(Economic Times )
NEW DELHI: BJP, CPI and JD(U) today come together to launch a national campaign against FDI in retail and sought support from the people to make the movement against the government's "anti-people" policy a success.
"This is a fight against UPA's FDI decision and it is the anti-people policy of the government that we are opposing," JD(U) leader and NDA convenor Sharad Yadav said here.
Blaming the government for its failure on the economic front, Yadav said industrial production and employment generation has slowed down in the country.
He said, "Indian market is expanding for years and we are not opposed to the expansion of market.
"Now to revive the market, government is punishing people through FDI decision. It is taxing common man by raising rail fares," JD(U) leader said.
He further said that retail shops are the second largest employment generating business in the country and by bringing in retail FDI it will create unemployment in the country.
Comparing the situation with that in China, Yadav said "China's position was equal to India's in economic terms in 1980. But China strengthened its internal position first before doing any business outside."
Criticising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Yadav said, "the Prime Minister has taken two strong steps till date. One on nuclear issue and the second time on FDI."
Supporting the agitation against the FDI decision, BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said the struggle will continue till it is withdrawn and promised that NDA will scrap the decision if it comes to power in the next elections.
"All NDA allies, Left Front and regional parties have opposed FDI. We will scrap the decision when we come to power," Joshi said.
He did not agree with the government's view that this will boost the economy.
"Wherever FDI in retail has come, it has ruined the economy of that country," Joshi said, charing that "in India they (US) are trying to come through bribery."
"Bribery amount of Rs 125 crores was reportedly paid in the name of lobbying," Joshi charged
Fitch warns it might downgrade US rating over debt
PARIS: Fitch ratings agency issued a strong warning to the United States on Tuesday to deal with its recurrent debt-ceiling dramas in a way which strengthens the economy in the long term, saying that its top " AAA" credit rating was at stake.
Fitch said it might revise downward its notation for the United States from the "AAA" level if Congress did not reach agreement on raising the ceiling for the national debt.
Fitch said that failure to raise the limit in time would lead to a formal revision by Fitch of its ratings of US debt instruments, but the agency also said the risk of a US default was extremely low.
However, Fitch also warned that fundamental strengths in the US economy were being undermined by the weight of debt and associated strains.
Fitch warned, that even if a crisis over the ceiling were averted in the immediate future, if the solution did not address the debt in a way which supported growth, then it was set to downgrade the US rating later in the year anyway.
Fitch Ratings said it expects that "Congress will raise the debt ceiling and that the risk of a US sovereign default remains extremely low." It continued: "Nonetheless, and in line with our previous guidance, failure to raise the debt ceiling in a timely manner will prompt a formal review of the US sovereign ratings."
The legal ceiling for the US federal debt reached the limit of $16.394 trillion at the end of December. US lawmakers must agree on how to raise this limit within the next few weeks. Otherwise the United States will be unable to borrow to pay its bills.
The United States found itself in a similar situation in August 2011. Deadlock within Congress caused one of the other top three rating agencies, Standard & Poor's, to downgrade its top-notch rating for US debt.
The Fitch statement said: "In Fitch's opinion, the debt ceiling is an ineffective and potentially dangerous mechanism for enforcing fiscal discipline.
"It does not prevent tax and spending decisions that will incur debt issuance in excess of the ceiling while the sanction of not raising the ceiling risks a sovereign default and renders such a threat incredible."
Fitch also said: "The extraordinary measures now being enacted since 31 December 2012, together with around $43bn Treasury deposits, are expected to allow the federal government to continue to fund itself until end-February."
But it added: "This estimate is provisional and sensitive to volatile monthly budget flows. It is highly uncertain what would happen if Congress did not raise the debt ceiling before the Treasury's borrowing authority and available cash balances were exhausted."
Fitch, together with the third agency which still rates US debt at "AAA", Moody's, has already warned that this notation has a "negative" outlook, meaning that it is likely to be downgraded in the medium term.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/fitch-warns-it-might-downgrade-us-rating-over-debt/articleshow/18033049.cms
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