मंगलवार, 20 दिसंबर 2011

FDI, Retail and Me

We all have heard about the latest buzz regarding FDI, finally govt. has somebody else as trouble ( thanks to Mr. Wal-Mart and friends) than its dearest well wisher Mr. Hazare. They say FDI is a serious business in retail, it can give upliftment to existing kirana store or Mom n Pop stores (as Goras would like to call them), it would benefit farmers, unemployed youth and consumers who would get everything under one roof at a cheap price, all these claims are made by the govt. just like other claims regarding fair justice, less inflation, CWG and telecom scam investigations. So, I have my doubts on it.

I imagine how FDI or MNC could improve our retail sector, as we can see there are already at least 10 kirana stores operating in the same lane where we live. My statement could be superfluous but running a departmental store is the most common business activity as it makes a person self-employed and free from the tortures of somebody else who is superior to him/her. Take me, I work as a daily laborer, who gets a monthly salary that has no specific date and has to face insult, agony and abusiveness of my clients and superiors, I have to confront all this even after a degree of Post-graduation in management (and I am not the only one), they say unemployment would go away but what about the increased medical (or drug and alcohol..:)) bills to take care of the stress. If you would take away this self-employed opportunity then a majority of them would end up working underpaid, (may be their business is not as profitable but at least they have a sense of pride).
  
MNCs say that they can improve our retail sector by their strong distribution channels, which would help in reducing the cost to customer and a better deal for farmers with exclusion of middlemen. But don’t European and Americans know that for better distribution or supply chain you first require better roads or basic infrastructure facilities which our country lacks terribly. So, either they build new and improved roads which are impossible to happen or they would choose these same middlemen who would outsource this work to them. So poor farmers condition remain the same and the one which lacks road connectivity would reconsider their thoughts of suicide after watching the same middlemen coming to them with much more power and strength.

But don’t forget consumers, who would get things cheaper, so, we finally have a winner? Cheaper by how much, may be one rupee or two. Of course how silly of me they would not go there to buy couple of products but to buy grocery for the whole month and for this they would take out their cars which unfortunately runs on petrol (how about a retail shop for a cheap petrol) to go to the neighborhood mall which would charge you insane parking ticket (especially on weekend) and by doing a little math we would found out things are not as cheap. In fact, back home we could still buy the same grocery from our local store at a reasonable price, who would be more than happy to deliver the products at home without any extra charges.

I am not against any FDIs or FIIs (don’t ask me what’s the latter) but how can govt. be so naïve that it expects miracle from global retail players. If given a better connectivity to farmers, who knows they might come out with their own unique supply chain management which could beat any top player in the game.  Though, personally I believe in more participation of foreign firms in almost every sector so that we could have a better global exposure sitting at home but not under the blindness such as this. Remember to beat them in their own game first we need to know the rules and we could learn these rules better only through them.

From-
A lost soul

शुक्रवार, 9 दिसंबर 2011

Development and our Perception



                                                                Development and our Perception

Well, according to the basic principles of Economics, we’ve learnt that development means different things to different people. People of different nations, color, height, diet, gender, mobile no., UID no. have different benchmark for development. Though development is usually measured by the per capita of the nation (one of the parameters), but from my experience I found a completely different one.

Sometimes bad circumstances get the best (or worst) out of you, which force the person to have philosophical and intellectual thoughts. I was once in a similar situation. It was an afternoon time and I just had my lunch (a full seven course meal) and now was travelling to CP to meet a friend (no it wasn’t a date, I am not that lucky). I had taken an underground metro from my place to my destination and was in total awe of looking at the development of DMRC. The department has certainly done an unbelievable job just like Rajnikanth do in his movies, as it has not made life easier for daily commuters but also for the hopeless souls like me who always blame bad traffic for reaching late (even if one has to reach six in the morning for a walk in the park).

I was thinking about the development and the status of the World City that Delhi is turning out to be, it will surely become a world city in less than a decade in true sense, when its population would take over half of the population of the world. But suddenly my economist thoughts were hampered when the excessive fluid in my body was showing a sign of coming out. I tried to calm my mind over it but the urge kept on increasing with every passing minute.  At last I reached my destination stop and rushed out of the metro just like a wolf rushed out of the cage when released by fanatic biological experts in the name of science.

At the station I had only one primary aim just like Mario (video game) whose aim was to save the princess mine was to locate a loo. Here, I was lost and alone in probably one of the world’s most complex and puzzled metro station, Rajiv Chowk. I tried asking a guard but his directions didn’t help as I reached the same place from where I started. By this time my situation had become a little critical but as I am an optimist I relaxed my mind by saying that it’s just the fluid which wants to come out and not the food!

Finally I was successful in locating a loo but to my horror its doors were wide open just like a rally of a politician for its paid and unpaid followers. To make situation bad right next to it was ladies’ washroom and to make situation worse I was the only one inside male washroom and the door refuses to get closed. At that time I realized, we might be the top 5 growing economies of the world but we still lack the basic facilities and the sense of using them. Development means different thing for different people, may be some of the people wouldn’t had reacted the way I did after watching the washroom or others would argue that I should be thankful for at least finding it. But aren’t we just satisfying ourselves by getting only the basic necessities and refusing the concept of evolution. And yes you would be thinking that did I have the same thoughts once I was inside ( as I referred my situation was critical), then I would say yes as I mentioned earlier about the thing regarding philosophical and intellectual thoughts , at that moment  I felt like another victim of the system and I did my job only when I was able to close the door coz where there is a will there is a way J.

From-
A lost soul