India has approved long-awaited proposals to open up the retail market to global supermarket chains. Food Minister KV Thomas said the cabinet has agreed to 51% foreign ownership of multi-brand retail stores, allowing groups like Wal-Mart and Tesco to open stores. Such operators currently can only sell wholesale in India and not directly to customers. A decision on the issue has been pending for two years. Mr Thomas told reporters that the cabinet decided...

-The Times of India   After debating the issue for over a decade, the government on Thursday threw open the multi-brand retail segment to foreign chains such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour and others in a move to attract overseas investment and dispel doubts about the coalition's ability to push through big-bang reforms.  After nearly two hours of discussion on Thursday evening, the Union Cabinet decided to allow foreign retailers to hold 51% stake in...

FDI in single-brand retail raised from 51 to 100%   In a bid to remove the impression that UPA-II is suffering from a “decision making paralysis” and kicking off the second generation reforms, the Union Cabinet on Thursday gave its approval for 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail. The decision is likely to clear the decks for the entry of foreign...

We have five million children in the labour market, say official figures. Their actual numbers may be four times as many. As a nation, we have failed each one of them…   Millions of our children still labour today, in factories, farms, kilns, mines, homes and city waste dumps, when they should be in school or in a playground. We profoundly fail these children, collectively depriving them of education, play, rest, healthy...

-The Telegraph   Assam tea is now officially the state drink. Announcing this, chief minister Tarun Gogoi today said his government was also making a strong case with the Centre to declare tea as the national drink. Speaking at the inaugural function of the World Tea Science Congress at Tocklai Experimental Station (under Tea Research Association) here today, Gogoi said, “I, as the chief minister, am competent enough to announce tea as the...