Bangalore: India's top organised retail houses today (Sep 28, 2004) came together to launch "Retailers Association of India (RAI)" with an aim to trigger growth in the retail trade industry.

The founder members of RAI are Pantaloon India, Shoppers Stop, Trent, Globus, Piramyd, RPG Retail, Vivek's and Subhiksha, who said RAI would have a strong character and code of conduct for its members with strict self regulation mechanisms.

An RAI statement said the retail industry in India is valued at about $ 200 billion and the share of organised retail trade is about two per cent, which is expected to grow to five per cent in the next three years.

India has about 12 million retailers, one of the highest per capita densities of retail outlets in the world, it said.

"RAI aims to become the voice of Indian retailers. It will be our endeavour to become a model association where retail companies will be joining hands and building a collective voice," said Gibson G Vedamani, who has been appointed as the CEO of RAI.