Warrier's Collage on SUNDAY May 9, 2021: Monetary Policy

Welcome to Warrier's COLLAGE On SUNDAY MAY 9, 2021 1) "Message from Ratan Tata" https://youtu.be/pqEKNR5H6VU 2) Message for Media friends https://youtu.be/PVr4cVE_zK8 Good Morning Now Collage is being posted regularly at my FB page and at: www.warriersblog.com Since last month my Blog has an average daily page views at 500 plus. Cumulative page views crossed 3,38,000 yesterday. Nice Day M G Warrier M Mother's Day Mother’s Day: A letter to dear mother to say thank you : https://thg.page.link/iEvJaUQM2Km3MhnR9 Satsangam with Panchapagesan Ahimsa or Non-Injury Gita XIII Chapter, verses 7 to 11 Ahimsa means Harmlessness or Non-injury. This word has been gravely misunderstood by us all. It was and still is taken literally to mean Non-killing or physical Non-injury without any reference to the basic emotion of kindness that supports it...People connected with mere acts of kindness.. They refrained indiscriminately from inflicting injury irrespective of any consequences accruing therefrom..They would not cause hurt or pain even if it was of disastrous consequences to the recipients and themselves.. This approach to life made the people PASSIVE and vulnerable .... The Human race suffers from a misconception of this great quality..... Ahimsa actually emerges from our inner personality. It arises from thoughts of kindness supporting our actions. Sometimes our actions may be injurious to another but the intention behind it could be unselfish and benevolent ... The Pandavas set themselves to destroy unrighteousness and revive Righteousness..Arjuna, the great hero commanded the Pandavas forces.. When the battle was about to begin, he fell a prey to his weak emotions.. He was not able to inflict injury to his own people.. He recoiled at the thought of killing. He laid down his bow and arrows and appealed to Lord Krishna for help...Krishna explained the principles of right action. In this case the physical case was no doubt harmful and injurious but the intention supporting it was kind and benevolent..What matters in action is not the outward Act but the motive behind it. Krishna drove home this thought in Arjuna. Arjuna got up and fought the battle ... Unrighteousness was destroyed. Righteousness reigned thereafter. V.T.Panchapagesan. A Interaction 1) Shakuntala Aiyer US Thank you very much for inviting me to your collages. You must be feeling that I have failed to respond. The fact is that only this afternoon I finished reading the earlier one a second time and wanted to share my feelings. I enjoy reading articles/write-ups on various topics. The pieces on the King of fruits was really good as it reminded me of the experiences in my younger days. As a young girl I used to climb the tree for which I used to be scolded as girls were not expected to do such things those days. The one on the morning brew also interested me as coffee is my favourite drink. Please give me time to go through the Saturday Collage. With regards to all the contributors. Shakuntala Aiyer May 8, 2021 2) M G Warrier Mumbai Overheard somewhere that Warrier's Collage is slowly becoming Warriers' Collage. Without commenting on that let me introduce another well-wisher of Collage. Charukesi is daughter of Ramadurais who need no introduction to my readers: http://charukesi.com/ Charukesi Ramadurai is a freelance journalist and author from India, whose byline has appeared in The New York Times, South China Morning Post, The Guardian, City Lab, Fodor’s Travel, Roads & Kingdoms, NPR, Atlas Obscura, The National, The Christian Science Monitor, Independent, Nikkei Asian Reviewand Khaleej Times among others. 3) C V Subbaraman Mysuru Give the rats the swimming trial This is practised in our offices too. First they allot work to the clerical staff. That has been my experience. Then we dispose of the work (efficiently). Then more work is allotted to us, because we are found to be disposing of the work quickly. A Deputy Governor once told a senior officer that the latter was posted to a particular post as regional head of a department. The Senior officer asked why. "There are some problems there......" The Senior officer protested gently, "Sir this is unfair. I have headed the office for three years in a "difficult" centre." The DG smiled: "You are more experienced in handling difficult situations!". Rats? Subbaraman B Current Affairs Monetary Policy : The Global ANALYST, May 2021 Copied below is the submitted version of my article being published in The Global ANALYST this month: Monetary Policy for Post-Pandemic India M G Warrier I concluded my review of the previous Monetary Policy Statement (February 2021) by Reserve bank of India in March 2021 issue of this magazine with the following observation: “It is comforting to find that after a gap, this year (2021), there is a harmonious synchronisation of approach among the Economic Survey, Central Budget and RBI’s Monetary Policy Announcement in February 2021. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Let us hope, these are not!” During the year 2020, world has learned many new lessons from the forced quarantine, institutions and policy-makers had to be victims of. Of course, there were stray voices from some hard-core analysts and people who made a living by arm-chair criticism, expressing concern about breaking conventions or prophesying gloom. You would have come across analyses using pre-pandemic facts and figures by economists who are still making a living out of the uncertainties in the world. Like Insurance and Investment Advisors, they first spread a net of gloom around you before making their presentation about what can happen in the future. Now that masks are compulsory, you cannot even meet them face to face. My own perception is, India as a country has risen to the occasion and within the constraints, managed the show fairly well, preparing ground for meeting the evolving situation. Now that the fire-fighting and First-Aid phases are over, policy formulation, planning and execution have to be with long-term perspective now onwards. April 2021 Monetary Policy Statement has not made any loud declarations about future policy directions or made any changes in base rates, for stakeholders to assume anything about what can be the future course, say during the third quarter of Calendar Year 2021. Based on an article written by S S Tarapore, former RBI Deputy Governor in The Hindu Business Line in November 2015, let us look at the present situation. He said: “The Indian economy is poised at a crucial point. It could either enter into a phase of a reasonably long period of sustained growth, or in endeavouring to achieve unsustainably high growth rates could face severe dislocation, resulting in a downturn of growth. It is in this context that it is important to avoid major macroeconomic pitfalls. Sounding a note of caution on sustainable growth is often misconstrued as a denial of an opportunity to the Indian economy to grow at a faster rate.” All assessments about economic growth and inflation by experts across the world up to February 2020 need a relook as most of the assumptions made then have lost validity with the massive impact of the pandemic on all sectors of economic activity. Now is not the time to set targets for economic growth or inflation with reference to pre-2020 base figures. In the same article Tarapore expressed his concern that, although, “with a given level of capital we can improve the growth rate by revving up capacity utilisation, but individual sectors can very quickly reach the limits to growth” and “in an increasingly integrated global economy, sluggish global growth can also dampen prospects for growth of the Indian economy.” The apprehensions expressed by the former central banker are equally relevant today. Coming back to the April 2021 Monetary Policy Announcement, the quick response from the chief of nation’s biggest bank, the State Bank of India, was: “The RBI policy statement is a clear commitment to assuage uncertainties in the market through guaranteed, continued liquidity support and explicit guidance to navigate through the current COVID surge, the duration of which is uncertain. This apart, permitting banks to co-lend through NBFC’s and bringing it under PSL guidelines will broad base lending. The enhancement of loan limits against electronic warehouse receipts will encourage lending for allied activities. Several steps undertaken in the realm of payment systems will give a fillip to digital adoption and competition. The idea of setting up a Committee to review the working of ARC’s could open up new vistas of faster resolution. Overall, the policy statement leaves a clear imprint on growth.” This summarises the substance of the central bank’s policy direction. Reserve Bank of India’s resolve to proceed further strengthening the financial system to serve the emerging needs was expressed in no uncertain words by governor Shaktikanta Das at the Times Economic Conclave, 2021 on March 25, 2021. I quote: Going forward, banks need to address the financing needs of new sunrise sectors without undermining the traditional sectors of the economy. This conclave gives us an opportunity to look back on what has been accomplished and deliberate on what still needs to be done. I wish to reiterate that we at the Reserve Bank are fully committed to use all our policy tools to secure a robust recovery of the economy from the debilitating effects of the pandemic. The Reserve Bank remains devoted to build an enabling environment to develop the financial sector and create necessary preconditions for growth while preserving financial stability. As we have observed in the recent past, GOI and RBI are keeping 24X7 vigil on the developments and repair and service activities on the economic front and financial sector do not get delayed waiting for procedural formalities. Let us hope the fight against the current episode of pandemic is reaching its final stage in the current quarter. With people participation and institutional support the final victory is not very far. I found the concluding words in Ashima Goyal’s “History of Monetary Policy in India Since Independence” (2014) somehow relevant and interesting to ponder over in the 2021 context. I am referring to: “An example of change is the behavior of interest rates. Although liberalization initially increased the volatility of rates in a thin market, it eventually brought down the volatility to levels prevailing when rates were tightly administered, as markets deepened. But now, the rates came through a robust interaction between markets, institutions, and policy. In the mid-1990s, in thin markets and with greater monetary autonomy combined with unhealthy government finances, there were sharp peaks in policy and market rates that hurt growth. But immediately after the GFC, when fiscal responsibility legislation, higher growth, and better tax administration had improved government finances, monetary–fiscal coordination improved and India came through in better shape. In hindsight, the post-GFC stimulus was too large and continued too long, while exchange rates were left too much to volatile capital flows, although alternative policies were available. So, learning must continue. But even so, the future will see these years as transformative for India and its institutions. Sometimes, the best haste is made slowly.” We will, if need sustains, continue the debate on this in the coming months. ***** ***** *** 2) Indian Currency: Dr G Sreekumar Cheñnai https://m.economictimes.com/opinion/et-commentary/has-india-realised-full-potential-of-its-paper-currency/amp_articleshow/82464206.cms C Readers'Contribution Prize: V Babusenan Thiruvananthapuram IN RECOGNITION OF YOUR RICH CONTRIBUTION TO HUMANITARIAN IDEALS THE NOBEL FOUNDATION OF STOCKHOLM ON BEHALF OF THE SWEDISH ACADEMY IS PLEASED TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU HAVE TODAY BEEN VOTED FOR THIS YEAR'S NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE STOP DETAILS FOLLOW STOP HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS STOP Malthus,the famous population pundit,regarded epidemics as a leveller of world population. But he would never have had any idea of the magnitude of work now bring done by Covid-19 in this direction.Was it not Shakespeare who said"Sweet are the uses of adversity"?The Bard is always right.The present pandemic has plus points too.One of these seems to be that it goes deep into the psyche of people and brings to the top the sense of self importance lying dormant there. In the case of the present writer ,the mischief was in the form of a hallucination that took the shape of a telegram(quoted above) from the Stock Exchange Building,Stockholm,delivered with reverence through the Swedish Embassy, NEW Delhi.He was thrilled.In the Covid mood,he won't mind surrendering the sizable prize money to the Editor of the Collage for his tremendous effort to keep away many idle minds from harm's way. When Tagore submitted his own translation of 'Gitanjali' to the West,it took the literary world by surprise .Some very well- known literary men like the Irish poet W.B.Yeats were ecstatic about its novel spiritual quality and thus hope arose that it could fetch for the author that year's Nobel Prize for literature.But for reasons not quite obvious, the very admirers became detractors (some said that Tagore's English translation was below par) and the hope for this highest recognition dimmed.But Tagore and India were lucky.A Swedish literary figure, who was one of the judges of the Nobel Committee ,was so much impressed by 'Gitanjali 'that he himself translated it to Swedish and influenced other judges with the result that Tagore was awarded the Prize in 1913. More or less the same thing happened in the case of the 1945 literary award that went to a Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral over the heads of Herman Hesse,Romain Rolland and Benedetto Croche .One of the very influential judges had fallen headlong in love with the lady's poetry and he, with his own Swedish translation of her poems, prevailed over the other judges to secure for her the Prize. This is the positive side in the sense that someone of influence works in favour of a recipient ,though not desirable from the purist's point of view.For the negative side, we have the famous case of Einstein.His theory that the speed of light is a constant one,enunciated in 1905 ,was a totally revolutionary concept deserving a Nobel Prize for physics .But he was ignored and he got the Prize only in1921 and that too for his theory on photo-electric effect!The reason for this,according to the well-known American writer Irving Wallace ,was the hatred one influential member of the Committee had for Jews. Deep-seated prejudice against the Russians is said to have, in earlier years, prompted the Nobel Committee to vote down such worthies as Chekhov,Tolstoy and Gorki. Still, Nobel Prize is Nobel Prize! Regards D Endless Time 1) End of Time: a) Video https://youtu.be/CaZXdZGZfb0 b) Lyrics 2) Time Management : Introduction https://www.managementstudyguide.com/time-management.htm Excerpts: "Effective Planning Plan your day well in advance. Prepare a To Do List or a “TASK PLAN”. Jot down the important activities that need to be done in a single day against the time that should be allocated to each activity. High Priority work should come on top followed by those which do not need much of your importance at the moment. Complete pending tasks one by one. Do not begin fresh work unless you have finished your previous task. Tick the ones you have already completed. Ensure you finish the tasks within the stipulated time frame." E I don't spend time: M G Warrier Mumbai https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/warriersviews/i-dont-spend-time-24098/ Conclusion: "Back to my own time management. Though the next moment is not in my “hand”, I keep a check on my Time Account. I try to prepare a “Time Budget” in my mind for the next few hours, for today, for this week, for one month and so on. At the end of the day, every day, I myself audit my time account. If found useful, please open a Time Account and watch the savings accruing in the account over time." F Leisure Tit for tat* The Bank manager could not reply to this one! Bank Manager goes to a south Indian restaurant. He asks the waiter – What have you got? Waiter – Idly , vada, uppma, pongal, dosa , poori, parotta, naan, oothappam, idiyappam.. Banker – OK ok..bring idly, vada, and dosa. And 2 oothappam for parcel.. Waiter – Sorry sir…all sold out. Nothing is left. Banker – Why then the hell you recited such a big menu ? Waiter – Sir , I go to your ATM daily. After asking for PIN , Account details, Amount required , whether printed receipt required etc., It finally says ‘ ‘No Cash’….. Now you know how it feels when that happens! *Forward received from S Venugopal Chennai G Quotes about time https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/time-quotes Like: "Put two ships in the open sea, without wind or tide, and, at last, they will come together. Throw two planets into space, and they will fall one on the other. Place two enemies in the midst of a crowd, and they will inevitably meet; it is a fatality, a question of time; that is all." -Jules Verne (Jules Verne, (born February 8, 1828, Nantes, France—died March 24, 1905, Amiens), prolific French author whose writings laid much of the foundation of modern science fiction.)