Letter to BS: Missing the big picture and key factors on FDI in retail

Our national gains, from this one factor alone, will offset any apprehensions of foreign companies dominating the market and repatriating big profits back home

Your editorial, Realign FDI with retail (May 2) is straightforward, no-words-minced and focused on what is wrong with our policy on Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in retail. I think, in our misconceived desire to protect the domestic industry, we are missing the big picture. The “potential multiplier effect on employment generation and re-energising the agriculture market” — as mentioned by you — is the key factor we have failed to appreciate. In addition to these, there is the opportunity for huge learning and training of personnel in logistics, quality control, customer service — areas where the West is way