Assocham launches campaign in favour of FDI in retail

Industry body Assocham today announced launching of a campaign across the country to spread awareness among public about advantages of permitting foreign players to open multi-brand retail stores.
"Our campaign would spread awareness at the grass-root level that FDI is a blessing which would lead to massive job generation, inflow of foreign investments in villages, reduce farm wastage, provide farmers' their due in form of higher prices for their produce and will not have any impact on kirana merchants in any way whatsoever," Assocham President Rajkumar Dhoot said in a statement.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma launched the Assocham's pan-India campaign, titled 'Retail India: Advantages Farmers & Consumers' here today.
Dhoot said the chamber has formed a core group of 10 past-presidents to hold 100 interactive sessions all over the country in cooperation with its 300 regional chambers on foreign direct investment (FDI) and its advantages.
"We have entrusted region-wise responsibilities to senior office bearers and past presidents to effectively carry out the campaign in north, south, east and west," he added.
Dhoot said strong back-end infrastructure would help reduce wastage from farm production and improve efficiencies of a highly-fragmented food supply chain in India.
"Besides, it would also create about 1.5 direct and indirect jobs and give a much-needed push to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs)," he said.
FDI in retail sector would lead to mushrooming of large outlets with different sales formats and generate new jobs in services sector, he added.
"Though some middlemen may be affected in the short-term, supply-side constraints will be removed and consumers will benefit as inflation eventually comes down," the president said.

Courtesy: Financial Express