Some food for thought
"A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute
longer."
—Novalis (German Poet, 1772-1801)
Word for the day
Avenaceous (v)
Of or like oats.
First thought this morning
The totally degenerated and despicable current political discourse
reminds me of a famous couplet written by reputable Urdu poet Bashir Badr
Sahib:
दुश्मनी जम कर करो लेकिन ये गुंजाइश रहे
जब कभी हम दोस्त हो जाएं तो शर्मिन्दा न हों|
जब कभी हम दोस्त हो जाएं तो शर्मिन्दा न हों|
I assume all political leaders know it well that it is not
necessary that any single party or pre poll alliance gets comfortable majority
to form a stable government post 23rd May. In this eventuality, parties might
be forced to realign into new groups or alliances.
Losing control in the heat of the election campaign is easy and
very common. But leaders must take care that they might need to embrace the
very person they are disparaging and slandering. From their past experience
they would know that regardless of the public posturing, it is very difficult
to behave normal and work cordially together after taking such hard positions
against each other during election campaign.
They should remember another famous couplet of Bashir Sahib:
मुख़ालिफ़त
से मेरी शख़्सियत संवरती है
मैं दुश्मनों का बड़ा एहतेराम करता हूं
मैं दुश्मनों का बड़ा एहतेराम करता हूं
Chart of the day
State of external debt
Last month the finance minister released data (see
here) for India's external debt position as at end of 2018. I find the
following points noteworthy in the data.
(a) At end-December
2018, India’s external debt was US$521.2bn, an increase of US$10.8 billion over
its level at end September 2018. However, adjusted for valuation gain of
US$20.3bn due to INR appreciation during the Oct-Dec qtr, the external debt was
higher at US$541.8bn.
(b) External
Commercial Borrowings (ECB) continued to be the largest component of external
debt with a share of 37.4 per cent, followed by NRI deposits (24.1 per cent)
and short term trade credit (19.9 per cent).
(c) Short-term debt
on a residual maturity basis constituted 43.5% of total external debt at
end-December 2018 (as against 42.0% at end March 2018) and 57.3% of foreign exchange reserves (as against 52.3
per cent at end-March 2018).
(d) US dollar
denominated debt continued to be the largest component of India’s external debt
with a share of 45.9% at end December 2018, followed by the Indian rupee (24.8%),
SDR (5.1%), yen (4.9%) and euro (3.1%).
(e) The ratio of
concessional debt to total external debt stands at 8.7% as at end December
2018, as against 9.1% as at end March 2018.
(f) External debt to
GDP ratio is almost unchanged at 20.3%, in last one decade.
(g) The ratio of
Forex reserves to total external debt has deteriorated from 112.2% in FY09 to
75.5% in December 2018.
(h) Debt service
ratio has deteriorated from 4.4% in FY09 to 6.5% in December 2018.
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