-Economic and Political Weekly The recent debate on the acceptability of foreign direct investment in the retail sector in India has been mostly political. It is necessary to look into the pros and cons of FDI in retail from a purely economic point of view. This article identifi es the safeguards that should be undertaken before allowing giant multinationals to function in the country. Abhirup Sarkar (abhirup@isical.ac.in) is with the Indian Statistical...

-Economic and Political Weekly We support cash transfers such as old-age pensions, widow pensions, maternity entitlements and scholarships. However, we oppose the government’s plan for accelerated mass conversion of welfare schemes to Unique Identification Authority (UID)-driven cash transfers. This plan could cause havoc and massive social exclusion. We demand the following: (1) No replacement of food with cash under the public distribution system (PDS). (2) Immediate enactment of a comprehensive National Food Security...

-The Washington Post The case of a 23-year-old medical student who died Saturday after a brutal gang rape on a bus in New Delhi has seemed to snap India to attention about its endemic sexual violence problem. Hundreds of Indians poured into the streets of New Delhi to mourn the young woman, and police announced that the six men arrested in connection with the attack had been charged with murder. In recent...

-The Times of India The Centre has set up an expert committee to determine the poverty mark to identify beneficiaries of rural development ministry's programmes. The committee, to be headed by Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen, will examine the figures of the socio-economic caste survey to decide who is below the poverty line in terms of deserving the rural welfare schemes focused on poor like Indira Awas Yojana, old-age pension and national...

-The Hindu As I write this, there are protests going on all over Delhi, and in other parts of the country, against the gang-rape of a young woman on a moving bus a few days ago in the city. People are out there in large numbers — young, old, male, female, rich, poor — and they’re angry. They want the rapists to be caught, they want them to be taught a...