The sticker shock in January may well be a temporary blip because of higher cereal prices, or it could be a lesson in the fact that disinflation is rarely a neatly linear process. There will be reversals.
First, the interest costs of servicing this public debt leave the government with less money to spend on essential items such as infrastructure, the green transition, welfare programmes, defence and social security.
The Reserve Bank of India has launched two variants of a digital rupee on an experimental basis—for wholesale transactions between banks and for retail transactions within the private sector.
South India’s resentment for northern states comes from losing control over resources due to population divergence and centralised government, as shown by Nilakantan RS in his new book ‘South vs North: India’s Great Divide
The ongoing protests in China against the Xi Jinping’s zero-covid policies has also put the spotlight on Beijing’s slowing economy, writes Niranjan Rajadhyaksha in Mint.
Comparisons with targets and past 10-year averages show inflation in India is less of an outlier than in many rich economies. The MPC needs to figure out whether it wants to use the interest rate solely to target inflation.