Hello, I'm Philip Kogan, the Bartleby columnist of the Economist.

Welcome to Money Talks.

Coming up on the programme.

Why are women dropping out of the workforce in India?

The poorer you are, the more you have to work. When you get a little more comfortable,

you don't really have to work. The CO2 shortage is taking the fiz out of the pub industry.

I have got both Brewers and pubs that are suffering because of this crisis.

I was talking to one yesterday with an MP.

It will wipe out his year's profits because he hasn't

been able to bottle for 10 days.

But first competition among British supermarkets is fierce and is causing retailers to band together.

Tesco, the UK's largest grocer, has announced its planning a strategic alliance with

car for Europe's largest retailer. The two say that we'll use their joint buying power to cut costs

and offer customers more competitive prices. Richard Cockett is our Britain's business editor.

Richard, why are they doing this?

Well, Tesco has been in a lot of trouble in the past few years.

It is still Britain's biggest supermarket,

but over the last six, seven years it's been having a torrid time.

Two reasons, first of all the German discounters, Aldi and Liddell, have been very successful.

They really are old-style, Stackham High, sell them low, and they've been nibbling

away at market share of all the big retailers, particularly of Tesco. Tesco's recovered a little bit but still they're very

vulnerable on price and secondly Tesco's two competitors, Sainsbury and

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