Retail boom blooms on B-school radar

Thanks to the retail boom, XLRI will now offer a course on retail management as an elective from the new academic year. The course content would include the global scenario of the retail industry, its trends, success stories and experiments in the field. Strategies of the Indian retail industry, its growth areas and managerial role would also be included in the curriculum. Retail industry stalwarts would be roped in to share their experiences with the students. In addition, students would attend seminars and conferences to get hands on experience. Very few B-schools in the country have such courses and by offering the course XLRI would be part of the select few. Few organised retail companies have tied up with a couple of B-schools for the course. Pantaloon India (Retail) has tied up with two Mumbai-based institutes — Wellingkar Institute of Management, and K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies — for a diploma course on retail management.