Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 02/2012

FDI in retailing and inflation: The case of India

Nandita Dasgupta

December 2011

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Abstract

India’s food price inflation is a major driving factor behind the country’s overall accelerating inflation. As demonstrated by experiences of other countries, the recent move of the Indian Government to allow FDI in multi-brand retailing is a step in the right direction, transforming the way perishable agricultural produce is acquired, stored, preserved, and marketed -- and thus helping to control India’s persistent food inflation.