Some food for thought
"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the
first time."
—Maya Angelou (American poet, 1928-2014)
Word for the day
Blellum (n)
An idle, indiscreet talker.
First random thought this morning
It is commonly believed that the popular movies generally
reflect the contemporary society. Cinema highlights the current social
problems, achievements, concerns, aspirations, joys, fantasies, trends, etc.
Post independent movies of 1950s emphasized on national
integration, social harmony, industrialization, tribute to freedom fighters,
character building, socio-economic inequalities etc.
War with neighbors, abolition of Zamindari and privy purse, bank
failure, shortages (and black marketing) of food grain, gold smuggling,
Naxalism, drugs, labor migration, atrocities on poor and backwards and rise of
dacoits in rural areas etc. were major issues in 1960s and 1970s. Lead
characters were still simple people.
Rise of urban mafia, youth rebellion, political corruption,
exploitation of women, misuse of law enforcement agencies, police corruption,
etc. dominated the Cinema themes in 1980s.
The waves of economic liberalization in early 1990s and
political empowerment of socially backward post Mandal era, was reflected in
movies of 1990s and 2000s. Middle class aspirations were fueled by family
dramas set in opulent backgrounds. Foreign locations became the norm. The lead
characters were now exaggerated and indulgent. Poor and backwards were either
rebelling or exploiting the opportunities opened to them. Joint families
started to breakup. Divorce became a totally acceptable arrangement.
The popular movies in past few years have been set up in smaller
town middle class families. The areas and regions which are demographically
young, growing and transforming much faster, and supporting the consumption
boom.
One thing that is bothersome is that in real life the number of
people visiting temples and undertaking pilgrimage is rising exponentially. But
we have not seen any religion based movie in many years. Even there has been no
popular movie Bhajan since Lagan.
Chart of the Day
Back to fragility ward
As per recent media reports, the government is planning to sell
its stake in SJVN Ltd and Power Finance Corp. to other government-controlled
companies in deals that may fetch the federal government about ₹ 20,000cr, helping it to rein in the fiscal deficit amid
growing risks of a slippage. (See
here)
This, if true, would be yet another of many such sham
transactions done by the government. Every time any such is done, I am reminded
of an old bedtime story, my grandfather used to narrate. Though, I have shared
this story with the readers earlier also, I find it pertinent to reiterate.
"In a village,
there lived a widow with her two sons. Both the sons were lazy and hated
studying or working. Once when the annual fair of village was going on, the
mother prepared some sweets and told her sons to go and sell those sweets in
the fair and earn some money. She also gave one rupee each to both the boys for
buying some food for lunch.
Both the sons
reluctantly went to the fair, found a shaded place under a big tree and dozed
off only to wake up at the lunch time. Feeling hungry, the younger boy bought
sweets from his elder brother and gave him one rupee the mother had given him.
In return, the elder brother bought sweets worth two rupee from the younger
one. In one hour, they had sold all their sweets, had satiated their hunger and
had also saved the two rupees their mother had given them.
Happy and
satisfied, they returned home by late afternoon; of course, to the utter dismay
of the poor woman."
The "poor
woman" in our case are the Citizens of India.
Who are
"Sons"? I would leave the answer to the imagination of the readers.
In 2013, when the
taper tantrum of US Federal Reserve were reverberating in most emerging
markets, a US based bank (Morgan Stanley) coined the term Fragile Five for
economies considered most vulnerable to external shocks. Turkey, Brazil, South
Africa India and Indonesia were identified as the infamous fragile five to
begin with.
Alarmed by the
perilous conditions, the government finally swung into action. The newly
appointed RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram took
a series of radical measures to improve current account and stabilize the
currency.
Within a year,
the conditions improved materially. Current account deficit reduced from 4.7%
of GDP to 1.7% of GDP. Forex reserves increased from US$270bn to US$315bn.
Economic growth started to recover. India was declared out of fragile five
grouping by Diwali of 2014. (See
here)
Some may find it
interesting to note that the famous claim of current government that they
brought out India of infamous category may not be true, as by the time PM Modi
and FM Jaitely settled into the saddle, Indian vulnerability to the external
shock had already diminished materially.
However, hawkish
US Fed, strong USD, global monetary tightening, and trade restrictions etc.,
have led to renewed strain on emerging economies. Macro indicators in India
have also shown a tendency to worsen. Consequently, we again face the risk of
getting pushed to fragile category. The incumbent government may thus actually
be blamed for undoing all the good work and pushing India back to the fragility
ward, if things do not improve in next few months.
You may also like to glance through the following links:
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