Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has said efforts were on to evolve a consensus on the decision to open up multi-brand retail to foreign direct investment.
“We have further liberalised FDI in single-brand retail, but our effort to open up FDI in multi-brand retail trading has not been operationalised. We are in the process of building up consensus among various stakeholders to take the next steps,” he said.
Mr Mukherjee was addressing a gathering of top business leaders, including from Fortune 500 firms, here on Saturday.
Commerce minister Anand Sharma told the World Economic Forum in Davos that the multi-brand retail decision was “just a pause” forced by the compulsions of coalition politics.
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MoD directive to Army over chief age row
Age Correspondent
New Delhi, Jan. 29
Just days ahead of the February 3 Supreme Court hearing on Army Chief Gen. V.K. Singh’s petition over his date of birth, the government is learnt to have taken steps to bolster its stand that May 10, 1950 is his correct date of birth.
The defence ministry is said to have written some days ago to the Army’s adjutant-general branch — its official record-keeper — asking it to correct its records to show 1950 as Gen. Singh’s year of birth, not 1951, and thus reconcile it with other records.