Fact File-FDI in Retail (India)

Don’t Kill The India Dream

On essential reform measures, opposition parties should support the government

               

The amendments to the pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2011 are based on the of Indians is just a bogey.

investing in schemes providing minimum assured returns as notified by the authority. So the BJP, at least, should support pension reform, while there are enough safeguards to ensure

The CPM has lost popularity in recent years; the BP will not profit much by appearing as a CPM clone, even (or especially) with a Hindutva tweak. Likewise, it’s also in the congress’s interest to reach across the aisle and forge a recommendations of the standing Committee on Finance headed by senior BJP politician and ex-finance minister Yashwant Sinha. It would provide investors the option of that the idea of foreigners ferreting out the lifetime savings bipartisanship understanding with the BJP, on measures that are essential to tiding over today’s economic emergency and getting India back to a high-growth, low-inflation path. No party will reap any rewards from burying the Indian dream.

                                                          Extracts of an article in TOI

06 Sept. 2012

We must go with the flow

China has benefited from foreign investment. There’s no reason why India can’t

Empirical evidence suggests that FDI can fuel an economic boom. And a lack of it would only guarantee a Hindu growth rate. Foreign investment does not necessarily mean sounding the death knell for India’s mom-and-pop shops. Rather, it will offer opportunities to build thriving enterprises.

A more recent example is china, which took in as much as $45 billion a year in foreign capital in the 1990s. Its openness to FDI helped it grow more than 9% a year on average, boosting its per capita income fourfold between 1978 and 2000. By contrast, India’s income doubled, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates.

The fear of big retailers gobbling up mom-and-pop shops-a rallying point for the FDI opponents-is more of a myth than a reality. Giant retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Tesco, control barely 20% of the total market share in China two decades after the country opened up the sector to FDI.

Under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s plan, states are free to implement or shun FDI. But those that reject it will sign a pact with economic stagnation. West Bengal, for example, dimmed its prospect to be the shining jewel in Indi’s economic crown because of its misguided policies. The state slipped from rank four in 2007 to rank 13 in industrial investment plans.

Politiciians like Mamata Banerjee and Nitin Gadkari, who profess that they are dedicated to the cause of the have-nots, will harm the nation by pursuing their anti-FDI agenda. What they don’t realize is that capital inflows help everyone, the rich as well as the poor.

                                                                                              Extracts of an article by BZ Khasru,

Editor of the New York-based The Capital Express,

 Hindustan Times, 12 Oct. 2012