Part of the official delegation accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the Association of South East Nations summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, he was briefing the media on board the aircraft earlier on Sunday.
A recent public interest suit in the Supreme Court over foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail may have thrown the industry into a tizzy, but lawyers, constitutional experts and government officials indicate the multi-brand retail FDI policy is unlikely to get derailed over Fema.
Since 2004, licences have been given to develop as much land in the area as in the entire state during the earlier 25-odd years.
Revamped menus and menu-cards, uniforms and store interiors have been readied in tieup with designer Rina Dhaka for the 12-year-old Barista, which was taken over by Italian coffee major Turin-based Lavazza in 2007.
Lower minimum area of land required for multi-product SEZs to 250 hectares from 1,000.
The accounting and audit fraternity clearly wants to disassociate itself from the DLF-Vadra saga.
Audit firm points out that the accounting rules do not permit companies to give interest-free loans even to their subsidiaries.
Leading corporate lawyers and accounting firms have swung into action to interpret the grey areas in the multi-brand retail FDI policy and suggest follow-up action to clients before they start striking deals.
According to experts, the company might be trying to ape Amazon, the largest e-commerce player in the world.
Walmart's JV with Bharti hinges on policy clarity
Many bureaucrats have in the recent past switched sides to join companies.
At least half a dozen such applications, including those from Celio, Gruppo Coin and Artsana, are in the works and are expected to be sent to the government in a few weeks.
The world's largest retail chain, the $446-billion Walmart, is likely to be the first international player to take off in India with its supermarket format. The Bentonville-based US giant is, in fact, ready with a network of 195 stores across India if it decides to extend its back-end and cash-and-carry partnership with Bharti Enterprises to front-end retail.
The company, now a part of the BBC Worldwide family, is eyeing the projected magic figure of 50 million outbound travellers (Indians travelling abroad) by 2020.
Group's hybrid direct selling format also confuses industry
Even as the Centre is working overtime to roll out FDI in retail while the real decision might rest with the states, Arvind Singhal, chairman, Technopak Advisors, often referred to as the poster boy of the Indian retail sector, said the so-called big-ticket measure was "not the most important thing"for the sector.
Brand name rule might be waived for Swedish major's mega investment proposal, indicates DIPP; final revision of its application likely by end-August.
The world's largest coffee chain, Seattle-based Starbucks, is close to hiring its India head. Tata Starbucks Limited, the $10.7-billion American group's joint venture with Tata Global Beverages, has zeroed in on Virag Joshi as managing director for India operations, according to market sources.
The first IKEA store in India is unlikely to come up during the second term of the United Progressive Alliance government, which ends in May 2014, as the euro 25-billion Swedish furniture major takes "years" to set up shop in a new country after securing the necessary approvals.
While raising the foreign direct investment limit to 100 per cent in the single-brand retail segment six months earlier, the government asked retail chains with over 51 per cent foreign investment to source at least 30 per cent of the value of products sold in the country from Indian small/village/cottage industries, artisans and craftsmen.
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