'CRIS' security

Announcing the development of a new Comparative Rating Index for Sovereigns (CRIS) on Tuesday, Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu said the formula behind the rating mechanism would be secret till it is explained in the upcoming Economic Survey. In the meantime, he added with mock seriousness, the team that developed the formula is taking all precautions to ensure it doesn’t get lost. “As children, we used to be told that the Coca Cola formula was so secret that only three or four people in the company knew it and, therefore, they never travelled together,” Basu said, adding with a twinkle, “so, of the four or five of us who have developed this model, we have left one behind in the ministry of finance.”