New President of FICCI – Rajan Mittal – to push for FDI in Indian Retail

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The country’s apex industry lobby, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has a new man in charge. The vice chairman and managing director of Bharti Enterprises has taken over as the president of FICCI and one of the top agenda for Rajan Mittal, younger brother of Sunil Mittal, during his term would be to see through the opening of the retail sector.

Rajan Mittal, president of FICCI, said, “It’s an important area of concern for us, and we will push for necessary policy reforms on this front.” It’s all the more important for Rajan, as he is directly overseeing the Bharti group’s foray in the retail business. In addition, FICCI will also push for private sector participation in the areas of supply chain and cold storage.

“High food inflation in the country can be attributed to huge wastages and pilferages, which occur on account of loopholes in the supply chain infrastructure. With the participation of private sector, these pilferages can be plugged,” Rajan said. Meanwhile, Bharti’s partner in the backend cash & carry business, Walmart, has already shown its interest in taking over Central Warehousing Corporation’s warehouses on a PPP mode. While any policy reform on this front, will be based on the argument of bringing down food prices by curbing wastages and pilferages, it will also be in sync with Walmart’s larger business interests.

When Sunil Mittal was president of CII, he aggressively pursued opening of the retail sector but his efforts backfired and evoked nationwide opposition, not only to FDI in retail, but even to domestic corporate houses. Now, will his younger brother, in charge of FICCI, be able to engineer a policy change without being politically incorrect?

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