Rajan’s bouncer goes wide

Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s recent remark on India “dangerously close” to the Hindu rate of growth, based on the third quarter GDP growth, has evoked sharp reactions. While Rajan was referring to the reported sequential slowdown in quarterly GDP growth, many economy watchers have now openly described it as way off the mark!

It has also certainly not gone down well with those who feel there is no merit in Rajan now dusting off a dubious phrase of pre-1991 vintage and reminding Indians of it. This when India is reportedly the lone shining star in the G-20 firmament. Many believe, frequent resorting to condescending labelling has made Rajan a stereotyped India watcher!

RRK vs RRR

Recently, at the 22nd global conference of actuaries, the outgoing LIC Chairman MR Kumar had an anecdote to share about his initial days in LIC in 1985. Kumar, who had started off his career at the data processing department in Mumbai, recalled his boss at the same department R Rama Krishnan (fondly known as RRK to his colleagues). He noted that the remarkable part about RRK (who was then head of the department and also a Fellow of London based Institute of Actuaries) was his phenomenal memory (LIC data processing department itself was then working with mainframe computers). Next came the gem from Kumar —“I can tell you that RRK then was far, far more popular than the RRR of today”! Now this made many in the audience wonder if the LIC Chairman was referring about the popularity of RRR the movie or alluding to a former RBI Governor!

Nothing to fret about

The collapse of US-based Silicon Valley Bank may have rattled the global stock markets on Friday, but authorities in North Block are unfazed about its impact on the Indian financial system. So when a seasoned hack bumped into a senior Finance Ministry official and asked whether this episode was a Lehman-like moment, pat came the reply: “Nothing to worry. No contagion or any systemic risk for us. What has happened with SVB is akin to one of our small finance banks failing … Such a collapse is not going to pose systemic risk to our financial system. Of course things would have been different had it been a large bank in the US (say of the size of SBI or PNB) that had collapsed,” the official remarked. However, some Indian start-ups may have to endure pain if the balances they held in their SVB accounts were more than the FDIC cover limit of $250,000!

Holi celebrations

After a historic (156/182) winning tally for the ruling party in the House, Gujarat Assembly has yet another first in its history. The Holi celebrations on campus! Speaker Shankar Chaudhary arranged for Holi celebrations for the elected representatives of the House. Over 100 kg of Kesuda (palash) flowers and natural colours were arranged at the decorated lawns near Mahatma Gandhi statue on the Assembly campus. After the House proceedings on Tuesday, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, MoS for Home Harsh Sanghvi along with the members of the Cabinet and MLAs were seen showering each other with palash waters. The opposition Congress, however, stayed away from the bash citing wasteful spurge of resources on celebrations rather than using them for public good.

Our Bureau

Published on March 12, 2023