-PTI Backing Centre's decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said the decision will help farmers prosper by removing middlemen from the supply chain and generate new jobs. Addressing the national executive of Indian Youth Congress in Srinagar last night, Rahul said FDI in retail will help farmers store their produce safely for a longer duration, thus ensuring best value for their crops. The 42-year-old AICC general...

Remember Arjun Sengupta Committee Report? It’s the same report which put paid to government’s shifting poverty estimates by asserting that almost 80% Indian survive on less than Rs 20 per day. Known as the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS), the report has gone missing from the public domain. The official website of NCEUS is no more working: http://nceus.gov.in, raising doubts regarding someone, somewhere trying to hide...

-The Telegraph The enormity of the real challenge before Manmohan Singh is far higher than that posed by Mamata Banerjee. A “perfect storm” is gathering around the economy, according to a Centre-commissioned report packed with suggestions for a series of tough measures that will affect daily life and test the government’s resolve to wade further into unpalatable waters. The report presented by the Vijay Kelkar panel, which was asked to suggest a road...

-The Guardian Allowing foreign chains such as Tesco to open in India will drive up unemployment and exploit small producers India's ruling coalition has been rocked after its second-largest partner withdrew this week. The latest round of political instability comes about because prime minister Manmohan Singh announced a number of economic measures without consulting his allies. The announcements – that diesel prices were to be raised, and that India's retail and domestic...

-The Times of India Chief Justice of India (CJI) S H Kapadia on Saturday joined the debate on the CAG's estimate of "windfall gains" for private players in the coal block allocation scam, suggesting such assessments may not be accurate. "People should be educated on economics as well to understand that these irregularities should be understood from the point of loss, which was a matter of fact, and not from profit angle,...