Wal-Mart under fire in India, government signals probe

[Sugarcane]

(Reuters) - India's government said on Tuesday it was prepared to launch an inquiry into lobbying by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., buckling under an opposition campaign to discredit a flagship economic policy that allows foreign supermarkets to trade in Asia's third largest economy.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has pressed ahead with the policy despite fierce political opposition, arguing that foreign capital and expertise is needed to revive the flagging economy and modernize India's food supply chain.

Opposition uproar over the issue has repeatedly caused parliament to be adjourned in recent weeks and derailed efforts to pass more reforms to bring investment to the banking, pensions and insurance industries.

In a recent disclosure filing, Wal-Mart told U.S. authorities it had spent $25 million on lobbying activities in the United States over the past four years to help win market access to markets including India - considered one of the last major frontiers for global retailers.

India's opposition parties, led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have seized on media coverage of the filing as evidence the company had engaged in lobbying in India, even though the filing referred only to lobbying activities in the United States.

"The government views this with as much concern as all sections of the house and has no hesitation in having an inquiry ... to get to the facts of the matter," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath told parliament.

He said he would announce steps towards an inquiry in parliament later on Tuesday. But later his office strongly denied he had given a date for any action, raising questions about whether the government would indeed launch an investigation.

Wal-Mart, which discloses issues and expenditures associated with lobbying in various markets on a quarterly basis in the United States, said the allegations it had lobbied in India were "entirely false".

"The expenditures are a compilation of expenses associated with staff, association dues, consultants, and contributions spent in the United States," a spokesman for the company's local tie-up Bharti Walmart said.

(Reporting by Malini Menon in NEW DELHI and Nandita Bose in MUMBAI; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Ross Colvin and Jeremy Laurence)

Wal-Mart under fire in India, government signals probe | Reuters

 

[Gandhi G in da house]

Yeah right. Congress is going to do nothing .

Both the houses of the parliament have approved of FDI in retail , things should move forward now.

 

[fast]

Walmart didn't pay the right bribe to enough Indians?

 

[Azazel]

Walmart didn't pay the right bribe to enough Indians?

No,they paid bribe to wrong people at wrong time and revealed it themselves.

 

[Abhishek_]

too much ado about nothing. they paid fees to lobbyists in US which is legal.
moronic opposition.

 

[Not Sure]

It is the business houses in India and ground level store/business owners that fund the central and local governments respectively and want to keep the market from opening up to international competitors. Presence of big store chains such as Walmart and IKEA will only help in increased employment, greater inflow of FDI, and higher fluidity in the local markets.

So it is less of the governments, and more of the local business owners that are keeping the competitors out.

Congress and BJP both will act the same way in this case, just as they did in Delhi throughout the decades of 90's and 2000's, when the Metro Rail project and 100s of overpasses became a reality but only after Madan Lal Khurana (of BJP, a front man of the market movers) lost elections and the business owners lost ground.

In this particular case of Walmart, the infusion of fear of the imperialist west is just a smokescreen, it is all about domestic politics and funding from the interested sources.

 

[Abingdonboy]

too much ado about nothing. they paid fees to lobbyists in US which is legal.
moronic opposition.

Absolutely, it is a failure to understand what lobbying is in the US. It is seen as a perfectly legitimate form of business practice.The oppostion were looking for anything to attack the government with. The FDI will move foreward and will happen, it has passed all the hurdles it needs to. In fact it didn't actually need to be passed in parliment as it is an executive order but it was passed through the parliament as a curtosey and to shut the idiotic oppostion up but even after jumping through all the hoops they won't quit.


Oh well, FDI will be great for India and then the oppostion will try and make out they were behind brining it in!

 

[Nair saab]

FDI in Retail Exposed...

 

[Viper0011.]

Walmart didn't pay the right bribe to enough Indians?

lol. Speaking of this, when are we going to launch a probe into Indian companies illegally running H1B labor network, suppressing American resumes and giving jobs to Indians here in the US and also off shoring them. Apparently, they've bribed the right set of Americans as no one wants to talk about it. From a manager to the C level execs are involved in getting paid in offshore accounts, etc by the Indian lobby

 

[Abhishek_]

lol. Speaking of this, when are we going to launch a probe into Indian companies illegally running H1B labor network, suppressing American resumes and giving jobs to Indians here in the US and also off shoring them. Apparently, they've bribed the right set of Americans as no one wants to talk about it. From a manager to the C level execs are involved in getting paid in offshore accounts, etc by the Indian lobby

complained the pakistani

 

[kawaraj]

Walmart will only end up in tragedy I give my words here. Another victim of being playing even in such country.

 

[Viper0011.]

complained the pakistani

Is that the best you can come up with? I am actually black!!! Just because I said the right thing,...doesn't mean you are not running an illegal labor mafia in the US. Soon there will be a day when the FBI will jump into this and trust me, a few hundred Indian shadow companies and people will go straight to jail. The laws would be tightened then.

Tell you what, when my buds, our service members who got back from Afg and Iraq can't get jobs due to your illegal mafia violating US labor laws....you'll see it in my posts. You can call me Chinese or Crazy if you want to, but counter my statement with something more credible than utter stupidity. This is where you can read a response and you know how smart the Indians are. Bribe and technical skills don't mean you are superior. It just means you are robing a country and it's people who let you in with goodwill!!!

 

[KRAIT]

Is that the best you can come up with? I am actually black!!! Just because I said the right thing,...doesn't mean you are not running an illegal labor mafia in the US. Soon there will be a day when the FBI will jump into this and trust me, a few hundred Indian shadow companies and people will go straight to jail. The laws would be tightened then.
Tell you what, when my buds, our service members who got back from Afg and Iraq can't get jobs due to your illegal mafia violating US labor laws....you'll see it in my posts. You can call me Chinese or Crazy if you want to, but counter my statement with something more credible than utter stupidity. This is where you can read a response and you know how smart the Indians are. Bribe and technical skills don't mean you are superior. It just means you are robing a country and it's people who let you in with goodwill!!!

Tell me one thing, is it Indian govt. controlling this so called "illegal" mafia ? Are Indians on the whole financing these mafia by paying taxes ?

If Russian crime Mafia operates on your soil, do you blame Russia ? Its fault of US that can't stop these criminals. May be you need to implement these US labor laws with much efficiency. Don't blame entire India because your country is incapable of doing something. India as a whole is not responsible for this mess as there is no connection of Indian govt. with this.

If you can't get a job and you know about these illegal Indians, file a case against them. After all its you who is paying the price.

 

[KRAIT]

It is the business houses in India and ground level store/business owners that fund the central and local governments respectively and want to keep the market from opening up to international competitors. Presence of big store chains such as Walmart and IKEA will only help in increased employment, greater inflow of FDI, and higher fluidity in the local markets.
So it is less of the governments, and more of the local business owners that are keeping the competitors out.
Congress and BJP both will act the same way in this case, just as they did in Delhi throughout the decades of 90's and 2000's, when the Metro Rail project and 100s of overpasses became a reality but only after Madan Lal Khurana (of BJP, a front man of the market movers) lost elections and the business owners lost ground.
In this particular case of Walmart, the infusion of fear of the imperialist west is just a smokescreen, it is all about domestic politics and funding from the interested sources.

I am not against FDI, but do you know how many jobs these companies like Wal Mart will provide and how many local businessmen will be put out of work. One has to look at creation of unemployment along with employment to find the benefits.

Also, the local businesses pay higher money to the bottom of the chain, that is the producers, than the chains like Wal Mart. If these local businesses shuts down, the farmers have no alternative but to sell their product at lowest price to only player in the market as they will control the price then.

One has to look at Germany when they allowed FDI with much restriction to save local businesses. Liquidity increases with flow of money but when you remove a major driver of this flow, there won't be more liquidity.

 

[fast]

Is that the best you can come up with? I am actually black!!! Just because I said the right thing,...doesn't mean you are not running an illegal labor mafia in the US. Soon there will be a day when the FBI will jump into this and trust me, a few hundred Indian shadow companies and people will go straight to jail. The laws would be tightened then.

Tell you what, when my buds, our service members who got back from Afg and Iraq can't get jobs due to your illegal mafia violating US labor laws....you'll see it in my posts. You can call me Chinese or Crazy if you want to, but counter my statement with something more credible than utter stupidity. This is where you can read a response and you know how smart the Indians are. Bribe and technical skills don't mean you are superior. It just means you are robing a country and it's people who let you in with goodwill!!!

Indians are so unoriginal. When losing an argument or confronted with damning facts, the only thing they do is to scream false flag. They will accuse you as a Chinese or Pakistani because those two countries have driven fear into their bones.