Monday, July 23, 2012

FDI in Retail Trade

The Chief Economic Advisor to Govt. of India Mr Kaushik Basu who was in Kolkata during the first week-end of July, 2012 sought to advise the Chief minister of West Bengal Ms Mamta Bannerji that she should start supporting the move of the Union Government in allowing the FDI in retail trade in India so that the farmers and the consumers of this country could benefit without further delay. He was hopeful of convincing her on this count provided she was briefed properly by an expert.

Probably there is truth in what he says like any other economist. Both the farmers and the consumers have been at the receiving end till now. No amount of good-will and policy prescriptions could bring cheers for them. The biggest worry at the FDI is that lakhs of retailers engaged in retail business would lose their livelihood. The left parties are more vocal on this. Well, as an economist and an administrator I too have been watching the situation for quite some time now and I am pretty sure that the government could never succeed in ensuring huge investments in the procuring, processing and marketing of perishable goods and domestic appliances and other grocery items. It is is only the multinationals that could afford to undertake such an activity on a massive scale throughout the length and breadth of this nation.

It is again a matter of introspection as to how long one could resist the modernization of economic forces and the benefit of large scale operations. So it is better to be late than never and permit the FDI with some necessary riders and conditions to be beneficial to all the players in the trade. One should rightly remember how the computerization was opposed by the trade unions and others in the beginning. But now the situation is such that one can hardly afford the absence of computers and IT applications in modern India. The Monopoly of any sort by multinationals should however be taken care of and dealt with very cautiously and forcefully.

Chequered Life of Indian Cricket

After the grand victory in the World Cup last year, the Indian cricket team rode like the giant elephant for a while but soon came its downward march.

It had a humiliating defeat - a total wash-out on the soil of Australia. A little later the team went to U.K and met with a similar fate.

It seems the Indian team fights shy of establishing its supremacy in cricket consistently against these white-skinned players on their soil.