India endured a 12-hour national strike on 5th July, 2010, (‘Bharat bandh’ in the national language) called upon by its Opposition party protesting against rise in fuel prices. The strike translated into a literal halt across the nation. Transportation, including rail, road or air flights were non-operational today. Shutters were down at retail stores, malls and business houses. %% Manufacturing, transportation, cargo handling have been severly affected. Over 60 long-distance trains, around 93 domestic and international flights were cancelled. Although life is returning back to normal as the day draws to a close, the loss of an entire ‘work day’ and an overall halt of all operations has pinched the economy. %% Industry bodies like FICCI, Assocham and CII estimate the economic loss due to the strike to be anywhere between 2,000 to 10,000 crores. The huge difference in the estimated figures is attributed to the fact that there are large parts of industry which are unorganised, as such making it difficult to gather exact estimates. The opposition had called on the strike to protests the recent hike by Rs 2 per litre in diesel prices Rs 3.5 per litre in petrol prices.