Foreign Direct Investment FDI in retail: Is FDI beneficial for India and Indian People..?

© Harish Jharia 

What is Foreign Direct Investment, FDI..? 

As far as I have understood, FDI is direct investment of money by a foreign company, in the production sector or in retail business in any host country.  This investment of capital would be either by buying a company in the proposed country or by expanding operations of any existing foreign business in that country. Foreign direct investment is made with many facilities to the investor like advantage of cheaper wages, tax exemptions offered by the host country as an incentive to gain tariff-free access to the markets. 

Foreign direct investment should not be confused with ‘portfolio investment’ which is a passive investment in the shares / securities of another country such as stocks and bonds; basically meant for earning forfeits without opening offices, factories, shopping complexes and generating employment for the local masses in the host country.

Miserable condition in India without FDI: 

India is one of the poorest countries in the world. India is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. India has few of the richest individuals in the world and at the same time India has millions of the poorest individuals in the world most of whom do not have clothes to cover their bodies, do not have shelters on their heads and who die out of  starvation. There are reports in the media that poor starving villagers in Bundelkhand and Orissa had resorted to eat grass-seed flour and roasted rodents for filling up their bellies. 

Millions of tons of precious food grains are rotting directly under the sky and rains in the open-air warehouses of Food corporation of India. There are almost no warehouses provided for the harvested grains in the agricultural villages in India. Such absence of agricultural infrastructure, results in rotting of the food grains, due to untimely rains, either in un-harvested condition in the fields or in stored state in the open fields. Millions of tons of food grains are perished just because of absence of basic infrastructure in the rural India. 

In the high altitude Himalayan stats like Jammu Kashmir , Himachal Pradesh etc thousands of tons of apple and other fruits are thrown away in the valleys in absence of fruit processing industries and proper cold storage warehouses in those areas. Similarly vegetables like tomato, onion and potato are spoiled in absence of proper storage infrastructure in different parts of India. 

The funds and resources approved by the central government if India and various state governments do not reach the rural poor citizens of India and the backward interior areas. As a result of the same it has been proved that the current government machinery functioning in India has failed to prove its worth by benefiting the farmers, producers and consumers of India. Therefore, it the high time to try foreign investment and financial management of the funds invested in this sector by dependable and honest organizations and individuals. 

How FDI is beneficial for India..?

Indian Parliament discussed about acceptance of Foreign Direct Investment FDI on 5 December 2012, followed by voting for and against its acceptance by the government of India.  In spite of the fact that the majority of the members of parliament, MPs, were against the concept of FDI, nevertheless, the result was just other way round. The proposal of FDI was accepted after voting by the MPs. 

The proposal for acceptance of FDI was accepted in the Lok Sabha, with 254 votes for FDI and 224 votes against it. The entire drama played in the lower house of Indian Parliament was more a political exercise and a number-game rather than a landmark trade & economic resolution passed in the largest democracy in the world.  

In spite of the above, let us enumerate the benefits of FDI for India in the following points:

1. Common people of India will be benefited the most because the prices will come down to the minimal and there will be ample supply of essential commodities in the market. 
2. With the introduction FDI the prices of essential commodities will be reduced to the minimal; because, the commissions charged by at least 3-4 stages between the producer and the retailer will be completely eliminated.
3. Similarly, the bribery by government servants and political authorities will be checked.
4. The farmers and producers of the products will get better and adequate price for their items sold to the merchant agency. 
5. The poverty will be checked in the rural India because the farm laborers and skilled workers will get employment and have job security.
6. The villagers will not die of starvation and will not commit suicide because of poverty and indebtedness. 
7. Agricultural infrastructure like cold storage, warehouses, protected go-downs etc will be provided and loss of products would be checked and eliminated thereby the resultant yield of the country will be enhanced. 
8. Food processing industries will be built with the help of foreign investment and the wastage of fruits and vegetables would be checked effectively. 

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Beggar shares alms with poor girls in Gujarat , India:

            Khimji Bhai Prajapati

Written on 27 June 2010

© Harish Jharia

A beggar Khimjibhai Prajapati, 64 in Mehsana begs outside the Simandhar Swami Jain Temple. He earns livelihood for himself that consists of two square meals a day and some money that he sends for his ailing wife in Rajkot. 

Earlier, Khimjibhai used to run temporary tea stalls on pavements in Rajkot but he had to shut down the same due to price rise and resultant losses and eventually resorted to begging for his survival in Mehsana. 

He has a passion for helping starving poor with food bought out of the alms he collects while begging. He recently donated clothes to some orphan girls of a school (Shrimati Kesarbai Kilachand School for the Deaf) and caught attention of the trusty of that institution. 

The media also rushed to the poor beggar and published this story in The Times of India, dated 27 June 2010.

This is a great act of charity done by someone who himself goes around for asking alms from others. On the other hand we are worried for money, all the time, even if we have treasures in our pockets. Let us learn lessons form Khimjibhai Prajapati and I am sure that most of our stresses will vanish. 

My salutes to you...  Khimji Bhai Prajapati...

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India among the poorest in the world: Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) finds 8 Indian states poorer than the poorest in the world:

Written on 12 July 2010

© Harish Jharia                               

I recently traveled Narsinghpur, Jabalpur and Mandla districts of the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. I happened to see the people in the interior villages, living down-to-earth simple lives unaware of the fact that their standard of living is in fact termed as ‘stark poverty’ in global context. 

Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative have developed a new theory, called “Multidimensional Poverty Index” (MPI). They in association with UNDP have conducted extensive studies based on MPI, on poverty prevailing in the underdeveloped and developing countries across the world. 

The study has revealed that the people of 8 Indian states (421 million) are poorer than the poorest believed to be living in the 26 poorest African nations (410 million). If the above report is considered true, the following Indian states are the domains of the poorest in the world:

1. Bihar

2. Chhattisgarh

3. Jharkhand

4. Madhya Pradesh

5. Orissa

6. Rajasthan

7. Uttar Pradesh

8. West Bengal

Here is the time when we should stop living in a self created dreamland and boast of being a developing nation expected to be a global power. We should rather concentrate our attention on eradication of poverty from India. 

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Indian Government Borrowing Rs 40000 Crore from the Market:

India today cartoon “India Zero Tolerance for Corruption”

Indian Government Borrowing Rs 40000 Crore from the Market: 

- Harish Jharia 

Indian government pronounced on Friday that it will borrow Rs 40,000 crore extra from the market, a move impelled by sluggish tax revenues and rising spending obligations. This is the second additional borrowing announced by the government for the current financial year as public finances have been under pressure.

For common men a simple question arises in their mind that what in fact the government is really doing with the financial management of this country. We think that it is a shameful situation for such a big country that it has to borrow loans from the business houses for its survival. 

It is even more shameful for the government who has Indian blocked black money worth Rs 79500 Lakh Crore dumped in Swiss Banks + Rs 176000 Crore eaten away by corrupt politicians in 2G scam + 8000 Crore gulped by Commonwealth Games Officials. 

We are borrowing 40 thousand Crore only… Just see the following amount of Indian money that has either been dumped in Switzerland or eaten away by corrupt Indian bigwig(s) right under the nose of the Law Makers and Law Enforcement Authorities…

The details goes as follows:

Black Money Of Indian Bigwigs  In Swiss Banks:  

$ 1500 billion
= $ 1500 lakh crore 
= Rs 79500 lakh crore 
=  Rs 79500000000000000 (quite difficult to count or write)

Money Embezzled In 2g Scam By Indian Telecom Minister A Raja And Company: 

Rs 1.76 lakh crore
= Rs 1,76,000 crore
= Rs 1760000000000 (quite difficult to count or write)

Misappropriation Of Money In Commonwealth Games By Suresh Kalmadi And Company:

Rs 8000 crore 
= Rs 80000000000 (not so easy to count or write)

Note: I might have committed mistakes while writing the figures, calculating and putting zeros. If so would someone correct those errors... Thanks...

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Anticorruption Jan Lokpal Bill: Arvind Kejriwal the Proposed Member of the Joint Drafting Committee

© Harish Jharia                        

Here is a brief introduction of Arvind Kejriwal who has been nominated as a member of the joint drafting committee constituted by Government of India through a gazette notification. Arvind Kejriwal has been right there, all the time, with Anna Hazare during his fast unto death at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi and managed the proceedings in addition to assisting Anna Hazare in negotiations and interactions with the people and Government of India. He also assisted Anna Hazare, along with Kiran Bedi in conducting the historic press conference held at Press Trust of India on 9 April 2011 after the successful completion of the first step of the Lokpal Bill movement. 
  
Couple of Awards and Recognition:

1. Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership in 2006, for activating India's Right to Information movement at grassroots and social activities to empower the poorest citizens to fight corruption by holding the government answerable to the people.
2. CNN-IBN awarded him the title 'Indian of the Year' in Public Service for the year 2006.

Brief Biography:

Arvind Kejriwal was born in Hissar, Haryana in 1968. He graduated from IIT Kharagpur as a Mechanical engineer in 1989. Subsequently, he joined the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), and was posted at the Income-tax Commissioner's Office in Delhi. While working in his office, he realized that most of the corruption in civic life was prevalent in the government and that because of lack of transparency in the official process. Even being in his official position, he started crusading against the corrupt practices and brought about changes to increase transparency in the Income Tax office.

In January 2000, he took a long leave from his job and founded a Delhi based citizens’ movement ‘Parivartan‘ that worked on spreading awareness for ensuring just, transparent and accountable governance. Eventually, he resigned from his high profile job, in February 2006 and dedicated himself for his NGO 'Parivartan'. 

In association with the well known social activist Aruna Roy and few others, he campaigned for introduction of the Right to Information Act that eventually turned into a silent social movement. The Delhi Right to Information Act was passed in 2001. Subsequently, the Right to Information Act (RTI) was also passed by the Indian Parliament in 2005.

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Rampant Poverty in Indian Villages and Slums

© Harish Jharia

We live in cities, move on two-wheelers or four-wheelers, beat summers and winters by electric appliances and live a life of a modern human being. We might not lead luxurious lives; yet, we get food to eat, clothes to wear and a shelters for covering our heads. We are busy in earning our bread and struggle to survive.

Nevertheless, there are more unfortunate people, in rural India, who do not get even one time food to fill their bellies. They are undernourished because of prolonged starvation. They struggle around for getting a handful of food with eyes sunk in the eye-sockets and rib-cage bones projecting out of their sun-burnt dark skins. We on the other hand discuss for hours reaching out for the best possible sunscreen lotion on internet and find solutions for sun tanning.

It is not only in rural India; the people living in the slums in metros also live lives that are even more pathetic. I remember a couple of poor children picking grains of boiled rice from an open drain in Pune. Such scenes are common where there are open drains near restaurants and the housekeeping staff dump leftover food along with the garbage. 

That is the reason that I felt offended when I read reviews about the British film ‘Slum-dog Millionaire’. I observed with pain and helplessness the inhuman neglect of the slum kids after the release of the film, its box-office success and the award giving ceremony in Oscars.  I felt it so intensely because I have seen poverty so very closely whenever I made trips to villages close to my hometown Narsinghpur in MP and dedicated visits to slums and downtowns in different metros.

I had the same feeling when I saw poor people in the US also, I happened to visit Washington DC and New York while being on a long stay in Ashburn, Virginia County. When I went to visit a nearby area for spending an evening, I saw a poor man on a road crossing, holding a placard in his hands written with a request asking for alms. On another day, I happened to see a poor man squatting on the floor of a staircase in a metro-station when I was on a trip to New York.

When I went to Maryland for shopping of some Indian stuff, I felt as-if I was in an Indian town a place dominated by middle class crowd, mainly from asia. The American glamor and luxurious style of life was just missing in Maryland. There were very few cars around; most of the people were moving around on foot.

After seeing the people living in super-luxury and on the other hand, the most unfortunate poor people living in utter-poverty and struggling to survive in a starving hell, I have concluded that the various religions and casts and creeds followed across the world, are only eyewash... There are only two religions and they are ‘The Rich’ and ‘The Poor’.

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Disclaimer:
This article / Story / fiction is written based on my personal observations. My intention for publishing the same is to provide healthy reading and intellectual entertainment and not for educating the visitors. Names of people, societies, communities and description of faiths, beliefs, incidents are imaginary and fictitious. They have neither any relevance to the prevailing entities and traditions nor have any similarities with ongoing lifestyles, political ideologies and legal doctrines. The contents of this creative work has not been written with any intention to criticize, condemn or oppose anything what-so-ever present in reality in any country in the world. No literature or authentic books have been referred for writing the contents of this article. The visitors are advised not to refer the contents of this article for any research or testimony on scientific, geographical, political, civic, social or legal purposes. The visitors are further advised to consult relevant experts before adapting any information from this article. The author or the website are not responsible for any errors, mistakes, or omissions there in.
- Harish Jharia
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