FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2011

Walmart in India
Union Cabinet has decided to permit Foreign Direct Investment upto 51% in retail sector. When India got independence from Black rule of British in 1947, leaders of the country promised to make India self dependent , they told the Nation that they will use its own resources to build India strong and give Indians all comforts which they deserve for respectful living.

http://dkjain4970920122007.blogspot.in/2011_11_01_archive.html

Copy of above blog is once again presented below because Congress Party has once again announced FDI in Retail .

Union Cabinet has decided to permit Foreign Direct Investment upto 51% in retail sector. When India got independence from Black rule of British in 1947, leaders of the country promised to make India self dependent , they told the Nation that they will use its own resources to build India strong and give Indians all comforts which they deserve for respectful living.

More than half a century has elapsed; Indian instead of becoming a self sufficient Nation has now become dependent on FDI for survival. Indian leaders go for foreign tours begging FDI in India in different sector. Perhaps Indian leaders has as per their comforts redefined Independence and self dependence.

Positive thinkers in political circle, leaders of UPA and great economist say that FDI in retail sector will create four million jobs; some over enthusiastic leaders in the government say that FDI in retail will create one crore new job opportunity and give enormous benefits to farmers. They do not talk of how many Indians will become unemployed when giant of retail sector like Walmart of USA or Tesco of Europe come in India. If Walmart and Tesco like companies can create millions of jobs, why not domestic companies in retail sector do the same thing.

Yes I also agree a few thousands of educated youth will get job in retail chain and get handsome salary too , a few corporate brokers will also get opportunity to earn considerable amount of brokerage but millions of poor and middle class families who survive on small scale retail business will be rendered workless and constrained to starve or become slave in the hands of English people, the same slavery which their forefathers had to adopt and practice under the colonial rule of British before we got freedom in 1947.

Rahul Gandhi asks loudly people of Uttar Pradesh, “How long you people will prefer going Mumbai for begging”. He does not think it fit to ask cabinet ministers and Doctor Manmohan Singh “How long India will survive on FDI and FII” . He does not ask Chief Ministers of Congress Party led states, how long they will go to Bangalore or Hyderabad or Mumbai or Delhi for higher study and for attractive jobs. Lacs of educated youth from the state of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Harayana are working in IT sector in the state of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and also in foreign countries .

Stock Market in our country depends on FII and when FIIs start selling stock, the entire market bleeds and it is ultimately the weak Indians who become the victim and who have to suffer huge losses on their investment. Rahul Gandhi does not advise Manmohan Singh led government to make stock market self reliant and not depend upon foreigners.

Big corporate depends on External commercial Borrowings and their business depends on exports and imports. When other countries commit economic blunder, they economy collapses and ultimately India also become victim even if our country is headed by great economists. It is crystal clear our survival now depends less on our performance and less on our intrinsic values but more on foreign buyers and sellers,FDI and FII and the policies of the world.

Our leaders are very much hopeful that if FDI is allowed in retail sector, millions of job will be created and poverty of Indian rural folks and farmers will be eliminated or at least help in reduction of poverty of India.

Here It is worthwhile to mention here that the Walmart which originated and prospered in USA failed to create considerable job opportunities in USA and Tesco which has its root in Europe failed to create even a lac job opportunity in Europe . USA is facing the problem of unemployment and passing through bad days. Financial crisis which erupted in USA and Europe in the year 2008 still persists.

Poverty level in USA has gone up. People of USA has left farming and have to depend on other countries for even vegetables , pulses, wheat ,rice and other cereals . People of USA have to depend on India and China even for packed food, junked food, cloth and goods of daily uses.

To open the eyes and ears of leaders of UPA government I submit hereunder the conclusion arrived at by an renowned economist Mr. Stephen M Ciccarella Jr. who is a professor in Cornell University - Department of Economics; Public Policy Institute of California .this is the abstract and finding arrived at by this great men after prolonged research on the life of US farmers, poverty in rural areas of USA before and after entry of Walmart retain chain in US market.

Abstract:
We estimate the effects of Wal-Mart stores on county-level retail employment and earnings, accounting for endogeneity of the location and timing of Wal-Mart openings that most likely biases the evidence against finding adverse effects of Wal-Mart stores. We address the endogeneity problem using a natural instrumental variables approach that arises from the geographic and time pattern of the opening of Wal-Mart stores, which slowly spread out from the first stores in Arkansas.

The employment results indicate that a Wal-Mart store opening reduces county-level retail employment by about 150 workers, implying that each Wal-Mart worker replaces approximately 1.4 retail workers. This represents a 2.7 percent reduction in average retail employment. The payroll results indicate that Wal-Mart store openings lead to declines in county-level retail earnings of about $1.2 million, or 1.3 percent. Of course, these effects occurred against a backdrop of rising retail employment, and only imply lower retail employment growth than would have occurred absent the effects of Wal-Mart

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http://dkjain4970920122007.blogspot.in/2012/06/why-coal-import-is-necessary.html

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Give 2 Minutes to Know Manmohan Singh

Respected Manmohan Singh , Prime Minister of our country says, “Food inflation may be sign of growing prosperity”.

Manmohan Singh is surrounded by persons of top trade houses and top industrialists of the country. He lives in and around richest people of India and he interacts only with mostly rich people. He moves in foreign countries for attending various meeting , talks with wealthy ministers and guided by corrupt team of senior officers and hence he always come across signs of prosperity.

He has read in books various principles of economics and the result of various economic theories. He keeps his eyes and ears closed and act as per theory what he has read during his college life when the economic condition and global scene was entirely different.

http://dkjain4970920122007.blogspot.in/2011/11/give-2-minutes-to-know-manmohan-singh.html

Walmart Warehouse Workers Rally In Downtown LA Ends 6-Day Pilgrimage (PHOTOS)

Posted: 09/18/2012 6:00 pm Updated: 09/18/2012 6:44 pm

After braving 103-degree heat as they marched over the past six days, warehouse workers who deliver goods for Walmart concluded their 50-mile pilgrimage protesting working conditions with a rally in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday. Met by hundreds of supporters on the steps of LA City Hall, the weary workers told the crowd that conditions in the Inland Empire warehouses where they work are even worse than the heat and exhaustion they experienced over the past six days.

"The march, walking in the heat, was very easy compared to working in the warehouse," Raymond Castillo, a 23-year-old warehouse worker who marched with the group, told The Huffington Post.

Castillo is one of about 30 warehouse workers who walked out of the large warehousewhere they were employed in Mira Loma, Calif., last week, even though their jobs are not protected by a union. On Thursday, he and about 50 other warehouse workers began a six-day pilgrimage to draw attention to working conditions that they said they can no longer tolerate.

On Monday, the workers delivered a letter, with more than 37,000 signatures, to the Walmart office in downtown LA, Elizabeth Brennan, a spokeswoman for Warehouse Workers United, told HuffPost. The letter says that workers are forced to work in 120-degree heat without a fan, that the heat and pollutants make the workers vomit and get bloody noses, and that workers are made to work without clean water or regular breaks and with faulty, dangerous equipment.

The six-day pilgrimage followed the route taken by the trucks that carry the goods they load -- from Riverside, Calif., to downtown Los Angeles. The workers and supporters slept on church floors along the way and relied on supporters for meals (see photos below).

"I felt joy because of all the supporters that walked with us and that lasted the whole time right by our sides. And I felt proud of myself because I'm fighting for something that I believe in," Castillo told HuffPost.

Even though Castillo has a wife and 1-year-old, he said working in the warehouse was "not worth risking my life." At the end of the pilgrimage, he said he felt inspired and rejuvenated. "I still feel like running more. Right now, I'm bouncing up and down because I’m excited. I'm not even paying attention to my blisters on my feet," he exclaimed.

Speakers supporting the workers at the rally downtown included Rep. Judy Chu, Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal and Councilman Ed Reyes. Dolores Huerta, who, along with César Chávez, co-founded the National Farmworkers Association; Marty Morgenstern, California secretary of labor; and Elena Durazo, secretary-treasurer of LA County Federation of Labor Maria, also spoke.

The six-day pilgrimage included events along the way. On Friday, volunteer health professionals held a health clinic (see photos below), providing screening for asthma, glucose, body mass index, and blood pressure tests for the workers, most of whom do not have health insurance.

On Sunday, about 100 farm workers from Central Valley and Oxnard traveled by bus to march in solidarity with the warehouse workers. Warehouse Workers United, which coordinated the pilgrimage, said the event, or "Walmarch," was inspired by the340-mile march that Cesar Chavez, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, led from the fields of Central California to the steps of the state capitol in Sacramento.

On Monday, one warehouse worker flew to San Jose in northern California to go with about 30 Walmart retail associates and supporters to Walmart board member Greg Penner's home in Silicon Valley to demand humane conditions for warehouse workers, according to Brennan. Penner's wife, Carrie Walton-Penner, refused to accept their petition, and the workers were asked to leave her property, according to Brenner.

Instead, outside the Penners' gate, they built a pyramid of decorated boxes to symbolize the boxes that they deliver to Walmart (see photos below).

Although the workers are employed by subcontractors NFI and Warestaff, Walmarthas control over the subcontractors' working conditions, according to a study by the labor-backed National Employment Law Project.

Neither Warestaff, which employed the 30 workers on strike, nor Walmart responded to HuffPost's request for comment. NFI, which employs some of the workers at the Mira Loma warehouse, told HuffPost that the workers' allegations are "inaccurate."

"Everybody on the shift meets with the managers on a regular basis, and they're supposed to bring to their attention anything that will get in the way of their jobs, such as safety," Kathleen Hessert, an NFI spokeswoman, told HuffPost.

Last year, two staff companies at the Mira Loma warehouse were fined $499,000 and$600,000 for wage and hour violations.

The workers' letter, also delivered to Walmart offices in Chicago, New York, San Jose and Irvine on Monday, asks for a meeting with Walmart executives on behalf of warehouse workers nationally. The Southern California workers said they had to resort to the pilgrimage to deliver the letter because their previous complaints about working conditions have been met with threats, suspensions and terminations.

The warehouse workers make $8 per hour and $250 a week, or $12,000 per year, and workplace injuries are common, according to the Warehouse Workers United. In a recent study, the union and the University of California interviewed 101 workers and found that 83 of them said they had suffered a job-related illness.

Warehouse Workers United does not officially represent the workers, although workers may pay $5 a month to join. Union leaders believe Walmart has purposely set up a system of multiple subcontractors and temporary staffing agencies in an effort to make organizing difficult, Brennan said.

Tomorrow, the 30 or so warehouse workers who walked out of the large warehouse where they were employed in Mira Loma will return to picket in front of the building. So far, they have not gotten a response from the warehouse staffing companies or Walmart about a meeting.