Backlash over FDI Indian retail is politicized just to attract vote banks

For those who might be too young to remember, the same arguments were posed when the likes of Food World/Big Bazaar/Spencers supermarkets were being established. The neighborhood kirana store owners were all destined to be wiped out according to doomsday predictions.

But 10-12 years later, whats the scenario? We have both the Multi Brand supermarket chains and the local store owners co-existing side by side. Roles might change, the kinda goods you would prefer to buy from the local corner side shop might change, but chances are you would not be running to a Walmart every time you need a packet of milk or a pack of biscuits.

Just because a Walmart or Costco opened in Bangalore, we are not going to suddenly start a diet of Oreos and Pancakes. The stuff that will actually sell would have to be sourced from India and importing that will not make business sense to them.

This entire argument against FDI in the retail sector is politicized to attract vote banks (Hilarious to note the CMs of a particular party welcoming the move, while party itself opposes it!!). In the long run India as a country, and we as both producers and consumers stand to benefit from this competition.

Parliamentary Standing Committee's report on FDI in Retail

The Hon’ble Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, in its 90th Report, on ‘Foreign and Domestic Investment in Retail Sector’, laid in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on 8 June, 2009, had made an in-depth study on the subject and identified a number of issues related to FDI in the retail sector.

These included:

It would lead to unfair competition and ultimately result in large-scale exit of domestic retailers, especially the small family managed outlets, leading to large scale displacement of persons employed in the retail sector. Further, as the manufacturing sector has not been growing fast enough, the persons displaced from the retail sector would not be absorbed there.

Another concern is that the Indian retail sector, particularly organized retail, is still under-developed and in a nascent stage and that, therefore, it is important that the domestic retail sector is allowed to grow and consolidate first, before opening this sector to foreign investors.

Antagonists of FDI in retail sector oppose the same on various grounds, like, that the entry of large global retailers such as Wal-Mart would kill local shops and millions of jobs, since the unorganized retail sector employs an enormous percentage of Indian population after the agriculture sector; secondly that the global retailers would conspire and exercise monopolistic power to raise prices and monopolistic (big buying) power to reduce the prices received by the suppliers; thirdly, it would lead to asymmetrical growth in cities, causing discontent and social tension elsewhere. Hence, both the consumers and the suppliers would lose, while the profit margins of such retail chains would go up.

Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Di MARKETING?

Tease it.. Hate it.. Rip it.. Do anything.. But it has fulfilled 'Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Di's purpose - MARKETING !!

The BIG People shell out quite a fortune for marketing a movie by making video games, pencil boxes, even writing pads.. what not..

And this guy 'Dhanush' does it with a simple, crappy, rough cut , behind-the-scenes video ???

Next will be merchandising.. some or the other apparel fellows will launch Kolaveri line of T shirts and shorts/tracks and accessories, need not mention the duplicate products also. Kolaveri gift line can also be thought of..

Then some ad campaigner will secure the rights and will launch with their advt with the Kolaveri word or tune.

Then comes special interview of Kolaveri Dhanush at prime time and the associated ad-rates for that program and the TRP Ratings.

Stage shows can also be expected.. Dhanush’s Kolaveri tour in America, Europe.. etc.. he can take an entire troupe with him .

Kolaveri clubs are definitely an option.. They can propagate themselves as harbingers of change who are in a hurry.

Analyst will be analyzing for atleast 6 months the impact of the song on Dhanus as an actor, the additional revenue generated by his new movies Mayakkam and 3, impact of social networking on movies ..

Some will chek if it was a FAD, FASHION or a TREND. And probably it will start a new trend that all makings of song recordings will be launched in youtube first. Then the official music launch function.

Then comes the political angle. (Sensitive area so not going there ) . Then the critics would comment on his voice, lack of music knowledge, use of English and corrupting tamil language…etc etc Critics are funny lot they can even comment that salt was not enough in the tea.

Entire print media would have ensured atleast 2 weeks job by writing articles starting from Dhanush story, his evolution, evolution of songs, connecting to rajnikanth and some may even try to bring is astrology and stars effect and predict future of Dhanush, his movies , his kids… there is no limit.

Finally it will become a case study in some top b school and Dhanush will lecture them on what he thinks made it successful and the role of socially connected world.

What a crappp? Bullshit!!!!!

Side Effects of continuous working…

I once left home to go to the market wearing my ID card
and did not realize till my friend asked me why I was
wearing it !!!!

Once I was flashing my ID card instead of unlocking the
house door with
keys.

Me and my friends went out for dinner in one of the best
restaurants. .
And as I finished.. I started walking towards the wash basin
with Plates in
my hand..

Once I was on call with my father and mom was not around.
I went on to ask, "Why is she not attending the status
call?"

I don't login to orkut, yahoo, gmail, youtube, etc..
at my personal internet connection at home...
thinking it will be blocked any way.
Till I realize - I am at home.

Yeah sometimes it does happens with me also.
keeping hands in front of tap waiting for
water to drop by itself is very frequent with me.
I just forget that we have to turn on and off the tap....

Once after talking to one of my friends
I ended the conversation saying,
" Ok bye...in case of any issues will call u back"

Sometimes when I mistakenly delete a message
from my mobile, I hope for a second, maybe it's in the
recycle bin

Once I went to a pharmacy n asked for a tab....
pharmacist asked whether I want 250mg or 500mg.....
I replied 256mb....thank god he didn't notice.

And I - after a hectic week, went to a movie. In the middle
of the movie,
when I wanted to check the time,
I kept repeatedly glancing at the bottom right corner of the
theatre

My openion on the controversial Ramanujan's Essay – ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translations’

The are two main reasons for the ban on Ramanujan's Essay – ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translations’.

One, because it details the several “tellings” of the Ramayana across and beyond the Indian subcontinent and questions the assumption that Valmiki’s Ramayana is the original or authentic one.

Two, the essay also speaks of versions of the Ramayana in which Ram and Sita are siblings and in certain others where Sita was Ravana’s daughter.

I can never call it Indian to put the terrorists’ definition of Jihad even in the name of an essay named as ‘Many meanings of Jihad: few examples and thoughts’ and start an agitation to put it into the curriculum of the ‘mature’ Kashmiri students! Although we know that we can find more than many uncomfortable meanings of ‘Jihad’ and ‘Kafir’ in different ‘tellings’ (Ramanujam has tried to distinguish between ‘tellings’ and ‘versions’ to put forward his view that nothing is original in Ramayana) those can be found in several avoidable contexts that we can never promote.

Don't ban it, but don't force innocent students to read it.

Here is an excelling article, by a professor from the very own Delhi university, trashing the propaganda of pseudos who oppose the ban of this un-Indian essay in DU. Its a must read: http://www.governancenow.com/views/columns/why-ramanujans-essay-un-indian

Obama's socialism

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied littl! e had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Could! not be any simpler than that.
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Why this kolaveri kolavari di TORTURE?

After seeing hundreds of FB updates and even a report in the front page of a TOI paper, I finally managed to watch this Kolaveri song. I’m sorely disappointed. After all that hype maybe I was expecting a catchy tune, some good choreography or something good.

Unfortunately I felt it was a very mediocre song, so i was wondering what the hype was all about.

It seems that it all started by the makers posting some paid news in NDTV and TOI news paper. This created some hype and then everybody checked to find what it was all about…. That took the number of hits up.

Then they started spreading the news that this song has so far got lakhs of hits and daily it is increasing in lakhs.

This created curiosity among people to find what that song is all about and why it has got so many hits and so other people also visiting that page… again it in turn increased the hits. And then again based on the hits they over hyped it and published continuous paid news in the so called news channels and papers.

Frankly speaking…. it is just an over hyped dumb song. Like telling a lie 10 times will not make a lie a true, similarly over hyping a dumb song based on hit count will not make it a master peace.

There are definitely much better songs, but one wonders why the hype over this particular mediocre dumb song? Is it all created just because it’s produced by Rajni’s daughter and has his son-in-law?

Panjaa title song lyrics

neeeeeeeeeeeee

chura chura choopule panjaaa

sala sala sala oopire panjaaa

nara naramuna nethure panjaaa

anuvanuvuna sathhuve panjaaa

aduperugani vegame panjaaa

adharani penu dhairyame panjaaa

pedavanchuna mouname panjaaa

phadunagu aalochane panjaaa

Debt business

It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea... It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a
100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to choose one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower.

The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.

The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her "services" on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States is doing business today.

About CBI Joint Director VV Lakshminarayana

As a young IPS officer working in Maharashtra, VV Lakshminarayana used to be so guarded about his movements that he would often leave behind his official car and take a bus. The purpose: be invisible to the enemy and retain the surprise element.

The CBI joint director, who is now investigating the Jagan wealth case, believes in the credo 'don't let the left hand know what the right is up to.' He is thorough when it comes to legal documentation for his cases. Those who know Lakshminarayana say he is a low-key man who just happens to be at the helm of high profile probes.

Born and brought up in Srisailam in Kurnool district, Lakshminarayana is the son of a retired government engineer. After his schooling, he moved to Regional Engineering College in Warangal to complete his BE in mechanical engineering. He opted for IPS and was allotted the Maharashtra cadre.

He is remembered for his stint as SP of Nanded. He then worked in the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad. Keen to work for the CBI, he opted to be deputed to the agency.

He was posted as DIG in Hyderabad on June 12, 2006. 'He is a low-key man who is pleasant and friendly. But when it comes to his work, he reveals no information except to his bosses in Delhi,'' said an a fellow officer who knows Lakshminarayana.

Sources say that though Lakshminarayana was posted to head the local CBI unit for a period of five years, his bosses in Delhi extended his tenure by another two years. He received his Indian Police Medal in 2006.

"He feels strongly about corruption. His plus point is his handling of legal issues, especially documentation (since in all the cases he has investigated, the documents seized ran into thousands of pages). He does not get bogged down by work pressure.''

Lakshminarayana is very attached to his school and college. In fact, a day after the High Court directed the CBI to probe the Jagan and Emaar cases, the 1990 batch IPS officer was away in Warangal to attend a reunion of his batch at REC.