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Disclosures & Setting the ground rules.


To start, let me make my position on Retail - FDI much clearer:


  • FDI in retail is a natural progression of the Liberalization initiated in 1992 and massive global integration subsequently.
  • FDI in retail is a very important legislation that will impact crores of people, and should not be committed in hurry to win some brownie points
  • To effectively create a level playing field with domestic under-financed players, a lot of work needs to be done to create an environment where FDI in Retail can flourish! Yes, I said flourish! (Nobody in the world seems to think that this can be a Win-Win. This is of course a good possibility however given the right environment and level-playing field.)
  • A lot of expectations being set in support of FDI in retail is purely bulls**t.  Either their proponents should come up with some different or stop this stupid broken-record chest thumping.
  • In many ways the horrors depicted due to MNC retailers are overplayed; however there are substantial chances that the social situations can spiral out of control. The point simply is, should India be taking such enormous risks for no reward but to appease few foreign lobbyists?


Having established my basic premise let me go ahead. The easy accessibility of quasi journalistic capabilities lead lot of people to talk about things they have no clue about. We cannot blame them it’s the human instinct to gossip and socialize. However, when the matters on hand involve the fate of billion people, the gossiping should stop and much more serious multi-faceted discussions should begin.


  • People who are talking on these subjects should know what they are talking about. If they do not know, they should at least have the courtesy of doing a bit of research and homework.
  • People should look at both the sides of the debate with equipoise. Blowing the lids will not lead us to any solutions. 
  • More and more people should discuss the matter in more and more numbers, but they are their own monitors for the substance of their talk.
  • When a matter of such mind boggling importance is discussed it is important not to lose sight of few things: 
    • The numbers that you state are human beings, you know, the ones like you and me. They are not statistical data points. They carry in them, all the glorious powers and defects that we all carry.
    • These matters are to be discussed with a long term perspective. Being short sighted for short term profits and points are an heinous crime.
    • Do consider the facts and options with from a scoail perspective. 
    • When you are playing around with a policy that will decide the life-course for millions of people, its very important to be human.

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