Mayank Krishna looks at some hard facts to decipher the future of organized retail in India. 

Another fact of life in India is that, according to NCAER, out of 205 million households, around 90% of them have annual income less than Rs 2 lacs. Even within this segment, 71% have annual income of less than Rs 90000. This proportion of households – with less than Rs 2 lacs annual income – is not drastically changing in the next 5 years. And this is the segment that perhaps spends the highest on items like food and grocery – the same items that constitute about 75% of the great organized retail dream! This segment of the population makes small purchases weekly or every few days and depends to a large extent on monthly credit provided by kirana stores based on localized trust. Can the organized retail cater to this segment that lies at the heart of Indian retail?