The central government claims that allowing foreign direct investment into India’s Retail sector will benefit small farmers, expand employment and lower food inflation. What has been the experience in India with organised Retail so far and what has been the global experience with FDI? Sukhpal Singh (sukhpal@iegindia.org) is currently at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. After being under relentless attack for a week, the United Progressiv Alliance government was forced to...

“…the Committee categorically convey their unacceptability of the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010…The Committee would, thus, urge the Government to reconsider and review the UID scheme.…” This was the conclusion of Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance (SCoF), which examined the Bill to convert the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) into a statutory authority. With this categorical rebuff, the SCoF dealt a body blow to the Aadhaar project, which...

The government is going to make a final attempt to push Sonia Gandhi’s pet legislation, the Food Security Bill, at the Cabinet meeting this Sunday. Cabinet approval is vital if the Bill is to be introduced in Parliament within the few remaining days of this session. This could possibly be the last session before Assembly elections in five states. Food Minister K V Thomas told Business Standard, “We are trying to introduce...

Indian traders reject FDI in multi-brand Retail and emphasise the need for a policy to regulate the labour-intensive sector. TRADERS across the country responded angrily to the Union Cabinet's decision to allow 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand Retail trade, disproving the arguments of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the assessment of corporate India, which had tried hard to make it appear that traders and...

Global experience in Retail trading by MNCs does not tally with the presumptions on which the UPA government's FDI policy is based. IN the course of the debate on the need to permit foreign direct investment in Retail in India, two arguments have been advanced often. The first argument is that large organised Retail is good for not just consumers, who would benefit from lower prices owing to cost efficiencies...