The tumbling of the Sensex
Today was an unprecedented day in Indian financial history,
with the benchmark Sensex tumbling by its biggest weekly fall in
over 18 years. This fall, triggered by financial disharmony
worldwide is hitting investors and companies very hard, and has
even prompted an immediate RBI response of a 100 bp cut in the cash
reserve ration (CRR), an attempt to combat the rapid drying up of
liquidity in an extreme bearish market.
ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector bank and definitely the bank most [...]
ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector bank and definitely the bank most [...]
Soybean exports
have nearly doubled over the past year, or so says this
article in Mint. It was an interesting read, since a friend
just wrote in to me about some research on the soybean market in
India. Why is this an area of research? Soybean production and
export has apparently grown at a rate of 8% annually since 1991,
definitely not a trivial value. This growth has also been
facilitated largely by a combination of technological improvements
- in irrigation, in soybean varieties and in processing
technologies [...]
Monetary policy stances
In an unprecedented and ad hoc move, the RBI cut CRR by 50
basis points a few days ago. This measure, which was clearly
announced to be temporary and short-term, has injected quite some
liquidity into a market that was moving towards a credit crunch -
and most importantly, seems to have restored some confidence into
the system, which will then spin off into a virtuous cycle of
availability of liquidity.
But on a more long-term basis, the RBI is clearly facing some trade-offs. The interest rate channel [...]
But on a more long-term basis, the RBI is clearly facing some trade-offs. The interest rate channel [...]
The wrath of the Kosi
Over the past few months, natural calamities of alarming
proportions have struck two Indian states - Orissa and Bihar. The
flood in the River Kosi has led to massive death and destruction in
and around Darbhanga in Bihar (affected people estimated to be four
million), and questions remain as to whether this is a "truly
natural" calamity. Dr. Dinesh Kumar Mishra, an Indian scientist,
recently published a
work that seeks to look at whether or not this crisis was
avoidable. He concludes that the human [...]
Reservations in higher education
I found a
paper on the CIGI website that deals with an interesting and
relevant issue in India today, reservations in higher education.
Stemming from the same concerns regarding the caste system that I
blogged about earlier - this paper finds that reservations in
higher education pose long term challenges for the economy -
although it is imperative that institutions of higher learning be
sensitive to social cleavages such as caste.
Reservations are ultimately a tool, and a symptom of the manifestations [...]
Reservations are ultimately a tool, and a symptom of the manifestations [...]
