Many of us who read newspapers would have seen the furore when B.Lenin, editor of ‘Dinamalar’ was arrested in Chennai a few weeks back, after film actress Bhuvaneshwari’s prostitution racket was busted. Bhuvaneshwari it seems had mentioned the names of a few very prominent film actresses who were involved with prostitution rackets. The next day B.Lenin’s ‘Dinamalar’ newspaper ran a strory with photos and rates of all the women mentioned. Even when one forgets the fact that these women are established artists with a social reputation, the very fact that they live in a society and has families, and has not committed any verifiable crime (except allegations by another actress) should have put some sense into the head of these third rate journalists. I was more outraged when “The Madras Union of Journalists condemned B.Lenin’s arrest and blocked traffic in Marina”. If these protests meant their creed is like (only), then civil society has an immediate enemy at hand – Media. The Third Rate Media.

Yesterday’s News9 sting operation in Bangalore is no better, if any SOB with a camera and a satellite uplink can be media, we have a bigger issue at hand.

After confirming that she was indeed in the business of selling sex, the team returned with a camera. They broke open the apartment and started recording. Apparently she was with a customer. What followed reminded me of what happened on a New Year Eve in Mumbai and what happened in the Mangalore pub.

What gives these journalists the right, to violate the rights of a woman, even if she were a sex worker. She was wearing a two piece suit, when they broke open and the channel had the audacity to force her to reveal her body. She was trying to cover her breasts and her face with her hands. Two men pulled open her hands to reveal her body and face on camera. WTF!!!!!

Bombay Dosti guest posts on News 9 outrage in Bangalore -

Yesterday, I lost it. Another WTF moment. If it was just another ‘third rate journalism’ as a friend calls it, I would not have bothered so much. But this was the limit. The trouble is, if not curtailed now, I am not sure, what it would turn into, in the future.
News9 is a bangalore based English ‘News’ Channel and of course, it is a 24 hr channel. This channel does give a lot of local news which may be useful to the city residents. This channel often has programs which shows a highly biased moral stand. When possibly half the population has such a point of view, it is possible that a channel could thrive on that. After all, our soaps are not different.
But, what made me angry, was the latest bit of breaking news that the channel released yesterday.
News9 made a sting operation and found that a service apartment in Bengalooru was being used for prostituition by a Russian lady. The channel team member posed as a prospective customer discovered this fact. Had they stopped with that, I would have not bothered, thinking it was another sting operation. But what followed was a gross violation of human rights.
After confirming that she was indeed in the business of selling sex, the team returned with a camera. They broke open the apartment and started recording. Apparently she was with a customer. What followed reminded me of what happened on a New Year Eve in Mumbai and what happened in the Mangalore pub.
What gives these journalists the right, to violate the rights of a woman, even if she were a sex worker. She was wearing a two piece suit, when they broke open and the channel had the audacity to force her to reveal her body. She was trying to cover her breasts and her face with her hands. Two men pulled open her hands to reveal her body and face on camera. WTF!!!!!
Later, the police was called to take action and probably take her into custody.
By what limit of imagination, can we accept this?
Even if I were the worst criminal in this world, and even if I was of the loosest character possible, you have no right to violate my body , without my consent. PERIOD.
There has always been a debate about this moral judgement even in the case of rape. In some countries, even the law mandates that a rape victim’s sexual habits should not be questioned. Her sexual habit, should not come in the way, of delivering justice to her.
Its similar in this case as well. Does her, being a sex worker(that too alleged) deny her the right to human dignity? And who decides? News9??????????
To put it simply, the channel must be taken to task for having abused her physically and for having tortured her mentally. This is Violence instigated against a woman. Whether she is a sex worker or not is not a matter of consideration. This channel had obviously no right to do to her what they did. By the way, why am i talking about their rights?
They were doing things against the law. How else should I describe a man forcing a woman to reveal her body on camera? If this is not violation, what is?
Sorry, an apology will not do. The channel was violating the law and they should be answerable. Now, it would be great to see them report that! Would be a good dose of local news!
The sad part is, even a local news channel has a lot of influencing power. It they shout stupidities for an hour and show the same stuff, people watching it will be programed to think in that direction as well. It was a live phone in program, and many people calling in, were talking about how the Police is not taking action and how the Police is involved in such sex rackets.
Oh ya, blame the system.
But in that process, we are letting this mind poisoning devil into our living room. I really need some air!

P.S: What do you think? Should the Government step in here? I need Free-media for free news, not a free-turn on along with my evening news.

The debate is now about how many migrants come to Mumbai.Raj’s share of prime time on TV; whether Ambani feels he is Gujarati or Maharashtrian, how Bachchan needs to build schools in Mumbai. King Khan has competition as to who the best entertainer this season is. Today there are reports of statements made by MNS leaders regarding the “provocative statements” made by North Indian leaders. Give me a break!
 
My colleague, who was totally disturbed at the whole thing, says, “This is silly. Mumbai runs by North Indians and South Indians. Taxis, Dabhawallas are all North  Indians”
 
I try my hand to pacify him. “They just need an issue. And this “me, mumbaiker” was something that the Shivsena had always taken up and now Raj Thackeray is just continuing on that”
 
But for what followed, I was not ready!
 
He continues, “They had always taken up issues of muslims here in India. Wo theek hai, that has been going on for ages, but this is silly”
 
Well, to this, I did not know what to say.
 
Maybe I’m just overreacting.But then, to me, the issue is not about North India or South India, or Muslims or Hindus!
 
This idea of hatred! This reaction to differences! And when someone tries to provoke the differences, why do we have to react with ours? And why is it not silly when we hear provocative statements against certain religions? How many more speeches and statements must we hear to know that this does not help!
 
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind!
 
That hate is silly!
 
On another note, in India, if we are not able to see the treasure that she embodies in these differences, well, the loss is all ours!
 
I cannot say it better than Nehru. If we are not able to see this, we have not seen India :(
 
“Another and a major excitement had seized me, and I was again on a great voyage of discovery and the land of India and the people of India lay spread out before me. India with all her infinite charm and variety began to grow upon me more and more and yet the more I saw of her, the more I realized how very difficult it was for me or for anyone else to grasp the ideas that she embodied. It was not her wide spaces that eluded me, or even her diversity, but some depth of soul which I could not fathom, though I had occasional and tantalizing glimpses of it. She was like some ancient palimpsest on which layer upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed and yet no succeeding layer had completely hidden what had been written previously. All of these existed in our conscious and unconscious selves, though we may not have been aware of them, and they had gone to build up the complex and the mysterious personality of India. That sphinx like face with its elusive and sometimes mocking smile was to be seen throughout the length and breadth of the land. Though outwardly there was diversity and infinite variety among our people, everywhere there was that tremendous impress of oneness, which had held all of us together for ages past whatever political fate or misfortune had befallen us. The unity of India was no longer a merely intellectual conception for me; it was an emotional experience that overpowered me. That essential unity had been so powerful that no political division, no disaster or catastrophe had been able to overcome it.”

Here, Bhavani – the Talkies Retail Correspondent, has a very confusing take on the issue. Bhavani has several years of experience in retail or so she claims.

Bhavani writes (on invitation),

It has a striking similarity with the Narmada story. Right from Nehru to the neighbor hood politician, they all have urged the people of the valley to sacrifice for the bigger good. It is like saying –

Hey, ya, you over there, jump into the water. We know you don’t know swimming. We neither. But if you jump, the boat won’t be capsized. In that way, you will be saving other 10 people.

(And the story goes on to say that Nehru later on regretted his haste decision).

As I type this, sprawling malls with retail giants in them have replaced mega-dams as the new “temples” of India. (Whose India is it anyway?). Call it the retail revolution (Whose revolution is it anyway?) or India coming of age, it is here to stay. End of day, farmers benefit, the consumers benefit and maybe India would Finally Shine. But what are we supposed to do with nearly 4 crore people employed in our neighbor hood stores and the weekly village markets? Who is right, who’s wrong, do facts lie?

Its Women’s day at Big Bazaar

Some fact:
The USA has a retail market 13 times bigger than ours. But they have only 0.9 million outlets catering to the whole market. India has 12 million outlets scattered over the country. Together, they contribute to nearly 11% of our GDP. Of these, organised retail is only 4%.

That means, the Subhikshas, Food Worlds and Pantaloons of the world fall under that 4%. The remaining lot – the 96%.Who are the rest of the people? Have we ever heard of them? Do they have a name or any identity at all?

By 2010, Organised Retail will be a $23 billion industry, eating into 10% of the whole of retail. 4% to 10% in 3 years. Once they are established, before we even realize, we will no more be seeing those handcart and pavement vendors. They will become a thing of the past. Some lucky ones might become characters of Booker winning novels.

I hate maths:
Google tells me that Wal-Mart has added 50 million Sq Ft to his total retail space in 2004 (in US only). They had a total of 1.2 million employees at the end of 2003. An employee turnover of 45% gives us a figure of 0.54 million leaving Wal-Mart every year. They hired 0.6 million new employees. That means, after filling the gap, only .06 million was hired for 50 million Sq Ft. Means 0.24 employee per Sq Ft.

In India, only 4% of retailers use more that 400 Sq Ft of space. Let us assume, the rest use an average of 200 Sq Ft per store. Every store, let us assume again, must have at least 1 store owner/keeper and 1 helper. 2 employees per 200 Sq Ft or 1 employee per 100 Sq Ft.

With the latest of technologies and customer being more self sufficient, the employee ratio here in India can not be drastically different. Being magnanimous that we are, let us round off 0.24 as 0.5. Still, there is only 50% job generation.

The Indian business houses that are already in the run will not be using a business model inferior to Wal-Mart. After all, the key to success is resource management and efficiency. The counter argument here to justify the loss of jobs is that, the total retail space might increase drastically; thereby maintaing or increasing the numbers. A plausible argument. But the ones who gain aren’t the ones who are losing. They will be REPLACED by the new workforce.

The Story :

But is it as frightening as it is projected to be? Maybe. May be even more.

Reliance has opened its first store in November 2006. And today they have more than 200 stores in 9 months. Close to one store a day. (Wal-Mart opens stores at the same rate, too).

If the media is to be believed, Reliance has drawn up plans for a presence in 784 towns and 6,000 mandis (wholesale market) by 2010. They are targeting a turn over of 40000 cr in the next few years. The whole of retail is estimated to have a turn over of 400000 cr at the moment.

This is just about Reliance. We have Bharti, Birlas and Tatas in the fray and Wal-Mart and Woolsworth, having already made a back door entry.

On an average, one store will cost these big wigs 10crs to open. Break even might be 2 or 3 years down the line, sometimes even more. They can afford it; the 96% we mentioned earlier cannot.

One scoffing remark here is that we are childishly assuming the whole of India will flock to these new stores. Well, they might.

The NEW stores:
They are not coming in one format. From the neighborhood store to the big hypermarkets; from 500 to 40000 sq ft stores.

Big Retail acquires your existing local super market chain and retain the name without you even knowing it. You step out of your house and the nearest store you find must be a small air conditioned store of the Birlas or the Tatas.

They wear colorful uniform, they have an enticing display and you get everything there. Why should you go to the guy from whom you have bough all these years? What does he offer for the same money?
Real Estate (The space factor):

There is a relatively less talked about issue too – Real Estate. The rate at which the big players are buying or leasing realty is pushing the industry to an explosion. To gain the first mover advantage, the ones who have money, are accumulating all available space. A recent KSA Technopark survey estimates that the available mall space will be exhausted in near future itself.

The Great Indian procurement Act:

The trump card of the big players is the Supply Chain. Logistic cost is in the range of 10-12% of our GDP; no wonder considering the size, geography and variety of our country.

The fact that Wal-Mart is partnering with Bharti as its Logistics & Technology expert might give you a feel of how important it is to be good at it. That is where you organise and optimise. That is where you have to be extremely efficient and save money. It is a small part of that money what you offer the farmers and customers.

Big Retail will build their own cold storages and other necessities. Produce will flow from farmer to the retail chain’s distribution centers. Less of shrinkage too. ( Pilferage, other known & unknown loss; can be theft, expiry date due etc). Better Business Intelligence. Less of grey market and black money.

The “poor farmer” is bewildered. After the interest he has generated everywhere with suicide sagas, now he is in demand. Everyone is talking about his benefit. Sure, we should. All the while it was the middlemen who reaped the benefit of the huge price difference between the cost of production and the final selling price.

A study done by Assocham says :-

The difference between wholesale price (WSP) and minimum support price (MSP) is as high as 45 per cent while that between WSP and the final retail price is as high as 60 per cent.

Consider a farmer selling his produce for Rs 100 to a wholesaler. The latter sells it to a retailer for Rs 133. But the consumer is made to pay close to Rs 210, which is 60 per cent over the wholesale price. Effectively, the consumer purchases a product for double the cost that a farmer gets.

The new boom promises to circumvent the middlemen. Farmers get more money. Consumers pay less money. It will be a win-win. It feels good to think that way. What a smooth ride!!

So, what is the issue? The only issue is that, in the long run, will the benefit that farmers are supposed to be enjoying sustain? Or is it just an initial euphoria?

The “small farmer” will be extinct. The bigger ones, who can sustain the pressure of consistent performance, might stay. The sheer buying power of the big corporate houses is intimidating, to put it mildly. Contract farming, if it is to happen in the large scale, is the end of traditional farming.

While the ailing Indian farmers will initially benefit from the inputs, credits & technology the new opportunity offers, we have no provision to protect them from being exploited by the same in the future. The farmer might not be allowed to try a new crop or a new technique on his own. He will be just an employee of the giant he sells his produce to.

Looking at the pace of growth, Reliance is far ahead of others at the moment. If others don’t catch up fast, the entry barriers they erect will be too high; thereby monopolizing the whole sector. Even if they don’t, in a few years’ time, the whole of the sector will be controlled by 3 or 4 big names. In the absence of adequate regularization, they will control the quality & quantity of our agriculture, will have a high stake in our employment level & real estate process and many more crucial issues.

I am not offering a ready formula. I don’t have the expertise We probably can’t wait to set everything right before we give a green signal. We have people who starve to death. We have Ambanis and Mittals too. They are all part of “us”. There has to be a parallel growth. We can, sure, share and grow.

Organised Retail is not an impending threat. That is a ridiculously myopic view. It is an inevitable reality that has already happened. It is not about how to thwart it or ban it. It is all about how to make it an inclusive growth.

Note:
This is a layman’s point of view. All the figures mentioned are taken from the internet.

- Bhavani, Retail Correspondent, the Talkies.

(Bhavani has several years of experience in retail. She sells posters of Manmohan Singh and Charu Majumdar at AKG Nagar on Nariman Point, of course nobody buys. You can’t contact her)