FDI in Retail - Time to look beyond Walmart

By the time the Government takes a decision on this matter, it would be a political battle. Battle between those who say it will help the customers and those who will claim that this will destroy the country. Articles and blogs apart, TV studios will be filled with farm activist and pro consumer groups. Depending on whether the debate is at the JNU or IIM you will hear voices that claim to speak for us. Somewhere amongst all this are my thoughts.

For starters, retail is way beyond Walmart. Constant talk of Walmart, Tesco and Carrefour. To constantly talk about them in the same breath as retail reminds me of my days in school when everybody spoke of Engineering as the only career option. It seems all the regulations around FDI in this sector will be made keeping in mind these Big 3 giants ignoring the facts that there are equally large players in the non-food sector like Best Buy, Footlocker, Barnes & Noble etc.

So whats the big deal about FDI in retail ? Over the years, India has permitted foreign investment in most sectors but has chosen to keep retail out of bound. The fear was that large retailers will flood India with cheaper imports. Also, there was a strong feeling that these retailers through sheer size, capital and managerial strength will dislodge the home grown retailers who have established business over the past many years. The fear is not unfounded, given that retail is the second largest employer in the country. However, over the years a few things changed, that should make this decision much easier for Govt to take. Firstly, opening up of other sectors like Telecom, Banking, Insurance etc ensured that the common man on the street for the first time had a choice of vendors or service providers from whom to choose from. Suddenly, buying an insurance policy meant more than just meeting your LIC Agent. The Indian consumer finally had a chance to compare, on the basis of price, quality of product and service and assurance of being served by companies and brands that had done it the world over.

Secondly, Indian companies realised the value of retailing products and services. The age old public sector banks suddenly gave way to air conditioned Private sector banks. ATMs mushroomed all over the country. Time was when you went to the DOT office and applied for a landline. DOT transformed into BSNL, and private mobile companies set up stores where you could walk in and buy a mobile connection. Suddenly every brand wanted to set up retail outlets and

Haunted...2 D/ 3 D..many Ds

Coming Soon....

...and then there was peace

Sounds like what Gods always wanted on earth, but ever wondered what would have happened if it were to be ? I mean think of it, if there was no violence in this world, what would it be like.

For starters, 99% hollywood and 98% of bollywood would just shut shop (the only reason I gave a better chance of survival to the aces in Mumbai, is coz we have the Rajshri's, YRFs and Karan Johars of the world with us). God damn, what sort of a movie would you make in a world that was at peace. No Sholay, no angry young man, no sunny puttar, in fact no DDLJ either (come on how can you show SRK being beaten up by the mundas at the obscure railway station, mind you we all at peace). I mean, I cant live without my dose of Mithun da, and the entire Ooty film factory would have had to shut down.. and without Kanti Shah and Gunda and Loha, I am as good as dead. There we go then, now that much of the movie industry is shut down, we have few million jobless. Dont worry guys, there are many more joining you. Your pals from television of course are knocking at the same door through which you exited the studios after they pink slipped you. You cant blame them, thats the first thing that they could think of, now that all the crooks on the streets have been taken care of, and so no story to tell. I am told that the Indian TV industry disappeared over night, no actors have been seen in the last few days, since all the scheming aunts and in laws have been transferred to safe destination called hell. The only guys trying to make it work are the chaps from reality television, still hoping you would vote for some moron who could not manage to win a prize at school with his singing, but is sure he can sign better than Kishore da. (I guess when God said, let there be peace, he did not quite fathom the torture endured by such shows, some day God, you will know... some day).

Abhishek Bachchan, I am told is back to what he does best..look for a job. Well you see. ever since "peace" descended on earth, the newspapers shrunk by about 80%. There was no crime to report, and here I dont mean the ones that are on the city page, I am talking of the types committed by the likes of Mr Harbhajan Singh and whats that guy Appam.C** (oh my dear fakeiplplayer). Inzi too does not go charging at the spectators any more, or the Aussies snarl at the opponents. So you see with all the paper that was anyway being saved, we did not need the idea sirji to tell us any more and added one more to the list of the unemployed. But hell, why am I complaining...I'd much rather watch fixed cricket matches than those ad's. Speaking about "fixed" matches, these days, you can actually smell what the "Rock" is cooking. This is how it happened. There was a generation that grew up watching "The Rock", but the power of the-now-99%-dead-hollywood took him away from WWF. With Hollywood gone, and nobody at WWE wanting to fight it out (despite the script), all he could do was to actually tell people what he is cooking. The last I heard was that following the success of the show in US, one of the Indian channels had roped in The Great Khali (unconfirmed reports also suggest that Mandira Bedi will co-host it, along with Sehwag ki maa)