Food Security Bill: A free lunch we cannot afford -
Tejinder Narang, Business Line
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has been consistently opposing expansion of the scope of the existing Public Distribution System (PDS) through the proposed Food Security Bill (FSB). He talks with conviction because of his first-hand experience of the dismal functioning of the national procurement and distribution system of grains under the Food Corporation of India (FCI). This also means less grain in the market and more inflationary pressure on cereals. |
Global protest -
Mint
It just takes a spark to light a political prairie fire. Look at what has happened around the world in recent months. Brazil is seeing its largest protest rallies in two decades. What began as a rather innocuous protest against higher fares for public transport has transformed into a backlash against the government led by Dilma Rousseff.
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A case for lobbying in India -
Kaushiki Sanyal & Harsimran Kalra, Mint
Lobbying is arguably one of the most controversial activities in modern democracies. Lobbyists provide governments with valuable policy-related information and expertise but if the activity is not transparent, public interest may be put at risk in favour of specific interests. India currently does not have a law to regulate lobbying. But recent corruption scandals involving lobbying by big businesses have increased public pressure for a law to regulate the activity. |
The politics of hunger games in India -
Mint
With every second child stunted in the country, India is virtually a nutritional basket case. The country’s response to the nutritional crisis, however, evokes even greater dismay than its poor nutrition statistics. After decades of sponsoring an ineffective child nutrition programme, the Union government is on the verge of launching a National Food Security Bill (NFSB), which undermines India’s fight against malnutrition. |
Nitish Kumar: Politics, not principle -
Jaya Jaitly, Indian Express
For those tuned to reading smoke signals in politics, it has been clear for some months now that Nitish Kumar was willing to play footsie with the Congress. It posed no threat to him in Bihar and could bring him benefits from the UPA. |
Stop this meddling with the media -
Economic Times
Two nutty ideas are doing the rounds in the corridors of power relating to the media: restricting cross-media ownership and creating a buffer between the owner/publisher and the editor. Both need to be buried, without remorse, because they can harm the media business and also choke freedom of expression. |
Why companies shouldn’t write off India -
Ravi Venkatesan, Bloomberg
Asked late last year about the market for Apple Inc. (APPL) products in India, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook more or less wrote off the huge country. He blamed a “multilayer distribution structure” for making it too hard to reach consumers beyond elites in cities such as Mumbai and Bangalore. Apple (AAPL) would look elsewhere for growth: “In the intermediate term there will be larger opportunities outside there,” Cook said.
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Controlling FDI -
Financial Express
On the first of next month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is supposed to review various sectoral caps on FDI and, as preparation to that meeting, economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram has submitted a discussion paper arguing for doing away with various equity caps. The broad principle is a simple one: remove the cap if doing so makes life easier for the foreign investor without materially affecting the level of control the government wants the foreign investor to have. |
Woman smarter? -
Kanika Datta, Business Standard
Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry has established his progressive credentials by unequivocally stating that he was looking forward to seeing more women in key leadership positions at Tata Global Beverages (TGB). He is on strong ground here because this company, like many fast-moving consumer goods companies worldwide, has an impressively large complement of women - 41 per cent, according to its annual report (notably too, TGB's joint venture with Starbucks is headed by a woman). |
Government must not hold up EU-India FTA further -
Business Standard
Since 2007, India and the European Union have agreed in principle that they should sign a free-trade agreement (FTA). Naturally, this has only gained in importance over the years. For one, the Doha round of multilateral trade talks appears to be difficult to revive; its place has been taken by free trade between trading blocs. India cannot afford to be left out of this burgeoning set of international free-trade networks. |
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