'normal' is the rest of the world. but people of america are like the inmates in the asylum who think they are the ones looking in

There is a whole lot of difference between the "American way" and "Indian way"., not comparable (and in the case of above, it is different - so critiquing it from Indian perspective will take us nowhere!)Singha wrote:.. the american 'model' of driving out 20 miles to the nearest megastore does not work anywhere else incl india. its not a model but unique to american's wide open roads, cheap petrol and the cultural willingness of its people (big houses with basements/attics to stash away stuff) to buy 48 pack toilet rollls, 50kg bags of puppy chow, 50 ltr DRUMS of tomato puree and industrial sized cuts of meat and bread.
Or cultural willingness (or human tendencies) will change for the right price. For eg., if the price of the rice goes up, people will switch to barley, of course all price distortions are due to local and government policies some with intended consequences and mostly with unintended consequences.Theo_Fidel wrote:If the price is right Indians will travel anywhere. I ran into a couple of folks from Vellore who share taxi rode from Vellore for a big bazaar deal weekend in Chennai.[\quote]
If the price is right, any human will travel anywhere to get "a deal"., like people going to Washington state to get a car and save on sales tax., or going to a mall some 60 miles away to order appliances. So will the Indians.
Americans don't like to buy in huge bulk. They do so to be cheap. Saves on packaging and branding. Americans would love to have a store on every street and did at one point. They gave it up as too inefficient and expensive. They try to keep the local gas stations going but they too are now shutting down. Cultural willingness comes over time.
dvance payment has been supported by experts like National Advisory Council member Harsh Mander who say that such a move will not only restore faith of the workers, but also increase the rate of completion of works.
Make up your mind - either organized retail will be successful or it will not. If it will not be successful as is being claimed, how will it possibly destroy anything?disha wrote:Because it will destroy both the producer and consumer side of the economy.
There will be a decline of 50% or more. That is the time to buy.Singha wrote:in my opinion the next six months are a good time to periodically buy indian stocks and MFs at cheap NAV. most of them have declined by 15% in last 1 yr.
Vera_k., before you throw the gauntlet - do make up your mind! Is FDI-in-retail synonymous with organized retail or epynomous? My case is simple, FDI-in-retail *will* destroy both the producer and consumer side of the suppy-consumer-chain.vera_k wrote:Make up your mind - either organized retail will be successful or it will not. If it will not be successful as is being claimed, how will it possibly destroy anything?
Nope. It won't. Not with the current Administered Pricing Regime. It will "self balance" , only if it is a pass thru like in petrol (where we are seeing demand destruction). But by subsidizing diesel so heavily, you are encouraging switching and guess what, increasing the absolute and relative size of the fuel subsidy by ever increasing amounts (the more people buy diesel vehicles, the more you have to subsidize), now and in future. It is such rank idiocy which (along with fiscal prolifigacy) that is at the root cause of run away inflation and skewed macro imbalances , leading us to stare at a 1989 like situation. In 1989, what pushed us over the precipice is Rajiv Gandhi losing the situation and that nut case VP Singh coming in and writing the 10,000 crore farm waiver, leading to close to 20% inflation and sure enough , when there was a shock in terms of Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait, the entire thing collapsed.Further, the currency situation is self-balancing - weaker rupee will lower the demand for oil, which accounts for almost our entire current account deficit
So now we have a medicine equivalent of the food security bill .
NEW DELHI: The government is considering rolling out a " free-medicine-to-all" scheme through public hospital and health facilities across the country in a bid to arrest poverty and indebtedness mainly in rural areas.
"The net increment (in subsidies) would be roughly not less than Rs 80,000 crore. It may be Rs 1,00,000 crore," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his reply to a debate on the second supplementary demand for grants, adding that the fundamentals of the economy were still sound. "The economy is in a difficult situation, but it does not mean that we should start eating lizards," he said.
Lok Sabha on Wednesday approved the Rs 56,800 crore additional expenditure proposed by the government during 2011-12 through a voice vote.
Experts had doubted the government numbers right from the day the budget was presented. Joshi said, "We are now revising our estimates as we expect the growth to be lower and outgo on subsidies to be higher."
The ministry's admission on the subsidy bill has raised market apprehensions that the government's annual borrowing will exceed even the revised target, which was raised by Rs 53,000 crore recently.
Yields on benchmark bonds rose to 8.61% on Wednesday from 8.56% a day earlier.
I would not worry about FDI in much of anything.:disha wrote:Vera_k., before you throw the gauntlet - do make up your mind! Is FDI-in-retail synonymous with organized retail or epynomous? My case is simple, FDI-in-retail *will* destroy both the producer and consumer side of the suppy-consumer-chain.vera_k wrote:Make up your mind - either organized retail will be successful or it will not. If it will not be successful as is being claimed, how will it possibly destroy anything?
Government first should remove artificial barriers, simple ones like if milk is more in Haryana and wheat is more in Punjab, export/import should be allowed. What is the point of forcing a remote district in Rajasthan to trade via Jaipur when the nearest trading outpost will be in Punjab?
FDI-in-retail is nothing but "saab andar (under) ki baat hai"., no need to get workedup on it.
Fine, so why don't those parties (NDA, some UPA, Sonia/Rahul Gandhi) opposed to FDI in retail ask that such measures be included in the FDI-in-retail enabling law? For that matter, they could ask for a subsidy or assistance for those traders impacted adversely by opening FDI in retail.disha wrote:Government first should remove artificial barriers, simple ones like if milk is more in Haryana and wheat is more in Punjab, export/import should be allowed. What is the point of forcing a remote district in Rajasthan to trade via Jaipur when the nearest trading outpost will be in Punjab?
It's not enough and as far as 'no company would dare..." , many are pretty vocal and US-India Business Council along with the Indian Amby get a daily earful. Keep watching the WSJ.....gakakkad wrote:^^ no company would dare quote such a thing. It is a TOIlet article . I am worried about fiscal profligacy and lack of policy . But IMHO this will not be a lost decade . The savings rates are high , and even though things need to get still quicker almost 1500-2000 mw of power gets added each month to the grid. (1 or 2 new power stations each month ) ..
It is a stalemate because the 'UPA Govt' is floundering in 10 different directions.sanjeevpunj wrote:It has been made ungovernable by so much unprecedented opposition.Delhi does need to divest its control over many areas, I agree.Opposition is using every opporunity to force early elections,and GOI is doing everything it can to avoid this.We have a stalemate, wonder when it will end.
True. However, as a reasonable person would also argue, as and when the NDA comes to power, it will face payback time and its tenure too will devolve into a stalemate.csaurabh wrote:It is a stalemate because the 'UPA Govt' is floundering in 10 different directions.sanjeevpunj wrote:It has been made ungovernable by so much unprecedented opposition.Delhi does need to divest its control over many areas, I agree.Opposition is using every opporunity to force early elections,and GOI is doing everything it can to avoid this.We have a stalemate, wonder when it will end.
Many of us think SG dictates everything but this isn't really true. MMS has his own plans. Chidu has his own plans. Pranab has his own plans. I doubt SG would have passed the FDI retail thing without atleast consulting alliance partners. Meanwhile inflation is soaring, corruption and scamming are at an all time high and NAC wants to impose more commie policies on the nation.
If RG had any brains or leadership quality at all he would come out and try to solve political and national crisis. Instead he makes mysterious trips to villages from time to time to meet with poor 'Daleet' villagers.
Opposing for opposition's sake. This is what will continue to happen.gakakkad wrote:
BJP itself introduced the move back in 02 . Congress opposed it .
...if he is allowed to. Nuke deal had support of 10 Janpath.Thing is tha MMS has taken the thing very personally . Its fortunately an H&D issue for him now . Just like the nuke deal . So he ll ensure it one way or the other .
This is one of the most profligate governments we have seen. The danger is that as the 2014 elections get closer, these shortsighted populist schemes will increase even more leading to an even larger fiscal deficit, higher inflation and lower growth.What we need to be concerned about is the mounting fiscal deficit , ever increasing subsidy bill (this year it increase BY 25-30 billion ) and the ever lunatic schemes of the NAC. These are the most disastrous things .