Opinions and Editorials

Reading RBI's 2009-10 mid-term policy review is a bit like watching the film The Sixth Sense; every re-visit reveals a new dimension.

RBI had issued draft guidelines for introducing credit default swaps (CDSs) in 2007. Then, the global financial crisis hit, and CDSs were accused of being a primary cause.

What was the size of India's stimulus package after September 2008? It is impossible to give a clear answer.

With rising defaults, banks have tightened the aggressive expansion drive of their credit card business.

Divergence between the wholesale price index (WPI) and consumer price index for industrial workers—CPI (IW)—has raised questions on the validity of measure of inflation.

In the yellow and dog-eared manual that central bankers keep locked in their desks, there is a script on what to do when an economy is coming out of a downturn.

You could take a charitable view of Atindranath Dutta's twirl before television cameras. Liberation after a two-day captivity can be exhilarating.

A hundred and ten years after his death, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the man who was constantly reviled by the ulema of his time, is remembered almost with reverence by Indian Muslims.

The recent tension between Delhi and Beijing is not the only factor that is making the so-called strategic triangle — the grouping of Russia, India and China (RIC) whose foreign ministers met in Bangalore this week — increasingly irrelevant to the evolving great power relations.

Oil prices have resumed their inexorable march towards $100 and beyond. Rather than just passively accept this and issue oil bonds to cover the resultant shortfall, the Indian government needs to be more assertive in international fora like the G-20 and tackle head-on the root cause of the problem which is the undue influence that financial markets have on commodity prices.

A few days ago, the affable Swedish ambassador to India, Lars Olof Lindgren, recounted a strange story.

RSS danger For those BJP leaders who are worried about the growing assertiveness of the RSS post-Lok Sabha elections, they have a sympathiser in the CPI. For the Left party feels that the Sangh fountainhead's increasing political activism, if continues unchecked, will "badly restrict" the BJP's "legitimate" role.

Is the Reserve Bank of India reading its own projections? There seems to be every indication that its left hand doesn't seem to understand what its right hand is doing.

With both the Oberoi group and Max India promoter Analjit Singh confirming that talks for a stake sale in East India Hotels Ltd (EIH) are underway, speculation is now rife about what role Singh will choose for himself if he becomes a majority shareholder.

The creation of committees and reports is a hallmark of all bureaucracies. The RBI has just brought out for discussion another report on the benchmark prime lending rate to make it more relevant for users. We have had indicative rates for some time now which never really served the purpose but were still used since there was no alternative.

We are close to reaching that point in the business cycle when the impossible trinity of macroeconomics is going to trouble a number of central banks, particularly RBI. Very simply, the impossible trinity means that a central bank cannot allow free capital inflows, keep a fixed exchange rate and run an independent monetary policy, all at the same time.

Why did MCD want to move the abattoir out of Idgah? The MCD contends that shifting the old abattoir was extremely necessary, as it had an outdated system of slaughter, was unhygienic, was painful for the animals, caused massive traffic jams in the crowded old Delhi area and was posing health hazards to the residents of the area.

The hurdles faced by China's Longian Road and Bridge Ltd company in securing employment visas for its Chinese workers has led to a suspension of work on two important road projects in Himachal Pradesh.

Legal reforms in India have long been held up at the desks of status quoist law ministers. Fortunately, M Veerappa Moily seems determined enough to break that mould, at least if the vision document that his ministry prepared and presented to the Chief Justice of India is an indicator. The minister seems to have got his focus areas absolutely right.

The twin car suicide bombings that struck Iraq's justice ministry and provincial council complexes on Sunday were so ghastly that they mangled not only cars, buildings and humans but also the notion that the country is limping back to normalcy.