Even if our findings are not to the liking of our sponsor groups, we always stand by them, Icrier Director and Chief Executive Rajiv Kumar tells Business Standard. Excerpts:
The study took a long time to come and the perception is that the data have been 'fixed' to arrive at tailor-made conclusions that suit the government (the sponsor of the study).
How do you respond to this charge?
The time taken for the study increased due to two reasons -- several mid-term consultations with people from outside, including from University of Michigan, and a long process of peer review to make sure that whatever we put out had quality. We also made two presentations to the commerce and industry ministry and at that stage they made it clear that we needed to do a little bit more.
The report compares the mortality rate of unorganised retailers in India with that in developed economies. How do you explain this?
One argument is that we should have done the comparison with a developing country. We did not want to do that because emerging economies, being emerging, have a much greater rate of mortality of small and unorganised retail firms.
In a more stable environment, like the one in a developed economy, small businesses find more space to grow.
How would you like the wider policy establishment to view this report?
This is a study which has been done most painstakingly and has a very large body of empirical data. So, the policy recommendations coming out of it merit attention.
They are balanced and in the direction of nurturing small and unorganised retail, which we find is a very enriching part of local communities. It also brings out clearly that Indian consumers want both organised and unorganised retail to stay.
We felt it would be better to compare the mortality rate here with that of a developed economy. In an emerging economy, it is more of the jungle law that prevails.
What is the follow-up that you are planning on this report?
We will organise stake-holder meetings and bring together academia, policy-makers and industry. In this case, we will bring different segments of industry. Seminars are being planned in different cities of the country, primarily to get reaction and feedback.
Icrier's success will be in the extent to which the policy recommendations will be taken into account by the government.
This depends on public opinion. The first seminar is planned in July and will be on the role of policy in retail modernisation in India.
