Opening up multi-brand retail sector to foreign companies should give a boost to India’s economy, Nobel laureate economist James Mirrlees said on Tuesday.
The Scottish economist, however, pointed out that small shopkeepers could face “some problems” once the foreign retailers were allowed to open stores in India.
Mirrless said this with reference to the Union Government’s decision to relax the cap up to 49 per cent for foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail. Mirrlees, who is currently the Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge, was speaking to the media on the sidelines of a workshop organised by the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) here.
Stating that the global retail brands are expected to add value to the industry, Mirrlees said, “It seems to me that the Indian consumers are bound to get benefit from it.”