Word: delhi
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...Guha does not gloss over India's numerous failures. He describes how New Delhi's bungling has combined with Islamic fundamentalism to nullify most attempts to weave the valley of Kashmir into the fabric of India. He doesn't shy away from the still-lopsided economy (at least one-quarter of the population is extremely poor, and many social services are in an appalling state). Most disturbingly, he warns that there has been a rotting away of the institutions that allowed democracy to thrive in the decades after 1947-political dynasties now dominate most Indian states, corruption has grown...
...retailers and forced them to sell through licensed middlemen, called mandis. The law, which also aimed to give farmers a fair and consistent price, "was initially done with a good purpose," says Arpita Mukherjee, a senior fellow at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, a New Delhi-based think tank. But over the years it grew into a monster, gaining layer upon layer of intermediaries, none of whom added any value to the fruits and vegetables they traded even as they added on their own margins. The result: a grossly inefficient system in which farmers are divorced...
...with opportunity comes hurdles," says Shushmul Maheshwari, head of New Delhi-based market-research company RNCOS. Nowhere is that more true than in India, where poor infrastructure and bureaucracy can combine to thwart even the best-laid plans. When Reliance, which has interests in oil and petrochemicals and opened its first retail store only last November, began exploring the possibility of a nationwide chain of grocery stores-it wants to open 2,000 by next April-it quickly realized that it would need to build its own distribution network almost from scratch. "If we are putting up a pan-Indian...
...reduce wastage, give the farmers more money and consumers better quality produce." But building the infrastructure may be the easy part. Convincing government and those invested in the old system that it's time for a change is still a major struggle. While the national coalition government in New Delhi says it is committed to reform as a way of helping farmers boost their incomes, its left-wing members are horrified by the prospect of a flood of organized retail outlets putting mom-and-pop stores out of business. Wal-Mart, which has tied up with Bharti...
...wastage in places like Bangalore to less than 5%. The federal government is contemplating the introduction of a single nationwide sales tax that would replace state taxes complicating distribution. It is also now talking about building its own massive cold-storage facilities outside major cities such as New Delhi to spur the transition to a more efficient supply chain. While middlemen may be feeling the pinch, farmers selling to Reliance say they're happy to be paid in cash as soon as they hand over their goods. "We were dealing with thieves who always used to cheat us," says Karnataka...