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...

Here's the wonderful thing about the FDI-in-retail debate: never have struggling Indian farmers found so many champions. They've been crawling out of the woodwork. Foreign direct investment in retail may be on hold, but Hillary Clinton can stop worrying about Anand Sharma and Pranab Mukherjee. “How does (Commerce Minister) Sharma view India's current Foreign Direct Investment guidelines? Which sectors does he plan to open further? Why is he reluctant to open multi-brand...

Some time ago, newspapers in Britain carried full-page advertisements from the curiously named British Pig Association. This consortium of pig farmers was clamouring publicly that the supermarket chains were squeezing the farmers dry. Alongside them, Britain’s dairy farmers complained that a supermarket cartel was paring down their prices, while production costs went up and up. These farmers too have powerful lobbies; they are still in business. To this end, Britain, like...

The government is likely to recalibrate its retail foreign investment strategy, while simultaneously trying to bridge the political divide with allies and states. Government sources said with neither the opposition nor the allies, Trinamool and DMK, objecting to 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail approved by the cabinet, the commerce and industry ministry would work on a notification to operationalise the decision. “Our understanding is we can work on rules for...

Prakash Karat today came close to thanking Mamata Banerjee, not for defeating the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government but for thwarting the Manmohan Singh government. “Will be very happy if she hijacks our issue,” the CPM general secretary said in reply to a question whether Mamata had snatched the Left’s plank on foreign direct investment in retail. After the pat — presumably in jest — came the prod. “I think Trinamul should not be...