23.2.13

Of FDI in Retail....


The Union government downplayed the Opposition’s concern over allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and informed the Supreme Court that the policy, when fully implemented, would touch the lives of only 13.3% of the country’s population living in 53 cities.
The government said its policy on FDI in multi-brand retail stipulated that retail sales outlets could be set up only in cities with a population of over 1 million. “Even if the policy is fully implemented across the country, there are only 53 urban agglomerates/cities with million plus population. These 53 comprise only 0.67% of the total number of cities and have a total population of 160.7 million, as compared to the total population of India of 1,210 million, which is only 13.3%,” it said. The Centre was responding to the SC’s query on what steps were taken to protect traditional retail traders during hearing of a PIL which challenged the policy and the manner of its implementation.

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