Even though high inflation prevented RBI from cutting policy rates, its announcements can do more to boost consumption demand in the short-term than Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget last week. Regulatory relaxations and forbearance can push lending rates to fall sharply, encouraging people to borrow and revive the consumption cycle.
Sedition law being misused to crush dissent. Time for it to go
Sedition charges against 19 anti-CAA protesters by UP police — on a day when the government informed Rajya Sabha that 233 people were charged under the law between 2014 and 2018 — is alarming and draconian. The British-era law is being misused to suppress dissent. It’s time to repeal it.
Rahul Gandhi’s ‘jobless’ jibe at Modi shows Congress still doesn’t know how to tackle him
Rahul Gandhi’s speech about the jobless beating PM Modi with sticks is deplorable but also immature. Modi is still hugely popular. It shows Congress learnt little from Sonia Gandhi’s “maut ka saudagar” remark that boomeranged. Modi, the consummate politician, turns each such barb into a trophy, as he did today.
No RBI in the world can increase factory capacity utilization in the country. More production stems from more demand. Manufacturing Not consumption will save INDIA.
It was RBI under Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel which destroyed liquidity in the system crushing the entire Banking system and public consumption. Fervent pleas of Arun Jaitley went unheeded. Now after the horror of. sliding growth which has come down to 5% they are atoning that terrible mistake. Only fools learn this hard way.
As Dr Ila Patnaik’s column points out, the RBI’s interventions should be aligned with the long term health of the banking / financial sector, which remains fragile. Many helpful steps are required. They will succeed better as part of a much larger, composite, government led effort to restore the economy to higher growth.