India’s Lower House Votes to Support Foreign Investment
Source: New York Times
India’s Lower House Votes to Support Foreign Investment
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: December 5, 2012
NEW DELHI — India’s lower house of Parliament voted in a raucous session on Wednesday evening to support the government’s decision to allow Walmart and other major retailers to set up shop here.
The nationally televised debate featured some of India’s best orators and most powerful politicians in a high-profile fight that could serve as the opening bell for a series of elections that start next week in the western state of Gujarat. The elections will culminate in 2014 when control over India’s central government will be determined.
Television cameras routinely focused on Sonia Gandhi, a scion of the country’s most powerful family, as she nodded or frowned during crucial portions of the debate. Mrs. Gandhi is the president of the Indian National Congress Party, the dominant member of a coalition that has controlled the central government since 2004.
In September, the government had approved several changes, one of which provided for increased foreign investment in India’s retail sector, the policy under debate Wednesday.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/world/asia/indias-lower-house-votes-to-support-foreign-investment.html
