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Patna : During Chhat puja, counted among the most important festivals
in Bihar, normally the IT retail sector witnesses high sales. However, the
picture this year seems to have been distorted due to the Bihar floods, global
slowdown and rise in hardware prices.
"Sales have drastically dipped this festive season as a result of the
problems Bihar is facing now. With the cancellation of trains in the state, the
students, who account for the primary customers, were all stranded unable to
return bringing down sales," lamented Naveen Gupta, CEO, Krishna Agencies.
However, with the global economic slowdown grasping its hand over India fast,
there seems to be panic setting among consumers.. Already, the state has seen a
decline of over 25 percent in the retail market as the Sensex fell below the
8,000 mark. Even with the Sensex recovering and the finance ministry assuring of
economic stability, the people seem to be sceptical. Last year, the state
recorded a rewarding growth of 34 percent in IT retail sales alone. But this
year, the hardware prices began to rise due to various tragedies in Bihar
floods. Soon, the market scenario changed as the Sensex fell below the 10,000
mark and the IT retail market touched an annual average fall at 18 percent.
"It is primarily because of the panic prevailing in the market that people
are refusing to spend money on IT products. The situation has become graver in
the upcountry markets in north Bihar as even now, the area is nearly cut off
from the rest of the state facing the after-effects of the floods," said PK
Sinha, Spokesperson, BITA. The problems of the state do not end here. The
government's initiatives in e-governance across the state seem to have suffered
a setback with the problem of scarce electricity becoming a major issue
day-by-day. Even then, the retail and distribution industry has made a
remarkable progress with Bihar entering the top e-governed states in India and
the IT retail industry in the upcountry recording the highest growth percentage
last year in the eastern region. "We are expecting that the situation in
the retail market will get better by January next year, as the Sensex will jump
back again and the panic situation will stave off. However, this year in the
festive season we have lost a lot of business. The market continues to be
flooded with offers, but there is a huge scarcity of buyers even during Chhat
puja," Sinha added.
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