Retail giants entry - only a masked misery, says FDI Watch
04 Oct '07
2 min read
Multinationals look at India and see its 1.2 billion people as a vast, untapped market. However, many are working hard to prevent the entry of giant foreign conglomerates into the Indian market. The India FDI Watch Campaign is one such organization, a national coalition of labour unions, trade associations, environmentalists, NGOs and academics. It works to block attempts by Prime Minister Singh's government to allow foreign direct investment in India's retail markets.
Organization aims to stop retail giants like Wal-Mart, Tesco and Carrefour and others from entering India, unless they make satisfactory guarantees that would protect communities and insure the stability of existing small businesses and traders, is assured. It believes FDI in retail will amount to job losses by the thousands as well as thousands more small businesses and kiranas (mom & pop stores) being forced to close. This will continue erosion in wages and working conditions that Wal-Mart and other multinational mega-retailers have spawned across the globe.
Mr Dharmendra Kumar Sharma, Director and a leading activist-proponent of India FDI Watch Campaign, in an exclusive interview with Fibre2fashion, explained the organization's aims and goals, its workings and why it was forced to take up this initiative.
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