Warrier's blog

The RBI should look beyond short term | Business Line  My response recorded on March 21, 2014: Acknowledging the possible disproportionate burden on the monetary policy the ‘election season’ may cast, the author has tried to lighten the task of Dr Raghuram Rajan in putting together his thoughts on the Monetary Policy statement the RBI governor is expected to announce on April 1, 2014. Based on the rich experience of RBI during the past 50 years, Tarapore’s advice to RBI is to conduct its monetary policy unfettered by any thought about the polls. The need for policy continuity is emphasised by endorsing the stress on CPI(and not WPI), suggesting maintenance of nominal dollar-rupee exchange rate at $1=Rs61-63 by appropriate measures, calling for caution on tinkering with policy rates in the context of recent positive signals and a strong warning against RBI being party, directly or indirectly to window dressing of banks’ balance sheets. Drawing attention to Dr Rajan’s own obs

Letters to the Editor - Moneylife BRING TRANSPARENCY IN SPENDING! This is with regard to “Has the scope of CSR been too narrowly defined?” Any initiative to bring transparency in spending from CSR (corporate social responsibility) funds and to curb use of black money for fighting elections should be welcomed. Even the long list of ‘eligible’ activities that can be funded with CSR allocations has not satisfied the corporates which crave for more flexibility. In the matter of social responsibility and avoidance of unethical practices in election expenditure, there are bound to be constraints for any regulatory approach to succeed. The final ‘judge’ will be the society and the aam aadmi who exercises his right to vote. The media and the educated population should play their role in creating awareness about the guidelines among the masses, who, in turn, should press for self-regulation by corporates and politicians. MG Warrier

Silence over the Loot of PSU Banks - Moneylife Front page lead story in one of the financial newspapers had this caption today(March 19): “Deficit worry? Banks told to remit TDS by month-end”…The story begins with this introductory: Move comes on heals of FinMin request to banks for a minimum dividend of Rs6,803 cr” Realities can be much more startling. The health of public sector banks has a direct relationship with the owner’s approach to their management. This is not to defend the regulator or to argue that we should ‘let go’ the goings on in cases like the fast deteriorating condition of the United Bank of India. The purpose is just to point out that RBI is also staring at an adamant finance ministry which has no worry about the strength of public sector organisations.  M G Warrier  

Five public sector bankers in fray for RBI dy governors post | Business Standard

Crony capitalism? Really? | Business Line Online comments posted on March 19, 2014: The intelligent analyses, sometimes, will defy commonsense approach to comprehend ideas. Once ‘crony’ and ‘clean’ capitalisms are satisfactorily defined and the churning theory is established beyond doubt, the author is able to market the defence of the present unnatural growth of capitalists in India, mostly attributable to concessions, favours, subsidies and waivers(yes, tax waivers) from an obliging government. What is being forgotten is the approaches of pre-1990 business houses like Tatas and to a certain extent Birlas who saw the accumulation of assets from a trusteeship angle. America was not in favour of producing ‘better mousetraps’ by dependence on starvation wages and selling them for profit meant only to benefit those who invested the initial ‘borrowed’ capital. The present developed countries during their developing decades and even today go by a clear understanding of co

Water For The Leeward India | Jean Dreze, Reetika Khera A very interesting article M G Warrier

Pulling a village out of poverty - The Hindu I WISH EVERY CANDIDATE CONTESTING FOR A LOK SABHA SEAT IN ELECTION 2014 READS THIS ARTICLE AND GIVES HIS/HER VIEWS ON THE 'CHINDHBARRI' MODEL MENTIONED HERE WHILE CANVASSING VOTES! Online comments posted on March 18, 2014: Building a development model from below-the grass-root level- may not go well with the LPG philosophy and the imported economic development model being propagated since 1990’s in India. The Grama Swaraj model envisaging, inter alia, listing of local resources and priorities on a sheet of paper, targeting names and not ‘numbers’, dividing even a tribal hamlet of 75 families into further groups of manageable size, sourcing adequate funds from projects like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme by tweaking the rules to ensure timely and adequate finance and replicating the model to additional 46 panchayats should attract the attention of planners and opinion-makers to forc

*The Story of the Birth of The   Indian Institute of Science Swami Vivekananda  -Where Hi Tech met   Hi Touch Posted by Prof. KCR Raja | Posted in India And The World | Posted on 08-10-2010   In 1893, in a boat that   sailed from Yokohama to Vancouver, two great Indians, one, a monk and  the other, an industrialist met for the first time. The monk was Swami Vivekananda, who was to take and interpret to the West, more effectively  than anyone else, the religious and philosophical tradition of India. The  industrialist was Jamshedji Tata, the father of Indian industry.   As they   got talking, Vivekananda explained his mission of preaching in the US,  the universality of all religions. Jamshedji said he was in search of equipment and technology that would build the steel industry and make India a strong industrial nation. Vivekananda blessed Jamshedji, and remarked  “How wonderful it would be if we could combine the scientific and technological