DAYCARE : A boon or a bane

A child is born. He’s welcome with loads of greetings, love, gifts and celebration. As he grows up there’s another thing waiting for him. It’s DAYCARE. Today’s parents are quite mature and are quite planned. Planning starts right from when to conceive, delivery dates and sharing of responsibility post birth.

Initially there used to be joint families and the child used to grow up amongst grandpa, grandma, chacha, chachi etc. There was no room for loneliness. Childhood was all about love, care and lots of pampering.

Now as more and more working class are moving to metro cities and quite many women are taking up job , the concept of joint family is fast fading and is ushering an era of nuclear family. To keep up to a certain lifestyle and to obtain acceptance amongst peer and social class it’s becoming mandatory for both the parents to earn.


All the above factors have resulted in mushrooming of daycares in all cities whether big or small. Daycare as the name suggests means the enterprise will take full care of your child , give him healthy food , friendly and loving environment, pollution free atmosphere with A/Cs in all rooms, fantastic study material, lots of activities like karate, gym, dance, paintings etc. What else the parents need??????? All is being taken care of without an iota of hurdle in their daily schedule. Thus carefree from child’s side, parents can concentrate more on their career and bring home more money.


Now lets look from the child’s perspective. Even he or she is happy amongst friends. They all eat together, sleep together, dance together and everything together. Discipline is maintained. There’s time for eating, sleeping, playing, studying. They gradually learn to adjust, become extrovert, sharing, friendly, independent, and everything good seems to be happening.

But on the flip side, we see the parents leaving their three to six month baby in a daycare because of the above facilities. For such parents, kids are no more the gifts of God but more of an unavoidable responsibility. I don’t deny that love and care is required at all age but at such a small age more tender care and love is necessary. The child is small and immunity is non existent. In such a case falls an easy prey to loads of diseases.

Daycare seems to be a paradise for parents to live their angels behind. The facilities are world-class like cctv’s , a/c, splash pool. Better the facility, higher the fees.
Beautifully decorated rooms, lots of toys, amazing hygiene….what else the child needs???
We should ask this question to ourselves. How long can we stay in a mansion, with good food, lots of people, modern facilities but no one amongst our loved ones. At the end of the day you would like to run away to be free and to be with people whom you love.

But what can even the parents do????. In such a competitive world it takes much time and effort to build career. It’s not possible for everyone to sacrifice everything, sit ideal for 2-3 years and restart from zero.

To wrap up of what I think, overall, daycare has become a very lucrative profession. It provides a win win situation to all. Parents are assured of child’s supervision and care and they can follow their career and growth path without hesitation. But at the same time parents should make sure that in their rat race “ kho na jayen kahin ye, Taare zameen pe “

Traditional Formats united to challenge Retail biggies.

Take a look at this:
Reliance Fresh has a strategy of targeting 3000 households in 2 km area. Catchments and store will offer more than 150 varieties of fruits and vegetables, and along with this lower price and great ambience.

No wonder, independent family run Kiranas, General store and chemists which make up India’s traditional retail universe are reeling under pressure of these retail biggies. They are finding it hard to cope up with the huge margin pressure and betraying customers.

Recent retail forays like Future Retail, Reliance Fresh, More; Chou pal with the best retail practices and technology advantage are posing a threat to the very existence of the mom and pop stores. To complicate further, the MNCs like Carrefour, Wal-Mart and Tesco having saturated their respective countries are now eyeing on India. This breakneck retailing revolution has put everyone in a state of panic. Local provisional stores are dying with apprehension as how to combat big retailers discount, freebies and other attractive customer policies; Retailers are facing hurdle in opening stores across all the state ;and government on the other hand is facing the nationwide protest against big retailers and MNC’s. Customers though winner almost in every case, still have to put all their purchases on hold for weekend or leisure time to visit the supermarkets to avail the discounts and freebies.

In such a scenario, Bhartiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal( BUVM ) has come as a win win situation for all. It’s the biggest national level association of kirana/mom and pop stores. It comprises 17000 state and district level association covering 27 states. The co-operative throughout India is aimed at helping its members to benefit from a common sourcing and shared infrastructure (logistics, storage and billing) platform.
The societies will be jointly owned by some 2000 small retailers in each state. The members would be the ones who own small provisional stores. These shopkeepers would calculate their monthly goods requirement and then approach and negotiate directly with the manufacturers like HUL, P&G, ITC etc.

Such collective buying on one hand will put the society at par with the mall requirement and on the other hand would save the margins that would have been eaten away by the middlemen. Together they will pose a challenge to the big retailers of the country.

I hope it’s going to put an end to all the disputes by putting the local retailers at par with Retail bigwigs and MNC’s.

Growing luxury market in India

Indians have finally learnt to spend. The traditional concept of earn and save is giving way to earn and enjoy. No wonder luxury and extravaganza is flowing and flooding. Everything seems to be working and hence, entrepreneurs and corporates are daring to launch innovative and exclusive products without much apprehensions. Yesterday’s comfort has become today’s necessity. Designerwear , expensive jewellery , exclusive dining etc is no more the prerogative of rich and famous. Even an average upper middle class has atleast one designer wear in their wardrobe, affords diamond and loves to celebrate special occasion in a five star hotel.

Today’s generation can be said to be achievers. Thay earn with a specific goal in mind. Now-a-days a youngster in his 20’s affords mobile phone, apartment, car etc.
EMI’s have made the things even more simpler. There’s an extraordinary confidence to be seen around.

This newly acquired spending power has given a special place to India in global economy. Almost all the International retail chains in any sector whether food & FMCG , designer clothes , shoes , toys , cars can’t even think of ignoring India. Fiat to roll out Alfa Romeo and Ferrari; Omega launching its jewellery collection; Swarovski to create new crystal design with Asian touch are few evidences that corroborates the lately developed exquisite taste of Indians.

Though we still cannot ignore the fact that all this is dominant in metropolitan cities. India is still essentially a rural and agricultural country where farmers commit suicide when crops are destroyed or monsoons fail.

But then luxury is meant for niche and crème da la crème . I’m sure the scenario will gradually shift to Class B towns and trickle to almost all strata of society. Till then lets appreciate this start and lets live in style.