Bharti Walmart partners state govt for retail training centre in Jalna

The Walmart joint venture in India with the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti group, Bharti Walmart, today launched Bharti Walmart Training Centre at Jalna, Maharashtra, in a public-private partnership with the Maharashtra government.

The centre, the seventh in India, after Amritsar, Delhi, Bangalore, Zirakpur, Jalandhar and Ludhiana, will provide free training in retail skills to the youth aimed at creating s talent pool in the skills-starved retail sector.

On 15 February this year, Bharti Walmart had signed a memorandum of understanding with the state government to launch three Bharti Walmart Training Centres in the state, at Thane, Aurangabad and Jalna.

The agreement with the Maharashtra government seeks to replicate Bharti Walmart's model of running Bharti Walmart Training Centres at Amritsar, on a public-private partnership basis with the Punjab government, in Delhi with Delhi government and Bangalore with the Karnataka government, and three training centres at its Best Price Modern Wholesale stores in Zirakpur, Jalandhar and Ludhiana in Punjab.

According to Murali Lanka, senior vice president, operations, Bharti Walmart, the retail sector in India is growing at an exponential rate and therefore provides tremendous growth opportunities.

Lanka said, "The past few years have seen several companies starting their operations in India. However, the industry lacks the talent pool with required skill sets to leverage this huge potential. Bharti Walmart Training Centres aim to bridge this gap by imparting training on various aspects of retailing to under-privileged youth making them job-ready for their first employment in the retail sector.''