Women Empowerment in Punjab by Umeed NGO

Umeed has seen various activities in the month of Feb. Umeed participated in an exhibition held in hotel Sapphire, Yamuna Nagar on 23-25th of February 2013. There was a lot of interest shown by the visitors in both the product as well as wanting to know how women participate in Umeeds projects while making them. The inquiries were very heartening. In similar spirit the BPO team at Dhuri is currently practicing to hone their typing & computer skills. We are in touch with various organizations to get work for the team in the BPO.

Whereas Mr. Harsh Garg, a MBA student from NMIMS, Mumbai came to do his internship with Umeed from 4th -23rd February 2013 as part of 'We Care" -civic engagement project of the School of Business Management, NMIMS (Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies) Mumbai set up to promote learning and to support Rural Development in India. He spent time out of his three weeks internship in crochet centers that provide women empowerment and with the team to understand Umeed's project completely specially its financial aspects. He has suggested few points to develop crochet business by keeping in mind various factors related with hand done crochet such as market/finance and prevailing trends.

He spent 3 weeks in Umeed and visited all ongoing activities in the field such as medical teams, SHG's, BPO, Umeed/AR job placement, crochet centers etc. He has submitted report to Umeed based on his observation/learning from his 3 weeks with Umeed. The ideas are valuable and easy to incorporate.


Furthering recruitment in Punjab under Umeed’s Job Placement Service - 240 youth have registered themselves in Umeed/AR Job placement office during the month and 153 candidates were sent for interviews in various organizations. 36 youth got jobs in various organizations during the month of February.

FDI Investment in India - Is it right or wrong

I am yet to understand why some people are opposed to FDI in retail. Are they so blinded by vested interests that they don’t see that this move will prove beneficial for the country?

The government has specified that 50 per cent of the FDI investment in the country should go towards creating rural infrastructure, thus paving the way for a revolutionary change in the face of villages. Of the total fruits and vegetables produced currently, about 40 per cent either goes waste or becomes rotten due to inadequate cold storage facility. Our post-harvest losses remain unacceptably high. A complex chain of middlemen has a cascading impact on supply inefficiencies and prices as well. As a result, on the one hand farmers are unable to secure remunerative price for their produce, while consumer ends up paying more than 5 times the price secured by the farmers. But all this will become a thing of the past once the effect of the new policy starts showing.

FDI will not only bring down prices for consumers, but also provide increased income to millions of farmers in the country. The successful deployment of 100% FDI in China is an example in point. The Chinese retail market was fully opened to retail FDI in 2004, resulting in the sector’s rapid growth. Today, its retail sector is the second largest (in value) in the world.

Multi-brand retail will transform India’s retail landscape in a significant way. Organised players will bring in investment that would spur further growth of the sector. India has also been crippled by rising inflation rates that refuse to come down to accepted levels. A key reason for this has been attributed to the supply chain costs in the Indian food and grocery sales which have been estimated to be a whopping US$ 24 Bn. The infrastructure support of organised retail will improve the backend processes of the supply chain and eliminate such wastages.

FDI in multi-brand retail would also lead to the creation of millions of jobs as massive infrastructure capabilities would be needed to cater to changing lifestyle needs of the urban Indian, who will be quite at ease shopping at supermarkets as well as the friendly, neighborhood kirana store. These stores would be able to retain their importance owing to their unique characteristics of convenience and proximity. Also, organised supermarkets would find it harder to get a footing in Tier-II and Tier-III cities where kirana shops will continue to rule. Take the case of China. Walmart entered that country some two decades ago and has opened over 300 stores till date. Yet it just has only 5 per cent of the market share in China. Local Chinese retail companies are all bigger than Walmart in China.

FDI in multi-brand retail is, therefore, a necessary step that needs to be taken to propel further growth in the sector. This would not only prove to be fruitful for the economy as a whole but also integrate the Indian retail sector with the global retail market.

Different Peoples from Different States of India

I was deeply saddened and disturbed to see images on television of people from the Northeast boarding trains to return to their respective states from Bangalore. It is scary and unbelievable that people from the Northeast, who had simply gone to another state to earn a livelihood or study, had to undergo humiliation and fear in their own country. We cannot allow such jingoistic sentiments in our country.

Any community from any state can settle anywhere in India. We may be Punjabis, Assamese, Bengalis or Tamilians, but at the end of the day we are all Indians and we should be able to move about freely in the country without fear of being attacked or threatened.

I hear that miscreants from outside this country had spread the rumour that people from the Northeast will be attacked and killed in Bangalore, leading to the exodus. Thankfully, the government took effective measures to clampdown on the rumour-mongers. People who are trying destabilise India by creating disharmony should know that such vicious acts will never succeed in this country. India is one and will remain so.