The Hindu Business Line : <I>Saved by the Budget? </I>

The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, has been lucky. One worrisome bit of news on the economic front that could have robbed the stock market of some of the euphoria was lost in the Budget excitement. On Budget day, the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) put out the estimates of economic growth in the third quarter of the fiscal — 7.6 per cent during October-December 2005. Not bad at all, but coming in the wake of GDP growth of 8.1 per cent and 8 per cent in the preceding two quarters, did it indicate some sort of a slowdown? If the CSO's forecast for the full year growth, at 8.1 per cent, materialises, the fourth quarter would be fully stretched, going by the 7.6 per cent notched up in the thirdquarter.

That this CSO nugget was missed is obvious from the absence of any debate on it. Rather, the Sensex's forward march is what is on the minds of economy watchers.

Trade versus politics

MORE TRADE? The Chinese Trade Minister, Mr Bo Xilai

The Chinese Commerce Minister, Mr Bo Xilai, is in the Capital and his visit was flagged off by a chamber meeting where the Commerce Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, was also present. Apart from the usual listing of opportunities for increased bilateral trade, what came out at the meeting was that the India-China Joint Group on Economic Relations, Trade and Science and Technology, or the JEG, was meeting at the Ministerial level after six years.

In other words, the two Governments did not have any interaction at the top political level for a considerable length of time, but bilateral trade, meanwhile, had gone up from $2 billion six years ago to around $15 billion last year. Would it then be fair to conclude that less political interference can actually lead to increased trade?

Premature crowing

It seems to be a case of spoken-too-soon. The Centre went to town last week, taking out media advertisements that proclaimed it was safe to eat chicken.

Some found the ads intriguing. Why should the Government spend public money to promote products of the poultry industry? Besides, the efforts to convince the public to consume chicken cooked properly seemed to be flying in the face of the Government's own actions, what with Parliament, the Railways and the Defence forces removing chicken and poultry products from their menus.

To top it all, comes news of a fresh outbreak of bird flu and the Government literally seems to have egg on its face.

National Day, another day

Isn't there some sanctity to a country's national day? Apparently not, if one were to go by a recent invite. The embassy of one European country sent out invitations for its national day celebrations but with the printed date scratched out and a fresh date, a week later, penned in.

There can be two explanations for this. Either there was a printing error or the embassy decided that it would celebrate the national day on any convenient date.

Unlike the usual cocktail evenings hosted by embassies, national day celebrations are important diplomatic events, with the Vice-President usually gracing such functions.

Our Bureau