<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/56869158.cms" /> In a bid to underpin its global business model of direct and online sales, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Amway+India+&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Amway India </a>is looking forward to setting up 50 retail stores in the country by end-2018. 
 In India, <keyword id="362854" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amway-Corp">Amway Corp</keyword>'s local unit has invested about Rs 1,000 crore. After this move, it will be the first in the company's global sales operations to have significant brick-and-mortar presence. The move is primarily aimed at simultaneously increasing consumer outreach and providing consumers and distributors the platform to directly buy the products. 
 
However, direct sales will be the primary mode of operations in the country. 
 "We are, and will remain, a direct selling company with direct sellers as the key point of distribution. But visibility and easy access are important components of our growth strategy... we've lined up a number of initiatives to spur growth in India," <keyword id="129103" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amway">Amway</keyword> president <keyword id="1689100" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Doug-Devos">Doug DeVos</keyword> told ET. 
 
Amway is targeting at enhancing its brand presence in the country comes against the backdrop of robust growth prospects for direct-selling of consumer products in India, where increasing affordability is expanding the consumer pyramid. It has already 32 'express pick &amp; pay' stores so far in the country, which the company believes could lead its global growth drive. 
 
"We're positive about our future in India and believe we'll continue to see strong growth here in 2017 and beyond," DeVos told ET.

Amway to set up 50 retail stores by 2018 end

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="18877" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Michigan">Michigan</keyword> lawmakers will have advanced more than two dozen <keyword id="441366" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Criminal-Justice">criminal justice</keyword> reform bills when they close the current session this week.</li><li>Governor Whitmer created a bipartisan commission in 2019 to look at jails across the state to better understand the problem. Much of the reform effort is modeled on its recommendations.</li><li>The overhaul aim to reduce the state's <keyword id="6363869" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Jail">jail</keyword> population, which has tripled over the past 3 decades even as crime rates have fallen to a 50-year low. </li><li>Supporters spanned grassroots racial <keyword id="6357043" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="justice">justice</keyword> organizations to Amway co-chairman Doug <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2019/10/09/opinion-criminal-justice-reform-strengthens-families-communities/3899515002/">DeVos</a>, the brother-in-law of education secretary Betsy DeVos and a major conservative force in Michigan.</li></ul>For years, Michigan courts have been taking away peoples' drivers licenses for reasons that have nothing to do with their behavior behind the wheel.Instead, suspending the right to drive has been used as a cudgel to get people to pay traffic tickets, court fines, or child support. But because people need to work in order to afford to pay these fees, thousands thousands of them have been driving on suspended licenses in order to get to work. And if they got caught, they wind up in jail. Today, driving on a suspended license is one of the leading reasons Michiganders wind up in jail, and the system often appears more designed to squeeze money out of the state's poorest citizens rather than as a tool to ensure public safety. It's part of the reason the state's jail population has tripled over the past 30 years even as crime rates have fallen to a 50-year low.No one knew how seriously out of whack the jail system had become until earlier this year, when a first-of-its-kind commission took a look at who was going to jail and why. And now, when Michigan has become emblematic of just how broken our political system has become - with right-wing terrorists plotting to kidnap the state's Democratic governor and some Republicans working to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the state - lawmakers who are often at each others' throats are determined to make big change before they adjourn for the year. By the time the state legislature wraps up this week, it will have advanced more than two dozen criminal justice reform bills."Right now, America is kind of at a reckoning," said Pastor Kevin Harris, who served 14 years in prison for drug-related offenses and is now a community organizer who chairs the board of the group <a href="https://miliberation.org/">Michigan Liberation</a>. "Even the most corrupt system has to recognize that we went overboard." <div type="image" title="Detroit BLM" height="2673" width="3564" msid="79788329" hostid="261"></div>This session, Michigan lawmakers have already enacted legislation that automatically wipes people's criminal records clean of most misdemeanors - and some felonies - after several years. It is the most progressive law of its kind in the US. They've also passed legislation that makes it easier for those with a criminal record to get an occupational license to work as a barber, roofer, or cosmetologist. This week, lawmakers are scrambling to pass a package of 20 more reform bills before their session ends, including one that will stop courts from suspending people's licenses for reasons unrelated to their driving records. That alone could lift the risk of arrest from over the heads of hundreds of thousands - more than 350,000 people had their licenses suspended because they failed to appear in court for other reasons or because they had unpaid fees or fines in 2018 alone, according to a <a href="https://courts.michigan.gov/News-Events/Documents/final/Jails%20Task%20Force%20Final%20Report%20and%20Recommendations.pdf">recent audit</a>. That's equal to around 1 in 20 drivers in the state.House Judiciary Chair Graham Filler, a Republican from just north of Lansing whose <a href="https://www.grahamfiller.com/">website</a> describes him as "pro-law enforcement" and "not politically correct," coordinated the effort in the House. Even if lawmakers "start at different places, [we] end at the same place," Filler told Insider. "Can we have a justice system that is proportional and fair and at the same time does not impact public safety?"NOT A "PARTISAN ISSUE"In a month where some Republican politicians attempted to overturn Biden's election victory in the state, criminal justice is one of the only issues where both parties have been able to work together. The coalition that has advanced criminal justice reform in Michigan spanned the progressive ACLU to the right-wing, Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity. A similar alliance of strange bedfellows was also instrumental in passing national legislation signed by President Donald Trump in 2018, which overhauled mandatory minimum sentencing laws and made other changes to the federal prison system."We need to reject the idea that this is a partisan issue," Democratic Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, who co-chaired a bipartisan commission on criminal justice reform, said in an interview. <div type="image" title="Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist" height="3000" width="4000" msid="79788332" hostid="261"></div>In Michigan, supporters of this legislation spanned grassroots racial justice organizations to Amway co-chairman Doug <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2019/10/09/opinion-criminal-justice-reform-strengthens-families-communities/3899515002/">DeVos</a>, the brother-in-law of education secretary Betsy DeVos and a major conservative force in Michigan. The <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword> are good for both the right and left: Progressive ss can tout the reforms package as a win for racial justice, while conservatives can say they managed to shrink the reach of government and bring savings for tax-payers. The state jails cost Michigan's counties around half a billion dollars each year, eating up around one-quarter of their public safety budgets.The system "is not actually promoting public safety," Gilchrist said. "It's just disrupting people's lives in dangerous ways."Donald Talley knows this cycle first hand. Talley, a 65-year-old who lives west of Detroit in the city of Inkster, first lost his license in 1985 because he had unpaid traffic tickets and child support. He was homeless at the time, earning some money here and there as a mechanic, so he had little choice but to keep driving. He was arrested repeatedly over the next 20 years as his fees continued to mount. The arrests became so predictable he even figured out how to use them to his advantage: getting put away in the winter meant he could have a warm place to sleep. Then, through a chance encounter at a soup kitchen, Talley connected with pro bono attorneys who helped him get his fees set aside. By that time, Talley said, he owed well over $180,000 in child support, traffic tickets, and other fees and fines.Getting out from under the threat of arrest turned his life around, Talley said, and he hoped this legislation would do the same for thousands of others."Once you get a smell of victory, you can see the light as far as your life getting better," Talley said. <div type="image" title="Whitmer jail task force" height="2361" width="3149" msid="79788335" hostid="261"></div>No one had really conducted a comprehensive study of who was in jail and why until February 2019, when Governor Whitmer created a bipartisan commission to look at jails across the state co-chaired by Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist and Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack. This week, lawmakers are working on a package of 20 bills modeled on the report recommendations, including the one that reins in drivers license suspensions. If passed, Chief Justice McCormack told Insider, "it would really make Michigan a national leader."The commission took aim at the state's jails. On average, Michigan's <a href="https://courts.michigan.gov/News-Events/Documents/final/Jails%20Task%20Force%20Final%20Report%20and%20Recommendations.pdf">jails hold</a> more than 16,000 people, usually for stays of less than one week. Jails are often described as the "front door" of the criminal justice system, since people go there to await trial or to serve short sentences. But far more people spend time in jails than go to prison - nationwide, seventeen times more people cycle through jails than prison. Even a short stay in jail can mean lost jobs, lost custody of children, and fees that can prove hard to escape.The commission's work was supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, which provided a team of technical advisors who have staffed lawmakers as they turned the panel's recommendations into legislation."There are not [other] states, as far as we know, that have tried to understand statewide what's driving jail populations and what's contributing to jail growth. This is new and pretty exciting," said Pew's Terry Schuster. "With increasing partisanship, criminal justice issues remain one of the few areas where we see continued bipartisan consensus."A "KUMBAYA MOMENT"It took a lot of work to get to this point, especially on the right, said Joe Haveman, a Republican from the Western Michigan city of Holland who tried to advance criminal justice reforms while serving as a state representative between 2009 and 2014. Haveman said his efforts to reform the state's criminal justice system ran into "brick walls" from "old-school Republicans" during the administration of the Republican Governor Rick Snyder. But Michigan has strict term limits, sweeping in a younger crop of lawmakers who look at criminal justice reform through a more libertarian lens. And the opioid epidemic, which hit rural and white communities hard, have also changed attitudes about the role of law enforcement in Republican areas. "When I was growing up, I wouldn't have known anybody who had a problem with the law - I think that was true for a lot of Americans," Haveman said. "When the opioid epidemic exploded it became somebody we knew... It's not just a 'bad person' - that stereotype that I may see on TV, somebody from a big city."Several lawmakers also credited the evangelical community for building support for criminal justice reform among Republicans. Judiciary Committee Chairman Filler said this was an issue of special importance to Speaker Lee Chatfield, son of an evangelical minister who was involved in a prison ministry. (Chatfield declined to be interviewed for this story.)Lawmakers don't plan to stop working on criminal justice reform after this session ends. The commission co-chaired by Gilchrist and McCormack made recommendations that the legislature did not act on this year, including provisions to divert people with mental illness away from jail. Lawmakers from rural areas also want to make it easier to wipe arrests for driving under the influence, a common offense outside major cities, from criminal records."You've had this left-and-right Kumbaya moment on criminal justice reform for the past couple years," said David Guenthner with the conservative think tank the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. "The objective should be to use prison for those we are scared of, not those we are mad at. And when someone's coming out of prison, they should have sufficient training and opportunity to earn a living and be a success."

In a rare show of solidarity, Republicans and Democrats are working together to pass sweeping criminal justice reform in Michigan as the state's jail population grows

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Multi-level marketer <keyword id="9575854" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="lularoe">LuLaRoe</keyword> just settled a major <keyword id="1494298" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="pyramid-scheme">pyramid scheme</keyword> lawsuit.</li><li>As part of its settlement with the state of Washington, LuLaRoe will have to shell out $4.75 million.</li><li>But experts say that the settlement doesn't go far enough.</li></ul>LuLaRoe's longstanding <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/washington-sues-lularoe-and-alleges-its-an-illegal-pyramid-scheme-2019-1">legal battle</a> with the state of Washington has come to an end with a $4.75 million settlement. The office of Washington's attorney general Bob Ferguson filed suit against LuLaRoe on January 23, 2019, naming the controversial multi-level marketing company, founders Mark Stidham and DeAnne Stidham, and their son Jordan Brady in the suit.The attorney general alleged that the business - which hawks colorful leggings and other garments through a network of independent retailers - was functioning as a pyramid scheme in the state of Washington. LuLaRoe's business model of requiring participants to purchase thousands of dollars of inventory directly from the company left many in debt.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lularoe-founder-deanne-stidham-life-2019-10">Inside the life of LuLaRoe's controversial founder, whose small dress business blew up into a leggings empire that's been accused of operating as a pyramid scheme</a>"This was the first case my office has filed under Washington's anti-pyramid scheme law," Ferguson told Insider in a statement. "This significant monetary payment shows how serious the defendants' conduct was, and most importantly, gets money back into the pockets of people who were deceived by LuLaRoe."The Washington Anti-Pyramid Promotional Scheme Act <a href="https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=19.275&amp;full=truetrue">passed</a> the state legislature in 2006. The nearly identically-named Anti-Pyramid Promotional Scheme Act was introduced in <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3/text">Congress</a> in 2018, although it didn't pass. Critics have argued that the national bill was crafted with support from the <a href="https://www.dsa.org/docs/default-source/direct-selling-facts/hr-3409-myth_fact_sheet.pdf?sfvrsn=2">direct sales lobby</a>, and its passage would narrowly define pyramid schemes in order to make prosecuting <keyword id="998793" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="MLMs">MLMs</keyword> more difficult.Despite the multi-million dollar settlement, LuLaRoe and its founders will not have to admit to any wrongdoing. And according to Robert FitzPatrick, an author who leads anti-MLM group Pyramid Scheme Alert, it's not enough. Even as LuLaRoe critics celebrate the settlement, FitzPatrick said this latest development from Washington is an indication that the US has no effective mechanism to combat predatory companies that exploit individuals looking to enjoy the American Dream.<h2>'People who aren't guilty don't settle'</h2>Many former consultants across the United States say the company lured them into <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lularoe-legging-empire-mounting-debt-top-sellers-flee-2018-11">financial ruin</a>, by selling moldy or paper-thin <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lularoe-admits-leggings-are-tearing-holes-2017-3">garments</a>, failing to pay <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lularoe-sellers-claim-the-company-failed-to-refund-missing-items-2018-12">refunds</a> or handle <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lularoe-ceo-addresses-inventory-problems-in-leaked-audio-2018-11">inventory issues</a>, and generally running a business that allowed early adopters to rake in thousands of dollar through <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/plaintiffs-in-lularoe-lawsuit-describe-their-time-with-the-company-2017-11">recruitment</a> while leaving latecomers flat. In the years since it was founded in 2012, LuLaRoe enriched its founding family - the Stidham-Brady clan- financing a lifestyle filled with expensive cars, luxury ranch getaways, and other conspicuous<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lularoe-lawsuit-founders-llcs-2018-11"> displays of wealth</a>. When asked for comment, LuLaRoe directed Insider to its <a href="https://news.lularoe.com/news-articles/lularoe-announces-settlement-of-litigation-with-state-of-washington-attorney-generals-office">statement</a> on the settlement.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lularoe-mydyer-providence-industries-lawsuit-mark-stidham-dang-kang-2020-7">Inside the lawsuit between ex-best friends that is threatening LuLaRoe, a controversial legging company that was bringing in billions in sales</a>"Given the expenses LuLaRoe incurred in defending this lawsuit, it made sense for LuLaRoe to pay the settlement we agreed upon," CEO Mark Stidham said in the statement. "Even though we believed we would win the case eventually - whether at trial or on a subsequent appeal - the expense would be enormous and the amount of time senior management would have had to devote to the litigation during the trial would have been a distraction from our business." Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lularoe-lawsuit-founders-llcs-2018-11">LuLaRoe's founders have been linked to 31 LLCs set up during the last 3 years - and a lawsuit alleges they're attempting to shield assets like a Gulfstream jet, a ranch in Wyoming, and a world-record-breaking supercar named Ruthie</a>In many ways, the case was unprecedented. The state of Washington had never enforced the anti-pyramid scheme law, meaning that attorneys for the state didn't have case law to draw upon. Powerful multinational law firm DLA Piper - the former firm of Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff - represented LuLaRoe in the litigation. Still, in regards to the attorney general's goal of providing financial restitution to those affected by LuLaRoe, the case is a clear success. LuLaRoe will have to shell out $4.75 million. Of that money, $4 million will go toward a group of around 3,000 Washingtonians "deceived by LuLaRoe's business practices," according to Ferguson's office. Washingtonians who worked as LuLaRoe consultants will have to take no action in order to access that money. The rest of the settlement "will partially reimburse the Attorney General's Office for the cost of investigating the conduct and bringing the lawsuit," according to a statement from Ferguson's <a href="https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/lularoe-pay-475-million-resolve-ag-ferguson-s-lawsuit-over-pyramid-scheme">office</a>.Many former LuLaRoe consultants have flocked online to criticize the multi-level marketing company, and the news of the settlement was met with much enthusiasm on Facebook groups and message boards. Washington-based former consultants expressed gratitude for the attorney general's efforts on the case, and excitement that they might receive some money back. "I feel like people who aren't guilty don't settle," one former consultant told Insider.<h2>'The lies and the loss'</h2>As the <a href="https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/aarp_foundation/2018/pdf/AARP%20Foundation%20MLM%20Research%20Study%20Report%2010.8.18.pdf">prevalence</a> of MLMs in the US grows, so does anger towards them. The anti-MLM <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/antiMLM/">subreddit</a> has accrued 686,000 members since 2011, all dedicated to stopping the companies "from draining your friends dry."But FitzPatrick, whose books on <keyword id="519168" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="MLM">MLM</keyword> include "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0078W0U2G/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1">False Profits</a>" and "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ponzinomics-Untold-Story-Multi-Level-Marketing-ebook/dp/B08NHWBSZ2/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&amp;qid=1612473439&amp;refinements=p_27%3ARobert+Fitzpatrick&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1books&amp;sr=1-1">Ponzinomics</a>", says that the US has dropped the ball on protecting consumers from at both a federal and state level. He said that in past decades, multiple states might have teamed up with the Federal Trade Commission to go after a company like LuLaRoe. According to FitzPatrick, the mechanisms and will to prosecute MLMs have drained over the decades, with extensive erosion of the FTC's capabilities occurring during the presidential administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. The political power of MLMs , with former President Donald Trump and ex-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos having extensive ties to such businesses. In FitzPatrick's view, the Washington case hasn't brought about much lasting change aside from returning some money to affected LuLaRoe consultants. He said that rather than requiring an annual income disclosure, LuLaRoe and other multi-level marketing schemes ought to be required to provide more illuminating data."What if they disclosed fully - since we were founded, here's how many people joined and here's how many people made a net profit?" he said. "Just one sentence. But they would never disclose that."FitzPatrick said that nowadays, many states have laws written with input from direct sales lobbyists, allowing multi-level marketing schemes to flourish."They left alone the most egregious element, the reason there's all this MLM controversy right now," FitzPatrick said. "It's not over leggings that got wet. It's over loss. It's over lies. The lies and the loss are dependent on, based upon, driven by the proposition itself. And the proposition is in plain sight. There it is. You don't make money at this unless you recruit. And the people you recruit can't make money unless they recruit. You're recruiting somebody into a demonstrably worthless business."

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Amway to set up 50 retail stores by 2018 end

BI India Bureau

In a rare show of solidarity, Republicans and Democrats are working together to pass sweeping criminal justice reform in Michigan as the state's jail population grows

J. Lester Feder

Experts say LuLaRoe gets $4.75 million slap on the wrist, as company eludes admission of any wrong doing

Áine Cain

At Yale, students found to be sexual assailants return to campus

Abby Jackson