The policy is to promote specific high-value segments within agriculture, where corporate houses have major profit interests. A COMMON compliment that Pranab Mukherjee's Union Budget for 2011-12 received from the media was its proclaimed “friendliness” to agriculture and rural areas. It was not just the media; members of India Inc. welcomed the Budget as “focussed” on agriculture. However, a close look at the Budget estimates reveals a different picture. Public...

The government is looking at allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retailing as part of a slew of measures to make India more attractive to overseas investors. Senior government officials told TOI that the thinking was that a gradual opening up would be a better strategy with global chains first allowed to open stores in metros, while wholesale cash-and-carry being limited to smaller towns and cities, at least for the...

Trade unions of all hues join forces in an unprecedented manner and present a charter of demands to the government. IN a rare show of unity, and for the first time since Independence, around one lakh workers affiliated to eight central trade unions and national industrial federations, including the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and the trade unions of the Left parties, came out on the streets of New...

Is price rise going to be a permanent fixture because of India's high growth rate? This appears to be the argument put forward by the government's top economic advisers in the recently issued Economic Survey. It argues that historical experience shows that consumer prices increase faster in countries going through a fast growth phase compared to those with slower growth rates. But analysing inflation and growth data collected by the International...

The Economic Survey tucks away a little, dirty secret of India’s political economy in a box on power sector reform. The losses of state electricity boards, says the Survey, are now about 1% of GDP, which would translate to about Rs 78,700 crore this year. The government stopped publishing a table on this vital parameter a couple of years ago but the problem has only continued to grow in shade...