THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Work

"Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. " - Peter Drucker

TOPIC OF THE DAY

FDI in Retail - More Good than Bad

Indian industry's euphoria over the government's decision to throw open the country's retail trade to foreign companies gave way to despair after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced suspension of the plans owing to political pressure from both within the ruling coalition and outside.

The issue of allowing FDI in the multi-brand retail is of immense importance because as much as 7.8% of India's total workforce is engaged in retail trade (NSSO 66th Round), which are mostly the small groceries, handlooms-textiles-garment shops, family stores etc. Now with FDI in this sector, multinational giants with multi-billion dollar enterprise like Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Tesco etc. who sell from grocery-items to garments, furniture to fitness-equipments, are allowed to set up their stores in India. Notwithstanding the government's claim of 'revolutionizing' the retail sector in India, it needs to be asked that what will be its impact on the unorganized retail which consists of 95% of total retail sector in India while organized trade accounts only for the remaining 5%. Out of this organized and unorganized retail almost 60% of the household expense consists of food and grocery expense.

Read on...

LATEST ARRIVALS

Why not? : how to use everyday ingenuity to solve problems big and small / Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres