-The Hindu It is the only sector that can create jobs and prevent the economic crisis from deepening In the last two decades, the Indian economy has witnessed a transformational change to emerge as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Economic reforms unveiled in 1991 have brought about a structural shift enabling the private sector to assume a much larger role in the economy. GDP growth has largely been...

-PTI The retail sector, where the government permitted foreign direct investment in multi-brand, courted controversies during the year with several opposition parties making it a political issue in Parliament. Even before its entry into multi-brand retail, the global chain Wal-Mart was grappling with various issues, including spending money in the US on lobbying for entry into India. Adding action to the drama was Swedish furniture chain IKEA's hectic bargaining with the government over...

-The Hindu How gender sensitive are the government’s flagship programmes, probes a report to be released today Why is the concept of ‘citizen’ always a male? Why is the formulation of government policies always male centric leaving out the female counterpart that actually constitutes half the population and contributes in equal measure to the economy? Perhaps keeping this in mind, UN Women and economists have come up with a report on eight flagship...

-The Hindustan Times In an reply to a query under the Right to Information Act , the Union ministry of commerce and industry has admitted that it has no "specific information to furnish" regarding the Union government's claim in a newspaper advertisement that foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail would create over one crore jobs and that 50% of the total foreign investment would be in villages. A Bhopal-based advocate, NK Jain,...

-The Economic Times A new book by Bibek Debroy on Gujarat looks at how this much-talked about state has performed in economic terms. The author argues history, luck and administrative clarity have been the determining factors. There has been a discernible pickup in Gujarat's growth performance since the 10th Plan (2002-07), the five-year Plans being natural periods for breaking up the timeline. It's tempting to argue that there is nothing exceptional in...