-The Times of India   An inter-ministerial group (IMG) on inflation has recommended allowing foreign direct investment in multi-product retail as one of the two steps to tame rising prices and cut down the margin between farm gate and retail prices. This is the first formal recommendation by a government panel to allow FDI in the tightly policed and sensitive retail sector. "It is time for India to allow foreign direct investment in...

Unpaid bills of Rs 17,000 crore — and growing — have revealed hidden food subsidies and acute financial mismanagement as the government prepares to adopt the costliest, most ambitious legislation of its tenure. Documents accessed by Hindustan Times reveal this is the money the government now owes the state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI), hampering its mammoth operation of buying grain from the farmer, storing it and selling it cheaply...

International fund floodgates that stayed locked during the Left front regime are now opening up for Mamata Benerjee. Latest in the "parivartan" syndrome is the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has given the green signal to go along with one of the state's most ambitious roadway projects - the 271 km express corridor connecting North and South Bengal. It is a Rs2,270 crore project, which World Bank had refused to fund in...

Every family below poverty line may get over Rs 400 per month from the government from April next year in lieu of fuel subsidy for kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas cylinders as part of India's first direct cash transfer scheme.   The move, which is expected to be considered by Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on June 9, is aimed at checking use of kerosene for fuel adulteration and reduce financial...

Even as she said that she would welcome the Tatas setting up a unit at Singur, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said here on Wednesday that the agreement signed between Tata Motors and the previous government for the Nano project would be put in the public domain within a day or two. Briefing the Press after her second Cabinet meeting since assuming office last weekend, she said: “As a reciprocal gesture, I...