Retail Revolution - Arguments and Counter-Arguments

That India is now under going a retail revolution is a known fact. Whenever Reliance Retail, Airtel/Walmart and other smaller retail outfits face opposition to their rollout, they rubbish their opposition claiming the success of Walmart and other retailers. Opposing them means being "UNINDIAN" similar to how Open Source is "UNAMERICAN".

Take a look at this article : Walmart Gives Up: No Stores For New York City

Retail Poster Boy Walmart itself is stopped from entering New York and other major cities by the Unions in New York. If Walmart could be stopped in US, can they stopped similarly in India?

In Chennai, already small vendors/retails have started protesting the entry of Reliance into the retail business. It would be quickly spreading to other cities as well. Can these minnows stop the retail juggernaut like what the Nandigram folks did to land acquisition?

However, at this moment, I think odds are in favour of Retail Giants as the consumer public are all crazy over the supermalls.

Bill that stops government to acquire land for private companies

As a consequence of Nandigram, A Bill is currently tabled in the Indian Parliment to stop state governments acquiring land for private companies.

Private Organizations might have to cough up more money to acquire land for their projects in India. As the Indian Real Estate prices are on the rise, Companies might find that their projects might not be viable anymore because it would be a nightmare for anyone to acquire large pieces of land stretching 1000s of acres.

This Bill would surely affect the overall economic growth of India in an indirect way.

Houses cheaper than cars in Detroit

Here is a newstory from Yahoo.. Houses cheaper than cars in Detroit

As US Car manufacturers are struggling, Detroit - the automotive hub of US is vanguishing. This is in stark contrast to the booming real estate scenario in Chennai, which is fast becoming the automotive hub of India.

Just to Compare - even a 5 cents of vacant land in Vandaloor (about 10 laks), a place about 20kms aways from Chennai, is more than twice costlier than a 4 bed room house in Detroit..

Will Nandigram incident setback Indian industrialization plans

Under the threat of withdrawal from the Left Front government by the RPI, CPI and the Forward Bloc, the Left Front government in West Bengal announced that no land would be acquired for industrialisation in Nandigram.

The decision was taken at the Left Front meeting in Kolkata. The West Bengal government had announced that all special economic zones (SEZ) in the state were being put on hold until a "socially balanced" decision was taken.

As demanded by its allies, the government has also ordered withdrawal of the police force in phases from the area, which has been witnessing relentless agitation by protestors against land acquisition.

In a related development, The Jharkhand government has put a brake on acquisition of land for industrial use in the aftermath of the killings at Nandigram in West Bengal due to protest against land acquisition for a similar purpose.


The state government has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with more than 54 companies to set up steel plants, power plants and other industries.

In Tamilnadu, the PMK leader Ramadoss has declared that his party would oppose the SEZ plans for Tamilnadu.


However, unfazed by Nandigram violence Industry Minister Kamal Nath today said the UPA Government remains committed to the Special Economic Zones.

So, We can expect a great drama to unfold in the near future and witness new scenes that are awaiting going to be happen.

Nandigram Tragedy

West Bengal is becoming the battlefield where all the players of the globalization saga are stagging war against each other. Nandigram Tragedy is yet another episode in this ongoing saga. It seems the government is hellbent on acquiring land without giving proper compensation.

11 People have been shot dead in violent clashes with police forces. This tragic event might not deter the Government from pressing forward. Is "Grapes of Wrath" like scenario the next episode in this yet another greek tragedy?

Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect has once again take place in the global stock markets.

World stocks tumble on US fears - This is the second fall in as many weeks.

In India, The markets continue to trade weak in noon deals with the benchmark index trading 12,568 levels with a loss of over three per cent or 414 points.

Even though experts believe that long-term growth story is intact, they suggest that investors are interested in company specific investment ideas rather that buying the macro economic story.


The impact of these events on Indian Growth Story is anybody's guess.