Warrier's blog

T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan: Bird? Plane? Or RBI governor | Business Standard Column My VIEW: November 14, 2015 History of RBI This refers to T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan’s piece on “Bird? Plane? Or RBI Governor” (Business Standard, Marginal Utility, November 14). First, a big thank you, to the writer for making the article very interesting, by drawing on his treasure of intimate knowledge about India’s central bank. We are willing to ignore the slips like the statement that ‘A non-Hindu, by the way, is yet to be appointed after 1937’, as we had RBI Governors like Dr Manmohan Singh who kept religion private. We look forward to the history of monetary institutions with focus on RBI. RBI has been publishing its history in great details, with which T C A was also associated in recent times. My personal view is that, the author should not withhold information which, in his perception, could be shared with public, just because he is not able to lay hands on a ‘published sour...

How to make Indians let go of gold | Business Line My VIEW: GOI and RBI should not further delay initiatives to putting in place an institutional arrangement to support gold management.  Some preliminary work on setting up a Gold Bank had already been done in RBI during 1990’s. While such an institution can take care of regulatory and supervisory aspects, at this stage, authorities may have to think in terms of dedicated professional institutions at the regional/state level, which will handle gold from a banking angle. An apex body should be equipped with linkages for import and export of gold and gold products with borrowing and lending capabilities. States like Kerala have successfully intervened in other similar sectors like chits/kuris and lotteries, which were also areas of exploitation by vested interests. Private players had to fall in line and function with discipline and self-regulation. M G Warrier , Mumbai

Akash Prakash: Too early to give up | Business Standard Column My VIEW: A well-balanced, realistic view on the ‘state of affairs’. The 2014 Election was in effect a ‘VOTE FOR CHANGE’ and my perception is, changes are happening. The substantial portion of the criticism is not coming from the ‘constituencies’ which voted for change. That is why suggestions like the one for induction of Dr Subramanian Swamy to ensure ‘execution’ are coming. The democratic system is yet to give an adequate majority to NDA in the upper house. The shocks like the electoral set back in Bihar are normal in the Indian context. And, let us not rely just on Modi to correct everything. ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ have a role. M G Warrier 

Standing to reason and reason alone by Nitin Pai - The Hindu My VIEW: We have a live Constitution which is amenable to change, when needed, going by the spirit of the following paragraph in this article: “It is unambiguous in placing reason and critical inquiry above other considerations: “Investigating by means of reasons, good and evil in the Vedic religion, profit and loss in the field of trade and agriculture, and prudent and imprudent policy in political administration, as well as their relative strengths and weaknesses, the study of critical inquiry   (anvikshiki)   confers benefit on people, keeps their minds steady in adversity and in prosperity, and produces adeptness of understanding, speech and action.” ( Arthashastra , 1.2.11).” Thank God, we get opportunity to remember “Directive principles”, at least when some controversies arise! MG Warrier

The sum of three new gold schemes - The Hindu My VIEW: November 13, 2015 Gold management This refers to the article “The sum of three gold schemes”(November 13). It is true that from Morarji Desai’s time, GOI, at various times did try to exploit the potential concealed in the domestic gold stock in India without much success. This time the difference is, there is a three-pronged effort to make individuals and institutions to bring their gold holdings to the mainstream economy for productive use which will also benefit them, to reduce the need to import gold for ‘investment’ purposes by offering Sovereign Gold Bonds as an alternative instrument which will appreciate in value and to instil confidence in the capacity of India to ‘make in India’ by offering gold coins made in India for sale. It goes without saying that ultimately the credibility of the implementing agencies will decide the success of the schemes. The success of Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme and gol...

Review the entrance exams | Business Line The Hindu Business Line, November 13, 2015 Letters Time stands still in RBI The entire staff of India’s central bank are planning to go on mass CL next Thursday (November 19, 2015), focusing exactly on the same issues over which the RBI officers had decided to go on mass CL twenty years back (‘RBI officers plan mass CL’, BusinessLine Twenty Years Ago, November 12). The RBI annual report 2014-15 carries the following observations made by Raghuram Rajan: “A key factor in RBI’s success has been a satisfied staff. In the past, RBI used to have no problem attracting junior officers, losing only an occasional officer who was successful in the IAS exam. Today, we lose more than we should be comfortable with. This is why a revamp of the professional challenges we offer our staff is very much needed, and we hope the changes outlined earlier will help us become a more attractive employer. In this regard, our review of compensation, as well as t...

Editorial on K.M. Mani’s resignation: Mani goes, too little too late - The Hindu My VIEW: Intellectuals, media and other stakeholders in India’s growth story should take the initiative in waking up the political leadership to the current realities. Elections during the current decade has proved that “WE THE PEOPLE” or the voters are not very keen to support any particular alliance (everywhere ‘alliances’ are fighting elections). They have started experimenting different permutations and combinations, one at the Centre, an assortment of alliances in states and even within a state, when it comes to local bodies’ elections, different combinations in different regions. Though corrupt individuals and those with criminal background are still making their way to legislatures, each one is getting ‘identified’ and watched. Mani’s ouster should be made a case study to understand how corrupt people behave and how they help track other corrupt people. M G Warrier, Mumbai