With the relentless onslaught of the Big Bazaars, Spencers and Reliances and increasing consumer tilt towards organised retail, the future of the neighbourhood kirana stores looks grim.

According to a joint study by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Images Group, organised retail in eastern India is projected to cross the Rs 100-billion mark by 2010, a figure likely to furrow the foreheads of the mom-n-pop store-owners.

The PC Chandra School of Business, rolling out its retail management programme next month at its Salt Lake campus, aims to equip these kirana shop-owners to meet the challenges posed by the organised segment.

The move has been appreciated by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI).

“They are actually doing a social marketing intervention. This genre of entrepreneurs, by getting formal inputs, can gain a competitive edge and kudos to the PC Chandra Group for trying to empower this crucial segment,” says Khokan Mukerji, the BCCI secretary-general.

“While our B-school will offer a retail management course at the postgraduate level besides the usual MBA, an undergraduate programme will be aimed specifically at the kirana shop-owners,” A.K. Chandra, the managing director of the company, tells Metro.

Chandra feels there is a massive demand-supply mis- match in the retail industry and specialised skill sets, which could throw a lifeline to the neighbourhood stores, are desperately needed.

This is the group’s first foray into education, which is popularly known for jewellery retail and exports and other businesses.

“The neighbourhood stores lack the basic managerial skills in accounting, purchasing, supply chain, logistics and understanding consumer behaviour,” observes Shyamal Kumar Ghosh, the dean of the school and former professor of finance at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Ghosh feels these shortcomings, coupled with the inability to muster financial resources big businesses can readily command and a lack of understanding of the overall demographics and economic changes taking place, and the legal structure, put the kirana stores at a disadvantage.

The PC Chandra School of Business offers a one-year course on retail management to these store-owners to help them “not only to survive but grow as well”.

One has to be at least a Plus-II pass-out to seek admission to the course. Classes will be held in the mornings and weekends, so that work schedules are not disturbed.

Retail management, it seems, is quite the flavour of the season. While Pantaloon Retail has tied up with the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, Retail Association of India has joined hands with NSHM Knowledge Campus.

Recently, Bharti Enterprises has decided to tie up with International Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS).

The PC Chandra group, which is opening its Salt Lake Sector III B-school with 150 students, hopes to absorb a healthy share of the pass-outs.