Abdul Kalam is wrong in favouring FDI in retail

Dr. Abdulkalam is a great scientist. But it seems that he is unaware of the ground realities. The only avenue open to the unemployed people in our country is retail trading. In recent years the central and state governments have failed to fill up the vacancies. It is estimated that there are 1.5 million vacancies in the various departments and organizations of the central government. Another 2.5 million vacancies exist in state governments and thousands of vacancies exist in public sector enterprises, banks etc. A recent survey has shown that recently many of those involved in petty trading and hawking are educated unemployed youth. If they find employment in the government or organised private sector many of them will move out of petty trading and hawking. Moreover, the the government's contention that FDI in multi-brand retail will lead to creation of 10 million jobs is wrong . But in reality, the creation of 10 million jobs is unachievable even in the long-run, leave alone in just three years. Various studies on the impact of global retail giants setting up retail stores confirm that job losses have occurred everywhere and as a result disrupted the livelihood of the people. On the whole, only around 2.2 million persons will be able to get jobs in the retail establishments and supply chain operations, at the best scenario. But millions of poor and middle class families who survive on tiny and small scale retail business will be rendered , Dr.C.Murukadas,The Times of India, 27.8.2008