By Anirban Roy and Paul Beckett Ajit Solanki/Associated Press Motorcyclists queued at a crowded fuel station in Ahmadabad, Wednesday. Almost as soon as the price of petrol was raised by 11.5% last evening, the largest single raise in India’s history, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee made the following statement to reporters: “The decision has been taken. Petrol is a deregulated commodity.” Technically, this is true. The companies that push through the increased prices are the state-run oil marketing companies, led by Indian Oil Corp., that are directly responsible for what you pay at the pump. But only technically. There is a lot that Mr. Mukherjee didn’t say. Like why the oil marketing companies raised the price now, and by such a big jump, when they have ... Continue reading →

By Debiprasad Nayak Agence France-Presse/Getty Images A coffee store employee in Bangalore, Feb. 23, 2007 Tea makers will not sit back and relax as they see more and more Indian consumers turning to coffee, their rival beverage. Instead, they are planning a marketing blitzkrieg of their own. It’s not just that coffee retailers like Costa Coffee, Café Coffee Day and Dunkin Donuts are committed to promote a coffee-drinking culture in this tea-loving country: Numbers suggest coffee is gradually catching up with tea. Domestic consumption of coffee is rising at about 5%-6% every year, while tea consumption is increasing only at about 2% annually, according to government data released earlier this year. Compare this to about a decade ago, when coffee-drinking was confined mostly to southern ... Continue reading →

By Amol Sharma Reuters Mulayam Singh Yadav shared the stage with key UPA representatives at a function to commemorate its third year in power. A key reason India’s Congress party-led government, the United Progressive Alliance, is struggling to get anything done is the resistance it faces from within its own coalition – namely, the Trinamool Congress party of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that every move the government makes nowadays is being interpreted as an effort to woo new political support and make it possible to ditch Ms. Banerjee – no matter how subtle the message, how oblique the signal. At a dinner the UPA hosted Tuesday at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence to celebrate the third anniversary of ... Continue reading →

By WSJ Staff The official trailer of Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” was released by Warner Bros. late Tuesday. An adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel by the same name, the film is set in 1920s New York and stars Leonardo Di Caprio as Jay Gatsby. It is also the Hollywood debut of legendary Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, who makes a fleeting appearance in movie as Meyer Wolfsheim, a shady businessman who in novel is known for his human teeth cufflinks. Mr. Bachchan played down criticism he is too big a star for such a small role, describing his performance as a “friendly gesture.” You can follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime. Continue reading →

By Rupa Subramanya European Pressphoto Agency A money exchange vendor relaxed at his shop at a market in New Delhi, May, 22. India’s finance minister this week fulfilled a promise he’s made in Parliament on repeated occasions, most recently during the budget, by releasing the “White Paper on Black Money.” The document, which runs to nearly 100 pages (that’s a lot of black ink on white paper) tries to shed new light on the problem of black money in India. There’s a basic ambiguity in defining black money. It can be either generated through illegal activity, such as drug trafficking and smuggling, or it can be generated through a fundamentally legitimate activity (such as business or trade) on which the necessary tax isn’t paid, or ... Continue reading →

By Prasenjit Bhattacharya Channi Anand/Associated Press Workers carried firewood outside a brick factory on the outskirts of Jammu, May 1. Acquiring land in India isn’t easy to begin with, especially if you are planning to build factories, power plants, special economic zones or highways. And it may get harder: If a parliamentary panel has it way, buying land for industrial and infrastructure may become close to impossible. The industry and even some in the government are worried that investments might stall if the panel’s recommendations are included in the Land Acquisition Bill, which is likely to be introduced in Parliament soon – as early as in the next session of Parliament, which starts in July. It would replace a colonial-era law that still regulates the ... Continue reading →

By Diksha Sahni Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press Actor Shah Rukh Khan, left, at a promotional event for his IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders. The Mumbai Cricket Association banned actor Shah Rukh Khan from the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai for five years after an ugly brawl this week between the actor and officials. Addressing a press conference, Vilasrao Deshmukh, president of the MCA, said the managing committee had decided to ban the actor and owner of IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders as he had “shown no regrets for his action and behavior.” “If anybody behaves like this…whosoever it may be…action will be taken,” Mr. Deshmukh said. Mr. Khan was involved in a heated argument with officials at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai late Wednesday after his team ... Continue reading →

By Anirban Chowdhury and Nikhil Gulati Getty Images If you are gearing up to see the Eiffel Tower in Paris this summer, be prepared to shell out more for your air ticket. If you are gearing up to see the Eiffel Tower in Paris or Big Ben in London this summer, be prepared to shell out more for your air ticket. Major airlines including Virgin Atlantic Airways, Lufthansa, British Airways, Emirates and Qatar Airways have raised fares by as much as 20% over the past week just as summer vacationers from India scamper to book flights to Southeast Asia, Europe and the U.S., travel agents say. Even India’s Jet Airways is following suit. Airlines are also making unexpected bonuses from Air India passengers who have ... Continue reading →

By Preetika Rana Rule number one: never smile. A new book brings together a collection of portraits of India’s erstwhile princely rulers taken by some of the country’s earliest photographers. Here’s a selection of them. Continue reading →

By Nafeesa Syeed Skinner Inc. A detail of the 19th-century Kashmir moon shawl. WASHINGTON – Three decades ago, a woman from the northeastern United States bought a bag of textiles at a yard sale of used goods that cost around $10. Inside, there was a colorful shawl that she intended to cut up and turn into pillows. But she stowed the bundle within a box in her basement, consigning it to oblivion. That is, until last year, when she was searching for items to include in a flea market for second-hand wares in her town northwest of Boston, Massachusetts. Upon rediscovering the long-lost shawl, the detailed stitching made her wonder of its worth. A few months ago, that same shawl was sold at a Boston ... Continue reading →