-The Hindu   Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar revealed on Sunday that the State was in talks about utilising the labour under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for agriculture, to BRIdge the shortage of supply of farm labour. “The State government is discussing whether it will be possible to divert the labour available under the MGNREGS to agriculture in the State, which is losing...

-Express News Service In a major step towards fulfilling the ruling Congress’s poll promise, the Union Cabinet today cleared the National Food Security Bill that seeks to provide legal entitlement of foodgrain to 75 per cent of the rural population and up to 50 per cent of the urban population. The Bill seeks to divide the eligible households into two broad categories — priority and general — wherein the “priority” group will...

Dow Chemical was on Sunday reported to have agreed to remove all its branding from the London Olympic stadium following protests from campaigners here and in India over its links to 1984 Union Carbide Bhopal gas tragedy. Under a £7 million deal, Dow was to sponsor a faBRIc wrap that would surround the Olympic stadium in East London. A report in The Sunday Express quoted the company as saying that it was...

-The Times of India   BRInging India's external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), at par with international spy agencies in terms of arming it with legal snooping powers, the government recently notified it as one of the eight agencies to intercept phone calls, emails and voice and data communications 'domestically'. The other agencies in the list are Intelligence Bureau, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Enforcement Directorate, Narcotics Control Bureau, Central Bureau of...

The central government claims that allowing foreign direct investment into India’s retail sector will benefit small farmers, expand employment and lower food inflation. What has been the experience in India with organised retail so far and what has been the global experience with FDI? Sukhpal Singh (sukhpal@iegindia.org) is currently at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. After being under relentless attack for a week, the United Progressiv Alliance government was forced to...