Role:

The position will be responsible for application of advanced text mining, text classification and search algorithms to enhance the functionality of the Gridstone (GSR) proprietary framework .It will be responsible for implementation of the proprietary techniques with the help of a team and delivering high end solutions.

Job Responsibilities & Deliverables:

Define the roadmap for application of text mining, text classification and innovative data search techniques.

Work with the architect and software developers to define project scope and product features
Create and execute project work plans and revise them to meet changing needs and requirements.

Manage day-to-day operational aspects of the project and scope.

Ensure completion of project related documentation.

On the low-cost airline, i would wait and watch. But I do see your point and infact it had been there at the back of my mind ever since i watched the interview Mr.Mallaya gave along with Mr. Gopinath.

However, I think the Nandigram issue is not as simple as the media has projected it for you. The Left in Bengal today is not the same Left in Kerala. The Achuthanandan government’s economic policies are now shaped by a very conservative man (can’t remember his name off the cuff) who belongs to a group that is opposed to the Bengal CM.

Also keep in mind that the Left in Bengal has not responded to the industry out of love for it. In the past 5/10 years thousands of villagers from Bengal have been forced to migrate to Delhi, Mumbai and other cities to work as rickshaw pullers, house-maids, sex-workers in brothels and so on. The effect has been devastating. Employment in cities have crippled the Bengali lower middle class. Buddhadev and his government has had to do this out of sheer need. So while Nandigram was done in haste, it is also a necessity for the people of Bengal, especially the lower and the lower middle class, which is the Left’s major power base.

Having said this, I do think that as far as retail is concerned, the benefits of the large retailer for the consumer will have to be balanced with the interests of the small producer(farmer) and until that happens as a result of the retailer himself making efforts at a shareholding pattern (implicit in the Mother Dairy model), governments will step in either out of necessity or to keep their vote-banks happy.

“I am sure Subhiksha and others can do what the low-cost airline has done to air-travel in India.”

Not for long. Neither the low cost swath nor the club class luxury can be carried too far as a scaleable business model. Consolidation will soon play catch up since markets mature in the middle ground between competition and consolidation. You know how the LCC scene has changed after two recent mergers – Jet/Sahara and Kingfisher/AirDeccan. Now between these two, they have 60% market share and forming a Cartel’s just a ritual.

But don’t be so sanguine about the Kerala’s Left either… as I had commented earlier, it’s a left govt. that plays to the cadre gallery for a while before succumbing to lucre. It’s the same Left that crafted a Nandigram (batting for TATA) and defended it as if it was just “a wart on the left eye brow of an ant”.

So the name of the game is each one to himself. Allegorically one can’t bet that a Wal-Mart/ Reliance/Future Group will not gobble up Subhiksha. When that happens, the farmers should be ready to hold fast and bargain hard. Kirana guy will make up the grey market wild card.

Consumers - can of course vote with their feet….!

From a middleman’s perpective, assuming that the organized retail’s share of consumer market goes up to, say, 20% of the overall retail market in 10 years’ time, then their business profit margins on that 20% will certainly be affected. This is one major reason for our seeing a lot of resistance and opporsition… pure lobbying…

As for retailer, it is
1) a matter of getting economies of scales to such a level that they actually start making money by increased leveraging in procurment as well as covering their ever-increasing fixed costs. This will be interesting to see, because, unlike in the west, the reatly market in India is going through the roof in terms of cost escalation..
2) a matter SUSTAINING consumer interest by getting them to come back to the same store time and again… in the face of ever increasing competition… and to be able to wean away people who depend on credit for shopping by the kiranas…. this , again, remains to be see… at the moment Reliance Retail and others are only skimming the cream of the market… the real test will be when they fan out to Osmanabad or Usilampatti

As for the farmer, his lot is NOT going to change at all, unless is in a position for collective bargaining. I do not buy the arguement that building infra. for storage and transportation will help the farmer… it is indeed naive to think so… from my experience in my ancestral village, corporate invest in cold storage and transportation purely for their benefit, and nothing gets passed back to the farmer… lot continues to be exploited… the only change now is, it is a body corporate doing it , as oppossed to the typical middlemen…

The only way the farmer’s lot can improve is by by building collective bargaining at the village/ taluk level… something like the NDDB movement or the Anand milk movement… until that happens, we can continue to expect the cotton farmer in Wardha District to commit suicide, even as the consumer pays 2500 rupees for a 100% cotton business shirt in a hep show room in South Extension.

So, in theory, as far as choice for the consumer is concerned, I agree with your thought. I am sure Subhiksha and others can do what the low-cost airlines has done to air-travel in India. Infact they can do more and do what Wal-Mart has done for the US.

My concern is more for the other end of the chain - the producers of stuff, and in this case, the farmers. As in the case with Wal-Mart, their reputation of sourcing goods and exploitation, as you will be aware, is not really very good. I fear the same for companies like Reliance. Anyone who has used Reliance’s services in telecom in India, for example, knows that they provide pathetic service quality and get through on the clout of their scale and more (political connections??). If someone like Reliance uses the same clout in retail, while prices for the consumer will certainly be low, the exploitation for the producing chain will be equally high. I am sure Subhiksha and the others can’t match Reliance’s scale as of now.

I have been involved in research in villages and a few years ago spent time studying the producing chain - from the farmer to the “mandi” in Maharashtra. There is a pretty clear hierarchy of middlemen involved and these middlemen come in at the earlier part of the chain before the stuff reaches the mandi, which is where the retail chains buy from. So, even if these retail chains bring low prices, they will not affect the farmer at the beginning of the chain in terms of choices or prices. Infact they might only end up squeezing the whole chain during times of crop failure, if there is no alternative market to sell stuff that’s not acceptable to these chains. Also its difficult to get rid of these middlemen, because these guys actually provide value by providing simplistic information, aggregating, transporting and then bargaining on behalf of the small farmer.

Now, I haven’t studies Mother Dairy’s model, but it seems that they have been able to reach the farmer with lesser middlemen than the others, mainly because of their welfare model. Also, its possible that the middlemen structure in North India is not as efficiently organized.

In the absence of much thought given to the producing end of this value chain, I am sure you are going to see the state step in (as in Kerala), albeit at the cost of choice and price advantage for the consumer.

So, though I am not overtly in favor of protection for the farmer, I foresee resistance from the state (especially a left ruled state like Kerala), as long as the suspicions about exploitation of the farmer remains.

Unfortunately though, the community that will benefit the most from state activism against retail is the “kirana” shop owner which has exploited consumers for long.

But then, since the middle class is ready and on the upswing in India, the retail industry can’t be stopped. It will just face
some minor setbacks but will be there soon.

Consumers be happy. Farmers be cautious.