Pantaloon Retail India signs MOU with K.J. Somaiya Institute for specialized course in Retail Management

Company release, April 20, 2004

Mumbai

Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited (PRIL), the country's leading retailer today announced the signing of a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with K.J.Somaiya Institute of Management & Research Studies, a renowned management school in the country for offering India's first specialized course in Retail Management. The first batch of students will join in June 2004 in this Management Course with a Retail specialization.

This course has been designed by academicians from K.J.Somaiya with valuable inputs from Pantaloon Retail; thus for the first time, a management course has been developed specializing on Retail Management with strong focus on academics & operations. The course duration is for 18 months with 12 months of academics and 6 months of on the job training with Pantaloon Retail India at their various format stores across the country like Pantaloon Family Stores, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Central, etc.

On the occasion of signing of the MOU, Kishore Biyani, Chief Executive Officer, Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd. said, " We at Pantaloon's are very proud to associate ourselves with such an unique initiative; for the first time in the country a specialized Retail Management course is being offered which will benefit the retail industry as a whole, as this nascent industry faces a huge shortage of specialized and retail specific manpower."

The first batch for this management course will have a strength of 40; all candidates will be chosen by an All India online test, GD & interview with a view to get the best candidates. The course has a strong operational focus; all students will learn the ropes of retail in Pantaloon stores every Saturday and Sunday in the first 12 months.

Signing the MOU Professor Narasimhan, Director General, K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management & Research Studies commented, " For the first time in India a specialized Post Graduate course is being offered in Retail Management with strong collaboration with the industry leader, Pantaloon Retail India Ltd. Also, in a very unique benefit to the students, all of them will be placed with PRIL on successful completion of the course at a managerial level."

For PRIL, it is a unique way of giving back to society some of its learning from the business. This course is expected to create a pool of very talented & Retail industry specific managers to handle the great Indian retail boom and help Indian Retail attain the position of leadership on the global stage!

About Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited

Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited is the fastest growing retailer and a pioneer in the organized retail industry. The company has presence in the lifestyle and value retailing through Pantaloon (high fashion departmental stores), Central (seamless malls), Big Bazaar (discount hypermarket), and Food Bazaar (food and grocery stores). PRIL has 1 million square feet of retail space spread across 36 stores.

About K.J.Somaiya Institute of Management & Research Studies

K.J. Somaiya Institue of Management Studies & Research (SIMSR), established in 1981 is a part of Somaiya Vidyavihar. The Somaiya Vidyavihar was set up in 1959 by the (Late) Padmabhushan, Shri. K.J.Somaiya, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and a visionary to serve the educational needs of the community. SIMSR has carver out a special place amongst the business schools in India and has achieved 100% placements for the year 2004 in blue chip Indian and Multinational companies. Rated in the top 20 business schools in India by Business India A c Neilsen ORG Marg Survey of Oct 2003, SIMSR has in the past two decades provided companies in India abroad with over 4,000 management graduates. The institute is one of the select few to be awarded the coveted ISO 9001 quality certificate. The institute conducts several full time and part time Post Graduate programmes in Management including Ph.D. and Masters programme in Management affiliated to Mumbai University and the autonomous PGPMS, PGPIB, and MCSA programme.

For further information please contact:

Integrated Brand-Comm

Biswadeep Gupta Michelle Fonseca

Ph. 5666 1646

M: 9820579052 / 9820371385