FDI in Multi Brand Retail

The government of India is all set to give it's node to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in Multi Brand Retail. Proposal is to allow a 51% FDI in this sector. This was at the center of discussion from past few years due to deteriorating condition of farmers and also due problem being faced by consumers.
Before i proceed further I must mention the perspective scenario of FDI in this sector. The present FDI regime allows 51% foreign investment in single brand retail and 100% in wholesale cash and carry. ( source - The Hindu).

When i saw this news i kept on pondering over the term Multi brand retail. I asked one of my friend (who had completed his studies frm IIT Madras and did MBA from FMS and now preparing for civil services after amassing a huge assets.. dnt knw wat forcd him to go for civil services... of course i m talking bot u D.K.. Loser.. lol) and then i got the clarity of this term.

Multi Brand - Whenever a market is fragmented into different brands, a supplier/firm launches new brands of the same product which give strong competition to it's own existing brand.. The idea is to have greater overall share in the market by that firm/supplier. Rationale behind this is a fact that a firm having 5 brands out of 15 brands available in the market will capitalise more compared to the situation when it has only 1 brand out of 11 brands available. We can see this in so may cases.. In case of tooth paste one can see number of products launched by the same firm giving tough competition to it's own product.

Now getting back to 51% FDI in this sector....

Who all are the stakeholders in this... Of course itzz not that hard to answer.. Government , Foreign player who will invest, Domestic retailers, Farmers and ultimately consumers will be the stakeholder for this.( I will be focussing mainly on farmers..To tell the truth i cud think of only this much.. watever i read and was able to relate i jotted down here..)
Govt. has supported this by mentioning that it will help in providing dynamism and efficiency to the agricultural marketing system as there will be no dearth of money with foreign players and they will create post-harvest and cold-chain infrastructure nearer to the farmers' field.. These players will buy the agricultural produce at the door step and that will give benefit to farmers as it will weed out the intermediaries involved.Farmers will get good price for their produce. Perishable goods could be sold at time.. Once the infrastructure reaches at the door step of farmers, out of shear competition productivity will increase..Consumers will also get benefit as price will come down and quality available will be good.Quality of the perishables will improve due to better storage and handling..
Domestic retail sector will also reap the benefit as it will be more organised and with the collaboration of foreign players they will know the new technology involved and will be able to know the best global practises..

If left unregulated, in no time the entire economy will start felling the ill effect of this step. Some of which may be:
. Possible suffering of small family owned outlets
. With the money in hand the retail houses will have greater bargaining power and the farmers may not get good amount for their produce
. Farmers could be treated as their employees by the retail house and hence chance of exploitation.......

So govt. will have to keep an eye on this policy as this affects the entire agriculture sector which happens to be the backbone of Indian economy and it's ill effect can take us back to the era of colonialism.....