One of the main successes of the Aam Aadmi Party is to highlight corruption in Indian government. That is why my concluding thoughts in the above post were to wish the AAP well. At the same time, my wish for AAP is - "do well but don't do too well." Doing too well => capturing a majority in any state => a completely confused economic system for that state.
Below is an extract of my comments in that discussion on the issue of foreign direct investment (abbreviated FDI) in the retail sector in India:
The idea of FDI in retail should be delinked from the aspect of Western policy norms.
Re: FDI in retail: I think the idea of allowing FDI in retail is inherently a good one. The question of whether it is a blind application of Western ideas is also a reasonable one. But one mustn't discount good ideas (say, the idea of wearing spectacles or eating Bulgogi) merely because of the source of these ideas. Whether it is a Western idea or not is not as important as whether it is a sound one. The fact is that with better retail infrastructure (kirana stores are not exactly selling the best quality stuff), you will get better quality products at lower prices which translates to better purchasing power. One could regulate the heck out of them (e.g. tax them a lot, force them to have their locations be far away from major urban centers, et cetera), but there is no reason to not have more investment in retail. If you care about the poor, which is most people in India , then it is good for country for the most part. The very poor segments of Indian society are precisely the people for whom marginal increases in purchasing power will make a big difference.
Update: updated the post a bit, fixed typos.
