National Retail Convention Highlights Huge Job Prospects On 21st Dec, 2010
The organized retail sector has seen its employee base increasing from 5.4 lakh to 16 lakh in the last couple of years. It has been estimated that the organized sector will create 11.5 lakh jobs and the unorganized sector is expected to add more than 2 million jobs to the Indian economy by 2010, pointed out Mr. Anil Chopra, MD, Competent Agri Solutions. Inaugurating the National Retail Convention-2010 organized by ace B-School ASBM Shri Chopra said Retailing has been the largest of the private industries and one of the world’s largest employers, accounting for around 16 per cent of jobs in developed and emerging economy. Giving the keynote, the Chief Marketing Officer of Express Infrastructure Ltd. Shri Dheeraj Dogra said that over the past there have been clear signs of an emerging revolution in Indian retail and several factors are responsible for this new development. The CEO of Retailers’ Association of India Shri Kumar Rajagopalan said that the Indian retail sector is now worth about $250bn a year and possesses job prospects from the entry level to senior management level. From front-end sales personnel to technology experts, from HR to supply chain, business development, from research to product development and marketing. The sector is facing a deficiency of skilled and experienced professionals, especially at the middle and the senior level management and Indian retailers are conducting fast paced and aggressive recruitment for various key roles, he added. At the outset giving a prelude to the theme, Chairman of the National Retail Convention and the Group Director of ASBM Prof. Biswajeet Pattanayak said that India’s modern retail sector is growing much faster than traditional retail and Indian opportunity is luring many new entrants, which includes such big Indian names as Reliance, Bharti and Birla. Looking at the huge employment opportunities in the sector, growing number of students are aspiring to choose retail as a career, he highlighted. The convention comprising two technical sessions based on ‘Strategy, Branding & Advertising’ and ‘HR & People Management’ were addressed by eminent speakers including Mr.Subhobrota Chakra borty, VP Strategy and Business Development, Group ISD; Mr. Koustav Bhadra,CEO,Thumb Print India, Shri Jatindra Mishra,Zonal HR Head Reliance Retail, Prof. Ashish Banerjee from IIM,Calcutta and Prof. P.K.Mohanty from Utkal University. To mark the occasion ASBM mementoes were presented to the visiting dignitaries. In the ceremony presided over by Associate Chairman of ASBM Board of Governors and Former CMD of Nalco Shri G.Upadhyay, Dean of ASBM, Prof. Kalyan Shankar Ray, Convenor of the National Retail Convention Prof. Dibyendu Choudhury, faculty members and students were present.