‘FDI in multi-brand retail only if playing field level’

The Centre will allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail only after equipping domestic traders and farmers to compete with such retailers thereby ensuring a level playing field, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

“Once we have empowered them to tackle the market themselves, we will bring in multi-brand retail… But I can’t let them face competition without the assurance of a level-playing field,” Ms. Sitharaman said in response to a query at The Economist India Summit on why Apple and Walmart stores were still not allowed in the country.

“India can create several Walmarts on its own. If your question is why we don’t allow multi-brand retail in India, my answer is not yet,” she said.

The rationale behind this was the lack of adequate infrastructure and last-mile connectivity in the country to ensure the financial inclusion of traders and farmers, she said.

Terming it a symbolic step of the Centre’s attempt to remove obstacles at every step, the Minister said that 1,200 archaic laws had been unceremoniously taken out of circulation since the NDA government came to power.

When asked if the sedition law was also being reviewed, the Minister said that the discussion was now going on in the courts. But she stressed that it was not being used to stifle freedom of speech.

“Freedom of speech and critical appraisal of government has never been contained in India nor has it been stifled,” Ms. Sitharaman said.

“To criticise the government is one thing but that which undermines the state and the Constitution, I doubt if any political party or media would support. Every country has to ensure that the state and the constitution are upheld,” she said.