“In Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture” by Frederick Jameson Essay

It is true that manipulation theory sometimes finds a special place in its scheme for those rare cultural objects which can be said to have overt political and social content: thus, 60s protest songs, The Salt of the Earth, Clancey Segals novels or Sol Yuricks, chicano murals, and the San Francisco Mime Troop. This is not the place to raise the complicated problem of political art today, except to say that our business as culture critics requires us to raise it, and to rethink what are still essentially 30s categories in some new and more satisfactory contemporary way. (Jameson 139)I initially read this quote as a praise of political art as so worthy an object of study that its complexities could not be fully addressed within the scope of Jamesons work. In other words, Jameson was humbly admitting that political art is deserving of its own lengthy analysis. Why, though, is Jameson incapable of addressing political art (and implicitly counter culture) for more than a page in his ninet een page essay describing modern culture?As I reread the quote, I began to hear a dismissive tone in the words special place and rare. How rare is overt political and social content? How rare are 60s protest songs? While the historicity of the category 60s can be appreciated, and indeed Jamesons use of it appears to be grounded in skepticism towards the authenticity of political art emerging outside of collective life, it seems as if Jameson is using it to contain a threat to his argument. The threat, that is, that overt political art and action have been present and overt since before the 1960s, and continue to persist now. I feel that, to a significant extent, his position as academic shields him from and allows him to theorize away a counterculture that has been very much alive and struggling. Or, as Hakim Bey opens his TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, CHAOS NEVER DIED.The production or assumption of a limited period of the 60s tends to perpetuate a nostalgic distance from a period of political art, counterculture, and resistance that never really ended (or began). In man y ways the 60s have come to resemble a safe countercultural commodity. One can easily find coffee table books on the collective rebellious phase of the baby boomers youth, or one can watch the Wonder Years or Forest Gump and recall a period before choosing to turn off, tune out, drop in. If these experiences are too lonely, one can visit my home town of Cleveland, Ohio with family and peruse the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to study Beatles  artifacts or Jimi Hendrix guitars behind glass for a $10 fee. All of these commodities appear to recuperate political art and counterculture except for that they only do so in retrospect, and in a fashion that uses physical/spatial distance to construct a sense of historical distance that must be willfully believed. Just a few blocks away museum visitors, were they to instead choose to visit the Tower City Mall at public square on a Sunday, would likely encounter middle class kids and homeless people dissolving cultural boundaries at Cleveland Food Not Bombs. I dont propose, in response, a hasty rejection of some mythically totalitarian historical metanarrative, but rather I propose a more complete and honest history that dissolves the nostalgic distance between political art then and recuperated art now. Unfortunately for Jameso n, who has chosen to ignore the reality of such a history for the sake of a commentary on his own constructed meta-society, many post-60s examples easily come to mind. The punk rock movement, certainly with a strong collective component, produced material easily accessible to mass culture. The Sex Pistols Anarchy in the U.K. was released in 1976, and Crass was releasing agitating songs like Do They Owe Us A Living?, Punk is Dead, and Fight War Not Wars in 1978. Rage Against the Machine, arguably one of the more important alternative bands of the 1990s, initiated a radical Axis of Justice with System of a Down and donated all of its proceeds from a tour with U2 to organizations as overtly resistant as EZLN. Any middle class adolescent who frequented Ozzfest or other metal festivals in the 1990s and 2000s is likely aware of System of a Downs Steal This Album, or the lyrics to their politically charged Prison Song. Someone interested in hip hop enough to scratch the surface will likely encounter KRS-1s Sound of da Police released in 1993. And Radiohead, now international superstars, have just released their latest album essentially for free, bypassing the music industry entirely. Jameson might respond to me with a question like, yes, but why havent they worked?, expecting an answer affirming their status as commodities which could be subject to his ideology/utopia dialectic. My answer to such a question would be precisely my historical point: its in the works. Jameson cannot escape his own position within consumer capitalism in that it is his choice to perceive a large body of political art as contained within a diluted dialectic that imposes itself upon consumers. Perhaps a radically engaged and tactical  patience can be counterpoised against the image of the passive consumer. And besides, this is not to mention the countless DIY zines circulating around Infoshops, in radical circles, and across the hipster-radical bridge in trendy coffee shops. A nice account of post-60s anarchist praxis can be found in criminologist Jeff Ferrells Tearing Down the Streets: Adventures in Urban Anarchy, where he discusses his own experiences with collective activities as obverse as pirate radio, graffiti, and biking in critical masses. But are these practices rare? Perhaps only to those who continue to ignore, dismiss, and keep a distance from them. Are they exclusive? Well, this is not the place to raise the complicated problem of countercultural elitism and exclusion. For the rest of the items on Jamesons list, it appears as if he has chosen examples that fit his argument of rarity. When I searched for Clancey Segal on Google, for example, the only matching result I could find was Jamesons article! Perhaps my own ignorance is to blame for my unfamiliarity with the rest of the items on Jamesons list. If this is the case, how is it that I was able to come up with several examples of my own? Are they simply inauthentic, easily recuperated, or not overt enough? Am I a crazy radical detached from the revolutionary potentiality of mass culture? Or are my examples invalidated and recuperated precisely at the moment that Jamesons attitude of disengagement and struggle for theoretical security reposition them inside of some abstract near-omnipresent nightmare?Indeed, it often seems, provided one accepts the omnipresent nightmare situation, that any disbelief or skepticism towards such a macrocosm is analogous to falling back into the Matrix and being reint egrated into the naà ¯ve consumerist masses. But does the myth of the rarity of genuine and overt political art- and resistance in general- honestly acknowledge a totalizing or nearly totalizing condition like Guy Debords spectacle or Lewis Mumfords megamachine, or does it merely reveal its proponents inability or refusal to engage with political art and action of their contemporary milieu? To what extent does a fear of recuperation reproduce precisely the distance required for recuperation? The ideological component of Jamesons writing comes to bear in his own language: to rethink what are still essentially 30s categories in some new and more satisfactory contemporary way. I think Jameson redeems himself when his ideology/utopia dialectic of consumerism is pointed at criticism itself. Just as capital must re-create and recuperate a  utopian component in its commodities, Jameson and his perceived brotherhood of culture critics must re-think a rare and fetishized collection of genuine political art and acts to continue to theorize a hegemonic modern culture. If we directly engage in overt political art or action, however, the University can only have us, as rare historical events, in retrospect. Bey, Hakim. TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism. Autonomedia. 2003. Brooklyn, New York. Ferrell, Jeff. Tearing Down The Streets: Adventures in Urban Anarchy. Palgrave. New York, New York. 2001. Song release dates gathered from www.allmusic.com

John Donne’s Love Poems Essay

John Donne is one of many poets of his time who wrote love poetry. The thing that sets him apart from the others is that he manages to successfully subvert the traditional conventions to his own ends. Each of the secular poems â€Å"The Flea†, â€Å"The Sunne Rising† and â€Å"A Valediction Forbidding Mourning† shows Donne’s verbal dexterity, manipulation of the conventional form and the use of a variety of textual features. For the secular love poem â€Å"The Flea† the conventional form is that the flea is to be used as a symbolism of love. Donne subverts this form and uses the flea for the key point to his argument and to symbolise sex/marriage. In the poem Donne conveys meaning through the rhyming and structure. In each of the three stanza’s the first six lines hold three sets of two rhyming couplets that symbolises the couple (the male and female lover). At the end of stanza’s there is set of three rhymes that is slightly indented which symbolises the union of the flea with the couple. Donne uses hyperbole in line 1, stanza 2 â€Å"†¦three lives in one flea spare†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and again in line 7, stanza 2 where he begins the argument that in killing the flea she commits murder, suicide and sacrilege. This extreme argumentative, exaggeration creates a flow and pace throughout his sustained arguments. The use of religious terminology eg. Cloistered, three live in one flea -holy trinity, sacrilege etc. helps to add an authority from god to the poem and it also elevates the language. Donne also uses repetition line 1, stanza 1†³Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Marke but this flea, and marke in this†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Ã‚  to create a commanding, direct address to the audience. It gives the poem an imperative tone. In this poem the use of rhetorical questions conveys an argumentative tone and in stanza 3, lines 1 and 2 the use of emotive imagery changes the pace of the argument and makes it more personal. Another secular poem, not unlike â€Å"the Flea†, that Donne subverts is called â€Å"The Sunne Rising†. This poem is a â€Å"dawn poem† and the conventional form for such a poem is that the minstrel or lover is sitting outside by the girl’s house serenading the situation of the two lovers as the day breaks. Donne manipulates this form as he places the lover in the girls room and instead of serenading the sun, he curses it. Donne conveys meaning through the structure of the poem. In each stanza the lines are indented or left normal according to what the line talks about. If the lover is talking about things outside the room then the lines are indented. If the lover talks about something inside the room then the lines are left as normal. This creates an expectation as to what will happen in those lines. The last two of the last three stanzas’ has a rhyming couplet symbolising the two lovers. The use of monosyllabic words creates an intense, assertive, masculine tone. The extreme hyperbole and metaphor from stanza 4 lines 1 and 2 â€Å"†¦She is all states, and all princes, I†¦Ã¢â‚¬ supports the tone set by the arrogance used. The pun in line 10, stanza 3 â€Å".. and thou shalt heare all, here in one bed lay†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Ã‚  assists with a flow for the poem and the argument. â€Å"A Valediction Forbidding Mourning† is yet another diverse secular poem by Donne that has been subverted, just as † The Flea† and the † Sunne Rising† had been. The conventional form for a farewell speech is that it should be emotional. Donne manipulates the form by not indulging outbursts or saddens and emotion. The long vowels used eg â€Å"virtuous men†¦twere profanation† subdue the poem and give it a slower pace. The quiet opening of the poem displays alliteration using ms, ns and ss. The light vowels eg. men, friends, breath,  meet etc. go further in subduing the poem. In this poem Donne uses many similes to make his point. In the first stanza he likens the lover’s departure to a death of a virtuous man. This begins his argument convincing his lover that a scene isn’t needed, that their love is beyond separation. Donne contrasts â€Å"the dull sublunary lovers† with his relationship in order to further his argument and create flow for the poem. He also likens their love to gold, the most valuable of the metals. This simile is used to further show the value of their love and to further the argument. The likening of the lovers to a compass is both a paradox and a hyperbole that catches the audience’s attention and creates a startling image. This clever analogy dazzles the audience by its wit and pushes the argument into its last stages. The last analogy of their love is to a circle drawn by the compass. It suggests continuity, perfection, renewal and marriage and finishes the argument with the idea that like the circle that doesn’t end neither will their love. Even within a conventional form it is possible for a clever poet to subvert the conventions. John Donne has done that in three of secular love poems â€Å"the Flea†, â€Å"the Sunne Rising† and â€Å"A Valediction Forbidding Mourning†.

Life on the Western Front Essay

The First World War was a shattering experience for all Europeans, both soldiers and civilians. Memoirs show that soldiers expressed a wide variety of views on the war. Some soldiers enjoyed the war and some hated it, but most were unable to decide how they felt about it. In this essay I will be examining whether or not official accounts of the Western Front more accurate than personal accounts. I will survey several sources and try to draw a conclusion. Soldiers in the war were allowed little correspondence. Their letters and postcards sent home were censored to the point of very little detail. They were only allowed to write about family, friends and their health, as can be seen on the field service postcard, source A1. The honour clause was a statement all soldiers had to sign to confirm they were not writing about anything else other than private family matters. The honour clause also gave the officials permission to examine the contents of the postcard/letter e.g. ‘Green envelope’ source A2. The officials censored letters and postcards because they didn’t want people back home to know too much and also because they didn’t want the Germans to accidentally find out their plans. They were able to do this under the defence of the Realm Act 1916. Postcards and letters were limited because the government wanted to maintain high morale on people back home so that recruitment would not be affected. The postcards are useful to historians studying the Western Front because it shows how little time the soldiers had. They also tried to be more optimistic when writing back home to family and friends. This is because they didn’t want them to worry too much so tried to keep a happy tone in their letters. I personally think letters in the personal section give the most information about trench life because in the official account the trenches are shown as they are meant to be, not as they actually are. Whereas in the personal account soldiers describe what the trenches are like. â€Å"About six feet in depth, they were floored with duckboards and were wide enough for two men to pass comfortably†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Some of the letters in the personal account are similar. Many soldiers wrote about the same things i.e. light-hearted happy conversations. â€Å"I got your letter today and you seem quite cheery so as long as Dora’s all right all’s well with the world.† So as to not worry their family and friends. The letters and postcards in the official and personal section do not give off the same impression of life on the Western Front. For example, Teddy Bennett who was a second lieutenant of the twenty-ninth battalion of the Machine Gun Corps described the trenches as eighteen inches and only three feet deep , only big enough for a ‘drain pipe’. But George Coppard wrote that the trenches were ‘in very good condition’ and were ‘about six feet in depth†¦ enough for two men to pass through comfortably’. These two clearly show that trenches varied in condition. The majority of soldiers used the same tone and wrote about similar things effectively censoring themselves. The letters and postcards do not give the same impression of life on the Western Front as other sources. The other sources i.e. photos showed soldiers dieing cruel deaths and suffering from severe injuries and diseases. I don’t think this type of evidence, personal and official, gives a totally accurate view of life on the Western Front but they are useful as evidence of soldiers feelings and opinions. Official war artists were commissioned by the government to paint pictures/images of the war. Fortunino Matanaia and C.R Nevinson are examples of war artists. Paul Nash was a front line soldier for four months in 1917 but was sent home after an accident. He was then sent back to the Western Front as an official war artist. He was ordered not to show any dead bodies in his pictures. He gave off a peaceful and honourable impression of the war. The content of some of the paintings in the official section are not reliable because they censored dead bodies. I don’t think these paintings in the official section are an expression of opinion because the artists were told what to hide & what to draw. The painting by John Singer showing soldiers blinded by gas seems fairly accurate to me because it was painted in 1918 and during that time many soldiers suffered from tear gas that caused temporary blindness. The painting is very similar to source A5, a photo. I think source A4, the photo showing two British troops in anti -phosgene masks manning a Vickers machine-gun, was posed to show those back home that anti-phosgene masks were provided for soldiers so more volunteers would sign up to join the army. I think it was posed because until after 1916 there were no more volunteers and conscription was introduced. My feelings towards source A9, a photo of two men badly disabled from the war which might have been used for propaganda purposes, is sympathy. But soldiers would not want pity because they felt proud. This is one of the differences of the two generations. I think that they feel the need to smile to show they are strong and they probably think they have to put on a brave face so their loved-ones won’t worry. Sources B9-B13 are more gruesome compared to the sources in the official account. The reasons for the difference are officials wanted to conceal all the gruesome deaths that the British soldiers had and only took photos of their peaceful deaths. I think photos, official and personal, are quite accurate as source of information on the Western Front for a variety of purposes. Punch was a British humorous political magazine. It contained anti-German propaganda. The main purpose of political cartoons is to get a message across in a more entertaining way. I think source A10 is very useful to historians studying soldiers’ attitudes to life on the Western Front because it shows that soldiers were pessimistic and found trench life difficult to handle. I don’t think source A13 is reliable. This is because the cartoon was taken from a British political magazine and the Germans were the enemy so they would have wanted to make the Germans look bad. There are a few hints of bias in sources A14 and A15, for example â€Å"Our operations, in conjunction with the French, definitely stopped the German attack, and it has not since been removed.† and â€Å"We progressed North Poziers and hear High wood and Delville extremely severe enemy losses.† This is because the articles were written by the British and also because they were official. Based on what I have read I don’t think cartoons and newspaper are reliable. Although it is useful for historians studying soldiers’ humour. The most famous war poets are Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. Seigfried Sassoon serviced was an officer who suffered from shell shock and had come to the conclusion that the War was pointless. He was sent home on sick leave in 1916. During his second visit to France his views on war became more doubtful about the way in which war was being conducted from a military point of view. By July 1916 he was well enough to return to duty but he couldn’t bring himself to do so, so he wrote a statement which he regarded as ‘an act of wilful defiance of military authority’. The officials found this hilarious and he was ordered to attend a Medical Board at Chester in July 16th but he failed to attend. A Second Board was arranged at Liverpool on July 20th, which he attended and it was recommended that he be sent to Craiglockhart. Wilfred Owen spent the winter on 1916-7 on the front line but was then sent home on sick leave. He returned to the front on 1st September 1918 and was killed on 4th November, seven days before the war ended. He was awarded the Military Cross. Many of the poems were about warfare and the effects of gas and bombardment. For example ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen tells the story of a phosgene gas attack as troops were making their way back from the front line. This poem is backed up by source A5. It is possible that these poems are exaggerated because the soldiers might have been suffering from depression and by writing these poems they were drowning their sorrows. I don’t think the poems are inaccurate because they are from soldiers’ views. Many of the poems are making a specific point i.e. ‘Does it Matter’ and ‘For the Fallen’ written by Siegfried Sassoon. The poem ‘Suicide in the trenches’ by Siegfried Sassoon tells the story of a ‘simpler soldier boy’ who fought in the war and couldn’t cope so committed suicide expresses anti-war sentiment. The poem ‘Returning, we hear the larks’ written by Isaac Rosenberg also expresses anti-war sentiment. In the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ the title is Latin saying Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori meaning ‘It is sweet and noble to die for your country.’ I think it is used in the last line because the soldiers die in the end and the poet is saying it is sweet and noble of them. Also to highlight the wrong. Overall, these poems are quite accurate as evidence of life on the Western Front because they are soldiers’ points of views and this was the only way they were allowed to express their feelings. Siegfried Sassoon was decided as having mental illnesses because he didn’t agree with the way war was conducted. As a result of this he was admitted into a mental hospital to be treated for shell shock. My opinion of the war poets are they were all depressed and found war difficult so they wrote poems to show this. I think they can be relied upon as they are the thoughts and feelings of soldiers. Which cannot be ignored and tend to highlight the variety of experience on the Western Front. The conditions of the trenches were often very bad. The mud was often deep and became very muddy whenever it rained. The trenches were lined with sandbags and collapsed as they filled with water causing the sides to rupture. The trenches were always shelled by enemy artillery which destroyed the sandbags and sides of the trenches so needed frequent repair. Barbed wire lined the outside of the trenches to keep the enemy from attacking. Many soldiers experienced illnesses and diseases whilst living in the trenches. Trench foot was a common disease which many soldiers got by standing in mud for too long. To prevent this from spreading the soldiers rubbed whale oil on to their feet everyday. Being bitten by lice was also very common in the trenches. They tried to prevent this by running a lighted candle along the seams of their clothing but this only killed the lice, not their eggs. The lice carried a disease called trench fever. I think sources A9, B3, B13 would be most useful to historians wanting to find out about the morale of the soldiers. The people today view the war a lot differently compared to the people who lived through it. When you step back and take a closer look at the picture you see things differently. Overall, I have a fairly accurate view of life on the Western Front from looking at personal and official accounts. I have found both, official and personal, accounts useful. I can’t really put together an accurate picture of what life on the Western Front was actually like using personal accounts because the soldiers may not remember what happened to give an accurate description and would be bias against Germans. The official account has been censored so that also is not really reliable. Therefore I think that by looking at both accounts would give a clearer picture.

Mies van der Rohe architecture Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mies van der Rohe architecture - Term Paper Example Mies is known for the spiritualization of technique and he was an architect with the special ability to reduce all the problems of his character to the essential simplicity of his architecture. Significantly, the modern style in architecture commonly referred to as High Modernism was introduced in United States of America mainly by Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius. Mies van der Rohe worked as the director of Germany’s most famous design school, Bauhaus, during 1930-33 and he started applying the Modern architectural style to his works. The liberal members of the Bauhaus such as Mies and Gropius found their way in due course to America when it was disbanded by the Nazis and they reworked the modernist architecture in the 1940s and 50s. As a proponent of the modern architecture, Mies defined interior spaces with modern materials like industrial steel and plate glass in his mature buildings. One of the characteristic features of his style of architecture is that it made use o f minimal framework of structural order and he is the most important architect of the modernist and late-modernist architecture. Significantly, Mies van der Rohe is highly recognized for his skin and bones style architecture and his modernist architecture is esteemed for its plain surfaces and straightforward rectangular shapes which was adapted to the corporate skyscrapers, apartments, and university buildings. As E. C. Relph maintains, â€Å"his plans were simplicity itself. All the buildings were arranged in lines and at right angles, and their basic form was that of a carefully proportioned cube expressing the structure of steel columns and beams as perfectly as possible. The slogan Mies invented to express his design philosophy was ‘Less is More’.† (Relph, 191) Therefore, it is fundamental to maintain that the modernist architecture style introduced by Mies has been noted for simplicity and the skin and bones style achieved grand success in modern architectu re. This paper makes a profound analysis of Mies van der Rohe architecture in order to realize how his work relates to ‘modernism’ we can appreciate today. Born as the son of a stonemason, Mies van der Rohe received practical experience in construction during the early stages of his life and his later architecture style proved to be the milestone in modernist architecture. Soon he became Germany’s most important architect of his time and severed as the director of Bauhaus where he applied his Modernist architectural principles to his works. Whereas his early designs as an independent designer show the influence of Schinkel, he rapidly grew into a Modernist architect with original designs and styles, and his concept of a transparent skyscraper marked a new step towards Modernism. However, due to the scantiness of material science and construction techniques, it took more time for him to establish as the leading proponent of High Modernism. In 1938, he became the h ead of the architectural school at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and he redefined Modern architecture with a string of important commissions in the following years. â€Å"The elevated glass cube of the Farnsworth House (1950) in Plano, Illinois, took ideas of open, simple interior spaces to their extreme. The pristine steel and glass tower of the Lake Shore Drive Apartments (1951) in Chicago were hailed as perfect new renditions of this building type, and the Seagram Building (1958) in New York was viewed as the prototypical new skyscraper.†

Genre 8 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Genre 8 - Essay Example Second, little known facts. This are meant to spike readers mind and create interest into certain subject. Third, unusual viewpoints. Little known facts these reach out and grab the readers mind. Example can be use of common and un- noticed things in the world to try to create curiosity among the readers. Fourth, fascinating comparison. This creates instant and powerful images communicating clearly to the same degree as simile and metaphor. Since informational books are informative and aimed to be educative, use of comparisons help to clarify the issues to the reader and build from known to unknown. Fifth, first person account. This make it to be real such that when the writer ,writes about an experience he has gone through; as he develops the story both the writer and the reader seem to discover together but not a recount of the information. This carries the reader into first person account role i.e. he assumes the role of main character. Lastly is accuracy. Informational books shou ld be factual and dependable as they introduce the reader to the world or present something about it. Teachers should avoid anthropomorphism and hyperbole. Informational picture books –present accurate and appealing content aimed at awakening the reader’s interest. It serves the same purpose as informational chapter books though they are more heavily illustrated. They present an idea in sufficient depth to pique curiosity as it increases understanding. Concept books- are simplified picture books that present basic knowledge about one topic in a way both understandable and interesting to a small child beginning to learn the world. Its normally the first informational book the child is introduced to as he develops the skills to learn. Often invites the reader to engage into certain activity to reinforce a topic which being taught. Having access to books that are preferred can affect a child’s interest in books and in reading this affective response is

Infectious Disease found in the Developing World Research Paper

Infectious Disease found in the Developing World - Research Paper Example It is described as an obligate parasite with humans as its natural reservoir. Salmonella typhi is a gram-negative bacterium from the family Enterobacterioceae. It is a â€Å"multi-organ pathogen that inhabits the lymphatic tissues of the small intestine, liver, spleen, and bloodstream of infected humans† (Pollack, 2003). It does not usually inhabit or infect animals and the bacterium is most common in developing nations where sanitation is poor and there is limited supply of antibiotics. It is also described as a motile and facultative anaerobe which is very much susceptible to the action of antibiotics. There are about 107 strains of this bacterium which have already been isolated. Many of these strains have different metabolic characteristics and degrees of virulence; some of them are multi-drug resistant. Scientists studying this bacterium narrate that it contains the typical endotoxin expected of Gram-negative microorganisms as well as the Vi antigen which usually increase s the virulence of the bacterium. It is also known to excrete ‘invasin’, a protein that lets non-phagocytic cells take the bacterium, and later enables it to live inside the cell. This ‘invasin’ sometimes also prevents the oxidative burst of leukocytes, thereby preventing the innate immune response to the bacterium (Pollack, 2003). Typhoid fever is transmitted through the oral-fecal route. It is transmitted orally through food which is handled by an individual who frequently sheds the salmonella typhi bacterium through his stool or sometimes through his urine. The hand-to-mouth transmission is also possible â€Å"after using a contaminated toilet and neglecting hand hygiene† (Brusch, et.al., 2008). It may also be transmitted through sewage contaminated water ingested by humans. Shellfish which is taken from contaminated water, raw fruits and vegetables which are fertilized with contaminated sewage are also possible contaminants. High incidence rates are

Premium Travel on the Way to Becoming a Better Serving Travel Agency Essay - 1

Premium Travel on the Way to Becoming a Better Serving Travel Agency - Essay Example Travel is an activity of leisure and Premium travel operates in this scenario. As such, provides similar services are also likely to face the problems associated with the current market. However, one of the advantages that some travel business enjoy today is the facility to book online. The cost of getting a website developed is quite simple today. As the company utilizes the services of part-time students, it is advised to hire another student proficient in web development as standard times required to develop such websites can take as little as a month to develop and deploy for customer use. Additionally, figures obtained for the years between 2002 and 2006 have shown that apart from the countries in the EU and the US, a large number of travelers preferred other destinations in Asia and Africa, with the largest among them preferring India, Egypt, and Turkey.  However, the good news is that even during times of recession, statistics from the Department of Statistics in the UK gove rnment show that the amount of spending on travel has remained relatively unhindered. This is partly because the willingness to travel among customers is not diminished to ground levels and customers instead prefer to go on shorter holidays. the added pressures that are part of the today’s corporate world do not provide young people with a lot of time to consider holidays. as such, offering shorter deals for durations between 1 to 2 weeks is also advised.  Additionally, the number of travelers going abroad on trips for the duration between 1 to 2 weeks is nearly half the trips of duration in the range of 3-4 weeks. As such, it presents a wonderful opportunity for Premium travel to consider the shorter segment as a wonderful opportunity to expand a business, which will help further in weathering the crisis.

For two companies with which you are familiar, compare and contrast Essay - 1

For two companies with which you are familiar, compare and contrast the main operations processes in terms of their volume, vari - Essay Example It began its operations back in 1962, and has been aggressively expanding in U.S. The company was able to introduce its full line grocery in 1988 (Varley, 2005). The company has through many struggles emerged as the largest grocery retailer in U.S. Currently, it is reported that the company sales are even higher than the combined total sales of its three competitors in U.S. i.e. Kroger, Safweway, and Supervalu. Volume Wal-mart produces tones of various products yearly. The company has diversified sources and centres where its carries its production. Yearly, it is estimated that the company spends $335 billion buying and transporting its merchandise globally (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor, 2011). This ability to produce in large volumes has allowed this company to lower its cost of production thus enabling it to sell at a lower price than its competitors’. Tesco too is widely known for its bulk production system. The company engages itself in what appear to be a multinational grocery and general merchandise retail (Keupp, 2007). This clearly shows the large number of goods the company produces. The company produces large volume of goods which has led it to open thousands of stores in over 14 countries all over the world. Variety In order to increase their competitive advantages, both Wal-mart and Tesco have hugely diversified their products. For instance, Wal-mart offers variety of services including retail goods, pharmacy, financial services, wireless, and also photo lab services. The company offers retail goods in various categories, for example, customers can purchase electronic products like digital cameras, laptops and computers in Wal-Mart stores (Mullins & Walker, 2013). In addition to home furnishing, the company also offers baby products, sporting goods, and grocery items. Wal-mart, offers to its customers financial services like credit card, debit cards, bill payment and also money transfer. Customers can also purchase money orders, gift cards and also cash cheques at various Wal-mart stores. This strategy adopted by Wal-Mart to offer a variety of goods to customers has enabled it to attract a large pool of customers not only in its home market in U.S. but also in the overseas markets. On the other hand, Tesco Company unlike its rival Wal-Mart has slightly taken a different line of specialization. The company started as a simple grocer, but with time it has been engaging in clothing sector, finance, insurance services, software business, internet shopping business, sale of DVDs, and mobile phone sales (Mullins & Walker, 2013). Its specialization in all these products has given it a higher competitive strength in UK compared to other rivals who usually specializes mainly on grocery. Variation in Demand variation Variation in demand has numerous implications that can be seen in the company’s characteristics. Wal-mart has constantly maintained low levels of demand variation. It has successfully maintained a variation of as lo w as 5% in its demand for a very long period (Varley, 2005). This has been possible for the company due to its effective strategy of focusing on how to lower prices of its products. This has given it a relief to maintain a very stable demand either during peak seasons or off peak periods. On the other hand, Tesco mainly records a medium level of demand variation with a range of between 10 to 20 % variation in its demand. This is brought about by the changing capacity, anticipation of what the customers might demand,

Mondrian's Mathematical principles art Speech or Presentation

Mondrian's Mathematical principles art - Speech or Presentation Example Mondrian employed the very simple geometrical shapes and primary colors for expressing reality, nature and logic. His perspective of viewing things was different. He considered that it is possible to construct any kind of shape as long as there is a basic geometric one. Same is the case with colors; any color can be made by a combination of two or more of the primary colors, red, blue and yellow. A very common element of Mondrian’s art is the Golden Rectangle. This comes under the basic shapes and it has been used repeatedly by Mondrian in his artwork. The following compositions were created using the primary colors and both contain several golden rectangles. The first one was painted in 1942 and the second, right one in 1926 (Mondrian 1937–42). Basically, through his work Mondrian wanted â€Å"to achieve harmony through the balance of the relationships between lines, colors and planes. But only in the clearest and strongest way† (Ruhrberg, et al. 2000,

Scientific misconduct Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Scientific misconduct - Essay Example on the other hand, refers to manipulating research equipment, materials, or processes or omitting (changing) results or data such that the study is not correctly represented in the records. Plagiarism is the stealing of another individual’s processes, ideas, words or results without giving proper credit. Scientific misconduct has dire consequences (Broad & Wade, 1982). It can ruin careers of researchers who knowingly write publications based on false research. If this is done by clinical researchers, some patients may suffer due to the wrong information on different types of treatment. A proper example is an article on fraud by Lancet published in Wakefield et al. (1999) (Koocher & Keith 2010). It linked a vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella to autism. This caused a massive drop in vaccinations that could have resulted in several deaths, in children who were not protected. Falsification also does delay scientific progress especially when researchers misuse research funds, as well as waste time, following false research. A case in point is false claims by physicist Jan Hendrik Schon that he had built high performance plastic transistors, plus the world’s organic laser. This resulted in several laboratories wasting resources and years trying to duplicate his findings (Koocher & Keith 2010). Scientific misconduct ruins the image of the field in which the falsified research is carried out. It diminishes faith in science. Unfortunately, concrete information on the escalating cases of fabrication or falsifying of research in science is not available. The only estimate of the rise in research misconduct is a survey by Koocher & Keith (2010). According to the findings, approximately 1.5% of all research done annually is false. Out of the 155,000 researchers supplied by the National Institution of Health (NIH) funding, there were 2,335 incidents of poss ible misconduct yearly, sixty percent of them involving falsification or fabrication of data. It is worth

Grandfathers Journey by Allen Say Essay Example for Free

Grandfathers Journey by Allen Say Essay Question 1. Describe how the story is structured to influence your response to the text. Question 2. Describe one of the storys major settings. How is it constructed and what is its significance to the story and its ideas? North America is the major setting in this book. North America holds a lot of new technology and everything is new and spectacular to him, the trains, the enormous rock sculptures and an endless farming field are examples of this. There is also a bad side to this place; there are huge cities of factories and tall buildings with thick smoke coming out of each building. But above all, best place was California, where there were a strong sunlight, the Sierra Mountains and the seacoast. Along the way he had met and shook hands new people, which had different cultural backgrounds to him. This setting is constructed in a way that the more the grandfather travels the more he liked it and wanted to make the New World his home. This setting shows that the cultural barrier can be broken and people should go out and see the world and meet new people to develop more familiarity of the world they live in. Question 3. How are you positioned to respond to the major character/s of the story? What values are represented through them? Question 4. Describe the extent to which language and graphics are successfully used together to shape your response. Discuss with close reference to at lease two examples. In the Grandfathers Journey, there are a few pages where the graphics and the text connect together to give the reader a better understanding of situation. At the beginning (on page 4) the text was My grandfather was a young man when he left his home in Japan and went to see the world. On this page it shows the grandfather in Japanese clothes and the background had very dull colours because he is still in the Old World. On the next page it shows the transition to the New World. The background colours have changed from dull to bright and he had changed into European clothes. The wave that looks very unsteady shows the New World. All this happens when you want to see the world. On page 17, there is a picture of the grandfathers daughter holding a pram with a European doll sitting in it. The text that goes with the page was As his daughter grew, my grandfather began to think about his own childhood. He thought about his old friends. In the picture the author shows the contrast between the Asian girl and the European girl using different clothing and the cultural difference (seen through the colours of the hairs). When compared, the grandfather began to remember how his old friends in Japan were when they were little. This illustrates think about his own childhood. He thought about his old friends. Question 5. Discuss the attitudes and values of the text and your personal response to these. Question 6. Describe at least one link you can make between this book and another/other texts you have read or viewed. How do the texts compare in terms of the ideas presented and how do you respond to these ideas? One of the pages in this book makes us realise that we often label Japan as the enemy in World War II, whilst they were also the victim and had also suffered a large amount of devastation. In the film Pearl Harbour, one of the scenes was Japan bombing Pearl Harbour. This only shows the negative side of Japan, where they were attackers, but it did not show them as the victims suffering from the disaster. This movie is persuading the audience to blame Japan for the damages of the war, where Japan had to go through the emotional breakdowns and physical injuries. Even though the book tells us not to blame Japan for the damages and the movie shows us that Japan was the enemy in World War II, there is still a link between the two texts and that is after a war majority of the participating countries will have, no matter large or small, havocs. I think, because of this, we should not blame a certain country for the occurrence of the war, and should not blame any country since the countries that participated are both enemies and victims of the war.

Tribulation Period Essay Example for Free

Tribulation Period Essay Tribulation is a period of time when God will bring on his judgment to the world. According to the prophecies of the Book of Revelation and the Book of Daniel, it will consist of 7 years. This 7 year period is divided into two. The first half is known as the period of Great Sorrow and the next half is known as the Great Tribulation. In the beginning of the first half, the church will be saved from the wrath of God by the event known as the Rapture. In this event, Jesus will descend from heaven and deliver all Christians to the Lord. For those who will be born and become Christians after the Rapture will live through the tribulation period.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The great tribulation will take place when the Antichrist is announced in the temple. The earth will then suffer three wraths, Wrath of the Lamb, Wrath of the Satan and Wrath of the Father. Wrath of the Lamb refers to the wrath of the Christian’s savior Jesus Christ. According to prophecies, rocks from the mountains will befall on man as they cry. Right after the Wrath of the Lamb, the earth will suffer the Wrath of the Satan after he is stripped off with his access on the throne of God. Satan will be sent to the earth after being barred in the heavens. Basing on the interpretation of Revelation 12:7-12, Satan and his angels will be cast into the world tempting Christians to sell their souls. Finally, the world will taste the Wrath of the Father.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   During the aforementioned period, the earth will suffer extreme confusion for there will reign the church of the antichrist. There will be a false messiah who will deceive people and only those who have strong faith who will be able to distinguish the false messiah with the real messiah. In addition, Satan and his angels will be lurking on earth and mingling with people influencing them to exchange their souls with his angels promising salvation.

Impact of Organised Retail On Unorganised Retail

Impact of Organised Retail On Unorganised Retail Abstract The revolution in Indian retail industry has brought many sweeping changes and also opened door for many Indian as well as foreign players. In Indian scenario there is always a constant clash between challenges and opportunities but chances favors those companies that are trying to establish themselves. As every coin has two faces similarly it also has some pros and cons. In India about 96% of retail markets consist of unorganized retail players such as kirana stores. As a result of favorable demographic conditions such as changing life style of Indian consumers and government policies provide huge opportunities for Indian corporate houses as well as foreign players. If we compare today’s scenario with earlier we found that at that time the price and the delivery mode is totally different .at present the markets and their processes are more flexible in all aspects. The new Snow-white market places have started to replace the traditional bazaar – kind of dwarfed tiny corner kirana shop. India has highest shop density in the world. It has more than 1.5crores retail shop thus providing 2nd highest employment after agriculture. It employs 7% of total workforce and contributing more than 10% of India’s GDP.But have we ever thought that what by the entry of big retailers what will be happened to those unorganized retail kirana stores which constitute 96% of it? It may not have an immediate effect but in long run it might affect the small kirana stores and thus many people would loose there job , many families could get affected thus in long run we should not ignore this issue . The main purpose of this report to study the impact of organized retail on the small kirana stores and to find: How kirana stores can sustain themselves in long run? How they will cope in the competition from organized retail players? Are the steps taken by government enough for their safeguards? This paper discusses the various challenges faced by both organized as well as kirana stores in Delhi NCR and how both can sustain in equilibrium without much affecting each others. Introduction Retailing can be defined as the sale of goods or merchandise, from a fixed location such as a department store or kiosk, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the consumer. Retailing is a well recognized business function which compromises making available desired product in the desired quantity at the desired time. This creates a time, place and form utility for the consumer. The success of retailing is depend up on the efficient supply chain and assortment of merchandise mix. A well-developed supply chain reduces wastages and transaction cost thereby reducing the cost of inventories to be maintained by the producers and the traders. A reduction in the cost of inventory management leads to a reduction in the final price to the consumer. Retailing has been identified as a key source for promotion of textiles, processed foods, agricultural and horticultural products. Recently due to certain demographic and economic changes India retail sector has taken a new breathe. It has created a lot of opportunities for big corporate houses like Tatas , Reliance and Bharti etc as well as for many foreign players. As in present scenario Indian retail is in nascent stage therefore it is not much affecting the small kirana stores but in long run its affect can be ignore. Undoubtedly, revolution in retail is good for Indian consumers as well as government as it will increase the taxes i.e. income for government and consumer will have more choice. Broadly Indian retail sector can be classified into two segments: Unorganized retailing Unorganized retailing is characterized by a distorted real-estate market, poor infrastructure and inefficient upstream processes, lack of modern technology, inadequate funding and absence of skilled manpower. Therefore, there is a need to promote organized retailing. Organized Retailing Organized Retailing can be defined as a form of retailing whereby customers can buy goods in a similar purchase environment across more than one physical location for verticals from food, grocery, apparel, consumer durables, jewellery, footwear, beauty care, home dà ©cor, and books to music. In organized retailing a proper record is maintain by the government and retailers need to pay the tax to the government. What is the threat for local organized stores? India has highly fragmented retail industry. Today’s scenario India, still have of the traditional formats retailing .Today still local kirana shop, pan, bidi shop, hardware Store, weekly hatts,convenience stores bazaars etc.It constitute about 96% of retail market .About 12 million outlets operating in country and only 5% of them being larger than 500 square feet in size. In India it is very important to understand what role it pays in lives of Indian citizens from social as well as economic prospective. Retailing is probably the primary form of Disguised Unemployment In Our Country As we have over crowded agriculture sector and stagnating manufacturing sector and the low wages and hard work in both sectors forced many Indians to jump in service sector. Here due to lack of opportunities it is almost become a natural decision for an individual to set up a small shop or store depending upon his financial condition .Thus retailer is born by circumstance not by choice. Ultimately it provides job of more than 6 crores people where as organized retail provides employment to roughly 7 lakhs peoples. So the policy makes should be careful about these 6 crores peoples, whose livelihood may get in danger in future. Retail Industry Structure Global Scenario Worldwide retail industry is one of the most attracting industry being controlled by a handful of powerful corporations based mainly in the U.S and Europe, namely, Wal-Mart, Tesco, Carrefour and Metro. Beside these their are many others big MNC retailers but they have saturated in their home countries only and are looking for penetrating emerging markets like India, China and Russia. As these players are penetrating in these countries thus providing a world class shopping experience to the consumers. Today consumers become more demanding want world class products as well as not only buying but an experiential shopping. Thus shift in consumer behavior in these emerging markets attracting world biggest players. Also the saturation in US retail market and other existing markets in developed countries forcing them to move in new market like India and china. Retailing in United States Retail Sector is the second largest industry in U.S. both in number of establishments and number of employees. The U. S. retail industry generates $3.8 trillion in retail sales annually ($4.2 trillion if food service sales are included), that is approximately $11,993 per capita. Wal-Mart is the worlds largest retailer and the worlds largest company with more than $312 billion (USD) in sales annually. Wal-Mart employs 1.3 million associates in the United States and more than 400,000 internationally. The second largest retailer in the world is Frances Carrefour. Retail Trends in other Countries China had initially restricted FDI in retailing to only joint ventures at 49 percent foreign holding and only at specified locations subject to a ceiling on the number of stores. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan have enforced zoning restrictions for mega-retailers. There are minimal capital requirements for foreign retailers in Sri Lanka. The Philippines has imposed â€Å"sourcing† and reciprocity requirements on foreign retailers. In Japan, mega-retailers must seek the views and permission of small local stores before opening a new store. In the US, major cities such as Los Angeles, California, Chicago and New York City have restricted the opening of Wal-Mart stores within city limits. France enacted the Raffairin Act that regulates the growth of hypermarkets larger than 300 square feet. In Thailand, the government has set up an assistance fund for local retailers due to the impact of mega retailers. Share of Retail Market in world economy: Country Total Market ( bn US $) U.S 4030 Taiwan 40 Malaysia 20 Thailand 32 Indonesia 75 China 325 India 360 Indian Retail Scenario History Traditionally Indian Retail can be traced back from Weekly Markets, Melas, Village Fairs in Small towns and villages to Kirana stores, PDS outlets, Khadi Bhandaar, co-operative stores in Urban cities. The wave of retail began with various textile manufactures like Bombay Dyeing, Raymonds, S Kumar’s, and Grasim foraying into selling the product through their outlets and competition among FMCG players driving the forces towards retailing. The evolution of retailing lead to an emergence of various modern formats like Shopping malls, Super-marts, Hyper-marts,Departmental Stores, Apparel Stores, etc. catering to majorly all sectors of society providing the all-important 3Vs – Value, Variety and Volume. Retail Boom In India Indian Retail Sector is at its inflexion point awaiting multifold growth. The Retail Industry’s Size is presently Rs 1, 44,253 crores out of which the organized sector contributes to a mere 4 percent Of the market size, fairly dominated by scattered, unregulated, unorganized players. Retail sector is expected to grow in tandem to the GDP growth-rate. This sector is slated to be the biggest contributor to GDP of around 10 percent and has promisingly generated ~8 percent employment in India, which is moving towards a larger generation of employment opportunities in the times ahead. Future Of Organised Retailing In India Due to the urban-rural divide, organised retail will grow in the metros and large cities, followed by semi-urban and rural areas. Thus India is on the verge of an enormous multi-fold growth of organised retail. In a span of just 5 years, organised retail is expected to expand in urban cities besides making an entry in semi-urban and rural areas. Presently, the organised retail market is 4 percent of the total retail, that is around Rs 67,310 crore and is expected to compound at 27 percent per annum, aggregating to Rs 1,75,103 crore (7.44 percent of the total retail) in 2010-11. The retail industry is assumed to grow at GDP growth rate. The retail revolution signals softening of inflation rate on an yearly basis, due to elimination of intermediaries in retailing and passing on of all the benefits to the consumer. The mantra expediting the retail growth is ‘Consumer is the King’. Penetration of Organized Sector Organized Share of retail sector is expected to increase to 8-9 percent in 2010-11 from 4 percent in 2007. Segmental Growth of Retailing Food and Grocery This is the largest vertical of 74.4 percent of retail size compromising fruits and vegetables, milk and milk products, staples, cereals, grains, pulses, processed food, ready to cook and ready to eat meals, spices and other eatables. This is least penetrated segment across all verticals of around 1.5 percent, being the most untapped pie. According to NSSO 60th round, 54 percent of the rural and 42 percent of urban expenditure was on food. Apparels Clothing and textile is a large organized vertical dominated by textile manufacturers Raymond, Bombay Dyeing, Vimal, and by big retailers like Pantaloon, Pyramyd, Koutons having ~16.4 penetration level. Increasing disposable incomes and change in the lifestyle needs has pushed the segment. Consumer Durables The electronics and consumer durable is the biggest organized segment penetrated to ~20 percent. There lies more unearthed growth in the verticals as the craze for electronic gadgets have been picking up with the advent of nuclear families. Home Dà ©cor and furnishing The demand for furnishing is going to be spearheaded by a huge demand for the real-estate, paving way to tap the unorganized segment. Presently only a few players like Gautier, Godrej, Durian function as organized entities. Jewellery and Watches Titan is the early entrant in the segment followed by MNCs Oyzterbay, Tanishq, Swaroski, Orra, Gitanjali, D’damas driven by demand for fashion accessories, and huge advertising and promotion campaigns. Beauty Care The organised players in Beauty Care are HLL (Lakme Salons), Marico (Kaya), Health and Glow are having a huge growth impetus. Footwear Leaving aside the Apparel, Footwear segment is forming a big pie in the organised retail sector, expected to grow to greater heights with foreign payers like Crocs Inc. Books, Music and gifts In addition to Tier-II and Tier-III cities, the habit of reading books and listening to music is picking up among the Tier-I cities. The stores like Oxford Bookstore etc are experiencing this upswing. Organized Retail Growth in Indian Cities The Retail sector contributes to around 36 percent of GDP in India and is largest employment generator. The sector is dominated by small-scattered unorganised regional players, large players contributing to meager 10 percent of the total pie. Organised retail is at its nascent phase wherein the large organised retail groups are having aggressive expansion plans to penetrate the Metros and Tier I cities and establish themselves amongst rural masses of Tier I and Tier II cities. There lies a challenge for retailers to experiment with new value formats along with developing customer loyalties. Since there will be demographic shift in population growth, urbanization and migration due to transition in urban household growth and income distribution. The total retail market in the top 67 cities in India in 2006 was Rs. 2.55 trillion, which is expected to increase to Rs. 3.91 trillion in 2011. According to CRISIL, around 87 percent of the retail opportunity comes from top 25 cities compromising Metro Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Mini Metros Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Mini Metros Ahmedabad and Pune, Tier I cities of Kanpur , Nagpur, Surat and Ludhiana, Tier II cities Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kochi, Jaipur and Tier III cities Vadodara, Vizag, Indore, Vijaywada, Thiruvananthpuram, Bhopal, Nashik and Madurai. The levels of penetration in the top 67 cities are expected to leap. Organized retail has been established in Metros and Tier 1 cities, other cities having negligible level of penetration Retail Formats in India: Conventional Formats Kirana These are food and non-food neighborhood counter stores, also called ‘mom and pop stores’ in western countries. These are big chunks forming the segregated and unorganised retail segment. These are family-ownedand- run retail-outlets picking the goods from wholesalers totaling to around 12 million stores across India. Mandis These are the largest chunk of unorganised retail catering to urban and rural masses. Mandis are physically located at different regions to enhance convenient shopping. The sellers bring across various products like eatables,vegetables and fruits, pulses, cereals, spices etc. The most prominent of them are sabzi mandis found in most of the localities across India. Village Haats This form is operating in rural areas where buyers and sellers gather once in a week or month from nearby villages and small towns to cater their livelihood and leisure needs. These haats are a source of entertainment and socialization among rural masses. Push Cart Vendors The are categories of vendors roaming from door to door in various localities selling fruits, vegetables, and other eatables, from which mostly housewives makes purchases that too on credit. Modern organized retail formats: Shopping malls Area -60000-700000 square feet Point of differentiation: Multi format, Multi products, Multi brand caterings, Lifestyle needs. Hyper market Area: 50000 – 100000 square feet Point of differentiation: Multi vertical Super markets Area: 5000-10000 square feet. Point of differentiation: low cost, low margin high volume, self service operations design to serve total need for food, laundry household maintenance products. Departmental stores Area: 20000-30000 square feet. Point of differentiation: single vertical , several product lines Apparels store Area: 20000-25000 square feet Point of differentiation: Multi branded, Single vertical, focusing on high consumers Specialty stores Area:-2000-5000 square feet Point of differentiation: Narrow product line with deep assortment ,multi branded, Single vertical on specific needs of the customers. Exclusive formats Area: 500-5000 square feet Point of differentiation: Owned/Franchised, Single products 8. Convenience stores Area: 200-500 square feet Point of differentiation: Located near residential area, open long hours, seven days in a week, limited product line, high turnover Advantages of conventional Modern Organized retail formats Conventional formats: Low operating cost Overheads. Proximity to consumers. Low operating hours. Strong relations with customers. Modern organized retail formats: Large bargaining power with suppliers. Range variety of goods. Quality assurance( Brand related, durability) Convenience Hygiene Business Models suiting Indian Scenario Cash--carry Wholesale Model Cash--carry is a form of retail trade in which goods are sold from a wholesale warehouse operated either on a self-service basis where customers settle the invoice on-the-spot or pay cash and carry the goods away themselves. The cash--carry player also performs many value-added functions, including selling and promoting, buying and assortment building, bulk-breaking, warehousing, transporting, financing, risk-bearing, supplying market information, and providing management services. Hub-and-spoke Model Retail Chains are entering residential areas with the hub-andspoke model, whereby one large store supports various smaller stores in the nearby residential areas. This is win-win model is well-suited to the Indian business scene where large stores obtain supplies from the warehouse and supplies to the consumers, involving both large payers acting as wholesalers and local kiranas as retail outlets. With efficient supply chain management, availability of space and proper technology in place, this will not take much time. The Piramyd Retail’s Trumart Stores (food and grocery) in Mumbai and Pune are based on a similar model. Growth Enabling Factors Higher Disposable Income The disposable income has been showing a rapid increase from the last few years and is expected to grow steadily because the proportion of the major consuming class (population having incomes higher than Rs 90,000) is expected to reach 48 percent by 2009-10 from 20 percent in 1995-95, at the 2001-02 prices, at a CAGR of 9.3 percent over the next 8 years leading to new consumption patterns due to increasing depth in the consumers’ pocket. Growing Working women population The propensity to spend in the case of working women is higher by 1.3 times as compared by housewives. According to the census report, the population of working women increased to 26 percent in 2001 as compared to 22 percent in 1991. Adoption of Nuclear Family culture The increase in per capita income paved way to increase the nuclear-family culture. The proportion of nuclear families as a percentage of total household population has increased as shown by fall in average household size from 5.57 in 1991to 5.36 in 2007, expected to fall further to 5.02 by 2011. This will fuel the growth of organised retail. Baby Boomer Effect The demographics of Indian population has a steep growth in earning population (15-60 yrs). In 2000, 593 million people (58.3 percent of total population) constituted the age bracket of 15-60 yrs – growing from an unprecedented level of 335 million people (54 percent of total population) in 1975 at a rate of 77 percent (CAGR of 2.3 percent) in contrast to a population growth of 64 percent (CAGR of 2 percent) over the same period of 25 years. Over the next 15 years, the earning population is expected to increase to 62.8 percent in 2015, translating into a population of 782 million. Growth in Urban Population Urbanization has increased at a rate of 2.7 percent over the last 10 years (1990-2000). In 2000, the urban population was estimated to be 281 million (27.7 percent of the total population). This trend is likely to continue and urbanization is expected to grow at 2.4 percent between 2000 and 2015. In 2015 the urban population is expected to be 401 million, constituting 32.2 percent of the total population. Robust Outlook towards Branded products Due to liberalization of manufacturing sector, various organized branded products have entered into Indian markets, thereby developing and widening the basket for branded finished goods. With the advent of International competition, new trends and lifestyles are evolving among India masses resulting into 10-15 percent growth in branded products. This has established the base for organized retail market in India. Growth in Retail Malls and various other new Formats Real Estate players like Raheja’s, Future Group, DLF, Omaxe, Piramal Group, Parsvnath, Unitech are developing retail malls and leasing out the retail spaces to various retailers of varied products making it a one-stop shopping destinations in urban and semi-urban cities. These shopping-cum-entertainment malls are wooing young buyers to increase their conversion rate backed by increasing foot-falls. Around 358 malls have come up by 2007, covering a total space of 87 million square feet, thereby pushing organised retail to new heights. Plastic Money becoming a greater Pie of credit The use of plastic money in the form of debit and credit cards has expanded multifold in last 5 years. The number of credit cards has grown at a CAGR of 28 percent and debit cards galloped by 140 percent. The customers have adopted the habit of electronic payments and leveraging their pockets shifting from basic needs to lifestyle products. Swot Analysis of Organized Stores Strength: As being technology intensive .these stores are able to forecast customer demand, shorten lead time reduce inventory holding ultimately save cost. Wide assortment show customer has variety of choice Weakness: Despite of high footfall the conversion rate is very low. As a result retail measure experiencing an ROI of only 8% to 10% Organized stores have less customer loyalty as compare to unorganized stores. Low customer knowledge Lack of personal touch Opportunities: Indian middle class is already 30 crores projected to grow to over 60 crores by 2010 making India one of the largest consumer markets in the world. According to KSA projections by 2015 India will have 55 crores people under the age of 20 reflecting the enormous opportunities possible in the kids teens retailing segments. Threats: High real estate rent. Poor Infrastructure Less develop shopping culture. Due to fragmented market high distribution cost. Swot Analysis of Unorganized Stores Strength: Located in prime residential area. Rental for large stores in these area are generally not available. They enjoy a near monopoly in area that is backward or do not have a population with sustainable purchasing power like rural areas. since organized retailer are unlikely to enter such reasons Weakness: Do not provide quality assurance. Less concern about ambience hygiene issue. Opportunities: Low capital requirements Proximity to consumers and strong relationship help them to gauge .Customer needs stock accordingly thus gaining more business. Threats: Increase in use of credit cards With huge stores coming up in catchments areas of 5-7 km of approachable distance larges chains planning to set up hub spoke, smaller stores. So the very existence of traditional store is in danger. Low or no bargaining power due to small scale of operations Due to smaller in size unable to stock a variety of goods. Provide not many options to the customers. Why Indian consumers want more experiential shopping today? The Indian consumer is changing rapidly. The average consumer today is richer, younger and more aspirational in his or her needs than ever before. Consumers now value convenience and choice on a par with getting value for their hard-earned money. A range of modern retailers is attempting to serve the needs of the ‘new’ Indian consumer. Today Indian consumers want not only buying but a full shopping experience. For this one of the important factors responsible is change in life style as well as disposable income. As per Indian consumer’s map , approximately 209 million of total household in India 6 millions are rich having annual income of more than US$ 4700 .this number were 1 million household in 1994 and 3 million households in 1999-00 thus this class is growing very rapidly. About 50% of these families are living in metros and spending more than eighteen billion annually. As per the need of these families around 62% market for premium products is concentrated in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata. But now retail market is moving toward big and also small cities . India’s 8.5% of the retail market concentrated in 8 big cities .As per an estimate among rich class top most 1 million customers comes under superrich category growing by 20% per annum and shows behavior similar to international consumers . While this segment is worth targeting for high-end premium products, it is not the key driver of the organized retail sector. The real driver of the Indian retail sector is the bottom 80% of the first layer and the upper half of the second layer of the income map (see ‘Map of India’s income classes’ below). This segment of about 40 million households earns USD 4,000-10,000 per household and comprises salaried employees and self-employed professionals. This segment is expected to grow to 65 million households by 2010 and is currently the key driver behind explosive growth in passenger car sales (USD 5 billion in 2004) and mobile phone penetration (over 70 million). The top 6 Indian cities -Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad -are the darlings of India’s exploding economy. They represent 6% of the population, but contribute 14% of India’s GDP. They are the centers of business, finance, politics and the emerging sunrise industries such as IT, pharma and ITeS, which have put India on the global map. These cities are also the barometer of India’s economic development and most foreign investors have flocked here. Are Indian consumers are ready for organize retail? By the end of 20th century in Indian retail sector too many significant changes has taken place. The retailing industry, which in early1990s was dominated by the unorganized sector, is now going a drastic change with a rapid growth in the organized sector with the entry of many corporate groups such as Tata, RPG, ITC and Bennett Coleman Company. Now Indian consumers are much aware about domestic and foreign products by the different source of media, such as newspaper ,television and the internet Apart from this there are too many social changes like increase in working couples , increase in number of nuclear families , rapid Urbanization.goverment policies ,increase in availability of retail space , increase in disposable income , availability of educated manpower also catalyzed the growth of organize retail . Food retailing was the most important area where players like food worlds establishing their outlets all over the India. Beside it supermarket and departmental stores now replacing traditional grocery stores all over the India , by the entry of fast foods (McDonalds), packaged foods (MTR), vending machines and specialty beverage parlors (Nescafe, Tata Tea, Cafe Coffee and Barista) brought about significant changes in the eating habits of Indian consumers. Literature Review Indian retail sector still has long way to go till now many research work and articles have been return over Indian retail. These articles and research work mainly focus upon huge untapped markets in Indian retail. They mainly talk about the opportunities available in the Indian market for the growth of organized retail. Some of the important research paper and articles which inspired me and catalyzed my thinking process over this topic are: â€Å"The evolving retail market in India† was written by Dale Anne Raiss and Ranjan biswas working as partner and head of market at Ernst Young .In this report they talk about largely untapped potential in retailing in India. They also tal Impact of Organised Retail On Unorganised Retail Impact of Organised Retail On Unorganised Retail Abstract The revolution in Indian retail industry has brought many sweeping changes and also opened door for many Indian as well as foreign players. In Indian scenario there is always a constant clash between challenges and opportunities but chances favors those companies that are trying to establish themselves. As every coin has two faces similarly it also has some pros and cons. In India about 96% of retail markets consist of unorganized retail players such as kirana stores. As a result of favorable demographic conditions such as changing life style of Indian consumers and government policies provide huge opportunities for Indian corporate houses as well as foreign players. If we compare today’s scenario with earlier we found that at that time the price and the delivery mode is totally different .at present the markets and their processes are more flexible in all aspects. The new Snow-white market places have started to replace the traditional bazaar – kind of dwarfed tiny corner kirana shop. India has highest shop density in the world. It has more than 1.5crores retail shop thus providing 2nd highest employment after agriculture. It employs 7% of total workforce and contributing more than 10% of India’s GDP.But have we ever thought that what by the entry of big retailers what will be happened to those unorganized retail kirana stores which constitute 96% of it? It may not have an immediate effect but in long run it might affect the small kirana stores and thus many people would loose there job , many families could get affected thus in long run we should not ignore this issue . The main purpose of this report to study the impact of organized retail on the small kirana stores and to find: How kirana stores can sustain themselves in long run? How they will cope in the competition from organized retail players? Are the steps taken by government enough for their safeguards? This paper discusses the various challenges faced by both organized as well as kirana stores in Delhi NCR and how both can sustain in equilibrium without much affecting each others. Introduction Retailing can be defined as the sale of goods or merchandise, from a fixed location such as a department store or kiosk, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the consumer. Retailing is a well recognized business function which compromises making available desired product in the desired quantity at the desired time. This creates a time, place and form utility for the consumer. The success of retailing is depend up on the efficient supply chain and assortment of merchandise mix. A well-developed supply chain reduces wastages and transaction cost thereby reducing the cost of inventories to be maintained by the producers and the traders. A reduction in the cost of inventory management leads to a reduction in the final price to the consumer. Retailing has been identified as a key source for promotion of textiles, processed foods, agricultural and horticultural products. Recently due to certain demographic and economic changes India retail sector has taken a new breathe. It has created a lot of opportunities for big corporate houses like Tatas , Reliance and Bharti etc as well as for many foreign players. As in present scenario Indian retail is in nascent stage therefore it is not much affecting the small kirana stores but in long run its affect can be ignore. Undoubtedly, revolution in retail is good for Indian consumers as well as government as it will increase the taxes i.e. income for government and consumer will have more choice. Broadly Indian retail sector can be classified into two segments: Unorganized retailing Unorganized retailing is characterized by a distorted real-estate market, poor infrastructure and inefficient upstream processes, lack of modern technology, inadequate funding and absence of skilled manpower. Therefore, there is a need to promote organized retailing. Organized Retailing Organized Retailing can be defined as a form of retailing whereby customers can buy goods in a similar purchase environment across more than one physical location for verticals from food, grocery, apparel, consumer durables, jewellery, footwear, beauty care, home dà ©cor, and books to music. In organized retailing a proper record is maintain by the government and retailers need to pay the tax to the government. What is the threat for local organized stores? India has highly fragmented retail industry. Today’s scenario India, still have of the traditional formats retailing .Today still local kirana shop, pan, bidi shop, hardware Store, weekly hatts,convenience stores bazaars etc.It constitute about 96% of retail market .About 12 million outlets operating in country and only 5% of them being larger than 500 square feet in size. In India it is very important to understand what role it pays in lives of Indian citizens from social as well as economic prospective. Retailing is probably the primary form of Disguised Unemployment In Our Country As we have over crowded agriculture sector and stagnating manufacturing sector and the low wages and hard work in both sectors forced many Indians to jump in service sector. Here due to lack of opportunities it is almost become a natural decision for an individual to set up a small shop or store depending upon his financial condition .Thus retailer is born by circumstance not by choice. Ultimately it provides job of more than 6 crores people where as organized retail provides employment to roughly 7 lakhs peoples. So the policy makes should be careful about these 6 crores peoples, whose livelihood may get in danger in future. Retail Industry Structure Global Scenario Worldwide retail industry is one of the most attracting industry being controlled by a handful of powerful corporations based mainly in the U.S and Europe, namely, Wal-Mart, Tesco, Carrefour and Metro. Beside these their are many others big MNC retailers but they have saturated in their home countries only and are looking for penetrating emerging markets like India, China and Russia. As these players are penetrating in these countries thus providing a world class shopping experience to the consumers. Today consumers become more demanding want world class products as well as not only buying but an experiential shopping. Thus shift in consumer behavior in these emerging markets attracting world biggest players. Also the saturation in US retail market and other existing markets in developed countries forcing them to move in new market like India and china. Retailing in United States Retail Sector is the second largest industry in U.S. both in number of establishments and number of employees. The U. S. retail industry generates $3.8 trillion in retail sales annually ($4.2 trillion if food service sales are included), that is approximately $11,993 per capita. Wal-Mart is the worlds largest retailer and the worlds largest company with more than $312 billion (USD) in sales annually. Wal-Mart employs 1.3 million associates in the United States and more than 400,000 internationally. The second largest retailer in the world is Frances Carrefour. Retail Trends in other Countries China had initially restricted FDI in retailing to only joint ventures at 49 percent foreign holding and only at specified locations subject to a ceiling on the number of stores. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan have enforced zoning restrictions for mega-retailers. There are minimal capital requirements for foreign retailers in Sri Lanka. The Philippines has imposed â€Å"sourcing† and reciprocity requirements on foreign retailers. In Japan, mega-retailers must seek the views and permission of small local stores before opening a new store. In the US, major cities such as Los Angeles, California, Chicago and New York City have restricted the opening of Wal-Mart stores within city limits. France enacted the Raffairin Act that regulates the growth of hypermarkets larger than 300 square feet. In Thailand, the government has set up an assistance fund for local retailers due to the impact of mega retailers. Share of Retail Market in world economy: Country Total Market ( bn US $) U.S 4030 Taiwan 40 Malaysia 20 Thailand 32 Indonesia 75 China 325 India 360 Indian Retail Scenario History Traditionally Indian Retail can be traced back from Weekly Markets, Melas, Village Fairs in Small towns and villages to Kirana stores, PDS outlets, Khadi Bhandaar, co-operative stores in Urban cities. The wave of retail began with various textile manufactures like Bombay Dyeing, Raymonds, S Kumar’s, and Grasim foraying into selling the product through their outlets and competition among FMCG players driving the forces towards retailing. The evolution of retailing lead to an emergence of various modern formats like Shopping malls, Super-marts, Hyper-marts,Departmental Stores, Apparel Stores, etc. catering to majorly all sectors of society providing the all-important 3Vs – Value, Variety and Volume. Retail Boom In India Indian Retail Sector is at its inflexion point awaiting multifold growth. The Retail Industry’s Size is presently Rs 1, 44,253 crores out of which the organized sector contributes to a mere 4 percent Of the market size, fairly dominated by scattered, unregulated, unorganized players. Retail sector is expected to grow in tandem to the GDP growth-rate. This sector is slated to be the biggest contributor to GDP of around 10 percent and has promisingly generated ~8 percent employment in India, which is moving towards a larger generation of employment opportunities in the times ahead. Future Of Organised Retailing In India Due to the urban-rural divide, organised retail will grow in the metros and large cities, followed by semi-urban and rural areas. Thus India is on the verge of an enormous multi-fold growth of organised retail. In a span of just 5 years, organised retail is expected to expand in urban cities besides making an entry in semi-urban and rural areas. Presently, the organised retail market is 4 percent of the total retail, that is around Rs 67,310 crore and is expected to compound at 27 percent per annum, aggregating to Rs 1,75,103 crore (7.44 percent of the total retail) in 2010-11. The retail industry is assumed to grow at GDP growth rate. The retail revolution signals softening of inflation rate on an yearly basis, due to elimination of intermediaries in retailing and passing on of all the benefits to the consumer. The mantra expediting the retail growth is ‘Consumer is the King’. Penetration of Organized Sector Organized Share of retail sector is expected to increase to 8-9 percent in 2010-11 from 4 percent in 2007. Segmental Growth of Retailing Food and Grocery This is the largest vertical of 74.4 percent of retail size compromising fruits and vegetables, milk and milk products, staples, cereals, grains, pulses, processed food, ready to cook and ready to eat meals, spices and other eatables. This is least penetrated segment across all verticals of around 1.5 percent, being the most untapped pie. According to NSSO 60th round, 54 percent of the rural and 42 percent of urban expenditure was on food. Apparels Clothing and textile is a large organized vertical dominated by textile manufacturers Raymond, Bombay Dyeing, Vimal, and by big retailers like Pantaloon, Pyramyd, Koutons having ~16.4 penetration level. Increasing disposable incomes and change in the lifestyle needs has pushed the segment. Consumer Durables The electronics and consumer durable is the biggest organized segment penetrated to ~20 percent. There lies more unearthed growth in the verticals as the craze for electronic gadgets have been picking up with the advent of nuclear families. Home Dà ©cor and furnishing The demand for furnishing is going to be spearheaded by a huge demand for the real-estate, paving way to tap the unorganized segment. Presently only a few players like Gautier, Godrej, Durian function as organized entities. Jewellery and Watches Titan is the early entrant in the segment followed by MNCs Oyzterbay, Tanishq, Swaroski, Orra, Gitanjali, D’damas driven by demand for fashion accessories, and huge advertising and promotion campaigns. Beauty Care The organised players in Beauty Care are HLL (Lakme Salons), Marico (Kaya), Health and Glow are having a huge growth impetus. Footwear Leaving aside the Apparel, Footwear segment is forming a big pie in the organised retail sector, expected to grow to greater heights with foreign payers like Crocs Inc. Books, Music and gifts In addition to Tier-II and Tier-III cities, the habit of reading books and listening to music is picking up among the Tier-I cities. The stores like Oxford Bookstore etc are experiencing this upswing. Organized Retail Growth in Indian Cities The Retail sector contributes to around 36 percent of GDP in India and is largest employment generator. The sector is dominated by small-scattered unorganised regional players, large players contributing to meager 10 percent of the total pie. Organised retail is at its nascent phase wherein the large organised retail groups are having aggressive expansion plans to penetrate the Metros and Tier I cities and establish themselves amongst rural masses of Tier I and Tier II cities. There lies a challenge for retailers to experiment with new value formats along with developing customer loyalties. Since there will be demographic shift in population growth, urbanization and migration due to transition in urban household growth and income distribution. The total retail market in the top 67 cities in India in 2006 was Rs. 2.55 trillion, which is expected to increase to Rs. 3.91 trillion in 2011. According to CRISIL, around 87 percent of the retail opportunity comes from top 25 cities compromising Metro Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Mini Metros Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Mini Metros Ahmedabad and Pune, Tier I cities of Kanpur , Nagpur, Surat and Ludhiana, Tier II cities Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kochi, Jaipur and Tier III cities Vadodara, Vizag, Indore, Vijaywada, Thiruvananthpuram, Bhopal, Nashik and Madurai. The levels of penetration in the top 67 cities are expected to leap. Organized retail has been established in Metros and Tier 1 cities, other cities having negligible level of penetration Retail Formats in India: Conventional Formats Kirana These are food and non-food neighborhood counter stores, also called ‘mom and pop stores’ in western countries. These are big chunks forming the segregated and unorganised retail segment. These are family-ownedand- run retail-outlets picking the goods from wholesalers totaling to around 12 million stores across India. Mandis These are the largest chunk of unorganised retail catering to urban and rural masses. Mandis are physically located at different regions to enhance convenient shopping. The sellers bring across various products like eatables,vegetables and fruits, pulses, cereals, spices etc. The most prominent of them are sabzi mandis found in most of the localities across India. Village Haats This form is operating in rural areas where buyers and sellers gather once in a week or month from nearby villages and small towns to cater their livelihood and leisure needs. These haats are a source of entertainment and socialization among rural masses. Push Cart Vendors The are categories of vendors roaming from door to door in various localities selling fruits, vegetables, and other eatables, from which mostly housewives makes purchases that too on credit. Modern organized retail formats: Shopping malls Area -60000-700000 square feet Point of differentiation: Multi format, Multi products, Multi brand caterings, Lifestyle needs. Hyper market Area: 50000 – 100000 square feet Point of differentiation: Multi vertical Super markets Area: 5000-10000 square feet. Point of differentiation: low cost, low margin high volume, self service operations design to serve total need for food, laundry household maintenance products. Departmental stores Area: 20000-30000 square feet. Point of differentiation: single vertical , several product lines Apparels store Area: 20000-25000 square feet Point of differentiation: Multi branded, Single vertical, focusing on high consumers Specialty stores Area:-2000-5000 square feet Point of differentiation: Narrow product line with deep assortment ,multi branded, Single vertical on specific needs of the customers. Exclusive formats Area: 500-5000 square feet Point of differentiation: Owned/Franchised, Single products 8. Convenience stores Area: 200-500 square feet Point of differentiation: Located near residential area, open long hours, seven days in a week, limited product line, high turnover Advantages of conventional Modern Organized retail formats Conventional formats: Low operating cost Overheads. Proximity to consumers. Low operating hours. Strong relations with customers. Modern organized retail formats: Large bargaining power with suppliers. Range variety of goods. Quality assurance( Brand related, durability) Convenience Hygiene Business Models suiting Indian Scenario Cash--carry Wholesale Model Cash--carry is a form of retail trade in which goods are sold from a wholesale warehouse operated either on a self-service basis where customers settle the invoice on-the-spot or pay cash and carry the goods away themselves. The cash--carry player also performs many value-added functions, including selling and promoting, buying and assortment building, bulk-breaking, warehousing, transporting, financing, risk-bearing, supplying market information, and providing management services. Hub-and-spoke Model Retail Chains are entering residential areas with the hub-andspoke model, whereby one large store supports various smaller stores in the nearby residential areas. This is win-win model is well-suited to the Indian business scene where large stores obtain supplies from the warehouse and supplies to the consumers, involving both large payers acting as wholesalers and local kiranas as retail outlets. With efficient supply chain management, availability of space and proper technology in place, this will not take much time. The Piramyd Retail’s Trumart Stores (food and grocery) in Mumbai and Pune are based on a similar model. Growth Enabling Factors Higher Disposable Income The disposable income has been showing a rapid increase from the last few years and is expected to grow steadily because the proportion of the major consuming class (population having incomes higher than Rs 90,000) is expected to reach 48 percent by 2009-10 from 20 percent in 1995-95, at the 2001-02 prices, at a CAGR of 9.3 percent over the next 8 years leading to new consumption patterns due to increasing depth in the consumers’ pocket. Growing Working women population The propensity to spend in the case of working women is higher by 1.3 times as compared by housewives. According to the census report, the population of working women increased to 26 percent in 2001 as compared to 22 percent in 1991. Adoption of Nuclear Family culture The increase in per capita income paved way to increase the nuclear-family culture. The proportion of nuclear families as a percentage of total household population has increased as shown by fall in average household size from 5.57 in 1991to 5.36 in 2007, expected to fall further to 5.02 by 2011. This will fuel the growth of organised retail. Baby Boomer Effect The demographics of Indian population has a steep growth in earning population (15-60 yrs). In 2000, 593 million people (58.3 percent of total population) constituted the age bracket of 15-60 yrs – growing from an unprecedented level of 335 million people (54 percent of total population) in 1975 at a rate of 77 percent (CAGR of 2.3 percent) in contrast to a population growth of 64 percent (CAGR of 2 percent) over the same period of 25 years. Over the next 15 years, the earning population is expected to increase to 62.8 percent in 2015, translating into a population of 782 million. Growth in Urban Population Urbanization has increased at a rate of 2.7 percent over the last 10 years (1990-2000). In 2000, the urban population was estimated to be 281 million (27.7 percent of the total population). This trend is likely to continue and urbanization is expected to grow at 2.4 percent between 2000 and 2015. In 2015 the urban population is expected to be 401 million, constituting 32.2 percent of the total population. Robust Outlook towards Branded products Due to liberalization of manufacturing sector, various organized branded products have entered into Indian markets, thereby developing and widening the basket for branded finished goods. With the advent of International competition, new trends and lifestyles are evolving among India masses resulting into 10-15 percent growth in branded products. This has established the base for organized retail market in India. Growth in Retail Malls and various other new Formats Real Estate players like Raheja’s, Future Group, DLF, Omaxe, Piramal Group, Parsvnath, Unitech are developing retail malls and leasing out the retail spaces to various retailers of varied products making it a one-stop shopping destinations in urban and semi-urban cities. These shopping-cum-entertainment malls are wooing young buyers to increase their conversion rate backed by increasing foot-falls. Around 358 malls have come up by 2007, covering a total space of 87 million square feet, thereby pushing organised retail to new heights. Plastic Money becoming a greater Pie of credit The use of plastic money in the form of debit and credit cards has expanded multifold in last 5 years. The number of credit cards has grown at a CAGR of 28 percent and debit cards galloped by 140 percent. The customers have adopted the habit of electronic payments and leveraging their pockets shifting from basic needs to lifestyle products. Swot Analysis of Organized Stores Strength: As being technology intensive .these stores are able to forecast customer demand, shorten lead time reduce inventory holding ultimately save cost. Wide assortment show customer has variety of choice Weakness: Despite of high footfall the conversion rate is very low. As a result retail measure experiencing an ROI of only 8% to 10% Organized stores have less customer loyalty as compare to unorganized stores. Low customer knowledge Lack of personal touch Opportunities: Indian middle class is already 30 crores projected to grow to over 60 crores by 2010 making India one of the largest consumer markets in the world. According to KSA projections by 2015 India will have 55 crores people under the age of 20 reflecting the enormous opportunities possible in the kids teens retailing segments. Threats: High real estate rent. Poor Infrastructure Less develop shopping culture. Due to fragmented market high distribution cost. Swot Analysis of Unorganized Stores Strength: Located in prime residential area. Rental for large stores in these area are generally not available. They enjoy a near monopoly in area that is backward or do not have a population with sustainable purchasing power like rural areas. since organized retailer are unlikely to enter such reasons Weakness: Do not provide quality assurance. Less concern about ambience hygiene issue. Opportunities: Low capital requirements Proximity to consumers and strong relationship help them to gauge .Customer needs stock accordingly thus gaining more business. Threats: Increase in use of credit cards With huge stores coming up in catchments areas of 5-7 km of approachable distance larges chains planning to set up hub spoke, smaller stores. So the very existence of traditional store is in danger. Low or no bargaining power due to small scale of operations Due to smaller in size unable to stock a variety of goods. Provide not many options to the customers. Why Indian consumers want more experiential shopping today? The Indian consumer is changing rapidly. The average consumer today is richer, younger and more aspirational in his or her needs than ever before. Consumers now value convenience and choice on a par with getting value for their hard-earned money. A range of modern retailers is attempting to serve the needs of the ‘new’ Indian consumer. Today Indian consumers want not only buying but a full shopping experience. For this one of the important factors responsible is change in life style as well as disposable income. As per Indian consumer’s map , approximately 209 million of total household in India 6 millions are rich having annual income of more than US$ 4700 .this number were 1 million household in 1994 and 3 million households in 1999-00 thus this class is growing very rapidly. About 50% of these families are living in metros and spending more than eighteen billion annually. As per the need of these families around 62% market for premium products is concentrated in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata. But now retail market is moving toward big and also small cities . India’s 8.5% of the retail market concentrated in 8 big cities .As per an estimate among rich class top most 1 million customers comes under superrich category growing by 20% per annum and shows behavior similar to international consumers . While this segment is worth targeting for high-end premium products, it is not the key driver of the organized retail sector. The real driver of the Indian retail sector is the bottom 80% of the first layer and the upper half of the second layer of the income map (see ‘Map of India’s income classes’ below). This segment of about 40 million households earns USD 4,000-10,000 per household and comprises salaried employees and self-employed professionals. This segment is expected to grow to 65 million households by 2010 and is currently the key driver behind explosive growth in passenger car sales (USD 5 billion in 2004) and mobile phone penetration (over 70 million). The top 6 Indian cities -Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad -are the darlings of India’s exploding economy. They represent 6% of the population, but contribute 14% of India’s GDP. They are the centers of business, finance, politics and the emerging sunrise industries such as IT, pharma and ITeS, which have put India on the global map. These cities are also the barometer of India’s economic development and most foreign investors have flocked here. Are Indian consumers are ready for organize retail? By the end of 20th century in Indian retail sector too many significant changes has taken place. The retailing industry, which in early1990s was dominated by the unorganized sector, is now going a drastic change with a rapid growth in the organized sector with the entry of many corporate groups such as Tata, RPG, ITC and Bennett Coleman Company. Now Indian consumers are much aware about domestic and foreign products by the different source of media, such as newspaper ,television and the internet Apart from this there are too many social changes like increase in working couples , increase in number of nuclear families , rapid Urbanization.goverment policies ,increase in availability of retail space , increase in disposable income , availability of educated manpower also catalyzed the growth of organize retail . Food retailing was the most important area where players like food worlds establishing their outlets all over the India. Beside it supermarket and departmental stores now replacing traditional grocery stores all over the India , by the entry of fast foods (McDonalds), packaged foods (MTR), vending machines and specialty beverage parlors (Nescafe, Tata Tea, Cafe Coffee and Barista) brought about significant changes in the eating habits of Indian consumers. Literature Review Indian retail sector still has long way to go till now many research work and articles have been return over Indian retail. These articles and research work mainly focus upon huge untapped markets in Indian retail. They mainly talk about the opportunities available in the Indian market for the growth of organized retail. Some of the important research paper and articles which inspired me and catalyzed my thinking process over this topic are: â€Å"The evolving retail market in India† was written by Dale Anne Raiss and Ranjan biswas working as partner and head of market at Ernst Young .In this report they talk about largely untapped potential in retailing in India. They also tal