India's competition regulator Competition Commission of India has absolved sugar manufacturing associations and their members of cartelisation and price manipulation charges.  Earlier, the competition regulator had sent a notice to sugar mills associations and their members charging them of cartelisation and price manipulation. The suo motu action charged Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma), National Sugar Mills Co-operative Federation, and some private sugar firms of cartel violation.  However, the sugar associations and companies...

-The Times of India   Dalit Venture Capital Fund is the next big idea as the Centre looks to roll out 'procurement quota' in government purchases from small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Fund would seek to buy equity in Dalit companies to provide capital support as investment. The Centre is mulling creation of a special purpose vehicle or a capital support system to help develop entrepreneurs among scheduled castes and tribes. The...

-The Hindu   Rajya Sabha MP and Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi chaired the 30-member parliamentary panel that presented its voluminous report earlier this month on the Lokpal Bill 2011. The report has points of divergence with both the official Lokpal Bill draft and the Team Anna version. (The Union Cabinet on Tuesday night approved a Bill for the creation of the Lokpal with constitutional status that will have no control over the...

The central government claims that allowing foreign direct investment into India’s retail sector will benefit small farmers, expand employment and lower food inflation. What has been the experience in India with organised retail so far and what has been the global experience with FDI? Sukhpal Singh (sukhpal@iegindia.org) is currently at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. After being under relentless attack for a week, the United Progressiv Alliance government was forced to...

Buying and running cars and two-wheelers could soon become a costly affair with a Planning Commission working group suggesting a green surcharge of Rs 2 on every litre of petrol, a green cess of 3% of the annual insured value of all private vehicles and a steep urban transport tax to be collected at the time of purchase of private vehicles.  The panel, headed by Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan, has...