Union minister Ashwani Kumar addresses a press conference in Jalandhar. (Sikander Singh Chopra/HT)

Former additional solicitor general Harin Raval and attorney general GE Vahanvati were present in the meeting with the law minister, the agency said in the affidavit.

Changes in the status report were made on the suggestions given by attorney general and PMO official, said the CBI.

HT has learnt that the CBI will provide a comparative chart of changes proposed by the government and those that were finally accepted by the agency.

CBI director Ranjit Sinha told HT: "We have allowed very little changes." But he did not reveal the exact changes sought by law minister Ashwani Kumar and attorney general GE Vahanvati.

The CBI may also say that the statement made before the SC by former additional solicitor general Harin Rawal on March 12 — that the probe report wasn't shared with the political arm — was not authorised by the agency.

Rawal, who represented the CBI in this case before he was replaced by senior advocate UU Lalit recently, had embarrassed the government last week with his direct attack on Vahanvati, whom he accused  of having seen many draft status reports of the ongoing investigation into the coal blocks allocation scam.

Highlights of CBI's affidavit:
* Former additional solicitor general Harin Raval and attorney general GE Vahanvati were present in the meeting with the law minister

* Changes in the status report were made on the suggestions given by attorney general and PMO official

* Shatrughan Singh, JS PMO, AK Bhalla, JS coal ministry met in the chamber of joint director CBI at the request of JS PMO

* Draft status report was shared with political executive and AG, not the status report

* Consequent changes in the report have neither altered its central theme nor shifted the focus of inquiries in any manner

* No names of suspects or accused were removed from the status report and no suspect or accused was let off

* It is difficult at this stage to attribute each change to a particular person with certainty

* CBI chief extends unconditional apology to court for any inadvertent omission or commission, assures it of independent probe in coal scam

FDI in retail: Anand Sharma says foreign retailers must invest in new back-end infrastructure

NEW DELHI: Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said that foreign supermarkets wanting to enter India will have to make fresh investments in new back-end infrastructure and not acquire existing facilities of local companies. This would dash hopes of global retailers such as Walmart, which might have planned to buy out franchisee Bharti Retail's back-end infrastructure along with the front-end Easy Day stores for speedy access to the Indian consumer.

Sharma, widely regarded as the architect of the policy, also clarified that the cost of land and real estate will not be included in the mandatory $50-million investment on infrastructure and logistics over a three-year period - one of the conditions foreign supermarkets have to meet to enter India.

"It is an additionality. Investments have to be in new back-end infrastructure, not in acquisition of existing ones," Sharma said. Back-end infrastructure typically includes cold chain, warehouses, processing plants and logistical support, and is critical for the smooth functioning of a retail firm.

In an hour-long interview to ET, Sharma ruled out any dilution of the conditions for FDI in multi-brand retail and said clarification, if needed, will be given on a case-by-case basis. Another stipulation that foreign retailers are finding hard to meet is the mandatory sourcing of 30% of all goods purchased from small and medium enterprises.

Since the controversial FDI retail policy was notified in September 2012, no foreign multi-brand retailer has evinced interest in setting up shop due to lack of clarity on the numerous conditions attached to the policy.

Global retailers worried about political uncertainty

Foreign retailers are also nervous about the political uncertainty in the country because BJP, the principal Opposition party, has said it could reverse the policy if it returns to power.

Sharma lashed out at BJP, particularly its president Rajnath Singh, for making foreign investors nervous. The minister said BJP is vitiating the investment climate, especially when it talks of reversing policy such as foreign investment in multi-brand retail.

"That misfortune will not visit India! (referring to the possibility of a BJP-led government at the Centre) They (foreign investors) also know that India is a constitutional democracy that is rule-based and rule-governed. There is an executive decision which is the domain of the elected government of the day. If you look back from 1991 till now, what people have said in the Opposition and when they have been in government, there has never been a reversal of policy once made. So Mr Rajnath Singh is not above Parliament of India," said Sharma. In a recent interview to ET, the BJP president had said his party might reverse the policy if voted to power.

Sharma dismissed BJP's declaration to reverse the policy as an expression of its partisan agenda. "This is a policy that has become law after getting all the required approvals. We are not a banana republic. There is a stamp of approval...they forced a debate and vote in Parliament where both Houses voted in favour. So is there some sanctity of Parliament's decision. And above that, the ringing endorsement and praise coming from the Supreme Court," said Sharma, referring to remarks by the apex court while dismissing a petition challenging the decision.

How will direct cash transfer scheme work when beneficiaries are unlettered: UN official

By Vikas Dhoot, ET Bureau | 4 May, 2013, 05.46AM IST

India accounts for nearly half of the adults in the developing world that are not able to read and write.

EW DELHI: Four months after the UPA government ambitiously rolled out the direct benefits transfer programme which aims to transfer subsidies into the bank accounts of beneficiaries, a senior UN official has warned that India's alarmingly high adultilliteracy rates could affect the efficacy of the plan as nearly 300 million poor beneficiaries may not be able to transact through banks effectively.

Alisher Uramov, the chief of education in India for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), said that India accounts for nearly half of the adults in the developing world that are not able to read and write. 

"Almost 300 million adults in India are functionally illiterate and the country is moving to a direct benefits transfer regime, that will transfer all state subsidies to their bank accounts," Uramov said. "It will be a challenge to make this system work if beneficiaries are unable to write withdrawal slips, issue cheques or even check transactions from their bank accounts," he said. 

According to UNESCO's latest monitoring report on the goal to achieve education for all, 775 million adults could not read or write in 2010; of these two-thirds are women. Even in rich countries, 160 million adults have poor literacy skills, the report said, linking poor literacy to economic marginalisation. "India alone contains 37% of the global number of illiterate adults. A large improvement in its adult literacy rate, from 48% in 1991 to 63% in 2006, has been counterbalanced by population growth, so the total number of illiterate adults in the country has remained stagnant over the period," the report pointed out. 

Urging the Indian government to develop 'second chance programmes' for those who dropped out of primary school, Uramov cited the example of Malawi where a similar system offers flexible learning to primary school dropouts. "After three years, around 40% of those enrolled in the programme had passed a numeracy test equivalent to 5 years in primary school," he pointed out. 

While the UNESCO report lauds India for reducing the number of out-ofschool children, it pointed out a more serious concern. Less than 20% of India's youth between the ages of 15 and 29 years, who completed six years of primary schooling, were able to read or write well enough to be considered literate. Paul Comyn, senior vocational training specialist at theInternational Labour Organisation said that though school enrollments in India have continued to grow, dropout rates remain high.http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/how-will-direct-cash-transfer-scheme-work-when-beneficiaries-are-unlettered-un-official/articleshow/19875693.cms