Kaushik Basu welcomes state autonomy in FDI in retail

KOLKATA: Strongly advocating FDI in multi-brand retail in India, World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu today welcomed the decision to allow states to take a call on it.

"I like autonomy for states to take decision. There will be some disparity, but it is worthwhile because you allow states to adopt policy. This will be like a laboratory experiment whether it is worthwhile or not," Basu said at the sidelines of a seminar at IIM-Calcutta.

"In the next few years, we'll see whether the states that adopted FDI are doing good or bad. If we see these states are doing good, the hesitant states will open up and if doing bad then it would be a lesson for everyone," Basu said.

As of now only ten states in the country have endorsed the Centre's decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail.

Basu said every new policy would come with some negative effects, but positive impacts were far greater than negative. And for that it was worth going for it.

Basu said FDI in multi-brand retail would benefit farmers the most on the prices front with minimal impact of the rise on consumers. Besides, it would benefit small producers in exports through the retail MNCs.

He said reforms were necessary for the country and some negative impacts like side-effects of a medicine were needed for treatment. "You have tools to manage those," he said.