Volume 1, Number 1, 2013 ISSN 2052-8396 (Online) SPACE AND CULTURE, INDIA A peer reviewed India focused International Journal in Humanities and Social Sciences May 2013 Published by: ACCB Publishing, England SPACE AND CULTURE, INDIA OPEN ACCESS Volume 1, No. 1 (2013) Table of Contents EDITORIALS Tribute to Nirbhaya (Fearless) 1 REVIEWS Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India’s Retail Sector 2-12 Hiranya K Nath Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013: Will it ensure women’s safety in public spaces? 13-27 Rituparna Bhattacharyya SPECIAL ARTICLES Demographic Invasion, Assamese Identity and Geopolitics 28-42 Jitendralal Borkakoti RESEARCH How do the poor handle money? What do the financial diaries of char dwellers tell us about financial inclusion? 43-57 Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Gopa Samanta Education for Peace: Transforming the Culture of Violence 58-68 Aparajita Sharma An Urban-Spatial Analysis of the Women in the Informal Sectors of Greater Guwahati City of Assam, India 69-82 Zona Bhuyan A Mirage or a Rural Life Line? Analysing the impact of Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act on Women Beneficiaries of Assam 83-101 Rituparna Bhattacharyya, Polly Vauquline PERSPECTIVE Doing Good is Good Business 102-106 Parthajeet Sarma PUBLICATION WATCH 107-108 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Published by ACCB Publishing (England) & Prag Foundation (India) Editorial . Space and Culture, India 2013, 1:1 http://www.spaceandculture.in/index.php/spaceandculture/article/view/14/14 EDITORIAL OPEN ACCESS Editorial We are happy to launch the first issue of the Journal Space and Culture, India. This first issue is a tribute to Nirbhaya (Fearless), who was brutally gang-raped and left in a ‘vegetative state’ to die, who subsequently succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012. Alongside, we also pay our last respect to Chief Justice Jagdish Charan Verma (January 18, 1933 – April 22, 2013), who headed the government-appointed panel, Justice Verma Committee that came out with the recommendations on enhancing women’s safety and security. The journal is very grateful to all the members of the editorial board for their strong commitment and support. We also thank the contributors of the first issue. We are committed to encourage young scholars and researchers to submit their theoretically informed original research, commentaries and reviews on any social issues of India and make an impact to the society. We understand that your research is very important to you - we guarantee global distribution accessible universally on-line and without any charge. We are in the process of obtaining International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) from ISSN UK centre, British Library. The journal will also be registered with the official Open Archives registry, UIUC OAI registry, Social Science Research Network (SSRN) and OAIster so that the articles are indexed within a globally distributed system of research databases. The journal will also contribute to certain Libraries participating in the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system to ensure a secure and permanent archive for the journal. In addition, content of the journal will be indexed by Google Scholar and other search engines and also will be registered with Index Copernicus and other indexing system. Looking forward to your valuable contributions! Happy reading! Thank you, Executive Editor, Space and Culture, India © 2013 Space and Culture, India . This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Nath . Space and Culture, India 2013, 1:1 http://www.spaceandculture.in/index.php/spaceandculture/article/view/17/7 REVIEW OPEN ACCESS Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India’s Retail Sector Dr Hiranya K Nath † Abstract This article presents an overview of retail trade in India in the wake of the country’s new policy that will allow foreign capital in multi-band retailing. It discusses various potential benefits and costs of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector, particularly in terms of its effects on traditional retailers, employment, consumers, farmers, and local manufacturers. It argues that given somewhat slower growth projection for the Indian economy during the next decade, various structural issues including inadequate infrastructure and a lack of affordable real estate, and the prevalent structure of the agricultural markets, it is unlikely that all the potential benefits and costs will be realised to their fullest extent, at least in the foreseeable future. The economic dynamics and the political process will play an important role in determining the outcomes of this move to allow FDI in the retail sector and will ultimately determine the effects on various stakeholders. Keywords: Foreign direct investment (FDI), multi-brand retailing, supply chain, logistics †Associate Professor of Economics, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas (USA), TX 77341-2118; E-mail: [email protected]; Phone: +1-936-294-4760 © 2013 Nath. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Nath . Space and Culture, India 2013, 1:1 http://www.spaceandculture.in/index.php/spaceandculture/article/view/17/7 Page 3 Introduction experiences, there have been wide variations in In December 2012, Indian Parliament approved their experiments and outcomes and, for some of the central government’s decision to allow countries, not much time has elapsed since they foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand allowed foreign capital in retailing. Third , retailing. This paved the way for foreign retailers retailing is a service the provision of which to open retail stores with 51 per cent ownership depends on a number of noneconomic factors in major cities to sell a large variety of products that are difficult to factor in an objective under one roof.1 However, the state assessment of the potential benefits and costs. In governments will have the rights to prevent particular, the dynamism in the markets that is foreign retailers from opening up stores in their defined by consumer tastes and preferences respective states. It may be noted that foreign (which constantly change particularly when the capital has already been allowed in single-brand economy grows at a rapid pace) is hard to retailing. Furthermore, there are several indirect fathom. channels, such as franchise agreements, cash and The primary objective of this article is to provide carry wholesale agreements, strategic licensing an overview of retailing in India and a discussion agreements, manufacturing and wholly owned of potential benefits and costs of FDI in the subsidiaries, through which foreign companies context of the new law that provides access of including large retailers have already had access foreign capital into this sector. The rest of the to the Indian market. 2 Nevertheless, the debate article is organised as follows. In the next section, over FDI in retailing has been going on for quite I discuss the economics of retailing. It covers the some time. The opposition to foreign capital in concept of retailing as a service and its place in this sector has in fact delayed the passing of this the supply chain. Following this, it presents a bill. There have been many speculations on its brief discussion on India’s retail sector potential benefits and costs and, depending on highlighting its special features that need to be their socio-political-economic ideologies; the considered in a comprehensive assessment of commentators have positioned themselves the potential effects of FDI in this sector. Then I either in favour or against this policy. discuss the potential benefits and costs. I also However, it has been very difficult to conduct an consider some realistic issues that are important objective assessment of potential benefits and in realising these benefits and costs. The final costs of FDI in retailing for several reasons. First , section includes the concluding remarks. since retailing in India has been taking place What is Retailing? predominantly in the unorganised sector, there According to a definition attributed to Philip are no reliable data. Most studies and reports Kotler, retailing includes all the activities involved that have been published rely on estimates in selling goods or services directly to the final based on strong assumptions. Second , although 3 consumers for personal, non-business use. there have been cases of FDI in retail sector in Although, selling goods or services directly to the other developing countries of Southeast Asia and final consumers is the primary activity in Latin America and we can learn from their retailing, there are a number of auxiliary activities that are associated with it. As Figure 1 1 For now, the foreign retailers will be allowed only in cities illustrates, retailers are involved in the with population of more than one million. distribution phase of an integrated supply chain 2 For example, German retailer Metro AG entered India through cash and carry wholesale trading channel. Wal- Mart has entered India as a joint venture with Indian firm 3 In 2004, Delhi High Court defined the term ‘retail’ as a Bharati Enterprises. See Gupta (2012) for examples of sale for final consumption in contrast to a sale for further other channels. sale or processing. Nath . Space and Culture, India 2013, 1:1 http://www.spaceandculture.in/index.php/spaceandculture/article/view/17/7 Page 4 Figure 1: A simple supply chain and are in direct interface with consumers.4 At In each stage of this supply chain, value is added the front-end, retailers directly sell goods or and the total value addition determines the price services to consumers.