By News365 Times Bureau
New Delhi, August 21, 2025 – India’s organized retail sector, often hailed as the backbone of the consumer economy, is once again in the spotlight. Reliance Retail has called for a major reform in licensing norms, urging the government to replace the outdated store-based licensing system with a unified, entity-based framework.
Reliance Retail’s Call for Simplification
At the recent industry deliberations, Reliance Retail President Ravi Gandhi emphasized that India’s retail law continues to burden businesses with excessive red tape. Each retail outlet is currently required to obtain multiple licenses before commencing operations.
Gandhi argued that this archaic model is no longer aligned with the pace of growth in the sector. Instead, he proposed a shift towards an entity-wide license, which would cover the entire retail chain under a single umbrella.
Further, he suggested replacing pre-license inspections—which often cause delays—with a system of post-license inspections, ensuring that compliance is maintained without slowing down expansion.
“This reform would significantly improve the ease of doing business in retail, allowing enterprises to open outlets faster while still meeting all regulatory safeguards,” Gandhi noted.
The Scale of the Licensing Burden
Industry insiders reveal that a retail operator in India must navigate a maze of more than 60 different licenses and registrations—ranging from health, safety, and labor permits to environment and trade approvals. Many of these licenses are short-term, requiring annual renewals, adding to the operational challenges.
This fragmented system not only delays expansion plans but also discourages smaller players from scaling up.
News365 Times Chairman’s Take
Reacting to the development, Shri Mohan Shukla, Chairman of News365 Times, strongly endorsed the need for immediate reforms:
“There has been a crying need and urgency to scissor the size / number of licences and registrations for the growing and galloping with growth – Retail Sector. To the best of my experience, there are more than 60 licences Retail Operation should have in possession to kick off operations. Going forward, the validity of many of these licences is only for a year from the date of issue. Notably, the toughest challenge comes for renewal of such licences connected with State-specific municipalities etc.
Sadly, the Retail Sector—covering all the formats—should have a full-fledged Regulatory Authority to deal with problems and predicaments of the sector in point. I am sure and sanguine that new generation reforms, which are on the radar and under the consideration of the Government of India would offer smiles to this sector.”
A Sector Awaiting Reform
The retail sector in India is one of the fastest-growing, contributing significantly to GDP and generating millions of jobs. However, the lack of a single regulatory body and the excessive compliance structure has long been cited as a bottleneck.
Reliance Retail’s proposal, coupled with industry leaders’ backing, has once again brought the issue to the policy table. With the government actively exploring new-generation reforms, industry watchers believe the retail sector could soon witness transformative regulatory changes.
