The Route Of An Onion Shows Why India Needs Walmart, Carrefour, And Tesco

The Route Of An Onion Shows Why India Needs Walmart, Carrefour, And Tesco

THE ECONOMIST1DEC 14, 2013, 07.52 AM

NITIN JAIN is the big man in Lasalgaon, a dusty town a day’s drive from Mumbai that boasts it has Asia’s biggest onion market. With a trim moustache and a smartphone stuck to his ear he struts past a thousand-odd tractors and trucks laden with red onions. Farmers hurl armfuls at his feet to prove their quality. A gaggle of auctioneers, rival traders and scribes follow him, squabbling and yanking each other’s hair. Asked why onion prices have risen so much, Mr Jain relays the question to the market. “Why?” he bellows. His entourage laughs. He says that the price of India’s favourite vegetable is a mystery that no calculation can explain.

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Tesco Partners With Tata to Enter Supermarket Business in India

Tesco Partners With Tata to Enter Supermarket Business in India

Tesco Plc (TSCO), the U.K.’s largest supermarket company, plans to become the first global chain to enter India since the government allowed foreign companies to invest in multi-brand retail more than a year ago. Tesco is likely to invest about $110 million to gain a 50 percent stake in Trent Hypermarket Ltd. (TRENT), a unit of Tata Group that runs Star Bazaar supermarkets, according to an exchange filing and a statement from commerce minister Anand Sharma. Read more of this post

Staying Away from Indian Bonds; Foreigners Are Avoiding India’s Inflation-Scarred Bond Market. Interest Rate Increases Are In Order

Staying Away from Indian Bonds

Foreigners Are Avoiding India’s Inflation-Scarred Bond Market. Interest Rate Increases Are In Order.

ABHEEK BHATTACHARYA

Dec. 17, 2013 12:25 a.m. ET

Raghuram Rajan hasn’t impressed the foreigners in India’s bond market. The chief of the Reserve Bank of India has won kudos for raising interest rates twice since he came to office in September. But foreign bond investors remain on the sidelines. Their concerns are warranted considering data out Monday that showed wholesale prices inching to a 14-month high. Consumer prices were up 11% from a year earlier in November. Investors want higher rates when the RBI meets Wednesday—or they won’t help with India’s imbalances. Read more of this post

Shah Ordered to Cut Stake in India’s Biggest Commodity Exchange MCX; Financial Technologies doesn’t meet the “fit and proper person” criteria to hold a stake of 2 percent or more in MCX

Shah Ordered to Cut Stake in India’s Biggest Commodity Exchange

Financial Technologies (India) Ltd. (FTECH), the founder of the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd., will need to trim its holding in the nation’s biggest bourse after the regulator said it was unfit to own a controlling stake. Read more of this post

Indian politics: A stunning debut for a left-leaning, anti-graft party

Indian politics: A stunning debut for a left-leaning, anti-graft party

Dec 14th 2013 | DELHI | From the print edition

TAKE Arvind Kejriwal’s talk of “revolution” seriously. Back in June, crammed with this correspondent into a tiny Suzuki car in east Delhi, he predicted electoral triumph for his Aam Aadmi (“common man”) anti-graft volunteers. It sounded fanciful at the time. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is just a few months old. Even as recently as late November Delhi’s chief minister for the past 15 years, Sheila Dikshit, was roundly dismissing Mr Kejriwal as an irrelevance. Read more of this post

India central bank invites buyout groups to clean up bad debts; Opening salvo in war against India’s indebted industrial groups

December 17, 2013 2:39 pm

India central bank invites buyout groups to clean up bad debts

By James Crabtree

Raghuram Rajan, India’s central bank governor, has fired the opening salvo in a battle against the country’s heavily indebted industrial tycoons, calling for private equity groups such as KKR and Blackstone to take over distressed companies. Read more of this post

India approves historic anti-corruption law

India approves historic anti-corruption law

Wednesday, December 18, 2013 – 18:23

AFP

NEW DELHI – India’s parliament Wednesday passed legislation to create a powerful anti-graft watchdog following a mass anti-corruption movement that swept the country in 2011 and spurred politicians into action. Read more of this post

Christie’s takes maiden Indian art auction to Mumbai

December 16, 2013 8:57 am

Christie’s takes maiden Indian art auction to Mumbai

By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi

Kiran Nadar, the wife of IT billionaire Shiv Nadar, started buying Indian art decades ago to fill her New Delhi home and never stopped – collecting more than 1,000 modern and contemporary works. Read more of this post

Accelerating inflation squeezes India’s middle class

December 18, 2013 9:39 am

Accelerating inflation squeezes India’s middle class

By Amy Kazmin in Ghaziabad, India

Standing on the balcony of his two-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of New Delhi,Indian real estate broker Rakesh Kumar Chawla, 40, is reminded every day of his trajectory from impoverished roots at the bottom of India’s caste hierarchy.

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Hong Kong-based retailer of second-hand luxury bags Milan Station Expects to Post ‘Significant’ FY Net Loss

Milan Station Expects to Post ‘Significant’ FY Net Loss

Milan Station Holdings Ltd. (1150), a Hong Kong-based retailer of second-hand luxury bags, said it expects to record a “significant” loss for this year amid a slowing market and weaker consumer sentiment. Read more of this post

Dirty Oilmen Get Clean Bedsheets Every 12 Hours; “We’re devoted to the oil industry now, no more tourists, just oil workers”

Dirty Oilmen Get Clean Bedsheets Every 12 Hours: Argentina Credit

In the desert town of Anelo, Alejandra Diaz’s task at eight o’clock each morning is to make sure the oilmen have clean sheets. As the manager of the 70-room Sol de Anelo, her staff has 40 minutes to clean the hotel’s designated “hot beds” before the next set of occupants arrive from their shifts in the shale oil fields of Neuquen province. Opened in 2005 as an eight-room roadside stop for tourists en route to the Andes mountains, Anelo’s largest hotel now offers 10 percent of its rooms for 12 hours at a time to accommodate the crush of oil-industry workers who have descended upon the town of just 1,700. Read more of this post

Wal-Mart Sees Amping Up Efforts to Open More China Sam’s Club Warehouses

Wal-Mart Sees Amping Up Efforts to Open More China Sam’s Club Warehouses

Retailer Looks to Open 10 New Stores Per Year in China in Six to Seven Years

LAURIE BURKITT

Dec. 18, 2013 6:59 a.m. ET

BEIJING— Greg Foran sees a solution to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT -0.03% ‘s China woes in $11 pallets of bottled water and $8 half-kilogram (1.1 pound) bags of dried plums. Read more of this post

This Map Shows How Many Countries Contribute To A Single Jar Of Nutella

This Map Shows How Many Countries Contribute To A Single Jar Of Nutella

MADELINE STONE

DEC. 11, 2013, 11:43 AM 11,245 3

Nutella has a huge global fanbase, but it turns out its ingredients come from everywhere as well. The hazelnut spread is such a global product, in fact, that the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development used it as a case study in their most recent report on global value chains. 250,000 tons of Nutella are sold in 75 countries each year. Though Ferrero International SA, the company that produces the spread, is based in Italy, they have nine global factories: five in Europe, one in Russia, one in North America, two in South America, and one in Australia. What’s most amazing about the OECD report is just how many countries are suppliers of Nutella ingredients. The hazelnuts come from Turkey, cocoa from Nigeria, palm oil from Malaysia, sugar mainly from Brazil (but also from Europe) and the vanilla flavor from China. Here’s a map that shows Nutella’s global presence. We first saw this map on Quartz.

The hunger for gluten-free foods has become a headache for restaurant chains, as they struggle to produce dishes that meet increasingly strict requirements from customers and government regulators

At Restaurants, Gluten-Free Is a Tough Recipe

Chains Struggle to Meet Consumer Demands and FDA Guidelines; ‘No Guarantees’

JULIE JARGON

Dec. 15, 2013 7:37 p.m. ET

The hunger for gluten-free foods has become a headache for restaurant chains, as they struggle to produce dishes that meet increasingly strict requirements from customers and government regulators. Read more of this post

The Craft Beer Market Has Exploded, And Now Brewers Are Worried About A Collapse

The Craft Beer Market Has Exploded, And Now Brewers Are Worried About A Collapse

NOAH DAVIS

DEC 14, 2013, 06.11 PM

On a recent Monday morning, the stretch of Route 100 that runs through sleepy Waterbury, Vermont, was bumper to bumper. The line of Camries, Sierras and Outbacks, some from as far away as Illinois, inched forward in the crisp air, their drivers united in a singular goal. Read more of this post

See Which Major Restaurants Serve Coca-Cola Vs. Pepsi

See Which Major Restaurants Serve Coca-Cola Vs. Pepsi

ASHLEY LUTZ AND MIKE NUDELMAN DEC. 17, 2013, 4:12 PM 4,735 9

Coca-Cola recently lost its contract with Buffalo Wild Wings to Pepsi. The deal represented a victory for Pepsi in the infamous “soda wars.” We researched 34 of the top restaurant chains to see if they offered Coke or Pepsi. Coke comes out the undisputed winner, with big contracts with McDonald’s, Subway, and Burger King. Pepsi still has some notable brands, like Taco Bell, KFC, and Hooters. Check it out:

Pizzerias Try to Apply the Chipotle Formula; Can Restaurants Deliver a Higher-Quality Pizza in Two Minutes?

Pizzerias Try to Apply the Chipotle Formula

Can Restaurants Deliver a Higher-Quality Pizza in Two Minutes?

SARAH NASSAUER

Updated Dec. 18, 2013 9:58 a.m. ET

Pizza is getting a Chipotle makeover. Chipotle has quietly joined a growing group of restaurants aiming to change how we eat pizza. The Mexican-food chain has the blueprint from its burritos: Make pizza fast, individually tailored and with higher-quality ingredients than low-end competitors. Photo: AP

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. CMG -0.01% has quietly joined a growing group of restaurants aiming to change how we eat pizza. The ascendant Mexican-food chain known for its mix of healthy-enough, fast-enough food, has the blueprint from its burritos: Make pizza fast, individually tailored and with higher-quality ingredients than low-end competitors. The restaurant’s executives want to carve out a niche between eating pizza at home and heading to a high-end, sit-down Italian restaurant. Pizza is one of the most popular meals in the U.S. but it’s eaten most often via delivery or the supermarket freezer aisle. Read more of this post

Why Loehmann’s is bankrupt while T.J. Maxx cruises along

Why Loehmann’s is bankrupt while T.J. Maxx cruises along

By Claire Zillman, reporter December 17, 2013: 11:06 AM ET

It all comes down to scale. With each new store opening, TJX has upped its leverage to demand department-store quality goods at lower prices.

FORTUNE — On Monday, Loehmann’s filed for bankruptcy for the third time, citing $100 million in debt. It plans to close all of its 39 stores.

• The Bronx-based retailer, which blamed increased competition and a number of strategic, financial, and operating decisions for its decline, joins a growing graveyard of deceased discount retailers that includes the likes of Filene’s Basement, Daffy’s, and Syms. Read more of this post

Toy Makers Look to Extend the Run of Classic Girls’ Characters; Hasbro’s My Little Pony hair-styling kiosks aim to keep tweens and teens engaged with the brand

Toy Makers Look to Extend the Run of Classic Girls’ Characters

Hasbro’s My Little Pony hair-styling kiosks aim to keep tweens and teens engaged with the brand

ANNE MARIE CHAKER

Dec. 17, 2013 7:00 p.m. ET

Mattel Inc.’s Ever After High dolls are teenage offspring of classic fairy-tale characters. Mattel

How many years can a girl stay friends with Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle? It’s a question worth hundreds of millions of dollars to companies including Hasbro Inc.,HAS -0.50% home of the candy-colored My Little Pony characters, and Mattel Inc.,MAT 0.00% creator of Barbie. These and other toy makers are fighting an uphill battle to keep girls playing with dolls as long as possible before they move on to digital games, iPads and mobile phones. Read more of this post

Why Are the Chinese Scared of American Corn?

Why Are the Chinese Scared of American Corn?

Who’s afraid of a little genetically engineered American corn?

Chinese quarantine officers apparently. They’ve recently blocked at least six batches (more than 180,000 tons) of American corn from entering China, citing the presence of genetically-modified strain of the grain that the Chinese government hasn’t (yet) approved for import. The impact has been notable: In recent days U.S. corn futures fell, in part out of fear of further Chinese enforcement action. Read more of this post

Chocolate Eaters Drive Record Cocoa-Output Deficit: Commodities

Chocolate Eaters Drive Record Cocoa-Output Deficit: Commodities

Global cocoa supplies are headed for the longest production shortfall in more than five decades as chocolate demand surges in Asia.

Cocoa use will top output by about 70,000 metric tons in the 12 months started Oct. 1 and deficits will persist through 2018, a six-year stretch that would be the longest since the data began in 1960, said Laurent Pipitone, head of statistics at the International Cocoa Organization in London. Prices may rally 15 percent to $3,200 a ton by the end of 2014, according to the median of 14 trader estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Read more of this post