Mr. B. S. Nagesh
Managing Director, Shoppers' Stop Limited
 
Good afternoon everybody, I get worried when Suhail starts the panel discussion. Because he starts with words like bed fellows and all that. I don’t know when in this modern era when no more talking about marriages you are talking about living ins why cant we have the politicians as bed fellows as the choice that we want. So I think we will have to think about what the modern consumer wants and I think the government will have to behave the way the modern consumer wants. If you ask me from a retailers point of view the government has to bring in policies first for the consumer. If they recognize the consumer in this country rest everything will get recognized. Everything that is being done is not being done to help the consumer. Let me give you some strange examples, there was a fire in oen of our stores in jaipur and to resolve the cause of the fire and to get everything out to say what was the reason of the fire, insurance and all that it took 6 months. And on the other side we have had ----of adorement. Local government to say that we need better parking near the store, we need to get better road access, it never gets resolved because that helps the consumer . on the other hand we also saw something that the government did that we were shocked. One of our customers had a problem with his pant zipper and we got a note on the card from the consumer court and as usual someone thought it was a postcard and so we threw it away and the 6th day we got a fien which was 650 rs for a trouser and 6500 for not attending the courts and we settled the consumer within 6 days so he got a trouser which was not faulty. So I am saying look at the things that happens. On the other side when we want to do something for the consumer the kinds of issues that laws have been created in 47, created by people who are born before 47 fro consumers who are 20-25 years old. We are about to open a new format and I am for the first time learning that format. To get a license for coffee shop I have spent one day in police station, I went to three police stations. What is it that you want to create, do you want to create a great Indian brand that has to go globally, I don’t believe so, the whole globe is looking at india, the consumption si happening in india. We need to create a globally competitive brand for india and I think that’s what is very critical and fro that you have to get the best practices wherever it may be. We want our consumer to enjoy so we say you Can spend upto 25000 dollars without questions asked. You can go and spend it in Dubai but if the same thing comes here and you buy it you have to pay 40% duty. Look at the ---in all these policies that are coming. I am not trying to criticise the government, I am just saying that if the role becomes a facilitators role I think as consumers of good we will actually see fantastic things happening in the country. Thank you.
 
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