Acorn Foundation India and Kitab Khana, Mumbai, invite you to the launch of ‘Dharavi: The City Within’

DATE: June 14, 2003 TIME: 6 p.m to 7.30 p.m

VENUE: Kitab Khana bookstore, Somaiya Bhavan, M.G Road, Fort, Mumbai

‘Dharavi: The City Within’ is edited by Joseph Campana and published by Harper Collins

PROGRAMME:

1. Introduction by Vinod Shetty, director, Acorn Foundation: He will speak about Dharavi and the origins and purpose of the book.

2. A panel comprising: (i) Laxmi Kamble: activist from Acorn and the waste sector

(ii) Shirish Patel: Architect and urban planner

(iii) Thayapa Santi: Educationist and activist working in Dharavi

(iv) Kalpana Sharma: senior journalist and columnist

The speakers will highlight some of the main issues related to Dharavi, including redevelopment.

3. This will be followed by a discussion with questions / comments from the audience.

4. We will close with a short music performance by 4 members of Dharavi Rocks, a band of young people who work and study in Dharavi.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Dharavi houses half-a-million people and has some of the most expensive real estate in Mumbai. Behind its success are the efforts of thousands of extraordinary people. In ‘Dharavi: The City Within’ the dreams, aspirations and anxieties of this thriving community come alive in the hands of some of India’s best writers and journalists. Meet Prema Salgaonkar, who knocks on 500 doors a day taking deposits for the Mahila Milan Bank to make sure her neighbours have money set aside for when trouble hits. Meet Vadivel Thambi, who delivers milk and texts his poetry to hundreds of adoring fans. Meet Sayeed Khan Bucklewala, a brass foundry owner who makes millions selling belt buckles. Find out how the people who live here pay their bills, cope with shiftless and abusive spouses, educate their children, and protect their homes and livelihoods from those who would turn them out. Alongside is a larger overview of what it means to live in such a city system. Dharavi, in the course of its evolution, has raised a number of issues pertaining to decent living standards, development and maintaining amity. These hold important lessons for India as a whole as it urbanises at a rapid pace.

ABOUT THE EDITOR:

Joseph Campana lived in Mumbai from 2007 to 2011. He taught feature writing and literary journalism at the Xavier Institute of Communications and literature at the merican School of Bombay. His writing has appeared in the Indian Express and Time Out Mumbai. He currently lives in Missoula, Montana.

ABOUT ACORN: The Acorn Foundation India Trust organises waste-workers and trains them in scientific methods of waste handling, segregation and recycling. The Dharavi Project is a multi-media project of the Acorn Foundation that utilises artists and social-impact programmes to change the living conditions of over 100,000 ‘rag-pickers’ who segregate waste in Mumbai. Its mission is to increase the welfare of waste-workers and give their profession a legitimate and sustainable voice in the recycling and waste-management value chain in the city.

June 6th, 2013

DIPP issues clarification on FDI in Retail.

June 4th, 2013

As you know, superstores including Walmart, Carrefour, Tesco were studying the policy riders for 51% FDI in multibrand retail. As the DIPP received a number of queries from superstores, a multi-ministry meeting of concerned officials is being held today in DIPP to issue clarifications.

It is likely that the DIPP

– Would ask global superstores to invest 50% of only the first tranche of investments (minimum $100 million) in back-end infrastructure.

– Would declare that the 51% foreign direct investment limit in multi brand retail is composite one, including FDI and foreign institutional investment (FII).

– Would allow superstores to create back-end infrastructure in states that do not allow any FDI in multi-brand retail. As of now only 11 states have agreed to allow global retailers. Yesterday the new govt. of Himachal Pradesh announced its agreement with FDI retail policy.

On 3^rd June 2013, Govt. of India defined Group firms as two or more enterprises that directly or indirectly are in a position to exercise 26% or more voting rights in the other enterprise or appoint more than 50% members on board of directors in the other enterprise.

Amidst widespread opposition to the Walmart’s backdoor entry of FDI in Multibrand retail (through Bharti-Walmart, the 50:50 joint venture between Walmart and Bharti for operating Cash-and-carry outlets in India), in April 2010 Govt. of India framed a policy that asked cash-and-carry businesses (Bharti-Walmart) to limit their sale to group firms at 25 per cent of their turnover. In absence of clear definition of what group firms meant Bharti-Walmart’s cash & carry business (20 Best Price Stores) continued to sale almost 85% of their products to Bharti Retail’s 200 Easy Day stores.

 Now, Bharti-Walmart will either have to limit its sale to Easy Day to 25 per cent of its turnover or restructure its corporate structure.

Annual Report on the work of ACORN Mexico presented at ACORN International Conference in May 2013 in Honduras.

Complete Interview Link Here

The Hawkers Joint Action Committee meeting held on 21st April, 2013 at the Sindhu Samaj Hall, Karolbagh unanimously decided to form fronts of Women and Minorities.

Md. Sayed, Hawkers representative of Badarpur Market and resident of Daryaganj was elected as convenor of the Minority Front.

Ms. Sushma, a member of the Zonal Vending Committee of North Delhi Municipal Corporation, Hawkers representative of Karolbagh and resident of Nawada, Dwarka was unanimously elected as Convenor of the Women Front of the Hawkers Joint Action Committee.

More than 100 hawkers representatives who participated in the meeting discussed issues including of newly elected Hon’ble Mayors and Standing Committee Chairpersons in all the three municipal corporations of Delhi. A detail discussion took place on the Food Safety and Standard Act and required interventions by Food vendors.

Hawkers Joint action Committee also decided to actively participate in the forthcoming national convention on FDI in Retail.

Art, Coffee and ACORN

Please check out audio from India FDI Watch Director Dharmendra Kumar’s interview on New Zealand public radio.