There is no frking lobbying culture in desh.. who all got this into their pockets? nice word lobbying instead of bribery!
what is his influence on the whole of India?Will not allow Walmart to set up shop in India: Karat
what is his influence on the whole of India?Will not allow Walmart to set up shop in India: Karat
Newbie question here. If we decrease or give up grain cultivation for cash crops, will we not be dependent on Unkil for our staple food. Many poor and even lower middle class have dal, rice as staple diet. Vegetables are a luxury to poor. Will they not be badly affected. A roti with dal is a staple dietSBajwa wrote:I agree but before that Agriculture ministry must realize that by growing Rice and Wheat year after year on very fertile Indian Peninsula they are turning it into Arabian desert."Retail FDI will transform agriculture by integrating Indian farmers in the global supply chain"
Indian land mass is 100% suited for cash crops Fruits and Vegetables. Most of India should be growing Fruits and Vegetables and barter these for Grains (grown in USA or other places).
Nehru policies have not only weaken our agriculture sector but made our villagers to stop thinking outside of Guaranteed support price. Villagers who use to make money by selling cash crops in previous centuries before British are now down to grain growers.
India invented Cotton and all related industries (clothing, coloring of these clothes, etc)
India realize the medicinal qualities of products like Neem, Haldi, Kesar, etc.
India provided the spice to rest of the world (pepper, cardemom, cloves, etc).
so!! if we want to do something about farmers
1. Give them 3 years to be away from Rice and Wheat cycle after which they will get the market price instead of Government price.
2. Education, Incentives and subsidies for cash crops and fruits for 5 years only for poor farmers. They must prove themselves.
3. The line between producer and consumer needs to be reduced and all middle men must add a value to the product. (for example, A middle man that buys apples must clean, wash and package them, or turn apples into processed foods, otherwise if they just buy from farmer and sell it to another middle man they needs to be put behind bars).
(Reuters) - Lawmakers on Thursday released emails that appeared to show Wal-Mart Chief Executive Mike Duke knew as far back as 2005 of allegations that company representatives had bribed Mexican officials.
The emails appeared to contradict the company's public statements about a bribery scandal tied to its Mexican affiliate, Wal Mart de Mexico. Lawmakers said Wal-Mart Stores Inc did not dispute the authenticity of the emails.
In two reports last year, the New York Times described how Walmex used large bribes throughout Mexico to open stores it would otherwise have been unable to launch, and how Wal-Mart headquarters had stifled an early internal probe.
The second report focused on how Walmex allegedly paid $52,000 to change a zoning map so it could open a store near the ancient pyramids in Teotihuacan.
The company has maintained its senior executives did not recall mentions of bribery allegations related to the Teotihuacan store.
But in documents released by Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the U.S. House Oversight Committee, and Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, senior lawyers for the company told Duke about the Teotihuacan allegations in 2005.
One email from Wal-Mart General Counsel Thomas Mars in October 2005 provided Duke with a memo summarizing the allegations with a note saying: "You'll want to read this. I'm available to discuss next steps."
A Wal-Mart spokesman said the company would respond to questions about the matter shortly.
Shares of Wal-Mart were down 1 percent to $67.90 in late-morning trading.
(Reporting by Aruna Viswanatha in Washington and Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Editing by John Wallace and Jeffrey Benkoe)
Sometimes we stay with friends in an inner London suburb where there used to be a number of family-run stores. They weren't perfect models of modern commercial skills, but they were havens of courtesy, quite well-stocked, and, of course, convenient. They provided a decent living for many people and were very much part of the community.
A supermarket recently appeared and all the mom and pops vanished overnight. In a matter of days after the big store opened it was obvious they hadn't a hope of survival, so now they're boarded up and will never reopen. It's difficult to see who benefits. There is a much wider range of foodstuffs (such as 43 different types of biscuits), but the prices, after an attractively low beginning, now seem to be creeping up, there being no competition anywhere.
In addition to the imaginative commercial maneuvers that seem to have been going on in India, there is the matter of the influence of global mega-stores on their unfortunate suppliers in many countries. In Britain, as one bankrupt dairy farmer put it, "In 1997, we got 25 pence (40 US cents) a liter at the farm gate. We're getting 26p now. But the price in the shops then was 42p a liter and now it's anything from 70p to 1 pound."
In Britain the shelf prices of some 65% of all food consumed in the entire country are controlled, brutally and sometimes spitefully, by four gigantic and astronomically profitable supermarket companies. They set prices and destroy farmers who try to complain about their tyrannical - but entirely legal - commercial capers.
NEW DELHI: The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has given its nod to Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA's revised 10,500-crore investment proposal that will allow the company to set up retail stores along with its popular cafes in India and also sell more categories of products.
FIPB had cleared IKEA's proposal on November 21 last year but disallowed it from selling many items such as home and office-use products, textiles, apparel and fabric, and also said the company could not set up cafes in the stores.
The company, which is keen to replicate its global format stores in India, approached the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) requesting a review of the FIPB decision.
"The company's proposal has been cleared," said a government official adding that company can sell 18 product categories compared to 15 categories approved earlier. The company wanted to retail 29 product categories but those contained many duplications that FIPB has removed.
The proposal will now go to Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for final endorsement as the board can clear investments of up to 1,200 crore only.
DIPP, which formulates the FDI policy, had forwarded IKEA's review request to the FIPB to consider its case favourably.
Sharma, who has been batting for IKEA, termed the approval as a positive development. "The government is committed to play a constructive role in encouraging FDI, especially in areas that create jobs and provide technological advancement. Globally, IKEA has a business model which integrates in its embrace SMEs and domestic industry, making them part of global value chain," Sharma said.
The company representative said the move will encourage investments into the country. "We are thankful to commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma who worked hard on our proposal. This will ensure more investments into the country," said Diljeet Titus, partner at law firm Titus and Co that represents IKEA in India.
India had diluted the mandatory 30% local sourcing norm to allow foreign retailers to fulfill it over a period of five years. The rules also stipulate a single entity for the sourcing and retailing, but the DIPP and the FIPB have allowed IKEA to have a separate sourcing arm.
Thanks for posting. I watched the entire telecast. I am anguished that the bill was still passed despite the impressive array of arguments against it.
Amid a probe being initiated into Wal-Mart’s US lobbying with regard to its India entry, the global retail giant has continued to lobby with the American lawmakers on this issue, as also others, and spent a total amount of $6.13 million on the same during 2012.
Recently, the Indian government initiated a probe into the lobbying activities by Wal-Mart in the US for gaining access to Indian market, after disclosures about these activities caused a furore and a political debate in India.
The company has, however, maintained that these disclosures have nothing to do with political or governmental contacts with India government officials and they only show that Wal-Mart’s business interest in India was discussed with the US government officials along with many more other topics.
Its total bill on these activities has now crossed $34 million (about Rs 180 crore) since 2008, which has been incurred on account of lobbying for more than 50 issues every quarter, including the issues related to “enhanced market access for investment in India”.
Apple said Wednesday it has asked the Indian government for permission to open its first stores in the country, paving the way for its feted brands to join the fast-growing smartphone market.
A predictable and a sad day.
Not sure I get it fully. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated....Modern economics for you. One or two write an equation, that wipes out centuries of careful socioeconomic posturing. At times the author even gets a Noble Prize, name and fame, glory that could last a very long time. But, no one pays attention to those parts of the equations that fall off a cliff.
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