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...

The audience, organisers, and fightersknow that sham wrestling is not to betaken seriously. But the World Economic Forum takes itself seriously. The comforting thing about the sham wrestling ‘championships' on television is that everybody knows they are a farce. Steroid-stuffed Cro-Magnons stomp the living daylights out of painkiller-primed Neanderthals. Good, unclean fun. The results are safely predictable. You should expect the 600-pound gorilla to overwhelm the 900-pound one in a staggering...

Bhukan Singh is a small, shy figure, with a nervous smile - he does not look like a hero. But standing in a field near his home, he recalls the day last March when his fight for transparency and justice in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand nearly resulted in his death. "In today's India speaking the truth is not easy," Mr Singh, 44, says wistfully, remembering how, on that March day...

-The Hindu   The Bharatiya Janata Party is unambiguous in opposing the government move to throw open the retail sector to Foreign Direct Investment. The party believes that allowing foreign investment in multi-brand retail would adversely impact the retail sector, which is growing, and put the country's entire food chain system into the hands of foreign firms. At a news conference here, leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha,...

The floodgates have opened on a movie ominously titled DAM999, which some political parties in Tamil Nadu feel is toeing the line of neighbouring Kerala in a dispute between the states. A section of Tamil Nadu politicians feels the movie, produced and directed by a Malayali businessman, relates to the controversy around the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar dam in central Kerala. Tamil Nadu holds the lease rights to the dam for 999 years...