All congress local managers like Beni Prasad Verma and national self declared well wisher Mr. Digvijay singh started firing against old young man Anna Hazare. then unfortunate or fortunate happened with Anna ji and he was hospitalized. Unfortunate for Rahul Gandhi and fortunate for Anna ji. yes you read it right and it is not vice-versa. why? ok I will explain it below.

UP was never a strong filed to play for congress, nor is this time. You need not to be expert to comment chances of Congress in UP.  So if UP was being address by Anna ji against congress, Congress was ready to lose and blame Anna factor. However Anna ji heath spoiled game plan.  and Rahul baba is again in battle field, working more than average congress worker ( or so called leaders). He will deliver some magic for sure, as you know in India hard work never go to waste.

MM Mayawati and Mulayam singh is all ready to eat, each other and any one comes in between. Now Rahul Gandhi is on litmus test. He will not like UP to become Bihar.

UP has been home town of major congress leaders or say m other father of congress. It be Jawahar lal nehru , Indra Gandhi or Rajiv gandhi and now Rahul Gandhi is searching his route in UP. Rahul Gandhi some time amazed that family always won in UP but party doesn’t? why?

Rahul has been well advised by his intelligent advisers that UP people support blindly their true leader so he must go to dalit houses wonder in street eat whatever he has not eaten in 40 years etc etc. Rahul did exactly that. Newspapers were filled up, opposition leaders has one agenda to condemn speeches of Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul do give masala to newspapers and  TV bites by saying ‘ UP wale  naukri ki Bheekh maangne Punjab and Mumbai jaate hain’. somehow he forgets at the same time that he is from UP too. and he has been out of UP for some job search ( well that job is Prime minister of India in Delhi) but still he is out of homeland.  Surprisingly his father, grandmother and father of gran mother who somehow happened to be from UP never went back or created environment to come back to UP? why?

Clash of Titans, it will be interesting to see how these titans with all dignity or say no-dignity fight with each other. poltical drama is on high level, Ajit singh who still survive on name of his father has joined arch-rival of Ch. charan singh that is congress. Anuradha chaudhary who one swron on Ajit singh like anything has joined SP (Samajwadi party). Rashid Masood who was actively distributing MLA tickets for SP joined congress in a sudden and becomes national executive committe member in no-time. Babu singh kushwaha torn apart by mayawati joined BJP and resigned too.

Interesting ! Interesting !

wait for more. it has just begun. UP has always been university of political drama and so far only per-admission activity has taken place, more is to come. keep tuned.

It should be noted that Wal-mart is not a new entrant they are already in India with Bharti, they have already set up easy day and running successfully. Big Bazar is already doing great business. Have we done any study of impact of these retail giant on local shopkeepers or say farmers ? No. why ? Not required. reason : There have been no impact on these sections at all !

In multi-brand we are already having players like, Big Bazar, Spencers, Vishal Mega Mart, Ritu wears, shoppers stop etc.

This is time of making mature decisions for BJP. UP is up and BJP believe it , following Anna because people follow him need not to be replicated in FDI, oppose FDI because Mayawati, Jaylalita, Mamta Banrejee oppose it.

Movie dekho

The Mobile store has launched ‘mobile pe movie free offer’. To avail this offer consumer need to purchase a handset worth rs. 3000 or more. He shall be eligible for offer. As per offer he may get up to 12 movie tickets. consumer shall not be denied offer he shall get minimum two movie tickets.

TMS is very exciting with this offer. They said they are not giving pre-booking tickets. Tickets shall be open for all multiplex across India. So customer can choose his showtime, his move and his theater. All Major multiplex has been enrolled for this say PVR, Satyam, wave cinema, Galaxy.

This is unparalleled offer in industry and those who are looking to buy handset this weekend will be double bonanza as TMS says ‘ Mobile pe Movie Free.

As per consumerdayy study http://www.consumerdaddy.com/consumer-reviews-for-spice-hotspot-electronics-dealers-p-15554.htm Spice hotspot just scored 5 out of 10 for consumer satisfation.

Spice Retail Limited, New Delhi is a multi-brand mobile and technology retail chain. They deal with a wide range of mobile phones, phone accessories, laptops, cameras, etc. Brands offered by them include Spice, Blackberry, Nokia, LG, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, HTC, Fly, Micromax, Lava, etc. Phone accessories offered by them include hands free, Bluetooth headset, bike charger, battery, Bluetooth speaker, decal, audio adapter, screen guard, travel charger, boom headset, car kit, card reader, carrying case, disc organiser, digital speaker, face place, mobile applications, gaming kit, head phone, stereo headset, etc. Spice Retail has branches across Andhra Pradesh, NCR, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarkhand, West Bengal, etc. spice retail is run by Sanjeev mahajan, Global CEO.

The committee is also likely to lay down stringent norms for back-end infrastructure such as cold storage, soil testing labs and seed farming.

The clearance will be subject to tough riders as there are apprehensions about the impact on local grocers, sources said.

On July 22, the Committee of Secretaries (CoS), headed by cabinet secretary Ajit Kumar Seth, will try to resolve inter-ministerial differences and then prepare a cabinet note for clearance.

Differences persist between the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs (MCA) over the FDI cap. While the department favours 51 per cent FDI, the MCA is pitching for a ceiling of 49 per cent to ensure that the control resides in the hands of Indians.

At present, the government does not allow FDI in retail, which employs 33 million people and is dominated by local grocers. However, 51 per cent FDI are permitted in single brand retail, and global chains such as Nike and Louis Vuitton have set up shops. There are no restrictions on foreign investments in wholesale cash and carry format business.

Global multi-brand retail chains have been pushing India to open up the sector to FDI. Walmart, Carrefour and Metro have opened cash-and-carry stores to tap the market.

The other difference that the secretaries have to sort out is the quantum of investment that retail chains have to earmark for back-end infrastructure.

Of the $100-million minimum investment proposed, the DIPP feels at least 50 per cent have to be earmarked for back-end infrastructure. However, the consumer affairs ministry wants a larger share of 75 per cent of FDI to be invested in back-end supply chains.

India annually loses more than Rs 1 lakh crore in farm products, including fruits and vegetables, because of a lack of proper infrastructure such as cold chain storage and warehousing

Essar Retail has a combined turnover of $1.5 billion (Rs 6,750 crore), over half of which is contributed by steel retail followed by retail business in mobile and consumer durables, and information technology products and oil retailing.

Essar has brought all its retailing arms — The MobileStore (TMS) and The ElectronicStore — which retail mobile and consumer durables and information technology products, and Essar Hypermart, which retails steel and fuel retail operations of Essar Oil, under Essar Retail to draw synergies. Alok Gupta, the former director of Café Coffee Day, who recently moved job and city to join the group, is heading Essar Retail as its chief executive officer.

“This allows us to operate across the geographies — from metros, mini metros to rural India. We can talk across SECs (socio-economic classifications), age groups and consumers with diverse needs. We can offer life-time value for consumers, who use mobiles, energy and steel needs and keep coming to us for their needs,” Gupta said in an exclusive interaction with Business Standard.

He, however, ruled out venturing into any new segment of retail in the immediate future.

“For the next 12-24 months, we will continue to focus on our current verticals and within each vertical, we need to put new channels of retail, we have to explore the whole e-retailing and digital space,” Gupta added.

Essar Hypermart has 616 steel retail outlets and plans to increase the number to 750 by the end of this year. TMS, Essar’s telecom retail chain, has 1,000 stores and has 50 per cent share of the organised market . In the current financial year, TMS plans to add 250 stores, of which 75 per cent would be via the franchisee route. In fuel retail, Essar Oil runs 1,381 outlets, and an additional 254 are under various stages of construction.

Gupta says all the retail formats are Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) positive and he expects Essar Hypermart and TMS, its major retail ventures, to break-even by 2012-13. He did not give break-ups for the verticals.

Steel retailing business is getting readied for the second phase of growth.

Essar is collaborating with designers and fabricators to bring out better quality designs in products and sell these in its hypermarkets.

“If you look at steel products we use in our daily lives, their designs have not changed in the last 20-25 years. We believe there lies an opportunity. We are looking at pre-fabricated doors, equipment which we use in day to day life,” says Gupta. He says the company does not mind local retailers selling the products as long as they are produced by its manufacturing partners who tap designs provided by Essar and make everything with the steel made by the company.

Essar Retail also plans to make its steel outlets as a one-stop shop for construction-related products. Through Essar Hypermart and other formats such as Expressmart and Expresspoint (both are dealer-owned and dealer-run) it will sell cement, paints and other hardware under one roof.

Mobiles and IT products

Gupta says the company plans to aggressively sell consumer durables and IT products through TMS. It has already started selling durables and IT products in 50-odd stores in NCR and plans to take it to other cities.

He believes display and catalogue sales is possible in 40 per cent of TMS stores and the rest through catalogue sales.

“We believe the market is moving towards small-box formats, where consumer wants easy access. On an average, we do seven and eight million transactions in TMS across the categories. Our objective is to work with footfall and try and fit into consumer durables and IT,” he adds.

TMS has kept the assortment fairly tight and displays LCD televisions, laptops and cameras on display and rest like washing machines, refrigerators and so on are sold through catalogue.

But how confident is Essar of retailing durables through TMS work when a host of chains such as Croma, Reliance Digital and Next offer wide range of products at competitive prices?

“We offer sheer convenience, value and credibility customers do not mind buying a high value item in small box store. It is a matter of leveraging our current relationship and provide right value,” he added.

The company is also looking at retailing consumer durables and IT products through Essar Oil outlets

Armed with nine years of professional experience in sales and marketing of FMCGs, Chakrawarti joined Trent Ltd in November 2000. He is a graduate from IIT Kanpur and holds a PGDM degree from IIM Bangalore.

Meanwhile, Ashutosh Pandey, deputy COO, will take up a new role as COO of Landmark.

CHALLENGES
To quickly revert to the high GDP growth path of 9 per cent and then find the
means to cross the ‘double digit growth barrier’.
To harness economic growth to consolidate the recent gains in making development
more inclusive.
To address the weaknesses in government systems, structures and institutions at
different levels of governance.
OVERVIEW OF THE ECONOMY
India among the first few countries in the world to implement a broad-based
counter-cyclic policy package to respond to the negative fallout of the global
slowdown.
The Advance Estimates for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for 2009-10
pegged at 7.2 per cent. The final figure expected to be higher when the third and
fourth quarter GDP estimates for 2009-10 become available.
The growth rate in manufacturing sector in December 2009 was 18.5 per cent – the
highest in the past two decades.
A major concern during the second half of 2009-10 has been the emergence of
double digit food inflation. Government has set in motion steps, in consultation
with the State Chief Ministers, which should bring down the inflation in the next
few months and ensure that there is better management of food security in the
country.
CONSOLIDATING GROWTH
Fiscal Consolidation
With recovery taking root, there is a need to review public spending, mobilise
resources and gear them towards building the productivity of the economy.
Fiscal policy shaped with reference to the recommendations of the Thirteenth
Finance Commission, which has recommended a calibrated exit strategy from the
expansionary fiscal stance of last two years.
It would be for the first time that the Government would target an explicit reduction
in its domestic public debt-GDP ratio.