FOR years, many affluent Indians would fly off to Dubai or Singapore on shopping expeditions, spending quite a packet on clothes, electronic gadgets, jewellery, and other fashion accessories.

But the last two years have seen a retail revolution unfold in India, as developers have put up sprawling shopping malls in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Pune. On any Saturday evening, it is virtually impossible to find parking space outside malls in Mumbai or some of its tonier suburbs, as thousands of ‘shopaholics’ hunt around for expensive international and domestic brands, or consume burgers, pizzas, and other delicacies at the food courts.

This insatiable hunger for consumer goods is driving the retail industry, forcing the government to do a rethink on the controversial policy of 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector.

The previous BJP-dominated National Democratic Alliance government (which had the backing of a powerful constituency represented by small-time traders and grocers) was reluctant to introduce 100 per cent FDI in the retail sector, but the United Progressive Alliance government is likely to push ahead with the long-pending proposal.

International retail giants and chains, including Wal-Mart of the US, Tesco from Britain, and Carrefour from France have been urging the Indian government to allow them to establish a presence in the country. Senior executives from these chains have been visiting India, and seeking the official clearance.

The leftist supporters of the UPA government are wary, but according to analysts the government will come out with a 100 per cent FDI law, with some restrictions (as happened in the real estate sector).

According to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), India’s organised retail sector is expected to grow at double the current rate (six per cent annually), and touch the $17 billion mark by 2010. Scores of shopping malls are being developed in the major cities, as demand for western brands soars.

Mahendra Sanghi, president, ASSOCHAM, notes that growth in the retailing sector would boost the services industry, especially the real estate industry. Another business that is likely to benefit is franchising, as hundreds of new international brands try to set up a presence in the country.

Of course, the introduction of uniform, Value Added Tax (VAT) on a nationwide basis would help sort out tax-related issues. But BJP-ruled state governments are not co-operating with the centre, and have refused to tow the line, despite the fact that when in power, the party was vehemently pushing for the VAT regime.

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WHILE India is desperately seeking to expand its share in the global trade, it still faces enormous problems relating to issues like child labour. A strong anti-child labour lobby has evolved in many developed economies, and countries like India and China (where child labour is prevalent) are facing a backlash from consumers.

Shockingly, child labour is not restricted to some remote town in Uttar Pradesh or Bihar, but is practiced in the heart of the country’s commercial and financial capital. Last week, the Mumbai police, alerted by NGOs active in the field, conducted a major raid in some localities and rescued almost 500 children in the age group of five to 14.

These children had been hired by small-scale units, and were engaged in apparently harmless jobs. The workshops, ranging from engineering ones, to crafts-related, were located in cramped rooms in shanty colonies. But the children were being used to produce leather goods, zari works, clothes and jewellery.

India is a leading exporter of these goods, and many of the products end up in fashionable streets in London, Paris, Milan and New York. One of Asia’s biggest slum colonies, Dharavi, is home to thousands of such small-scale units, and activists suspect that many of them hire underage children.

It is illegal to employ children below the age of 14 in India, but the law is widely violated, even in big cities. Some of the employers claim that by hiring such children they are helping them to escape dire poverty, and laying the foundations for a better future. In fact, many of the 50-odd employers who were arrested in Mumbai last week, claimed that even they started off working at a young age, and thanks to the training they received, could emerge as successful entrepreneurs.

A majority of the children at these units come from the poorer states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The police suspect that the children are lured by agents, who form part of organised gangs.

NGOs say the problem is deep-rooted and only consistent efforts by the authorities to rescue such children (and also ensuring their proper rehabilitation) would result in an improvement.

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DOWRY rates in middle-class India are dependant on the job profile of the groom. Powerful, glamorous jobs – such as an Indian Administrative Service officer, or an Indian Foreign Service officer – fetch the maximum dowry.

A notch lower would be engineering graduates passing out from the haloed portals of the IIMs and IITs (Indian Institutes of Management and Indian Institutes of Technology), with plum jobs in the US, or with multinationals in India. Then there are sundry other categories (including officers with nationalised or private banks, and executives with pharmaceutical firms).

Not surprisingly, underpaid journalists working in the print media (but not necessarily those in the electronic media, especially the news channels), are not even considered as eligible for dowries. And just as credit card issuers and consumer banks offering loans summarily reject applications if the profession is marked as ‘journalist,’ most players in the dowry market ignore hacks.

But perhaps things are likely to change. Print media professionals in Mumbai are today among the most sought after category of people, perhaps next only to pilots and cabin crew of airlines.

With about half a dozen new newspapers likely to hit the streets over the next few months, there’s a spurt in demand for journalists, who for a change are being chased by potential employers, offering double their existing salaries.

Mumbai’s sedate world of newspapering, dominated all these years by the ‘Old Lady of Boribunder’ (as the Times of India has been known for decades, thanks to its location in a colonial building in the locality known as Boribunder), is about to change dramatically.

Traditional rival of the paper in the Delhi and north India markets, Hindustan Times (owned by the industrial house of Birlas), is set to launch its long-awaited edition from Mumbai by September.

The Times and the HT have fought a bloody war in Delhi for several years, and both claim to be the national capital’s number one daily. Mumbai, of course, is a Times of India city, with the paper claiming a circulation of over 550,000, accounting for a whopping over 70 per cent of the market for English dailies.

But more important than circulation, Mumbai is the advertising capital of India, and accounts for almost a fifth of the Rs50 billion-plus print media advertising pie. Not surprisingly, HT is not the lone publisher hungrily eyeing the burgeoning ad market. Two relative newcomers in India’s buoyant media business – Zee Television, and the Dainik Bhaskar group, which publishes a chain of hugely-popular Hindi newspapers in the north – are planning to take on the Times with the launch of a new newspaper.

DNA (Daily News and Analysis), as it has been branded, is the brainchild of former Times marketing whiz-kid, Pradeep Guha. Zee, which has a string of television channels, has been eager to make a foray into the print business, and DNA presents an ideal opportunity for it.

Another newspaper that is planning a launch in Mumbai is The Telegraph, owned by the powerful eastern India publishing group of ABP. Worried about the growing competition, Bennett & Coleman, publishers of the Times of India, went in for a huge makeover recently, redesigning its pages, introducing more serious topics, and targeting a much wider readership.

Last week, amidst typical hype at the historic Gateway of India, it launched a new tabloid, Mumbai Mirror, with Abhishek Bachchan performing at the glitzy show. The Mirror is targeting the young Mumbai reader, and is seen as a direct rival to Mid-Day, the afternoon tabloid, which also has an FM Radio station.

Meanwhile, Indian Express – one of the largest, multi-edition newspapers – has also entered into a marketing tie-up with Mid-Day, offering advertisers a package, to take on the Times.

Newspapers are also investing huge amounts in putting up hoardings. DNA, for instance, bought space on nearly 150 hoardings, and had launched a teaser campaign at railway stations across the metropolis. The Times hit back with its own campaigns, acquiring hundreds of hoardings for itself, and for its sister publications, Economic Times, and Maharashtra Times.

Hindustan Times, Mid-Day and Indian Express have also got into the hoardings battle, acquiring prominent locations along major arteries, and spending millions of rupees on advertising. In fact, the print media has emerged as one of the largest spenders on outdoors advertising in recent months.

Unfortunately for journalists, the good times could not have lasted forever. With salary levels having zoomed in recent months, it has started pinching the publications. Some of these bitter enemies, it is learnt, have entered into a ‘no-poaching agreement,’ with the managements deciding not to pick up editorial staff from the rival publication.