FAPCCI welcomes Government move on FDI in Retail

The FAPCCI welcomes Government move on FDI in Retail. One of the biggest problems being faced in India is the very poor infrastructure for moving the produce from the producer to the consumers. The farm to fork ratio in India is one of the highest and this needs to be reduced. The big push for organized retail including foreign participation will ensure that there is sufficient investment and a critical mass to provide the infrastructure and technological knowhow. Today the wastage in transportation of some perishable goods is as high as 50% with proper planning and infrastructure. This can be reduced to less than 10%.

The country will benefit from the learning’s all over the world to ensure the fastest absorption and the biggest momentum to benefit both the producers and consumers. Twice earlier bogies were raised once about computerization in 1970’s and 1980’s and opening up Indian economy in 1990’s. We find FDI in retail to be next in line.

We all know that computerization has not only increased employment but also generated one of the highest paying jobs in the country and today everybody in the world is afraid of being outsourced to India. Similarly with our economy opening in 1990’s there was a lot of hue and cry that all the business will be owned by foreigners.  On the other hand we find that over the last 15 years home grown Indian companies have gone abroad and brought huge multi nationals. Similarly once FDI in retail is implemented our entire country will absorb the technology and knowhow. This will improve our efficiency and reduce our transaction cost across the supply chain. This is a very important first step in the development of our own home grown retail chain. We are very sure that within a few years of policy being implemented we will find a lot of Indian retail chain opening large establishments all over the world including the developed world.