to, this will […]
Spencer’s in Kolkata
Chennai’s Spencer’s Plaza it once was! [Picture source] RPG Group’s retail venture has been through acquisition of Spencer’s, the mainly south-based supermarket chain. It’s in Chennai that an Englishman JW Spencer started a department store in 1860s on the city’s spinal chord, Mount Road (Anna Salai). Later, after a devastating fire in 1983, the entire […]
IOC in retail
The retail bug has firmly bitten IOC (Indian Oil Corporation), the country’s oil-sector behemoth. And why not? At a time when Reliances and Bhartis are actively scouting around for space to jumpstart their retail foray, IOC is already a step ahead in that it has good amount of space in its filling stations through the […]
The retail makeover
Presently, govt doesn’t permit foreign retail giants to start business in grassroots retailing, since their phenomenal financial power and scale of operation can elbow out small grocery stores and other outlets in every locality. Which is why Bharti’s tie up with Wal-Mart is limited only to cash-and-carry business, the same as what Germany’s Metro Group […]
Sliding stocks, robust economy
At a time when India’s economy is more robust and globalised than ever before, slide of stock prices comes as an anticlimax. Critics will say that the union budget presented a week back is the main culprit for this occurrence. While that may be partially true, what is not is that this year’s budget is […]