-Live Mint FDI or not, there are problems that plague Indian agriculture and will need to be fixed first  With the parliamentary vote on foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail out of the way, the government will proceed with the liberalization of this sector as it thinks it will improve the prospects of agriculture.   Should we be worried about our small neighbourhood stores shutting down? The fears are overblown. Organized large-format retail...

-Live Mint Decline came as labour productivity grew 7.6%; wage growth remains far below pre-crisis levels globally  India’s real wages fell 1% between 2008 and 2011, while labour productivity grew 7.6% in the same period, International Labour Organization (ILO) data showed on Friday, indicating that the benefits of the country’s economic growth didn’t translate into better pay for workers in the aftermath of the global economic crisis. In contrast, China’s real wage growth...

-CNN-IBN The Opposition is crying foul over reports of global retail giant Walmart lobbying US lawmakers to get into India. The BJP and the Left Front joined hands to collectively take on the government, demanding an inquiry into reports that Walmart had spent Rs 125 crore on lobbying with US lawmakers to facilitate its expansion into markets including India over the past four years. The BJP, in fact, compared it to...

-The Financial Express Governments now get into the paid news act. It’s high time for a lesson on ethics for all concerned The spectre of paid news is back, and this time in a murkier form. Where the belief has long been that private companies pay newspapers and TV channels to ‘plant’ stories, it seems that even state governments aren’t above such unethical practices. According to an Indian Express exclusive, the Chhattisgarh...

-The Hindu Private companies get loansat 6.5% with additional cash refunds; for farmers it is 7% The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), which is dedicated to promoting rural development by providing soft loans to State governments for social sector projects, has given hundreds of crores as loans to corporates on concessional terms. In the Union Budget of 2011-12, Rs. 18,000 crore was allocated by the Centre to NABARD’s Rural Infrastructure...