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...

By all indications, FDI in multi-brand retail is a fait accompli. Or so we have been told time and again by everyone, the PM downward. The “question is at what point of time it should be done”. This remark from Pranab Mukherjee in a post-budget TV interview may have revealed that the debate has moved beyond whether to permit FDI in multi-brand retailing—the lifeline of small- and medium-sized neighbourhood stores....

In the fight against poverty, India seems to be winning - in some parts of the country at least. Vimla Sharma lives in Suwana Village in Rajasthan. Her life has been dramatically improved by a government scheme called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Launched in 2005, it guarantees every rural family 100 days of work a year at a wage of 100 rupees a day. She can now send...

Delhi’s mayor wants owners of industrial units in and around the city to shut down a month before the October 3-14 Commonwealth Games to give the nation’s capital a cleaner and "world class" look. After all, he says, "the Chinese did the same" ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The mayor, Dr Kanwar Sain, said in his appeal on Wednesday that traders and industrial unit owners should cooperate in the "national...