DI IN RETAIL TO TAKE INDIAS CONSUMERISM TO A NEW GROWTH TRAJECTORY: Any process of change is a dialectic process.

Change is the only truth which prevails at the end if it brings well being to the masses. We believe sooner or later opposition to the FDI in retail will end and new era will begin. FDI IN RETAIL PRESENT STATUS: 51% FDI in multi brand Retail and 100% in single brand is put hold till the time consensus is reached between the political parties. There is stiff opposition being seen within the UPA allies in context of FDI in retail. Also opposition party is seeing this as an opportunity to get the political mileage. FINE POINTS OF PROPOSED FDI IN RETAIL: Govt allowed 51% FDI in multi brand retail and increased FDI limit in single brand retail from 49% to 100%. This is right now put on the back burner due to opposition from the political parties. Following are some of the points are the fine points of the FDI in retail. FDI is not likely under the automatic route implying that FIPB approval on case by case basis. Minimum Investment to be done is $100 million. 50% of the investment should be done in improving the back end infrastructure. 30% of all raw materials have to be procured from the small and medium enterprises. Permission to set retail stores only in cities with a minimum population of 10 lakhs. Govt has the first right to procure material from the farmers. OPPOSITION PARTY STANDS ON THE FDI IN RETAIL: Following are the concern regarding the FDI in Retail. Govt does not have any clear stands on the FDI in Retail. They have not done any survey and cost benefit analysis of this issue. As claimed by the Govt that it will create Jobs, opposition does not buy it. They claim million of retailers have to shut their shops. As claimed by Govt that it will bring down price, opposition thinks otherwise. GOVT STAND ON FDI IN RETAIL: Following are the facts that Govt is giving to support FDI in Retail. FDI in retail will create 80 lakhs jobs. It will bring growth and prosperity. Prices of products will come down. This will tame inflationary pressure in the economy. GLOBAL RETAILING SCENARIO: Retail has played a major role in improving the productivity of the whole economy at large. The positive impact of organized retailing could be seen in USA, UK, and Mexico and also in China. Retail is the second largest industry in US. It is also one of the largest employment generators. It is also important to understand that Argentina, China, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore and Thailand have allowed 100% FDI in multi brand retail. These countries

benefited immensely from it. Also small retailers co-exist. The quality of the services has increased. China permitted FDI in retail in 1992 and has seen huge investment flowing into the sector. It has not affected the small or domestic retail chains on the contrary small retailers have increased since 2004 from 1.9 million to over 2.5 million. Take for example Indonesia where still 90% of the business still remains in the hand of small traders. HOW FARMERS TO GET BENEFITED: Farmers in India get only 10%-12% of the price the consumer pays for the agri-products. Coming of organized retailing will benefit farmers in big way. Big retailers sell their product at very competitive prices. So, they source it directly from the farmers. Middle man does not have any place in this format of retailing. This will not only benefit farmers but also help in checking the food inflation. Also India has very inadequate facilities to store the food grains and vegetables. As the investment will flow into back end infrastructure, supply chain will get strengthened. Storage is a major problem area and 20%-25% of the agri products get wasted due to improper storage.

A self-help group (SHG) is a village-based financial intermediary usually composed of 1020 local women. Most self-help groups are located in India, though SHGs can also be found in other countries, especially in South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Members make small regular savings contributions over a few months until there is enough capital in the group to begin lending. Funds may then be lent back to the members or to others in the village for any purpose. In India, many SHGs are 'linked' to banks for the delivery of microcredit

Structure
A Self-Help Group may be registered or unregistered. It typically comprises a group of micro entrepreneurs having homogenous social and economic backgrounds, all voluntarily coming together to save regular small sums of money, mutually agreeing to contribute to a common fund and to meet their emergency needs on the basis of mutual help. They pool their resources to become financially stable, taking loans from the money collected by that group and by making everybody in that group self-employed. The group members use collective wisdom and peer pressure to ensure proper end-use of credit and timely repayment. This system eliminates the need for collateral and is closely related to that of solidarity lending, widely used by micro finance institutions.[1] To make the book-keeping simple enough to be handled by the members, flat interest rates are used for most loan calculations.

Goals
Self-help groups are started by non-profit organizations (NGOs) that generally have broad antipoverty agendas. Self-help groups are seen as instruments for a variety of goals including

empowering women, developing leadership abilities among poor people, increasing school enrollments, and improving nutrition and the use of birth control. Financial inter mediation is generally seen more as an entry point to these other goals, rather than as a primary objective.[2] This can hinder their development as sources of village capital, as well as their efforts to aggregate locally controlled pools of capital through federation, as was historically accomplished by credit unions.

Advantages of financing through SHGs

An economically poor individual gains strength as part of a group. Besides, financing through SHGs reduces transaction costs for both lenders and borrowers. While lenders have to handle only a single SHG account instead of a large number of small-sized individual accounts, borrowers as part of an SHG cut down expenses on travel (to & from the branch and other places) for completing paper work and on the loss of workdays in canvassing for loans. SC/ST SUB PLAN BILL IN ANDHRA PRADESH The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on 2 December 2012 passed Andhra Pradesh SC, ST Sub-Plans Bill 2012 providing statutory status for implementation of the sub-plans for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The legislation will ensure fund allocation proportionate to the SC and ST population and is expected to prevent diversion of sub-plan funds for other activities and not allowing them unspent. There is also a mandatory provision for allocation of almost a fourth of the States annual plan of the budget for SC, ST. The bill was introduced on the recommendations of the Cabinet Sub-Committee. The demand for according legal status to the Sub-Plans was made on states for a long time by the Planning Commission of India and National Development Council (NDC). With this, Andhra Pradesh has become the first state in India to enact such a legislation. The Opposition endorsed the legislation except the Telugu Desam.The party sought an amendment by inserting a provision in the legislation to provide proportionate allocations to ABCD groups within the SCs based on their populations and socio-economic conditions. The proposal was defeated by 22 votes when it was subjected to voting. Since the state assembly had the power to adopt annual budget only for one year, there was no constitutional provision to prevent lapsing of SC/ST funds.