India's e-tailers and modern retail not a patch on Kirana merchants, says Adi Godrej

Industrialist Adi B Godrej, who finds Kirana merchants more efficient, particularly in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) space.
Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej Group. (File photo: EPS)
Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej Group. (File photo: EPS)

HYDERABAD: E-tailers and modern retail have not made much progress in India, says industrialist Adi B Godrej, who finds Kirana merchants more efficient, particularly in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) space.

"They (e-tailers in India) are not making much progress. Even modern retail in India is not making much progress," the chairman of the Godrej Group told PTI.

In the FMCG space, over 90 per cent of the sales still comes from Kirana merchants, added the former President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

"I think it (e-tailing) has not done very well in India, especially fast moving consumer goods. It may have done well in things like clothing and all that," he said.

However, he rejected suggestions that India's growth, in general, has been largely jobless "That's not correct at all. We are creating a lot of jobs, especially in the unorganised sector," Godrej said.

On the recent Supreme Court order banning sale and consumption of alcohol within a 500 m of national and state highways, he said it's not a good ruling because many of these highways pass through cities.

"the Supreme Court ruling didn't say only liquor shops; it said any place serving liquor, even hotels and restaurants. How can you do it in cities? The order needs modification. I can understand it in mofussil highways but it shouldn't be inside cities," he said.

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