Market-friendly Chidambaram toes socialist line with fiscal plan
The usually crisp and precise P. Chidambaram was uncharacteristically vague on Monday while announcing the government’s fiscal consolidation plan. While pledging to bring the fiscal deficit down to 3 percent in 2016-17 from around 5.3 this fiscal, the Harvard-educated minister gave no details on how the government would achieve this feat.
Perhaps the finance minister should remember that uncertainty and lack of clarity can spook markets and investors. We saw that when the government took months to clarify the controversial GAAR norms which made foreign investors jittery.
Chidambaram’s announcement is unlikely to impress investors, rating agencies and lenders like the IMF, who want the government to slash subsidies and cut spending.
Trying to shore up market confidence, the minister relied on adjectives like “imperative” and “no alternative” to sell his fiscal plan. But he couldn’t escape the socialist slant of his Congress party, mentioning how “the poor must be protected and the others must bear their fair share of the burden”.
As the Sensex pared gains after Chidambaram’s comments and briefly turned red later in the day, it shows the announcement of mere intent did not excite markets.
Monday’s impromptu presser is unlikely to impress the RBI enough to cut interest rates, as inflation remains a big concern. This would, in a way, defeat Chidambaram’s purpose of making the announcement a day before the central bank’s quarterly review.
A user’s guide to India’s cabinet reshuffle
(Opinions expressed here are those of the author, and not necessarily those of Thomson Reuters.)
In what is most likely the last cabinet reshuffle for the UPA-II government before the 2014 general elections, 22 ministers were sworn in at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Sunday.
Here is the background, as explained by Frank Jack Daniel and Mayank Bhardwaj of Reuters:
Women shouldn’t have mobile phones, politicians should: politician
Witness the latest public relations trap for a loose-lipped Indian politician, courtesy of the Deccan Chronicle:
BSP MP Rajpal Saini has now launched a tirade against mobile phones and has publicly declared that women and children do not need mobile phones… “Why do housewives and school going girls need mobiles? It encourages them to make futile small talk and get connected with people outside their homes.”
Mobile phones distract women, Saini said, and offer nothing useful for them, the Chronicle reported.
Slayer extends its ‘reign in blood’ to Bangalore
Bangalore houses what might be an outsize share of India’s metal heads, so it’s appropriate that this was the city that thrash metal band Slayer picked for their first show in India. The band played in one of the city’s outlying suburbs, and drew a crowd from all over, including Vietnam, as they played a set list that stretched back through albums such as “Reign in Blood,” to “Show No Mercy,” their debut album from 1983.
“The special part for me is we’ve never played India. So we can pretty much play anything we’ve ever played,” guitarist Kerry King said at a press conference for the event.
Slayer began in 1981 when guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman met at an audition for another band and decided to form their own act. Bassist and vocalist Tom Araya, who had worked with King previously, was roped in and drummer Dave Lombardo was recruited when he delivered a pizza near the King household, and met the “boy with all the guitars.”
The novice Indian politician’s guide to drubbings, snubbings and shruggings
It was only a matter of time before activist Arvind Kejriwal and his anti-corruption movement got back some of what they gave.
After Kejriwal’s flurry of allegations of wrongdoing by politicians and accusing the entire political class of working together as a “family” in looting the country, the family is striking back.
Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh has accused Kejriwal of being a “self-serving ambitious megalomaniac”, and plenty of others have openly questioned his intentions. An RTI activist has accused one of Kejriwal’s aide of playing a dubious role in a Mumbai land deal, while another faces questions over farmland that she bought.
Starbucks arrives in India, gains spice, loses flavour
(Warning: there’s barely a lick of reporting in this blog post. Opinions are the author’s only, and almost certainly are wrong.)
Take a look at the items on the menu at the new Starbucks coffee shops in Mumbai, which opened this week in a joint venture with India’s Tata Global Beverages Ltd. As Megha Bahree and Margherita Stancati show you at The Wall Street Journal’s India blog, they include a series of curious “fusion” items:
Arvind Kejriwal: when lightning doesn’t strike thrice
(The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and represent his points of view only.)
Arvind Kejriwal’s dud of an expose on Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari has caused some people to wonder why the social activist made his allegations in the first place. Is he trying to clean up politics? Or is he trying to clean up votes?
I like Kejriwal. He is a true activist. He gave up a comfortable government job to dive into the world of rallies and RTIs. He even won a Magsaysay award for it.
Photo gallery: from Dussehra melas to Durga Puja pandals
I don’t know if the smartphone-toting Indian of the shopping malls still frequents festival melas. As for me, I can’t help but feel drawn to these vibrant mass gatherings during festivals.
Here, a spinning wheel juts out of a busy crossing in west Delhi. I spent a lot of time shooting it and finally settled on this image:
Rahul Gandhi can change Congressβ image with cabinet entry
India is asking the same old question after news reports said Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday before a possible cabinet reshuffle later this month: will Gandhi be one of the cards in his deck?
Gandhi’s entry into the government would be the only opportunity for him to prove that he has what it takes to one day rule India. He’s seen as the prime-minister-in-waiting, and a cabinet post would better equip him to deal with the hurly-burly of Indian politics.
Several cabinet posts are vacant, and some cabinet ministers hold additional portfolios. And even after passing market-moving reform measures, Congress’ task of boosting its public image is incomplete.
Selling your spouse: when is it legal?
Don’t ever think that I ask only smart questions.
Here’s a story that I found in the Times of India today: a man sold his wife to a broker for Rs. 6,000 (about US$114). This was the money that he needed to keep himself in liquor, the Times reported.
The accused, Medula Rajender, 42, of Malyala village in Chandurthi mandal sold his wife Medula Ammayi, 36, to the broker on October 13 to meet his liquor expenses. Daily wager Rajender found it hard to buy liquor and struck a deal with the broker to sell his wife.
