Ministers' defence FDI talks informal: Govt

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday said 'informal consultations' between senior ministers were held earlier this week to 'build clear political understanding' on the discussion paper on foreign direct investment in defence.

Issuing a clarification on Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma's remarks on Thursday, it said the issue of FDI in multi-brand retail was not discussed in the meeting of senior ministers that included Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram, A K Antony and Sharma.

It said the Department of Consumer Affairs and other concerned ministries are still giving their inputs. A firm "review" will be taken by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) only after these inputs are received, the statement said.Blaming media for quoting him "out of context", it said the minister's remarks on huge gap between retail and mandi prices was not linked with FDI in retail.