The latest round of data on the 2011 Census shows that the country is exhibiting distinct signs of trading up as material living conditions improve for large sections of the population. Although this aggregate picture is not uniform across the country, analysts believe that the upward material mobility in society is creating the basis of a new consumer boom in the economy—serving up a perfect backdrop ahead of the presentation of...

Government-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) may witness a 52% jump in losses on account of selling fuel below cost at state-mandated prices to Rs.2 trillion in the next financial year, said R.S. Butola, chairman, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC), the nation’s largest fuel retailer. Such an increase will impact the financials of government-owned OMCs such as IOC, Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL), which currently register...

-The Economic Times The government may be forced to trim its legislative agenda - including pushing through long-pending bills on pensions, insurance and banking - following Congress' debacle in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab assembly elections.  Pension, insurance and banking sector reforms are part of the legislative agenda of the UPA government but BJP leaders told finance minister Pranab Mukherjee at an outreach session that the government should first set its House in...

-The Business Standard Cotton export ban was an example of poor policy The government’s sudden move to ban cotton exports – rolled back in less than a week following anger from cotton farmers and adverse political fallout — reflects very poorly on its policy management. The commerce ministry clamped down on exports without clear logic; prior consultations with other ministries concerned were also cursory or non-existent. Unsurprisingly, most players in the cotton...

-The Telegraph Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has sought to address stirrings of disenchantment by using the run-up to the Nandigram firing anniversary to reassure her core constituency that she would not budge from her known positions on land and industry. The chief minister emphatically asserted that her government would not endorse special economic zone (SEZ) status for the Infosys project in Rajarhat. She stuck to her stand that land ceiling would not...