Lack of adequate credit - the lifeblood for any company is threatening to derail fledgling attempts by hundreds of dalit entrepreneurs to overcome deep socio-economic barriers and break into mainstream business.  Without credit, such entrepreneurs would also struggle to cash-in on the Rs 7,000-crore business opportunity opened up by the central government's new dalit-friendly sourcing plan, unveiled last month.  Credit disbursements to dalit entrepreneurs through 20-odd schemes run by the Ministry of...

-BBC   India has vowed to crack down on offensive internet content, accusing web firms of failing to cooperate. Communications Minister Kapil Sibal met officials from Google, Facebook and other websites on Monday. On Tuesday he said the firms had told him they were unable to take action. He said the government would introduce guidelines to ensure "blasphemous material" did not appear on internet. Doctored photos of the PM and Sonia Gandhi have angered the...

Dalits lay siege to tahsildar's office and forced Salem district administration to take firm action Dalits of Sanyasipatti near Sankagiri in Salem district fought bitterly for five days before forcing the district administration to take firm action to demolish a four-foot-high and 20-foot-long wall erected right across a tar-topped road with the intention of preventing them from using it. The ‘wall of untouchability' erected on November 29 in the middle of the...

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...

Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan landed in Durban on Sunday ahead of the high-level climate talks to hammer out a decision that only the political heads of 195 countries can take - a compromise that would ensure Kyoto Protocol remains alive and that the world signals readiness to discuss a new legally binding deal for all in future. This political decision would be the master key to a success at Durban. India...