JANGU, 40, a Dalit labourer in Paraspur village in Gonda district, 120 km northeast of Lucknow, displays his job card in complete disbelief. “My job card was made three years ago and shows three payments. But I was never given any work, so how was the payment made?” he asks, puzzled. The first entry shows a payment of Rs 1,400 but he received a paltry Rs 100. He never went...

-The Times of India   Terming the government's attempt to allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail as a miscalculation that lacked political consensus, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has warned that a looming slowdown needs urgent measures to remove supply side blockages. The former finance minister, who heads Parliament's standing committee on finance, said unlike in 2008, the government has no room to increase the fiscal deficit that is already above 5% while...

Foreign retailers may have to reserve at least half of their jobs in superstores for rural youth and source more than the mandated 30% from micro and small industries as the government tries to salvage the big ticket but controversial economic reform.  An official said the government is likely to have a relook at a proposal that seeks to reserve at least 50% of jobs in foreign-owned superstores for those who...

Farmers, a holy-cow constituency considered more valuable than small traders to the political class, have begun to ask uncomfortable questions to those opposing foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail. Several farmer groups, some of them led by politicians with ties to the Congress, have asked why some parties are standing in the way of a measure that is expected to reduce the clout of middlemen and increase farm earnings. Although Prime Minister...

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...