K.J. Somaiya Institute announces admissions for diploma in Retail Management

Company release, March 4, 2005

Mumbai

Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited (PRIL), the country’s leading retailer, along with K.J. Somaiya’s first specialized course in Retail Management - Diploma in Retail Management (DRM) is successfully entering its second year. The 2nd calendar year commences on June 2005 and currently prospective students can apply for admissions to the course.

The USP of the course remains the 100% placement guarantee on successful completion of the course. The approach towards developing the course curriculum was based on the idea that students aspiring to be future retail managers should be equipped with the skills to synthesize, and critically evaluate the main decision variables in retail management. The first badge commenced in June 2004 and the second badge commences in June 2005.

This course is designed by K.J. Somaiya with valuable inputs from Pantaloon Retail making this a 1st of a kind effort & initiative for a leading retailer coming together with a leading management institute to develop a specialized course on Retail Management with an emphasis on operations.

The course duration is 18 months with 12 months of academics and 6 months of on the job training with PRIL at their various format stores across the country like Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar & Central. During the 6 months training they get a stipend of Rs. 5,000/-. Also for the first 12 months students will learn the ropes of retail in various Pantaloon format stores every Saturday & Sunday. The students will be absorbed at managerial level on the successful completion of the course with Pantaloon Retail for any of their format stores across the country.

Course Details

Eligibility: Graduates in any stream, with a minimum of 50% from any Indian University recognized by AIU/ AICTE

Duration: The duration of the course will be of 18 months. Classes will be spread across three semesters for the first 12 months. This will be followed by a 6-month professional practice in a Pantaloon store.

Forms are available at all Pantaloon, Central, Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar outlets across the country other than at the K J Somaiya Campus

Website : http://www.pantaloon.com/somaiya/index.htm (forms maybe downloaded from the above website) or from K J Somaiya website

The strength of the course will be its strong focus on academics and operations.

The criteria for selection of applicants have been designed to keep it as objective, fair & competent as possible. All candidates will be chosen by an all India online test, GD & interview with a view to attract the best candidate.

For PRIL, it is a unique way of giving back to society some of its learning’s from the business. This course is expected to create a pool of 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 today recognized as one of the pioneers in the business of organized retailing in the country with a turnover of Rs 650 crores in the financial year ending June 2004. The company is headquartered in Mumbai and has presence in lifestyle retailing through 12 Pantaloons Stores and 2 Central Malls in Bangalore and Hyderabad respectively. In value retailing it is present through 13 Big Bazaar hypermarkets and 23 Food Bazaars. It has a national presence with over 1.6 million sq.ft. of retail space across Kolkata, Mumbai, Baroda, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ghaziabad , Bhubaneshwar, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Chennai, Gurgaon (Delhi) and Nashik.

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

K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research (SIMSR), established in 1981 is a part of Somaiya Vidyavihar. Rated in the top 20 business schools in India by Business India A C Nielsen ORG MARG Survey of Oct 2003, SIMSR has in the past two decades provided companies in India and abroad with over 4,000 management graduates. SIMSR has carved 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. 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,

Kanchan Singh/Biswadeep Gupta

Tel: 022 55020056/57, M: 9322251221/9820371385

E-mail: kanchan@brand-comm.com/biswadeep@brand-comm.com