Indian Retail- the Rural Infrastructure Constraints

Abstract

This paper looks at the growth in rural retail and how it is related to access to infrastructure.The literature available on this issue points out to a significant correlation between infrastructural facilities and the growth of the retail industry in any locality. Absence of infrastructure makes rural markets fragmented characterised by high costs of transactions and high information asymmetry. Infrastructure ensures speedier flow of information, and reduces transaction costs in doing businesses.Social infrastructure facilities like health and education infrastructure ensure a better quality of life for the people - both in rural and urban areas. Since a vast majority of the population resides in rural areas, and development challenges are more pronounced in the villages as compared to the cities, provisioning of infrastructure facilities in rural areas enables market-led growth.