-CNN-IBN As the Cabinet meets to decide on allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the multi-brand retail, it remains to be seen whether the Prime Minister will bite the bullet. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Left, UPA ally Trinamool Congress along with some Cabinet ministers Veerappa Moily and Mukul Wasnik have opposed it. While the BJP feels that FDI will lead to unemployment, the Left has said that it may lead...

UPA’s much-publicised scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), is not creating labour shortage for agriculture and dairy production alone, but the textile and handloom sectors are also facing the heat on this count. A Working Group report on textile and handloom sectors has noted that the scheme was drawing skilled weavers to ‘unskilled’ MGNREGA. It says that high-end weavers are sticking to the profession, but low-end weavers are...

Indian suppliers must be units with investment up to Rs 1.25 cr, says draft before cabinet. Multinational retailers such as Walmart, Tesco and Carrefour looking to open stores in the country may have to source almost a third of their merchandise from small Indian manufacturers as the government tries to make the opening of multi-brand retail to foreign players more politically palatable. The draft cabinet note for permitting 51 per cent foreign...

-The Times of India The Centre on Saturday announced a Rs 6000-crore package for the handloom sector, doubling the announced financial relief, in what is seen as an outreach to the weaver community with authorship of Rahul Gandhi ahead of crucial UP elections. The sop increased with the government including individual loan defaulters, who are not part of a cooperative for loan amnesty, and in giving incentive for timely payment of loans...

-The Economic Times   Government's flagship rural job guarantee scheme, MGNREGA, has led to labour shortages for the industry resulting in increased wage costs and hampering production, Ficci said today. The chamber, which has done a survey on the impact of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on the industry and the farm sector, has suggested that the scheme should be stopped during the peak agricultural season. Besides, "the...