But the biggest obstacle to consolidation may have been the very breathing-space created by protection.
Nor has the breathing-space they afforded been used to clean up all of the shabbier corporate practices.
The RBI consults the government but it has enough breathing-space to set rates as it pleases, they say.
By agreeing to the swap, it will win some breathing-space: the government this week announced it would postpone the caps for a year.
Above all, the deal provides a breathing-space in which an international effort to stop people dying of cold and hunger can be launched.
Investors think otherwise, mainly because the findings of fact and the subsequent rulings could create a breathing-space for Red Hat and the rest.
For now, Mr Duhalde seems to have won himself a breathing-space.
It seems more likely that the breathing-space will be wasted.
In 1402, he turned on, and defeated, the Ottoman Turks, thus giving Christendom a breathing-space after the crushing defeats inflicted on it by the Ottomans at Kosovo in 1389 and Nicopolis seven years later.
For Mr Netanyahu, trying to steer clear of the theology and keep his coalition intact, the advantage of the proposed compromise is that it gives him a breathing-space until the crisis erupts again or another one breaks out.
Dobson then gave the Robins a 13-point breathing space with a drop-goal with 12 minutes on the clock but the misery was not over the Rhinos.
Under the Good Friday Agreement legislation, the government will have a six-week "breathing space" either to re-install Mr Trimble or replace him, before the devolved institutions are suspended.
The immediate calls for his head from the Tories will now die away and he has certainly won himself a breathing space - but it is only that.
The winter Ashes series and the World Cup then follow and that is the reason for giving Strauss this breathing space - not because he needs a rest now but because he and the selectors believe it will benefit him later in the year.
But England managed to establish one final attacking position and Wilkinson slotted a right-foot drop-goal to give them some much-needed breathing space.
Instead, Mr Deuba's fully legal election decision gives him a six-month breathing space as head of an interim government, free of political interference, even though his party has tried to make things difficult by expelling him for three years.
Rooney completed his hat-trick - his third for the Old Trafford outfit - by sending Begovic the wrong way to give United some breathing space before Giggs curled a 22-yard free-kick into the bottom corner.
However, any hopes of breathing space were short-lived, as Sale responded almost immediately with a try from Crane, the winger cleverly put through to score by England centre Matthew Tait.
For a start, it will give breathing space to low-cost carriers such as Interjet and Volaris, which have gobbled up 21% of domestic traffic since 2005 but have been kept out of many of the most profitable routes by the older airlines.
Italy were within two points of the visitors before Jonny Wilkinson's late drop-goal gave them breathing space.
Little reduced Fiji's deficit to seven points with a penalty but O'Driscoll gave his side some breathing space with a 49th-minute try, his 38th in an Ireland shirt.
Wales, by contrast, totalled 14 points from the boots of fly-half Stephen Jones and centre James Hook, the latter's late drop-goal giving Wales breathing space as Italy pressed in the final quarter.
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By delaying implementation until next year, the UK government won British Airways (nyse: BAB - news - people ) some breathing space until Heathrow Terminal 5 is opened next March, which will give the airline extra capacity.
Second-half tries from Paul Wellens and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook gave the hosts some breathing space before Giants' David Fa'alogo pulled one back.
This nerve-racking wait-and-see approach was given a small breathing space this week.
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The authority's planning advisory panel said such a figure would help restrict "out-of-control development" and give communities "breathing space".
Hook added his fourth penalty to give Wales some breathing space on the scoreboard and open a six-point gap.
At the press conference, Rice said the U.S. needs to give some "breathing space" to Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Malaki and his government.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says opponents of war will question the purpose of the surge, if the Iraqis themselves cannot use the breathing space provided by US forces to find long-term solutions.
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