-IANS The deadlock in Parliament over the government's decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail ended on Wednesday after an all-party meeting passed a resolution to suspend the move till a consensus was reached. Both houses of Parliament functioned normally and took the crucial Question Hour for the first time since the winter session began on November 22. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee who chaired the meeting made a brief statement in...

Prakash Karat today came close to thanking Mamata Banerjee, not for defeating the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government but for thwarting the Manmohan Singh government. “Will be very happy if she hijacks our issue,” the CPM general secretary said in reply to a question whether Mamata had snatched the Left’s plank on foreign direct investment in retail. After the pat — presumably in jest — came the prod. “I think Trinamul should not be...

The FDI in retail debate has apparently fully traversed the realm of reason and for it seems to have degenerated into name-calling. I had intimation of this when a diplomat who meets me from time to time asked me if I was being put up, for a price, by Indian corporate interests to stymie the entry of the big western firms like Wal-Mart and Carrefour? I can well imagine the...

Singapore spot market, not production costs, driving Indian petrol price Have you ever wondered why when petrol prices go up or down they do so uniformly across the retail outlets of the three oil marketing companies — Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum? If they are three different companies with their own refineries and distribution systems, then surely their costs and selling prices must be different? Welcome to the strange world...

-The Times of India   HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and Member of Parliament Ashok Ganguly have appealed to Corporate India to come out strongly in support of a besieged government, which is overwhelmed by opposition to its proposal to open up foreign investment in retail.   The two senior business leaders are part of a group of 14 eminent citizens who came together to raise the issue of policy paralysis and later on the...