Has India done a China to its trade partners? Against huge opposition and popular discontent over the years, the Cabinet last week cleared 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and allowed 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail. The move appears crafty in that it tries to change the perception of a reform impasse in the government while simultaneously aiding India’s negotiators to meet their peers...

The 11th five-year plan promised the nation “inclusive growth”. It marked a departure from the earlier official position that the “benefits of growth” would automatically “trickle down” to the poor, and that if growth was not actually benefiting the poor, then the reason lay in its not being high enough. The 11th plan, by contrast, conceded that the “benefits of growth” did not automatically “trickle down”, but argued that growth...

Global retail chains looking to set up shop in India may face several challenges such as delay in the implementation of goods and services tax and restrictions imposed by the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act, besides political opposition. These hurdles can be roadblocks in providing real benefits to farmers and consumers as intended by the government in opening the multi-brand retail sector to foreign direct investment. “GST (goods and services tax)...

-PTI   Studies suggest that MGNREGA has triggered shortage of labour for agricultural operations like sowing and harvesting in the key agri states and has also pushed up general wage level, Parliament was informed today.   These were the findings of state-level studies conducted by Agro Economic Research Centres under the Ministry of Agriculture, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. The studies were conducted in Karnataka,...

-The Hindu   ‘It has become imperative in view of climate change' Bio-fortified varieties of staple food grains, such as Vitamin-A-enriched ‘Golden Rice', or iron-enriched wheat, could improve the nutritional status of the world's poor, P. Pushpangadan, Director General, Amity Institute for Herbal and Biotech Products Development, said here on Thursday. Presenting a paper on the “Recent advances of agricultural biotechnology in the light of climate change” at the 81st annual session of the...