"He too serves a certain purpose
who only stands and cheers."
—Henry Adams (American, 1838-1918)
Word for the day
Fress (v)
To eat or snack, especially often or in
large quantities.
Malice towards none
The second season of Yadav Family drama in UP will start after
Holi. Regardless of the election results.
First random thought this morning
Potato farmers in UP and Punjab are in deep distress.
The standing wheat crop promises to further escalate the problem, as prices are
likely to fall post harvest. Pulses are now trading below MSP in many states.
The pressure to allow import of duty free sugar to overcome the shortfall in
production to poor cane crop in southern India, may curtail the honeymoon of
sugarcane farmers also. On top of all this, some international agencies are predicting
revival of El Nino later in the summer of 2017.
Hope of any remarkable recovery in rural spending
might remain elusive, for now at least.
Could we see a USD100bn Desi food gaint?
Many national
newspapers prominently reported yesterday that local sweet and snacks maker
Haldiram’s revenues crossed Rs 4,000 crore in FY16. The Indian snack major is
now twice the size of Hindustan Unilever's packaged food division or Nestle
Maggi and larger than the India turnover of the two American fast food rivals
Domino’s and McDonald’s put together.
To me it's like if my daughter scores 95% in her 12th
board examination. I would not know whether to celebrate or rue her
performance. For, she would do extremely well relative to all her past
performances; outperforming my achievement by full 50%. But unfortunately, she
would not get admission to any of the reputed colleges!
I admit that indubitably it is no mean feat. But, In a
country inhabited by millions of connoisseurs, Haldiram took 80yrs to come into
the reckoning. It may take another 50 to match the global scale of its global
peers.
Moreover, given that this rising sun sells sweets and
fried snacks in the diabetes capital of the world (akin to someone selling
combs in the city of bald), some doubts about the sustainability and
desirability of its growth are natural.
The question is how we create a $100bn food giant,
befitting our country's rich culture, tradition and knowledge of culinary
science?
In my view, it is entirely possible. The first step
would be to get past the family prides and ego, and work towards consolidation
of large 15-20 regional players with the national players like Haldiram,
Bikanerwala etc. The second step would be to move focus from mostly celebratory
products to day to day healthy regional food served in a convenient packing
(easy to carry and eat). Third, step would be to address the mass market at
lowest possible price point. Healthy, affordable, convenient food that matches
the local taste and preferences could make the combined entity a global player
in two decades, in my view.
But that is not the point here.
The point I trying to raise is that 'Food' is one of
the greatest strengths of Indian economy.
The ready to eat food business employs many more
workers than the textile, leather, gems and jewellery put together. But I have
not heard any government incentive, scheme, program to promote this business.
(I am rejecting the Shiv Sena's "Shiv Vadapav" scheme in Mumbai as
poor political gimmick and Amma canteen in TN as nationalization of food
business).
On the contrary, restaurants are frequently subjected
to excessive taxation and street food vendors are victimized by municipal
authorities.
Also, I observe that this segment is mostly ignored in
the missions like Make in India, Skill India, Start up India etc.
Out of the list of priorities, this segment is saddled
with many social and economic problems like child labor, food adulteration,
poor hygiene standards etc.
As per NSSO report[1]
on the status of employment in India, "he population in the age group
15-59 years, which is considered to be economically active, comprised about 60
per cent of males and 61 per cent of females in rural areas and about 66 per
cent each of males and females in urban areas."
However, only about 40 per cent of population
participated in the labor force, meaning offered themselves for work.
Participation was significantly lower for females than for males in both rural
and urban areas.
A large majority (52%) of the workers are engaged in
self-employment. Moreover, about one third of workers were under casual labour
category. Only 18% were found to be regular salary/wage earners. The share
of casual labour in the total workforce of rural areas was
about 35 per cent as against the corresponding share of 15 per cent in the
urban areas.
This in my view is an alarming situation. Most of the
self employed people are either underemployed or employed in disguise, both in
urban and rural area. A stroll across the street or any market area would show
you a large number of youth pretending to engage in petty jobs as laborer and
hawker etc., who work and earn much lower than potential.
All those who vehemently opposed the FDI in multibrand
retail trade in the Parliament a few years back, need to go an ask a person who
runs a 24*7 daily neighborhood Khomcha, how much he earns after
working 17-18hrs a day.
My experience suggests it is much lower than what a
counter boy at Big Bazaar earns, in a 10hr shift, in a dignified, secure, and
air conditioned environment with no investment risk and without any botheration
about the municipal raids.
I have met many fruit and vegetable hawkers in past
five years in connection with my NGO work. More than one quarter of them cannot
afford to send their kids to even government schools who do not charge any fee,
and provide books, uniform and mid day meal for free.
Moreover, overall 49% of all participating workers
were engaged in agriculture activities. For female workers the ratio was
substantially higher at 63%. A large majority of these workers are self
employed with no financial or social security. These are also unemployed or
underemployed for a large part of the year.
To harness the potential of Indian youth demographics,
it is therefore essential that an integrated approach is adopted to increase
employability, employment and productivity level.
Political bickering or prejudices notwithstanding, a
serious relook is needed on issues like land reforms, labor mobility, labor
laws, skill development, gender equality, integrated rural development, cottage
industry, MSME sector, technology innovation and business facilitation.
The incumbent government has made many positive
statements in this regard. I hope to see implementation of these ideas in next
few years.
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