Are India's opposition politicians/policy makers(and most of the media covering them) blind or deaf or statistically challenged or just that demagoguery is their only religion. Oppose everything(politicians), or objectively analyze everything(media), understand nothing and refuse to ask the real questions, public interest and a 'free' market economy be damned.
The dichotomy of trying to run a market economy with a monetary policy suitable for socialist era is explained brilliantly by Ajay Shah
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India is in a big mess on monetary policy. The attempt that is under way consists of pegging the rupee to the dollar at a time when the dollar has dropped sharply. Dollar prices of many commodities have risen since producers do not like being short-changed with the same number of dollars. Holding Rs 40 a dollar intact, the global increase in commodity prices has been imported into India.
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Long ago in early nineties the first gulf war oil shocks caused a meltdown in an in-efficient license quota raj riddled indian economy(read no one bought anything from us) resulting in a balance of payments crisis. That was then, between now and then the economy was put on a path of economic liberalization but riddled with roadblocks, speed breakers and toll booths just like our highways. The politics in India is so bad that any political party in opposition goes on to oppose the same policies they implemented while they were a part of executive( in power ).
The monetary policy followed by India is best described by this dialog from the bollywood film Rang De Basanti "ek paon past mein, ek paon future mein, isiliye to aaj pe moot rahe hain (we have one leg in past, one leg in future, that is why we are pissing on the present)".
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