Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee may be right in pushing for FDI in retail because reports have been pouring in, indicating that the economic downturn in India and abroad will worsen in coming weeks. 'I want money,' an agitated Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee reportedly told the Cabinet on Thursday, November 24, when coerced by colleagues from his Congress party for pushing 51 per cent Foreign Direct Investment in retail. The FDI issue is...

The promotion of the PDS as an Aadhaar application would fundamentally alter its form and character. NO scheme of the Indian government would be transformed more fundamentally by Aadhaar than the public distribution system (PDS). The nature of this transformation appears to be taking the form of a virtual dismantling of the PDS; even if a skeletal fair price shop (FPS, or ration shop) system continues to exist, it is likely...

Justice Markandey Katju has done his own mission, supervising the responsible functioning of the media, a disservice. By criticising the media through sweeping generalisations and with extreme naïvete, he has got its back up, provoking a sharp reaction from the Editors Guild instead of a willingness to talk and sort things out. A lifetime spent in issuing obiter dicta has ill-equipped Justice Katju in the communication skills needed to carry...

As a national debate rages over the Indian poverty line, in the heart of Bandra, one of Mumbai’s richest suburbs, in a shanty with barely enough standing space for two adults, three-year-old Priya Doiphode, clad in a red tee shirt, lies listless on a string bed. Priya is one of the 83,243 children in Mumbai who are malnourished, according to government data, a statistic that makes Mumbai the most malnourished...

-The Business Standard   Mining companies have warned of a price spiral in commodities once the new mining law provisions are in place. The industry sees the government decision of mandatory profit and royalty sharing impacting it by an estimated Rs 15,000 crore every year. This would include a Rs 12,200-crore hit on non-coal mining companies and Rs 2,800 crore on coal miners. “The provisions of this Bill will affect the industry badly,”...