-The Business Standard Consumers say they cannot buy branded FMCG items in mobile phones, customers opt for low-end handsets while retaining brand loyalty Last year, Ashok Das, a farmer-cum-fisherman from the small industrial town of Rishra in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, had promised his younger son a branded television. But last year’s bad crop output and this season’s deficient monsoon made him change his plans and finally settle on a...

-The Times of India The present food Bill legalises the injustices of a targeted distribution system A national campaign throughout the month of July on issues related to food security and against rising prices will culminate in a five-day sit-in protest in Delhi beginning today. These are issues fundamental to the well-being of the majority of our people and therefore deserve national support.   With the spectre of drought haunting the countryside, speculators, hoarders...

-PTI Amid growing political opposition in India for easing of foreign investment norms in retail and other sectors, US-based companies like Wal-Mart and Prudential Financial are lobbying hard with their own lawmakers here to garner support for their Indian business expansion plans. As per their latest lobbying disclosure reports filed with the House of Representatives and the Senate, the US-based companies and industry groups spent millions of dollars since the beginning of...

-Business Today "I want it back," says Sharada Begum. The 67-year-old woman is a member of one of the 100 households of Raghubir Nagar, a resettlement colony in west Delhi, chosen to participate in a pilot scheme that aimed to turn the public distribution system (PDS) on its head. Through all of 2011, these households had Rs 1,000 transferred every month to a woman member's bank account in lieu of rice, wheat,...

-The Guardian Higher disposable incomes, changing consumption patterns and the marketing might of powerful western brands are bringing fast food to India's children The camera pans in. The grins of smiling school children fill the frame. An enthusiastic teacher, played by a famous Bollywood actress, sits in the centre. The scene is a "remote picturesque setting". And all are munching happily on Domino's Pizza. The advert is typical of the marketing bombardment...