The Impact of Globalization on Employment Generation in India: The case of emerging 'Big Shopping Malls and Retailers'

Globalization in this paper concerns diffusion of idea, and technique of doing
business. Organised retailing and retailing through big shopping complexes and malls
is an idea, which is drawn from within and across nations. Thus, this idea is
necessarily global and expansion of this idea is an integral part of globalisation.
Growth of organized retail sector in India is being seen by some as the next driver of
the Indian economy after the information technology boom. Some have argued that
the farmers are being exploited, prices are being manipulated and small traders are
being displaced by the corporate retailers. A recent Parliamentary Standing
Committee report on retails has made a recommendation for “a blanket ban on
domestic corporate heavyweights and foreign retailers from entering into retail trade
in grocery, fruits and vegetables”. Global studies on large scale retailing have also
contradictory views.
Therefore, more intensive studies using primary data are required for taking better
policy decisions concerning both organized and unorganized retails in India. It is in
this context, using primary survey data, the following analytical questions concerning
the expansion of big shopping malls and organized retailing with respect to vegetables
sales are answered in this study:
– How the vegetable farmers are benefited from the emerging retailing
and Shopping malls in big cities in India?
– Whether the new pattern of business is more employment intensive?
The answers to the above questions varied from state to state. Unorganized retailers in
most states except in Karnataka felt the threat to their survival. Organized retail did
increase employment in both rural and urban areas.