[0:30]Before we start this debate, uh there's been there've been lots of points of view on whether to allow 100% FDI in multi-brand and uh whether it should it would help the economy or not. See, we are I think 25 of us, and we've got our 30 minutes, 30, 35 minutes. So please restrict yourself to at least max five sentences at each time you speak, and also allow maintain discipline by allowing your fellow, you know, colleague to speak. And that's it. You must have had lot of group discussions in your college, so you know it better than us.And so we open the house, you can begin. I am against this particular FDI and retail. I believe because the first reason is, it is going to displace a lot of retail mom and pop stores, which which an argument against this is given that it will it will create jobs. But the kind of nature of the job that it will create will be mostly blue collars and entry-level jobs, while the people that they will displace would be uh self-owned entrepreneurs who would be themself owning a store, and probably there's a great a great amount of entrepreneurship that can arise in the future, which is not possible in the nature of job, that is the blue collar job that these particular companies will provide. The government is also added a clause that at least 30% of the goods they have to be sourced from the small and medium enterprises, so they won't be at that big loss. First of all, they have restricted the opening of multi-brand stores to a city where the population is greater than 10 million. First thing is that and second thing is that mom and pop store, okay, it will be affected to an extent but uh you can't have a multi-brand store in each nook and corner of the city.
[2:24]Probably the level of local procurement has to increase. If the level of local procurement increases, what will happen is the people who are actually supplying to the local mom and pop stores will not actually supply to mom and pop stores but actually supply to the big FDI retailers. And how it will help the customers, consumers, like people like you and me, why? because we would be getting the same same goods and services at a at a pretty lower cost.
[2:52]the short retailers will go out of the market. they will create unemployment as well because for India, the distribution channel is very large and we have lot of intermediaries in our short retailers. So first of all, it will create an unemployment because uh the skilled laborers will get job if multi-rating branding will come, because of course they will hire only those people who have knowledge of something, so they want that. But what about those people who are into the intermediary section and those who are not skilled, so for them it's not good. And the chaos which it is coming into that whether we should give or not should is just because of this thing, because those who, it's all of us political parties are fighting because of the vote banks. People who are into this intermediary section and in short-term retail branding, they don't want this FDI to come in, and second of all, the second thing is, those people, they are not paying taxes properly, and those who will come in India, like foreign direct, it will generate revenues, they will pay taxes, so in short-term, yeah, of course, it's a decorative thing that taxes will come, revenues will come, but for long-term, it will go out. No, like China actually produces a lot of high-quality goods, but they're all aimed at the US market or the advanced markets. Why are we actually being the market where they're dumping all their substandard goods? That is probably because we are a price sensitive audience. Let's become more than just being price sensitive, let's become a quality sensitive audience, so bringing retail 100% retail, uh, 100% FDI in retail will do exactly that. It will benefit a lot of investors, obviously foreign investors, if they have knowledge of the of our local market, it will help them, and the Indian companies will learn how to make better quality products so as to stay in competition, so the consumer will benefit from the competition and by having options in and not just amongst sub sub-quality substandard products, we'll have quality products, international level products, and finally India will be able to compete on an international level with not just the growing GDP, not just the growing countries with the top-level countries, the leaders that we call the marketing. And the main problem with FDI retail could be the implementation. Why? because if implementation is not done properly, the local mom and pop stores, India is known as the country of mom and pop stores. So if the local mom and pop stores get wiped out, we need to employ those people. Now this could happen as a part of the CSR activities that these multi-brand details could eventually take, like if I am displacing 10 people, I will make sure that those 10 people either work as my channel distributors, they help me in procurement or they help the customers buy those stuff. Because those people will know the customer preferences, like a vernacular person, a person who is who is a localite. I'll know, yes, that this at this point in time, this point in time this this, like say, a particular good is useful, so that insight will help the multi-brand detail to store goods according to their needs. Uh taking forward the discussion about the pros and cons of cons of any scenario, I believe that we decide the side which is which has the every scenario has pros and cons, but we decide the side which has the longer list. So while coming about the cons, obviously if the if the FDI would be made 100%, the the stakeholders which which earlier was around 49%, they will not be there. So if the company benefits, the benefit would be going to the foreign market not to the industries that actually belong to our country. But again, if we talk about the pros, uh let's take an example when Vodafone was accused of tax evasion. Uh due to the law was passed that was GAAR, the General Anti-Avoidance Rule. And because of that, we almost lost the around 8 billion dollars of investment in India because people are afraid to invest in India, and also the ownership was 49% at that time, and they did not like the idea of being not the owner of the not the majority owner of the firm. So that's why it was changed to 51% later on, and the discussion has been made that should it be made 100% or not. So I think the pros list is longer, and we should go with the. As of now, Indian retail sector is mainly made up of the small kirana shops and the small process shops which are spread millions of them spread all over the country, as well some of the super markets. Now the benefit of having 100% FDI in the in the multi-retail sector will be that they will have the benefit of economy of scale. They will be able to get better outsource the product from the cheap sources, as well as they can ensure the quality of the products. They have better inventory management, they have efficient supply chain management, so the benefit of the 100% FDI in the multi-retail will be to the consumers as they will be able to get better quality products at cheap price. Good afternoon, everyone. I think 100% FDI investment into multi-brand retail is not a good idea. Firstly, it will uh on the very spot on the very spot it will adversely affect the local Indian players. They'll not be able to compete with the foreign brands in terms of both price, quality, etc. At the same time, it will grow on Indian infrastructure, and at the same time it will hamper the uh resources, Indian resources. We are looking uh from the point of view that it will generate employment, etc. But if FDI is coming in in the country, it is it's main purpose is to earn profit for itself. India has always been a dumping ground for the substandard goods. I believe there's a clause in this particular act that has been that has been given by the government, that 25% of the sourcing of the goods would be from India, that is from small and medium enterprises, and there's no limit on the 75% that Walmart is free to source it from the outside. So you'll get spices from Mexico, you'll get uh a whole lot of goods from China that may be of substandard quality, that government does not have a control on. Second of all, the skill development that shall be uh taken as a CSR measure, you the government cannot uh put riders on the business to to do the business to do a business in certain way. There is already an act which says 2% of the profit shall go to the CSR activities, and to again burden the company with a particular clause, shall hamper the very uh entry of these particular multi-brand retail in India.
[9:34]Third is the uh people are saying that it will be a consumer, the tax, the people are saying that the uh that the uh mom and pop stores do not pay taxes. Well, I believe and to bring these retail stores would bring in the taxes, well I believe that administrative laps cannot be replaced by an economic decision, wherein you have to uh fix your own administrative uh and tax collection process, rather than replacing one devil with another devil that is going to create whole lot of problems not only to the consumers but also to the farmers if it monopolizes through its predatory prices. Multi-brand retails are can be accounted for in the taxation procedure and it can be accounted in a proper way, unlike a kirana store which has no proper billing system. This every retail brand store has a billing system, proper billing system in place, and another is that uh in our Indian economy, there is a possibility that we we we lack infrastructure facilities. So there will be a development of storage facilities which is the most needed thing uh right now, and the another benefit will be to the farmers because they will get the right price for the product, and the elimination of middleman will be there. It is for the short-run, but in the long-run, the multi-brand retail will have an upper hand, there is a possibility that they will have a monopoly on that too, but it is in the short-run it is a good for the farmers and for the custom consumers also, because they have extra spending money and they have they get all the prices will be reduced. But then there's 40 40% of our population is still below the poverty line. So they don't they are not concerned about quality as of now. As of now, as of the government, our work should be providing goods to everybody, basic necessities to everybody, so quality comes second to that. First make the goods available. For me, multi-brand stores would be more of a regional concept when it comes to India, it won't be a nation-wide concept. Moreover, uh employment of unskilled uh workers would not be possible with it. Yes, infrastructure is there, but then there are a lot of there are a lot of things that India needs to focus apart from this. For me, FDI would benefit if at all it considers production of the government emphasizes on producing a part of it in India. Then it would probably be helpful, rest as of now, I don't think it's a good idea, thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. In my opinion, 100% FDI investment in multi-brand retail is a good idea. Firstly, because this is the age of globalization and FDI is a powerful tool for economic growth. We've all we can all look at China, what achievements it has, it has reached because of being a such an attractive investment destination. And secondly, uh 100% FDI investment would obviously lead to more employment as pointed out by so many people. And it will also lead so many companies can increase their skills, it can provide trainings to the, of course, it will not lead to immediate um increase in the skills and obviously, as pointed out by you, the blue collar workers population would increase, but in the long-run, it would certainly help them to progress.
[12:46]And it will also lead to increase in the productivity because of improvement in technology and improved methods of warehousing, less wastage and less wastage in subsidies and everything. Uh so and for a population the amount of population that is in India, collective benefit is much more beneficial than a single person's benefit. So I think 100% FDI is a good idea. I would like to analyze the pros and cons of it. So besides the points already mentioned, I believe FDI with itself brings out systematic methodologies of working. Along with that, when a foreign investment comes in our country, it will greatly increase the value of our own currency. So definitely the value of the Indian rupee will rise and it will be a benefit for the economy. I'm also in the favor of 100% FDI in retail. We've all talked about a lot of facts and figures, and obviously there have been like hundreds of intellectual minds who have actually started the concept of FDI in retail. So I would like to contradict all those people who've actually spoken against it. First of all, yes, the unorganized sector compromises a large part of the nation, so tax evasion is definitely there. Indian economy suffers maximum because of the tax evasion which happens in the unorganized sector, right? Other than that, we're just looking at the short-term perspectives that the people who have kirana stores, they'll be losing their jobs. But then when you ask a child who has whose father is into kirana business or something, he'll say, when I grow up, I'll join the business. Our youth is the biggest asset of a nation, and we have generations of kids who have already planned that, yes, we'll be joining the kirana business. No skill development is there, and there's a huge skill loss which happens there. Other than that, people who said that India is a developing nation, of course, when FDI in retail comes in, then a lot of rural and agricultural people, they will get a better opportunity to come in the urban side, right? Right now the middleman and hawkers, they're eating upon the profits of the farmers. So it'll actually be a benefit for them, and it won't be like a giant eating their opportunities or anything else.
[15:15]Apart from that, uh FDI in retail will bring in a lot of advanced technologies, which will actually let me take the example of food. So we'll have pre-cool chambers, refrigerated vehicles, and it'll actually prevent the loss of and wastage of food which happens. So it will again help for the economy. So I think FDI in retail should definitely be taken up. uh Walmart in the US really wipes up it's a huge success story and then it moved to uh Mexico. And it was a success over there as well. Then it moved to Germany, and uh the what what what actually happened was that uh the German government uh it it uh it knew that uh when uh Walmart is actually going to wipe out the local vendors or the local competition that uh uh that is there in the German market, so uh there were some uh some rules and regulations that were put put into place that uh there would be a certain population only into those places Walmart would be there. Uh we need to realize that uh it's it's not the infrastructure or not the transportation. I I absolutely agree with it that India being a developing economy and we are looking at factors uh where more employment opportunities will be provided. But one thing that we need to realize is uh that uh the local the local if you give a 100% uh FDI, it means you are giving a monopoly, and uh the huge retailer, the big retailer is uh going to maximize his profits uh by by pushing uh the the local vendors. So I I'm against uh 100% FDI investment. So when we're talking about technology, it does bring a lot of know-how, a lot of improvements in the storage capacities, a lot of uh development, infrastructure know-how. But the concern is the ownership of such technology, the ownership of such know-hows would definitely be in the hands of those MNCs and not in the hands of Indian companies. So their uh technology restricts to those companies which come as MNCs and not Indian companies. So there is no proof that it's going to benefit the Indian economy.
[17:10]So for everybody who is talking for the motion, who is in favor of 100% FDI in retail, uh a lot of people said that you know it is going to eliminate a lot of middlemen, but somehow whenever we talk about the vices of our society, How many of you all are actually for 100% FDI and retail, put your hands up.
