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Last Word
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Last Word
She was indeed right. Within a year, Rajan was named the new RBI chief for a three-year tenure on August 6, a day when it rained again in Delhi. A brief statement from the government said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (a former RBI Governor himself) had cleared his name as the next RBI Governor, succeeding D Subbarao whose five-year term expires on September 4. Rajan's move to the RBI was anticipated when he had joined the Finance Ministry. He would get a tenure of less than two years in the ministry with the general election scheduled for April-May next year and Subbarao's term ending this year. Even though other names like Arvind Mayaram, Economic Affairs Secretary, and Saumitra Chaudhry, Planning Commission member, were doing the rounds, Rajan was the frontrunner.
Bright star At 50, Rajan is among the youngest RBI Governors and joins the ranks of luminaries like Dr Manmohan Singh, C Rangarajan, Bimal Jalan and YV Reddy who have headed the bank, the most important job in the financial system outside of the government. As a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Eric J Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, Rajan is an internationally acclaimed economist. In 2005, he published a paper on risks in the financial system. It turned out to be an intuitive prediction of the Lehman crisis of 2008 that led to a collapse in the global financial markets. An alumnus of the IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad, he pursued his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was the president of the American Finance Association in 2011, and in January 2003, the association awarded him the inaugural Fischer Black Prize for the best finance researcher under the age of 40. Before joining the Finance Ministry, Rajan head a committee on financial sector reforms and was honorary economic adviser to the Prime Minister.
Mild, but sharp Ministry insiders describe him as “simple, accessible, soft spoken and sharp”. He is known to prepare his notes and do the typing without help from assistants. During media interactions, Rajan is articulate and without getting ruffled, argues eloquently using data points. As the Chief Economic Adviser, Rajan introduced new elements into the annual Economic Survey and started quarterly assessments of the economy. In the last year, his role at the ministry has been to devise policies to revive growth and battle multiple macroeconomic challenges. He has also been tasked to prepare a report on the criteria for backward states like Bihar for Central assistance. The report is expected by the middle of this month. There were some whispers about a possible extension for Subbarao, given the economic conditions, but the government signalled a fresh approach with Rajan's appointment. A factor in the decision may have been the perception about differences between North Block and Mint Street over the direction of monetary policy and financial sector regulation. However, in recent weeks, there have been efforts to stem that perception with statements from the ministry, including Rajan, that the government and RBI were “on the same page and working together” to achieve stability. His appointment comes at a very difficult time for the economy, which is at its lowest in a decade on multiple parameters and as vulnerable as the 1991 crisis. The falling rupee is the immediate crisis for the RBI. It hit a new all-time low the day he was appointed, but recovered a little after the announcement. Managing the “trilemma” of balancing growth, inflation and the currency is a daunting challenge. Rajan has been appointed Officer on Special Duty in the RBI in the interim period before taking over in September.
The cheering The appointment has been welcomed by policymakers and the industry. Ficci president Naina Lal Kidwai said: “We are fortunate to have a leading economist like Raghuram Rajan as the RBI Governor. He takes over at a time when the economy is in the midst of a difficult situation. While on the one hand the plunge in the rupee value has emerged as a challenge stoking fears about the already grave current account situation, on the other hand, the persistent slowdown in industrial growth continues to be a major concern. Calibrating monetary policy would be a difficult task.” Rajan is not promising any miracles. He acknowledged these were challenging times. “We do not have a magic wand to make the problems disappear instantaneously,” he said. Analysts say Rajan will balance the walk between growth and exchange risk. Analysts at Barclays, a leading foreign financial services group, said in a note: “We think Rajan's appointment will give the government breathing space to come up with a more credible road map to address currency weakness and outflows. We sense he may adopt a middle path in balancing exchange rate and growth concerns.” On the challenges facing him, the report says: “We believe his key near-term challenge will be to lead the verbal, and subsequently market, intervention in the rupee which has been under severe pressure. The second challenge is to support sagging growth momentum, which is experiencing even more headwinds given the recent measures to tighten liquidity in an attempt to stabilise the currency. The third challenge will be to keep inflation, both retail and wholesale in check once the present extraordinary tightening is rolled back”.
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good news
IN a large hall on the fifth floor of a building in an upmarket Bangalore locality, casually dressed youngsters with expectant faces sat side by side with slickly turned out IT honchos already well established in their business. The hall and four meeting rooms adjacent to it had rows of desks, round tables, long tables and plenty of swivel chairs. In one corner of the hall were strewn flowers, vermillion and other remains of a “puja” that was held there for an auspicious beginning. The occasion was the inauguration of India's first “Start-up Warehouse”. The Karnataka government — responding to request from NASSCOM, the apex body for the Indian software industry — has hired the floor to facilitate young entrepreneurs set up their operations for a nominal fee of Rs 3,500 per month only. “It is not the cheap fee that has attracted people here. They could have hired a cheap flat somewhere and worked from there if they were interested only in reducing costs. It is the ecosystem — the excitement that one gets from working in the company of others — that is found attractive by the young entrepreneurs,” Ravi Gururaj, chairman, NASSCOM Product Council, said. More than 2,000 people have shown interest in the “Start-up Warehouse” plan of NASSCOM. Six (including two from outside Karnataka) have been so far shortlisted by a selection committee consisting of industry and state government representatives. The shortlisted companies are expected to start their operations in this very hall within a week. Each start-up company will get four chairs each. As they scale up and require more seats, they will have to move out of the facility. The 10,000 sq ft hall, with leased internet line and round-the-clock power back-up, can accommodate up to 17 start-ups (or 70 chairs). The model for a “startups warehouse” is to identify a central, well connected, plug-and-play work space and offer it to start-ups for the initial days of their operations. The warehouse would also be visited frequently by mentors and investors who would provide one-on-one mentorship to the start-ups. NASSCOM would take care of this aspect of the scheme. ISN Prasad, Karnataka government Principal Secretary of IT, BT and Science & Technology departments, says he would ask other industries also to follow the example of the IT industry and extend a helping hand to beginners. He said the state government was ready to fund two more such “warehouses” in other cities of Karnataka. Som Mittal, president of NASSCOM, says he expects other state governments also to set up similar warehouses. “The governments will get taxes, jobs will be generated, besides so many other benefits,” he said. NASSCOM announced an initiative in April to incubate, support and help fund 10,000 technology start-ups in the next 10 years across India.
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Bhim Singh,
bihar panchayati raj minister
Ian Chappell,
former australian skipper
Partap Singh Bajwa,
punjab congress president
Rahul Dravid, former indian cricket captain
Amitabh
Bachchan, bollywood actor
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Rains
People join the Army and the police to die or to become martyrs. Did your father or mother go to the airport to receive the bodies? You (mediapersons) were there only because you were being paid for the job. 
Trying to devise a system that produces the correct decision is not possible and attempting to achieve that unfortunately robs the game of the delightfully enticing human element surrounding it. 
Narendra Modi and Parkash Singh Badal are only surviving on public-relation exercises. While Modi is busy projecting himself as the prime ministerial candidate, Badal's only interest is to promote his son and family business. 
People must know there are consequences to their actions. It is important to create fear through policing and having the right laws. The only thing that can possibly deter them is the fear of going to jail.
I'm full of envy because I find the youth today is so dynamic and wonderful to spend time with. I love their enthusiasm, their confidence and the way they think. Nothing seems to hold them back. We lacked this confidence. We were not like them.