Do it yourself

  In India, the issue of labor migration has always been on the top of socio-economic and political agenda. The remittances from Indian workers in the foreign countries has been one of the primary sources of our current account financing. The issue of VISA for Indian students and workers (and their families) has remained one of the key contentions in our strategic diplomatic discussion with developed countries. Movies like Do Bigha Zamin (1953, Bimal Roy) have been raising the issue of migrant workers for a long time. Songs like Ae mere pyare watan (Movie Kabuliwala, 1961) Chithi aayi hai (Movie Naam, 1986) have been favorites with all generations. Political parties in the states like Maharashtra, Goa, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka etc. have been consistently raising the issue of migrants straining the local economy. During Covid-19 induced lockdown, the issue of mismanagement of reverse migration had become one of the top controversies; and still continues to haunt the incum...

  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor declared victory for its policy stance in unambiguous terms while presenting the latest monetary policy statement. He stated, as a result of various policy measures taken by RBI since April 2022 “the real policy rate has been nudged into positive territory; the banking system has moved out of the   Chakravyuh   of excess liquidity; inflation is moderating; and economic growth continues to be resilient”. MPC remains predictive – 25bps hike with stance unchanged The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its meeting held over the past three days decided to hike the policy repo rate by 25bps to 6.75%. The decision was taken by a majority vote with four members voting in favour and two members voting against the hike. The MPC also maintained its monetary policy stance of withdrawal of accommodation with a split vote of 4 to 2. The decision of the MPC and voting pattern is mostly in line with the consens...

Continuing from yesterday ( see here ) As I highlighted yesterday, "Self Reliance" may be mostly a political slogan at this point in time; as not many people in the government, legislature and administration appear to be adequately clear about the concept itself. It would be a great idea if the government comes out with a white paper on the issue. In my view it is important to assimilate the following considerations, if we truly want to evolve into a 'Self Reliant" economy. First of all, we need to accept that "self reliance" is primarily a philosophical concept. Its economic implications are mostly incidental. The flow of "self reliance" therefore begins from the core of society, i.e., the individual, and moves outward toward the community and the State. For a State to be self reliant, all its constituents, i.e., individuals, communities, traditions, customs, culture, etc need to commit unconditionally to the objective of s...