Ye Deewali Layegi Khushhaali

It has been
observed that Corona is making general people's life miserable, however, there
is movement but a kind of fear is spreading and somewhere deepen in our heart
that we are the next target. Here in Jaipur, the situation is not so good but I
must say that people have the courage and they want to fight this
miserable disease. " Movement of peoples is moving money in the economy that's why the movement is a must"

I am into a
retail business, we deal with more than 1700+ retailers in the city. More or
less market is covering from a long lockdown and things seem to settle in a smooth way. If we talk about consumer behaviour no doubt it changed a lot. 20% of
consumers diverted their Kirana needs to online portals. Amid COVID
situation, things went in favour of eB2C marketplaces. The entry of Jiomart was in the right time or, it is like "someone's failure proves lucky for the other". 

Almost all E-com players are getting good response. Amazon & Flipkart are the major ecom-marketplace where more love is seen from end consumers. they are getting plenty of orders on daily basis, also such a positive response is giving them great oxygen for new expansion in the country. On
the order side, at General Kirana stores  (GT) footfall is for main staples, and
somewhere people avoiding physical movements.  

But for me, my concern is " Kirana Retailer" because they are losing their share of business due to undue influence of E-Comm players. Kirana retailers are losing 20-30% of their counter Sale since August 2020. The overall scenario is not favorable, in the last one month there is no big offtake even
for main staples, FMCG brands are also in an indifference mood but they are
trying to fill the inventory amid the upcoming festival season, the still
current situation of the spread of COVID is making a kind of dilemma about
demand-side whether it will pick up or not in months to come. 

If we talk
about consumer's preferences they are not in a mood to express their emotions but are  in great dilemma for this Deepawali not because of safety but financials matters. 

Why there is a doubt on the demand side?   When a consumer is badly hit by the
Pandemic where they have lost their jobs, small businesses got shut down and still, thousands of manufacturing units are waiting for production, Opex is making them bankrupt, so how we can think that there will be positive vibes for this
festival.  

If the circulation of money is interrupted then what about demand from consumers, The consumer at this time not spending on splendid things but
they are trying to save money for the future.  People have seen a tough time
in the last 5 months where most of them have to borrow money from friends/family
and taken loans just to make sure that their livelihood goes continue but we are
just thinking of upper-middle class and high-class income group, what about the rest , the majority.  We are
happy that Kirana /Grocery business remains fruitful during the lockdown time
but what happens with other industries. The garment industry is the worst hit
where millions of peoples lost their jobs, the same had happened with consumer
durables.  

If we are
talking just to make ourselves happy that the festival is going to celebrate in a big
way,  I am happy if this will happen but still, pain is there in the
ecosystem.  I should be with the majority of people and should say be
positive and go empty stomach but celebrate Deepawali buy gift hampers and help
companies selling their products and help restoring production. We need to give a big boost to industrial growth. 

Just have a
look at the current COVID spread in the country : 

Maharashtra (1,453,653)

Andhra Pradesh (723,512)

Karnataka (647,712)

Tamil Nadu (625,391)

Uttar Pradesh (417,437)

above 5 states
are the majorly hit by the COVID...   

As per business standards,  1 in
10 may be infected by this deadly virus

Resilience from
COVID is good but it will take a longer time to get rid of psychological stress
from the mind. 

Deepawali festival is 40 days ahead from now but the market is dull in all respects amid fear
of low demand.  This is creating an undecisive event at the companies' level as they always celebrate this festival by introducing various gift hampers & Sweets etc.  National level companies Nestle, Amul, Haldiram & Kanha are as usual
trying to make up the mood for a cheerful Deepawali and as usual, they are
going to fill the market with their festival range but they start getting
demand issues from distributors and other supply channels. 

This time they
have to give extra comfort to their distributors for giving credit in terms of
reverse logistics if demand is not picked up in the up-coming 30 days.  Dealers
are paying cash to companies against procurements but distributors are selling
on credit to retailers.  If demand is not there for such products then it should return to companies. After a discussion with brands, they are ready to cooperate with distributors in case of any adverse situation. 

The same issue
is with local & regional confectionery companies as they are not in a position to predict
demand but I am happy to hear that demand surged for confectionary products during the COVID period. but after discussion with few brands, hope is there that the market will have show some positive demand in the coming days. 

Today I was talking to Mr. Puneet Jethlia, Director of Kanha Group. ((https://www.kanha.co), Kanha brand is one of the trusted in Confectionary in Rajasthan) through a virtual interview. Mr Puneet said COVID brings an opportunity for them in terms of exhibiting their products range to consumers and helping them to strengthen their supply chain in Packed products as huge demand is there for the packed food

 

(Mr Puneet Jethalia, Director, Kanha Group, Jaipur)  ( A brief of virtual interview) 

·        Q: How “Kanha” is going to strengthen its supply chain in the up-coming festival season?

R: We are appointing new distributors
and Super Stockist in our region to increase the reach. Trying to deliver
through our own vehicles as quantity would be in bulk to shorten the transport
cycle.

Q: COVID is spreading fast in the country. Do you
think it will hamper Food retail to some extend? Especially specialty food like
confectionary & supplementary Food?

R: Surprisingly COVID has resulted in growth in confectionery and supplementary food sales. Since people were caught
in their homes so the consumption increased. Also nowadays people are preferring
packed food in comparison with the fresh one due to hygiene and safety so I think
it is a good time for us.

Q. How much enthusiastic you are for the upcoming
festival? Do you think demand will be there as per the pre COVID level?  If yes how it will? and if not, why?

R: Seriously the demand won’t be
like pre-COVID levels but yes the trend would change. Pre-packed commodities
like tin sweets, prepacked sweets would likely to increase rather than fresh
sweets. So I would say people are more health-conscious and preferring packed
foods.

Q. As a Confectionary
leader in the state how you deal with upcoming Demand? Is it decisive for you
to project the demand or there is any dilemma amid COVID Spread?

R: Demand is fluctuating as of now. But since
we have short shelf-life products we face little issues in projection. But yes
after lockdown the demand has come down a little bit.

--------------------------------

I am positive on this side of the coin that customer preference is more for healthy products, they are preferring to buy packed food and no doubt consumption of confectionary increased. 

however, mix and match the situation will go till 20th October 2020, things will move upon the market's move
on this but the supply chain will remain an issue till the
festivals.  

This is a big Dilemma for all stakeholders but we have to come out from such a dilemma and should work cohesively to bring many positive vibes in the country. 

As a marketer
and retail professionals, I am confident that things will improve and people, as
usual, shall celebrate this great festival. Confidence of business people like Mr. Puneet helps me to align my thoughts in a positive direction and hope this festival will bring lots of happiness and business for all stakeholders.  

Readers, please provide
your feedback and let's start brainstorming through comments, 
it is a matter of our belief and our economy.  We all need to work to make
it recharge and set towards growth. 

Writer: Balwant Singh Rana, 

Reference: Business 

Mission : Mera-Mobile-Mera-Marketing (Connecting Rural Market)

MeraMobileMeraMarketing

www.marketmirchi.com 
( Connecting Rural market)

D

isruption,
a kind name of development in a positive way of doing business which solves the problem at a large level and brings prosperity in the life of focus customers.
Post-COVID there are big changes going on in the retail sector, especially food segment came with new energy and ideas. Companies
started working on products and developments in every sector. The
retail sector is going more responsive in terms of new developments.  IT
is the driver of new ideas where new startups are trying to fill the gap,
getting investments and burning heavily to get the space.  As per my own
thoughts, Indian Agri sector needs more developments and various treatment also should bring IT-driven solutions to work on the farmer’s problems.

Mrs Pragati Gokhle, the ex-Govt official is
closely working to bring IT-enabled platform for farmers. Here is a brief about
her initiative.  In a separate blog post, I will bring some insides of
this startup through a virtual interview of Mrs Pragati.

As per her request I am publishing story of  Mera Mobile mera marketing. 

A

n Initiative for Indian Farmers/Rural
Entrepreneurs to Sell Products Online free by Pragati Gokhale. Big Brands are
also showing interest to join Mission MeraMobileMeraMarketing for procuring
directly through Farmers

Pragati Gokhale, an Advisor at Rajiv Gandhi Science & Technology
Commission, Govt. of Maharashtra was very excited when speaking to us saying
her humble initiative has finally started seeing results.

She was sharing the fact that Brands like Big
basket and Reliance Retail has also shown interest to procure for their
requirements through www.marketmirchi.com which is an integral
part of Mission MeraMobileMeraMarketing. She
expects that would establish very good online linkages for our farmers for free
of cost. Mission MeraMobileMeraMarketing is a disruptive bottom-up approach for
enabling Digital Agro/Rural Marketing from Rural Stakeholders through
their mobiles.

Pragati Gokhale is the retired Dy. Director
Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Rural Industrialization, National Institute under
Ministry of MSME Govt. of India and is currently working as Advisor Rajiv
Gandhi Science & Technology Commission, she is also National Resource The person for the ministry of Rural Development Govt. of India and Brain Behind
Mission MeraMobileMeraMarketing.

Pragati
Gokhale becomes eloquent when she speaks about her innovative yet free online
digital platform for farmers not only for farmers but also for rural/agro
entrepreneurs. She says she started this initiative four years ago with the
help of MKCL to allow farmers to think beyond the usual concept of selling to
consumers digitally.

Rajiv
Gandhi Science & Technology Commission Chairman Dr Anil Kakodkar and
MKCL Director Vivek Sawant has extended all help to her. During Days
of COVID 19, Pandemic Farmers & Rural Entrepreneurs were finding it hard to
sell their products but   Mission MeraMobileMeraMarketing through platform www.marketmirchi.com  was of great help to
them in finding online customers for their products and establishing direct
linkages. Looking at the impact Department of Science & Technology Govt. of
India has included it in Post COVID Reforms Policy

She goes
on to explain that for getting real benefits of Digital Revolution at the
bottom of the pyramid it is essential to have such holistic integrated
programs.

MISSION
MeraMobileMeraMarketing has four components out of which www.marketmirchi.com is
an Agile, indigenous, responsive Web portal highlighting all
rural/agro categories for Free digital marketing of rural Products/Agro
Products, SHG products, Rural Services and Rural Jobs. This portal is mobile
friendly like the app but does not need downloading like APP. It is developed
using Latest Progressive Web Technologies. Various field level programs are
taken for skilling farmers for using marketmirchi.com effectively using their
mobiles with support from various Govt, Non-Govt players working in Rural Development
Sector. Videos on how to use marketmirchi.com for your zero budget
digital Agro Marketing is also prepared by MKCL in Hindi and distributed to
farmers through WhatsApp. Video is available on YouTube at (https://youtu.be/aQs3p0zV6gE)

NABARD
has arranged various pieces of training for Farmers /Farmer Producer
Organizations were also this Video on how to to use Marketmirchi.com is
disseminated. This also is disseminated through Krishi Vigyan
Kendras  & Community Radios all over India.

To
find Buyers for agro/rural products various online/ offline strategies which
include Data Mining and AI techniques, Leveraging Social Media
channels, Networking through Agro Supply Chain events are taken up. Big
Buyers and Small traders, exporters are linking directly with farmers through
this platform. Analysis of Data generated is done by using Open Source
Business Intelligence tools and these data Analytics values are then
back streamed in the database of portal marketmirchi.com. The analysis Shows Growing demand for organic and residue
Free Agro Products from Both B2B and B2C Customers. More than 15000 Farmers & other Rural Stakeholders are taking advantage
of marketmirchi.com for finding buy, sell leads for them Free and also for
Job Leads.

Apart
from increasing digital footprint of Rural India more than 60 % direct market
leads are generated for Agro/Rural Sector by this free but effective humble
effort.

Great
Initiative 

---------

From
Blogger's Desk: Political ground for farmer's
development is full of greed since independence but seen no real beneficiary
changes on the ground.  They are still poor and exploited by the traders
and even political parties. But, there are organizations and people like Mrs Gokhale who are there to bring positive Disruption in the life of the poor farmers through providing an IT-based platform from where they can easily sell their
produce. We should be part of such development and should appreciate the
efforts made by people like Mrs Gokhale. I request my readers to become part of
this movement and help Mrs Pragati Gokhale to promote their marketmirchi.com platform
to maximum farmers, traders across the country. 

Readers may directly contact to Mrs Pragati
Gokhale -  email: pragatikin@gmail.com
,Mobile no. 9822719618

Thanks/ Balwant Singh Rana, blog writer & owner of market.retailhaidetail.com

 

Disclaimer
:

Above write-up is provided by Mrs Pragati
Gokhale,  advisor Rajiv
Gandhi Science & Technology
Commission (Govt. of Maharashtra) & DST. I, writer of this blog has no
commercial interest publishing this post. for any Copywriter, text, business
issue, one can directly contact to Mrs Pragati Gokhale at above mentioned her
contact details. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Different Style of Learning in Indian Retail

We need to learn something unique about Indian Grocery
Retail but before that, we should adopt a few things which will help us to
understand it deeply. How it will happen? What kind of information is needed
for this? And how do we understand it in the context of the Indian retail
sector? All such questions will be part of this principle. Let's start with
three steps:,

1. Learn

2. Unlearn

3. Relearn

“Alvin Toffler is
credited with saying: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be
those who can read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and
re-learn."

 A stage
of Learn:

Why do we need to go through the scanner of this principle described by
Alvin Toffler? As human beings, we are living in a cage where we believe that
things are created by "I", controlled by "I" and that my
mind is the powerhouse of all the thoughts that I am creating, describing, and
creating. and finally executing. But, why is there a fight between thoughts,
because we receive those thoughts from our conscious mind which always give us
some great importance in terms of the things around us, the happenings around
us and our physical relationships with people? draw towards intimacy.

The cage around us is so powerful that it does not allow us to move towards
even the most accessible things i.e. our knowledge that blocks our subconscious
mind and the waves flowing through it, and this is because we are the most
learned, we are the most experienced and we will never allow others to correct
our ideas or we need to adopt such ideas. This situation makes us like a frog
(I) who lived almost his life in a borewell. For that poor Frog, the whole
universe is a well, the walls of his sleep, some small creatures around him,
the water, and some disturbance of the man who used to suck water for drinking
or irrigation in his fields. 

One day a crow saw this frog sunbathing on a large dry leaf floating on the
water. He said to the frog, why doesn't he want to come out of this well and
see the beautiful world outside it. But, the frog starts to give a different
level of knowledge that he is living in a big universe, where he has lots of
resources and he has things to make his life better, so what will happen
outside your world. The crow promises him that he will see the outside world
once and if he does not like it then he can come again to his place. Finally,
he gave his consent and came out of the well. When he came out of the Well it
was a different experience for him.

This is our learned stage. The limitation of knowledge gives it a mental
barrier. We live with it and think we're right, we're doing the right thing,
and that our creation is the greatest thought in the world. But, again out of
the world, there is much to learn.

A stage of
Unlearn:

Start letting go of things that can hinder your growth. Let it melt your
thoughts because the journey always starts with an idea. Sometimes we need to
forget what we saw in a different world. It is good to have an idea for the
better but a sequence needs to be set for its execution. India is almost 50 years
behind the US in terms of development and technology and 30 years behind Dubai,
Singapore. Even China is ahead of us on many platforms.

If you are looking to bring some new ideas which you have seen working well
in US, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai, it does not mean that these ideas will work
and give similar results in India. Before adopting those ideas and starting
working on them, evaluate whether, if the idea is "within" the time
or it requires hours, otherwise you will be out of the market like many first
movers are now in different sectors. I am experiencing.

Unlearned is a
state of personal trait that adapts you to the present level of circumstances,
it helps you to see the new world through new glasses.

Unlearning is not
meant to remove old memories, experiences, expertise, rather it is mostly a
kind of practical work which needs to be changed first. Our active/conscious
mind always makes itself the hero, which is where the effect needs to be seen.
Is it affecting his personal life or professional? If we are talking about
working in an organization then both are important. These represent our traits,
behavior, body language, and the way we respond to others.

Give up your bad habits first, and if you're a retail professional, there
are a few things you need to forget after reading this. A lot of things are
changing in the Indian retail sector where old market knowledge will not work
and with this dynamic movement, you need to create a dynamic moment with some
different learning styles.

A stage of Re-learning

Now, we will talk about "re-learn". Will the question arise? This
is a wise question; Why should we waste our time learning new things. Why
should we learn again? We are so knowledgeable, experienced, powerful, and
influential, why do we go to erase our years of hardship? We already know more
than others.

This is our mind block, like a frog, as long as he was in the borewell, he
was the king and emperor of his kingdom, but what happened when he came out of
the well. Why had he hidden behind a bush and started thinking about this new
world? Here we need to take off those old clothes that are being tailored all
around us. Learning is not purely with experience and knowledge, it can be your
habits, behaviour, adaptability, line of business, and different method of
behaviour. So, how are you going to learn those things? So, start learning
about it again here and slowly grow and reach your goal. That is why I am sure
that the frog will never return to its old home now.

The above three traits belong to human behavior, it has
nothing to do with the company’s strategy, concept, plan, execution, etc. but
it will help make those robust once go through thrice through a process.

Let's talk about
the relevance of these three words in the Retail segment

Learn:

• Market


• Products


• Distribution
  Channel


• Marketing
  & Awareness


• Customer
  Preference

So far we have learned how to spread the market in retail and have the kind
of depth that is needed. In our early days till 2005, we were in a state of the
mindset that the consumer is a secondary being taken care of by the retailers.
Therefore, the main focus was on the middle channel or the connector between
brands and consumers i.e. retailers. Everything was planned to take into
account their presence in the ecosystem, hence widely known as the general
business (GT) market stream. There, we learned how primary sales and secondary
sales work.

The go-to-market approach was a specialist job and was a bit lengthy and
had to be planned from scratch to the sky in such a way that it gives a wide
array of benefits in the long run. The focus remains to recruit distributors in
the focus market, followed by the appointment of Area Sales Managers, Sales
Officers, and Sales Representatives as the direct working force or
coordinators. There was a huge investment of money and time to shape the
distribution network. Years of hardship make a product brand in a struggling
way.

C&F was a
chain of Super Stockiest, Distributors, and Dealer physical channels which go
completely on track by the brand owner i.e. manufacturer through the channel at
an eye-catching and hard-working pace.

Here we learned
how ATL/BTL works in terms of marketing and creating awareness. Print media and
electronic media were the strongest at that time. Many celebrities from Bollywood,
Tollywood, and Hollywood, Cricket, etc. create an environment in the ecosystem
and television was the main medium of advertisement.

 There was no wide
range of products in the entire retail ecosystem, so things were managed by a
single shopkeeper at his store and it was like over-the-counter (OTC) from
where the retailer had control over the goods.

 Physical stores,
single format and with less priority of service but had product priority.
Retail 1.0, Retail 2.0 and Retail. 3.0

Most of the retail professionals have such rich experience and based on
their confidence they like to go with their experience but if we do not keep
pace with the ongoing development in the ecosystem and we do not follow the new
practices What will be the take away for them? So sometimes old tyrants find
themselves with a kind of mental block.

Experience counts, here I have no problem picking it up with new
developments, but there is a variety of new terminology used by the new retail
professional, so here's what we need. If we are to adjust to the new blood and
work in unison, we must start dropping some practical things from the past
habits.

Unlearn:

Start learning a
few things, like changing your perspective. It is one of the most common traits
that enhance or hinder our personality and profession. What do we need to
change? We need to change our way of thinking which should be positive,
progressive, passionate and in the right way. Adaptability is the key to
building harmony with your team members.

Your experience is
there to give you the right tools, teach you how to be on the right track, make
you perfect, and help you speed up your execution, but it requires a new kind
of knowledge that is a part of the ecosystem. will provide you.

A very important
step is to remove various brain blockages and allow your brain to adapt to new
things.

Example: The startup ecosystem was not a new business phenomenon, nor a new
kind of entrepreneurship, so why is it so different from the old type of
business setup. There are angels, seeds, VCs and PEs to support why foreign
investors invest. where were they before?

They were in old times but they have a different look, different style but
here startups bring new ideas, investors are investing in these ideas but
different types of execution plan, system and processes made it fast paced Is.
Which we need to learn but for that we have to leave the old fashioned way of
doing business. Time is running out fast, so with this kind of business here,
everyone wants to get out fast. They talk about getting 10x return from burning
millions of money, maybe a wise way but it is in the ecosystem. 

What to
Unlearn: You need to unlearn your few mindsets:

1. Are retailers brand conscious?

2. Retailer's mindset is typical and does not accept
change

3. Retail has limitations on IT tools and will not use
them for business growth.

4. Distribution depends on the entire distributor.

5. Online will be a challenge in rural and semi-urban.

6. Consumer packs of food items will not be sold in rural
areas.

7. IT Won't Do Anything That Promotes Distribution.

8. Consumers need brands and they are not adaptable.

Unlearn Retail 1.0
to Retail 3.0

The above ideas are related to the market, whereas as a professional we
need to transform ourselves and adopt the changes to keep pace with the
development. This process is called unlearning some obsolete things that were
living with us like deadwood and creating a complete mental block for us.

Re-Learn

Now we are living in a new era where we have a lot of time to learn new
things, we are IT savvy, we know best practices learned from a section of
management institutes. And our market dynamics are changing so fast to make us
in line.

Here we need to learn a lot of management strategies apart from the
behavioral traits, we know the market, where momentum is the key to success. So
what's slowing us down? Is this our knowledge? our behavior? our experience? Or
we are not being chosen to do the right thing. What is the most important thing
we need to learn or re-learn?

Is the Startup Ecosystem about to Change Everything in Retail? From idea to
implementation, there are many such things that have taken a new shape. We need
to know about the root cause, so far we learn about the symptoms but our old
practices were enough to steer us through a kind of prescribed treatment. It
was workable earlier, but in the present system, everything is happening
rapidly where there is a need for new learning by professionals. Let's talk
about some of the developments that have been going on in the retail ecosystem
since 2012.

We have some new dynamics about the market through a new way of doing
business. We are startups because our idea is unique, we have seen growth all
over the world and that experience is there to give us new lessons, but before
we think and compare those learnings in India, we should think twice or thrice
that India is a different market.

Here you will be doing kind of injustice to your money, time, and efforts
if you compare the markets of USA and UAE. Align your sequence and make sure
things are happening as and when you write.

eB2B: A new way of doing i.e. disruption starts happening in different
areas. Like B2B supply chain is being aggregated by e-B2B players. Udaan,
ShopKirana, Jumbotel and Kirana King are there to disrupt the outdated
distribution system by total supply chain. These are positive distributions
that are leading the way in technology and empowering retailers in their buying
decisions. Bijak on the other hand, they are providing e-mandi services to some
startup brokers and agri aggregator like Dehat and many more.

eB2C: Jiomart, Grofers, Amazon, Flipkart, Bigbasket, on the other hand are
there to provide one-stop solution to the consumers through eB2C. Now we are
talking about Omnichannel, Hyperlocal and Last Mile connectivity. This is
retail 4.0 version

Cash and Carry are there, though they are struggling enough to change
the ecosystem in the areas they have stores.

Backward integration starts in making supply chain in Food
i.e. from Agri Farm to Fork and all is being done through robust use of IT.

MSME on the other side is going heavily to promote farmers
through various FPOs and Clusters, purpose is to streamline associations,
productions, and supply chain of foods and empower the channels involves at
various stages. Organize retail is expanding very fast, the success
story of D-mart is there to lure thousands of individuals to open their
superstores / standalone stores and they already started doing this.

Retail Fintech is on the other hand is going to drive bia g-budget to
get market where funded NBFCs are there to provide various kinds of financial
facilities to Retailers, Distributors, Suppliers & Manufacturers of
products.

Even logistic providers are also getting funds because they are going
tech-driven. Everyone who has the power to drive a segment through technology
is part of the disruption.

Pharma on the other side is getting shape every day, companies like Apollo
have already done it well before time, many more are in line. One fast-growing
pharma chain is Dawaa Dost, all are getting funds.

Now think what will happen to the Frog which was in the Bore-Well for a
long and what happened to him when he came out from the Well and saw the entire
world. For him, this is new learning and re-learning. He should un-learn the
things that he learned while living in that bore well and should adopt the
changes for the betterment and should tuned-up his music with the developments.

A Retail
professional who joined retail in 1995 and after 20 years when he visits a
market, there is everything changed which he wants to describe and understand.
Hence, Frog is a new market leader who is leading the startups and teaching
them a new way of business.

 Retail
5.0 is ahead – Consumer Delight through Omni-channel services

Writer: Balwant Singh Rana

29.9.2020 10:36pm 

Why politics in Agriculture ? Agriculture Ordinance 2020

Modi Government's recent surgical strike on congress and various other political parties whose bread and butter comes from the vote bank of pitty farmers and this stike is done through an agricultural ordinance 2020..

Seems it become a practice for opposition to walk our and lead a strike on every move of Govt... It is the prime responsibility of the opposition to talk negative on every move whether it belongs to national security as recently we must hear from parties like Congress on China's recent encroachment...

Even, Akali dal one of the important friend of BJP left in between of this Bill... Later on, we have heard from the minister that Govt should clarify the outcome of this Agriculture ordinance that it is beneficial to Farmers. But for them, it is a political agenda in Punjab amid Farmer's agitation against the bill. 

On the other hand, Congress is trying to make every efforts to count shortcomings of this movement.. they are trying to convince farmers, Adatiya and traders that if this bill becomes Act and law, it will ruin the lives of all. 

This is a clear political agenda for parties whose political dignity, nepotism and power is through Farmers, their lucrative vote bank. Congress, SP, Left and other regional parties are in a big dilemma because the farmer is going to benefit, and once farmers start earning money through such development then they will not come under their scanner.

Most of the opponent are taking this the last nail in the coffin of their political career. 

I can observe that most of the political clan of India is out of mind or don't have the right vision for the country. The practice is now to oppose any movement of Govt whether it is right or wrong. Even without understanding the outcome, they start chasing people and trying to make negative propaganda. On the other side, many Indian people without knowing the truth and without going through its meaning come to oppose and set on fire property of the state.  What happened with the Citizen Act, NRC, national population register all are for the national security but it leads to brutal riots in Delhi.

Sometimes it hurts the emotions but who cares for the general public of this country. 

Coming to Agriculture Ordinance 2020. Here if we see all aspects and make them a positive for something then what is the harm in it. 

No doubt this bill is going beneficial to all stakeholders but Govt should give their clear statements on the following.

1.  How price will be determined. How effective MSP system will go after this Bill. 

2. What will happen to existing Mandi infra. If it will be there then how the farmer will be free to sale their crop outside mandi. If yes how?

3. Corporate entry. Now private companies and other semi Govt can invest in farming but farmers are not in  a comfort doing an agreement with corporates.

4. Mandi traders. Emotional bounding of farmers with aardiya and Mandi Traders. They are in millions and can form a greater front for great magnitude.

5. State Govt is earning a handsome revenue from Mandies. So losing this will be a burden for local bodies. 

6.Imbalance situation for small traders. 

7. Unemployment ... What about the employment being done so far from Mandies..

Instead of thinking about political parties, we should think that how our farmer get benefits from such developments. 

Local bodied working for farmers should come forward to make farmer understand and should provide enough informations to them that this Bill is for the welfare of their upcoming generation and for the benefits of coutry.  

We are an agricultural-based economy and we should relly upon majorly on our farmers. 

"Kissan hai to Insaan hai"

New Launches .. Consumer goods - A future ahead

Pandemic like Covid happened in centuries but when  spread like this, it leaves behind devastation in large numbers.  Countries across economic level get syndrome of inflation and rapid exploitation of existing resourced made it more dangerous. Countries like India too badily hit by the Covid 19, since March 2020 more than 5 million people had to left their job, numerous industries are still not started due to big migration of labour and non functional either any related backward integration or forward... 

Imbalance in every sector start beeping but there are few segments like healthcare and grocery kirana which remain unaffected throughout the lockdown months. Various new products were introduced by the national, regional and local level consumer goods companies.

Since last six month a positive distruption is seen in new product line , companied of national level  like HUL, P&G, Marico, ITC , Dabur, Amul did good while introducting new products and got good pull from consumers specially healthcare and foods.

But issue is about to come for local and regional level players where companies made heavey investment in products side but if market is not responding then what will happen..  

Why they are facing demand issue?

1. Distribution channel is now seems totally indifference because all want to do Cash transactions with retailers and but at demand side new products are a challenge for them to seek placement at retailers.

2. Retailers side : Retailer is facing demand crunch and a tough competition from online eB2C players and on the other side they dont have patience and passion to educate consumer for new products as it happened a decade ago..  on the other side retailer do not want to pay for products which are not demanded.

3. Consumer side... less issue when we talk about brands because, they keep a reasonable awareness among them and whenever companies communicate about new launch consumer don't have issue buying as per their habit.  but for regional and local players who don't have deep pockets and have no method and resources of mass communication, they failed to make awareness anout new launch. 

But above issue is temporary , when  devil of pandemic will go under the earth products specially in food segment will have a bright future. 

In support of this my blog article wrote during 2012 will show my thought on this.

Product in consumer pack is the future.

It need a organise distribution system , and a uniform name for call for action From where a communication in leu of marketing to be addressed to make consumer aware. There is a channel in between of brand and consumer and that is Retailer...

In this ecosystem product is kept in a black box..  brand carry that box and keep it in the shelf of retailer.. 

Here as a logistic and finance partner distributor played his role by carrying product to the retail store.

but where is the key, because  retailer put a big lock around that box. And without a Key a medium or a communication how it gonna open. 

Awareness is the key that should be given to end consumer so that they come to the retail store and ask for the box from where they can unlock the product...  

Now companies started working on this front, where more focus is to create pull for the new products. 

Kirana King is one of the company in Jaipur who is trying to connect all dots and creating a big platform for brands who are going to enter with new product line and want to explore the market in low cost.

Company's focus is to create a chain of grocery retails stores across Jaipur city.. 160 stores are live.

First ever company in Indian retail ecosystem who is converting old traditional kiranawala to Uniform name " Kirana King" by way of providing aggregation services of management and marketing by creating a network of stand alone traditional Kirana stores under the trade name"Kirana King" and giving them a uniform new look and feel , offering them centralise purchases solutions, managing shelves and display of various renowned brands on these stores and promoting these stores among consumers through various ATL/BTL marketing channels to establish the strong presence in their locality and to boost the sales of these stores thus an Asset light retail chain is working in the retail ecosystem and positively impacting grocery Retail in various ways. 

A future for new brands.  

Agriculture Ordinance 2020, A development or Dilemma

The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 ..

When the whole country was locked under pandemic, people were worried about their livelihood and slow down was in every sector, emotions, behaviour but there were a movement and momentum in Delhi where Modi Govt was preparing to abolished APMC Act. June 2020 was the month when it was notified and the charter was issued by the GOI that APMC Act is now past and our farmers are now going millionaire, they are also going to set themselves free from the decades-old useless Act of APMC which was the root cause of big exploitation of farmers.

Before I jumped to a conclusion, I am briefing the current practice of selling farmers produce. 

Mandi system is an old traditional channel of dealing Agri produce from farmers.. state Govt earn a handsome amount in the form of Mandi Taxes.. so a cash Cow for them. Since independence and till date it remains under influence of local politics. Traders, and a series of brokers deals with farmers.  Mandi traders are the first channel between industry/market and farmer. The farmer sells their Agri produce to the Aartiya's/ Mandi traders at an Auction system.

The old system of selling products in the market... if we talk about this system now means in the IT arena, it means we are not doing justice with yourself.  Why should the farmer be treated like an illiterate?

During my job tenure with a big Agri company from 2010 to 2012, I had to visit the hundred"s of Mandies across India. More or fewer systems is the same with the old selling pattern across region, the same type of noise on auctioning the produce standing in a circle.. winner put a flag on the lot. Immediately labour start filling in bags...after weighing trader issue bill to the farmer after deduction of unloading charges, loading charges, stitching and thread charges, weightment charges, moisture loss, foreign matter, quality deductions, mandi tax, entry tax, lab charges and cash discount. if we sum up all overheads it goes above 15%, but it depends on product to products.

Do you think, farmer collect its crop direct from the farm and sell it to Mandi traders, no before going to mandi farmer had to spend on its cleaning, bagging freight, loading charges, but even after spending 20% to keep his product sellable again he has pay 10 to 15% using APMC platform because it is the Law and A influence of Act that without paying mandi taxes no one can sell their products to open market? 

In a layman way,  if one go and see the entire old system and surely you will feel an emotional touch with the farmer. He is fooled many times by the brokers and traders. Even MSP (Min Selling price) is not paid to farmers, the indebted farmer had to bow himself in front of the gange of brokers who incircled him when coming to Mandi.  More than a business, the farmer usually had to fulfil some of his personal obligations in the form of taking advance from Mandi traders for buying seeds and fertilisers and some time for a cause like marriage and other socials activities.  This is also a reason for them to stay connect with traders and brokers. I would say an emotional bounding of farmers with brokers and traders. 

I will not use word exploitation because it is not there in many cases, yes it is there when overproduction happens and in the absence of storage space, the farmer had to sell his crop at a lower price.  Why should he be punished, exploited when there are many more reasons to make him unhappy. Govt should ensure a proper infrastructure for storage of products. Being private partners for this kind of issues.  Let them build infra for farmers.

No doubt the existing Mandi system has many shortcomings but there are always two sides of a thing. So how we can blame brokers and traders for not giving a fair price.  Farmer is safe and still farming his land because brokers and traders are helping them on various occasions. Farmers are today hope for doing best. 

Instead of Govt's current decision of abolishing the APMC Act, there must be some reforms that should take place..  Root causes should be analysed. 

Why farmers are upset, a report....click to read the detail report https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com

If we think abolishing mandi systems brings benefits to farmers then I am the first person who will support this Bill but before going in deep let's take a dive.  

In the support of the bill

1. Farmer is free to sale his Crop to anywhere in India and anyone.  

2. Farmer can go with some sponsors who can buy his products as per the agreement between both. 

3. Farmer will receive money for buying seeds and other supplies require for a crop plantation.

4. There will be greater positively that the farmer will get a fair price

On the above points, I have no reser

vations, as a layman, it is clearly visible that farmer will have some direct connect with corporates and aggregators and traders.

Benefits to traders, wholesaler and retail distributors definitely this move is beneficial in terms of availability of products from his near market as well as from other markets.. Specially This Act is going to beneficial for packer and repacker industry.. Through a backward integration of supplied will make a robust system in terms of timely availability and at competitive pricings.

But still, some basic things need to be cleared, GOI is going to enable WTO manifest and it is backdoor entry to big retail companies, Agri giants to spread addiction in first five years and once all existing Mandi system vanished they will have the unilateral reign over the poor farmer and then real exploitation will happen. 

On the other hand, GOI going to remove stock limits, what will happen, if a layman has to bring some focus on this, means we are in dark.  

Black marketing of essential food items, it stated.taking place... Have you noticed that why prices of vegetables, fruits, pulses are touching the sky because trader started stocking?

Products like Potatoes vanished from the market, and the retail price is above Rs.40 a kg. Same is with all vegetables. Fruits.

Even the new rice crop will have higher price trend for Nov month. Parmal will be sold more than Rs.30 a kg. Ex mill basis. 

...

Following lines taken from the Act...

seeks to provide for a national framework on farming agreements that protects and empowers farmers to engage with agri-business firms, processors, wholesalers, exporters or large retailers for farm services and sale of future farming produce at a mutually agreed remunerative price framework in a fair and transparent manner and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

I  have questions on the said, how effective it will be for the end consumer. 

And need more clarity on:-

1. WTO role, maybe an agenda

2. Multinational companies vested interest

3. Black marketing of products.

4. Economic imbalance.

As a layman I  going positive that farmer and traders both will be benefited, so definitely consumer is going to take the burden. 

Writer.Balwant Rana

As a layman, I am against the APMC abolishing Act and I would convince farmers not to accept this Act. It will be the last nail on the coffin of agricultural developments.

..pls share your views on this at 

parjakalyanm@gmail.com

source : open from website.Https://instapdf.in/farmers-bill-2020