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...

How deluded we are when we think that when an important piece of legislation is introduced, policymakers carefully scrutinise it for some room for improvement. Indian democracy is good at passing progressive-sounding legislation that becomes unpopular later for poor implementation and a consequent feeling of letdown and therefore resentment. Often the problems of poor implementation that surface later stem from small mistakes in design that could have been corrected at...

-The Deccan Chronicle   The CBI on Monday filed an interim report in the Supreme Court regarding the alleged encounter killing of Maoist spokesman Cherukuri Raj Kumar alias Azad. The apex court has given time till December 18 to the CBI to file its final report in the case. Sources said scientific Evidence and eye-witness accounts back the police version of an exchange of fire which resulted in Azad’s death. CBI joint...

Lack of adequate credit - the lifeblood for any company is threatening to derail fledgling attempts by hundreds of dalit entrepreneurs to overcome deep socio-economic barriers and break into mainstream business.  Without credit, such entrepreneurs would also struggle to cash-in on the Rs 7,000-crore business opportunity opened up by the central government's new dalit-friendly sourcing plan, unveiled last month.  Credit disbursements to dalit entrepreneurs through 20-odd schemes run by the Ministry of...

The Supreme Court has held that it would not, under normal circumstances, interfere with judgments of acquittal in criminal cases, as these had the obvious trait of freedom having been granted to the citizen. A Bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and Ranjana Desai said: “Unless the judgement in appeal is contrary to Evidence, palpably erroneous, or a view which could not have been taken by the court of competent jurisdiction keeping...