I Have a Dream
Hello AllAnyone with basic mathematical exposure knows that iterative method works best when you are unsure about the formula which can fetch you the perfect result. My previous blog "If I were the Advisor to the PMO" received good feedback. I thought; why not perform iteration on this write-up by incorporating the comments received. Whenever a great writer comes with a master piece, he/she is asked about the inspiration behind the subject. By any means I am not a writer, forget the feel-good adjectives. Still, I would like to quote the motivation behind this write-up. The motivator is an Afro-American revolutionary who integrated USA and made it United (Civil) States in true sense. I guess that’s the reason he's quoted at the Lincoln Memorial. It’s an honor for anyone to find space for their sayings at such eternal memorials. King’s final speech "I Have A Dream" was an important episode in the marathon war for civil rights. I guess it was the bloodiest and longest war America was ever engaged with in its own territory.Looking at America today, I was shocked to learn that King Luther was leading the Civil Rights Movement just 35 years back. 35 years is not at all a long time considering the deep penetration of concepts like, Master-Slave, Color Distinction, biased system... It is integration at the fastest pace. Yes, it won't be 100%, but for sure closing to 100 with every passing year. Black Americans have proved their ability in all spheres, may it be, Governance, Entertainment, Sports, Services and much more. King's dream has been realized.This gives me strong enough reason to believe in the power of dreams. One should dream, work to realize them but never put a condition to get them fulfilled. It they get through that’s great, it clicked, else Another Dream. Similar thought was expressed by Faridal Jalal in one of the biggest Bollywood hits, DDLJ while consoling her daughter the lead actress, in the movie.Knowing all the above fact and fiction, I too, Have A Dream; Dream for better India, Dream for prosperous India, Dream for united and socially free India, Dream for a Developed India. I think it’s perfectly ok, rather a good sign, when citizens dream for their country. But, as I said earlier, one has to make efforts to realize the dreams dreamt. I will put forth my thoughts with no condition but an expectation to see through them. The realization is possible when 'Whole of India' endorses the same dream.I know I am being very optimistic to make such a huge demand. ‘Whole of India’; this phrase has lot to say. To get together the 'Whole of India' and ask them to share a common dream for the nation is not less than a Herculean task. This is because of the huge diversity. The diversity is also supported by disparity in all major areas; Education, Income groups, sex discrimination, multi- religious and infinite castes within the same religion. The system is so complex to weave into a common thread and make the whole country share the same dream.One of my close friends commented on my previous blogs saying that the root cause of all the existing evils in India is Education and not Population as mentioned in my previous write. He says we are talking about the country where 70% of the population still resides in villages, where the man has to be a man and a woman to be a woman. We have two different set of rules governing these two sexes. I don't have the exact statistics, but I won't be surprised to know that around 80% (33.6 crores) of the men in the 70% (42 crores) of the rural male population treat women as a commodity. Considerable percentage of men in this quota consumes alcohol after the hard day’s work on the fields and abuses their wives, even beat them. In some cases this act is performed on daily basis. Female infanticide, Atrocities on newly wed teenage girls for dowry or at times just for the sake of proving authority are still common. Caste and Sub-Castes still exist. They play a major role in all major decisions that governs an average Indian through out his life. The biggest being wedding and next big is Elections. Inter-Caste marriages are still considered unsocial. Legislators and the Parliamentarians are decided on the caste they belong to. In very few cases they are elected depending on their credentials, qualification, ability, proven record or other ad ministerial skills.We have to take strong and effective steps to eradicate these social ills. We had a string of social reformers like; Phules, Roy, Bhave ... They preached for social equality and removal of superstitions. They succeeded in getting rid of few ill-practices, like Sati, untouchability to a good extent. It’s been more than 100 years now this social revolution is On in India. But the rate at which it is producing result is abysmally bad. We can't afford to reform our society with such a low pace. When Americans can get rid of their racial discrimination why can't we get curb our social evils which are definitely of less weightage than racial segregation. I think some people will argue that the racial struggle was much older than King Luther's period. I admit that but the kind of integration efforts Americans made both Blacks and Whites after 1969, in a span of around 37 years is commendable.Indian Govt has a big role to play here. It should take strong steps to eradicate these social evils right from the roots. Education is the only way to get this done. Govt has to take this mighty task to educate one and all. Once this is done, things will get easier for cleaning other ill-practices. The less or uninformed rural masses will get out of their blind faiths and beliefs. They will understand the importance of choosing the right person to represent them in the house. Worthless and inefficient politicians will have no room to polarize the rural masses on basis of caste or religion.In this age of Internet and Satellites, it becomes less difficult to administer the educated society. The huge human resource available can be converted to intellectual asset with education. India has a tremendous scope to be the biggest intellectual country. Educated population can be our biggest strength. The hardships, difficulties and the diversity has engrained in us some very important values like; Acceptance, Hardworking, Learning and Deciphering different languages, Bouncing back to normal after natural and hostile human acts, ambitions and aspirations… these great traits keep our country men energetic and enthusiastic about life.All these traits are of high importance and can be treated as assets of the huge human resource. So what else a developing country needs? The only problem I see here is our attitude to continue with what we are by resisting change and acceptance to grow with a pace which is far below than our potential. That’s under performance, isn't it? One of my seniors in the previous organization hated this phrase which we all use very commonly; "Itna toh Chalta hai yaar" (Its Ok). I couldn't realize his strong hatred until I happened to travel across the Atlantic and see that the absence of this phrase has made this country (USA) intolerable to any social mis-conduct. I don't want to get into the international policies it follows. That’s out of scope for the moment. My intent is to express the problems with over-acceptability and unlimited tolerance. That’s not good for any developing nation. We can't afford any mis-conduct; social, economical or political right from the smallest level. This can be achieved again by educating the masses who will realize that intolerance to mis-conduct of representatives, atrocities on woman, denying education to females... should not be accepted with Chalta Hai Funda.So, I think that Education is the most important priority of the Govt if it wants to change our status from Under-Developed to Developed. I very well know, its "Easier Said than Done". But then I also have to admit that there is no other way.The Developed nations today, forget about UK and other countries that were parenting colonies, at least USA, which under the colonial rule was as under developed as India when it got independence. Education and Industrial revolution have brought the transition in the US status. Even today it faces some social issues, but the huge cash reserves and the educated society will ensure it won’t get into any big problem.We all know educating our huge country will ask for healthy treasury. But not blessed with it is no excuse for not educating the country.We can mobilize the India Inc to fund the programs. Tax the richer and the richest more generously. Divert funds from ministries and depts which are dealing with unproductive areas like; building statues of past leaders...for the moment we will just name the Squares we need not spend amounts on getting the statues carved out of expensive materials. The leaders would be happy to see educated and developed India instead of standing their in the Square and watching illiterate children begging on the streets or working hard to earn a day's meal. Cut short the spending on elections. Official statistics say that a general election costs the Indian treasury a whooping 1200 crores. Hold on, this is just an official quote. My assembly constituency (Udgir in Latur dist of Maharashtra) witnessed an extravagant triangular fight with a cumulative estimate of more than 5 crores. This is a remote place in Maharashtra. We got in excess of 3500 assembly and 532 Parliamentary constituencies. The total amount has too many zeroes to quote. I am sure a planned, calculated and restricted election campaigning can save huge amounts. All these amounts clubbed together... Ohh Boy!! A big piece of cake for the hungry, greedy and corrupt politicians will be in the offering. It would be the same story again. Same scams and scandals... What can we do? Any ideas, please contribute. I don't find any, but we can surely try some options like; deploy strict regulation and prosecution methodology for anybody & anyone, big or small, feeble or powerful. Counseling the whole system to awake their conscience and developing a sense of ownership can also work to some extent. Else, there is nothing we can do but trust the system and let use this huge cash pooled in from different sources to design some great schemes to reform the education system and work towards 100% literacy.I don't know how good is the suggestion that I am going to quote now. I know it has a bigger impact and has potential to trigger a huge debate on the constitutional rights and the powers granted to different bodies and their heads. But then this constitution is 60 years old and can be amended. Anyways, the suggestion is... How about President of India heading the Education Mission and monitoring it personally. This should be the only executable item on the president’s desk. I think just being a rubber stamp and presiding the Oaths of Prime Ministers and other functions like Independence Day etc this would be a good opportunity for keeping the first citizen of the country busy and giving a purpose of existence to the President's office. I know the learned people will laugh at my ignorance or out of the box and strange thinking. Understand sirs, I am desperate to see you folks work for us. Sticking to the age-old practices and norms has not done anything great to the country till date. We are getting into the more trouble with growing number of uneducated population. We can’t let this great opportunity of being Intellectual centre go by. You need to act gentlemen.Do whatever you like, but work on getting the country men educated. Politicians, not all but many have milked our country and its vast resources mercilessly. It’s high time now; please do something which will ensure your name in the history books and your work being quoted at the Raj Ghat if not the Lincoln memorial.That’s the dream every Politician should dream of. With our current progress rate there is a good chance it will be realized in this life time if the Politicians work honestly to realize it.With a hope that this dream will be inculcated by all politicians, law-makers, public office bearers I continue dreaming better India.Sincere thanks for your time to reach this line.raj.scms@gmail.com..........................Gupta Rajesh Nauhatta Rohtas Bihar
Saturday, February 10, 2007
The Tale of Retail Industry
Tale of Indian Retail
Dear friendsI was all pumped with optimism and feel good-hormones rushing through my veins after watching a show (Bharti-Walmart, possible tie-up) by the NDTV profit’s team of Shivnath & co. From that very moment I was very enthusiastic to ink down my optimism and share the feel-good inducing hormones with you all. Its little ironical, when I started typing, the Power went off. It’s a power break-down across the whole city of Indore. Yep, the feel good hormones did take a hit when the mosquitoes started having a taste of them. Nevertheless I continue typing, thanks to the batteries in my machine.Friends, when I was watching this show, which raised strong speculations on the possible tie-up between Bharti, the fastest growing Indian corporate entity and Walmart, the giant in the global retail industry; the pictures of gigantic temperature controlled trucks (26-30 tyres), huge stores, ‘24X7-we are Open boards’… started flashing in my mind. No wonder, when you are partnering with firms with annual revenues exceeding $300bn (hence they can afford operating on the lowest margins in the world) anything can happen. You have every right to dream (for the moment, please restrict the dreams to the retail sector only) and expect that whatever is possible to the west of Atlantic waters can be replicated in the land of Dravidians & Aryans surrounded by the Indian waters.With the booming Indian Economy, the corporate tycoons are dreaming big and are not afraid to take risks. They all are talking big, bold & global. Acquisition of foreign firms has become a new style statement for India Inc. Some Indian companies, especially in the IT sector are growing faster than their western counter parts. With acquisitions within the country and abroad some companies are smoothly post-graduating from NC (National Company) to MNC. We are doing acquisitions not worth millions but billions and multi-billions. The Corus bid by Tatas is valued at 8.1bn USD, the biggest till date for any Indian entity. (It is still open, with counter bid from Brazilian major, CSN giving a hope that it may rise from here.)My limited knowledge says that this is the best period ever for a 15 to 45 year old any Indian (I assume, this age group has the best processing speed, guts to take risks, and more important it has abundant aspirations) the rest of the group also has good times, for it is a cascading effect.What interests me more about this retail talk is that this retail revolution won’t be limited to urban India. That’s very important considering the current state of Indian socio-economic set-up. Presently the Service industry boom has prominently yielded more good to the urban India aiding to the divide between two Indias, rural & urban. Rural India forms a major India. This is definitely a major concern for the govt and all reformists who are working on solutions that can bridge the two. This service industry boom which also triggered the construction and real-estate market made many people migrate to cities from villages and also towns. The infra-structure in cities (e.g Mumbai, Bangluru, Delhi…) is bearing as much as twice (in some cases thrice) its maximum load bearing capacity. This is really undesired and cause for so many problems and disputes across the country.I sense a thick ray of hope with the advent of the big corporate players and gigantic estimates of their retail plans bridging two Indias seems quite possible. Studies say that 97 % of the Indian retail market is un-organized. This gives a big rather big untapped retail market for the corporate players to play their games and encash on the huge opportunities available in this sector. With big ticket investments foreign investments pooling in, low operation cost - volume driven business models, and shortest route for the farm produce to reach the end-consumer; common man is going to be the main beneficiary. Moreover, the other aspect wherein govt, especially the exchequer has some reasons to smile for organization of retail sector will earn them good amounts in taxes which were never there in the present fragmented set-up. The retail industry will generate around 10 million jobs in few years time. More important, majority of these jobs can be grabbed by unskilled non-graduates, which the current IT and ITes can’t boast about.Reliance, Bharti, Birlas, Pantaloons… all have real big retailing plans. All of them will try their best to cut down the long middle men chain which currently exists between the producer (farmer) and end consumer. I myself have an experience (we got pomegranates in our field) where the middle men (brokers a.k.a dalals) earn as much we do in a given good season. The only difference is we toil in our fields for the whole harvesting year to earn the ‘X’ amount and the broker does it in couple of week’s time by procuring the farm produce at low rates and selling them (in some cases exporting) at a good margin. Thus removal of this chain of dalals will definitely help the farmer to get a better price for their farm produce. Don’t worry about the middle men, they will surely find a role in the whole logistics which will enable the farm goods to reach the shopping floors. Yep, their margins will be cut because there is a good chance that they will be on the pay-rolls of these retail majors with fixed salaries. On a whole I see it is a win-win for one and all; farmers to end-consumers.Other aspect which would be equally important is the huge reduction in the wastage of perishable food-stuff. In the current set-up, there are occasions wherein we see shortage of a commodity in Banglore (oops… Bangluru) but the same is sold at throw away price in Delhi. Both the above problems will be addressed by the organized retail. These firms are building their own fleet of air-cargo and chain of temperature controlled storage facilities at different airports. This will address the non-uniform supplies across the country and also control the big deviation in the pricing of commodities.I also see another very important benefit of the organized retail, it is hygiene. All the players will ensure that they are maintaining high class (definitely many-fold better than the current state) hygiene for all the perishable and non-perishable food items. This will improve awareness about hygiene and health among the common folks, which is presently limited to the big malls in cities only. In smaller towns (like Udgir) there is a big problem for municipalities to clean the mess and stinking dump in the mandis and markets. They also find it difficult to stop encroaching vendor thellas selling vegetables and fruits on main roads and other prime locations. With the super & hyper markets coming in I guess municipalities can breathe a sigh of relief for these problems will no more exist.Before I quit, for the students who are in their +2s or pursuing graduation in non-professional area it would be a good idea to join some course in retail management. I see tremendous opportunities for the young and bright folks who can play a role in the logistics of this big event in the country. Believe me, this organized and mega retailing is going to affect every single person in the country and there are good times ahead for the young & aspiring.
Rajesh Gupta
SCMS cochin.
Dear friendsI was all pumped with optimism and feel good-hormones rushing through my veins after watching a show (Bharti-Walmart, possible tie-up) by the NDTV profit’s team of Shivnath & co. From that very moment I was very enthusiastic to ink down my optimism and share the feel-good inducing hormones with you all. Its little ironical, when I started typing, the Power went off. It’s a power break-down across the whole city of Indore. Yep, the feel good hormones did take a hit when the mosquitoes started having a taste of them. Nevertheless I continue typing, thanks to the batteries in my machine.Friends, when I was watching this show, which raised strong speculations on the possible tie-up between Bharti, the fastest growing Indian corporate entity and Walmart, the giant in the global retail industry; the pictures of gigantic temperature controlled trucks (26-30 tyres), huge stores, ‘24X7-we are Open boards’… started flashing in my mind. No wonder, when you are partnering with firms with annual revenues exceeding $300bn (hence they can afford operating on the lowest margins in the world) anything can happen. You have every right to dream (for the moment, please restrict the dreams to the retail sector only) and expect that whatever is possible to the west of Atlantic waters can be replicated in the land of Dravidians & Aryans surrounded by the Indian waters.With the booming Indian Economy, the corporate tycoons are dreaming big and are not afraid to take risks. They all are talking big, bold & global. Acquisition of foreign firms has become a new style statement for India Inc. Some Indian companies, especially in the IT sector are growing faster than their western counter parts. With acquisitions within the country and abroad some companies are smoothly post-graduating from NC (National Company) to MNC. We are doing acquisitions not worth millions but billions and multi-billions. The Corus bid by Tatas is valued at 8.1bn USD, the biggest till date for any Indian entity. (It is still open, with counter bid from Brazilian major, CSN giving a hope that it may rise from here.)My limited knowledge says that this is the best period ever for a 15 to 45 year old any Indian (I assume, this age group has the best processing speed, guts to take risks, and more important it has abundant aspirations) the rest of the group also has good times, for it is a cascading effect.What interests me more about this retail talk is that this retail revolution won’t be limited to urban India. That’s very important considering the current state of Indian socio-economic set-up. Presently the Service industry boom has prominently yielded more good to the urban India aiding to the divide between two Indias, rural & urban. Rural India forms a major India. This is definitely a major concern for the govt and all reformists who are working on solutions that can bridge the two. This service industry boom which also triggered the construction and real-estate market made many people migrate to cities from villages and also towns. The infra-structure in cities (e.g Mumbai, Bangluru, Delhi…) is bearing as much as twice (in some cases thrice) its maximum load bearing capacity. This is really undesired and cause for so many problems and disputes across the country.I sense a thick ray of hope with the advent of the big corporate players and gigantic estimates of their retail plans bridging two Indias seems quite possible. Studies say that 97 % of the Indian retail market is un-organized. This gives a big rather big untapped retail market for the corporate players to play their games and encash on the huge opportunities available in this sector. With big ticket investments foreign investments pooling in, low operation cost - volume driven business models, and shortest route for the farm produce to reach the end-consumer; common man is going to be the main beneficiary. Moreover, the other aspect wherein govt, especially the exchequer has some reasons to smile for organization of retail sector will earn them good amounts in taxes which were never there in the present fragmented set-up. The retail industry will generate around 10 million jobs in few years time. More important, majority of these jobs can be grabbed by unskilled non-graduates, which the current IT and ITes can’t boast about.Reliance, Bharti, Birlas, Pantaloons… all have real big retailing plans. All of them will try their best to cut down the long middle men chain which currently exists between the producer (farmer) and end consumer. I myself have an experience (we got pomegranates in our field) where the middle men (brokers a.k.a dalals) earn as much we do in a given good season. The only difference is we toil in our fields for the whole harvesting year to earn the ‘X’ amount and the broker does it in couple of week’s time by procuring the farm produce at low rates and selling them (in some cases exporting) at a good margin. Thus removal of this chain of dalals will definitely help the farmer to get a better price for their farm produce. Don’t worry about the middle men, they will surely find a role in the whole logistics which will enable the farm goods to reach the shopping floors. Yep, their margins will be cut because there is a good chance that they will be on the pay-rolls of these retail majors with fixed salaries. On a whole I see it is a win-win for one and all; farmers to end-consumers.Other aspect which would be equally important is the huge reduction in the wastage of perishable food-stuff. In the current set-up, there are occasions wherein we see shortage of a commodity in Banglore (oops… Bangluru) but the same is sold at throw away price in Delhi. Both the above problems will be addressed by the organized retail. These firms are building their own fleet of air-cargo and chain of temperature controlled storage facilities at different airports. This will address the non-uniform supplies across the country and also control the big deviation in the pricing of commodities.I also see another very important benefit of the organized retail, it is hygiene. All the players will ensure that they are maintaining high class (definitely many-fold better than the current state) hygiene for all the perishable and non-perishable food items. This will improve awareness about hygiene and health among the common folks, which is presently limited to the big malls in cities only. In smaller towns (like Udgir) there is a big problem for municipalities to clean the mess and stinking dump in the mandis and markets. They also find it difficult to stop encroaching vendor thellas selling vegetables and fruits on main roads and other prime locations. With the super & hyper markets coming in I guess municipalities can breathe a sigh of relief for these problems will no more exist.Before I quit, for the students who are in their +2s or pursuing graduation in non-professional area it would be a good idea to join some course in retail management. I see tremendous opportunities for the young and bright folks who can play a role in the logistics of this big event in the country. Believe me, this organized and mega retailing is going to affect every single person in the country and there are good times ahead for the young & aspiring.
Rajesh Gupta
SCMS cochin.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)