Economic Reforms agenda set in motion

By allowing 51 percent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and 100 percent in single brand, Dr. Manmohan Singh has tried to show that there is no drift in the government nor is there any policy paralysis. It was experienced by the corporate that the UPA-II was no longer serious about the economic reforms process in its second incarnation.

UPA-II Government's commitment to economic reforms seemed to be wavering and message spread out loud and clear that there was serious drift in the government as its economic reforms spree so far yielded no desired results. And the gap between the poor and the rich widened. The Government had not been able to rein in rising prices of essential commodities and growing corruption. The middle class became disillusioned with the government because of its slow economic reforms process, failure to check price rise and corruption.

To change the prevailing disenchantment of the people with the government, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh mustered courage and gave Cabinet approval of 51% FDI multi-brand retail and 100% in single brand despite some opposition from its own alliance partners like TMC and DMK.

There is no doubt that there will be investment in the country on large scale from the super market giants like Wall mart, Thesco, Carrefour and others with their entry in India to open multi-brand retail stores. But the Government must ensure that our domestic kirana (Retail) shops must not be destroyed with the opening of giant multinational multi-brand retailers, because after agriculture, domestic small retail shops provide the largest number of employment and contribute 7 to 8 percent to our GDP.

With the opening of foreign multi-brand retail stores in India, they would open Employment Avenue for crores of unemployed, provide domestic, food and other items with the freedom of pick and chose according to the choice of consumers. If the nation gets benefit, why they are to be opposed. Farmers will be benefited because they would get opportunity of talking directly with the officials of multi-brand foreign retail stores to determine the price of their produce. There would neither be any haggling nor any mediator and because of these two factors, the farmers would no longer be getting pittance of the price of their produce. Multi-brand retail shops of multinational super market giant can open in the city of more than 10 million of population.

Though in Europe and other western countries, there has been massive agitation against economic liberalization because of economic recession there for the last several years. They have not been able to overcome the economic slowdown. Despite that , they have not spurned economic reform process. China, Indonesia, Thailand and Brazil have already allowed FDI in retail sector and they have been benefited. Entry of FDI is giving good result by providing employment and satisfying consumers.