Caught in the middle

The various economic think tanks which abound in the national capital, and which depend on government funds to operate, are said to be somewhat miffed that their battery of economists was not consulted by the Prime Minister’s Office, the finance ministry or the Reserve Bank of India while planning demonetisation. Now, however, the Centre is reaching out to these think tanks and explaining its move. The situation gets a little awkward here as one of the people reaching out to these economists with their doctorates and years of research is not a decorated academic, but, in fact, a media mogul and member of Parliament, whose news channels take a pro-government stance. One can only imagine the conversations such a person would have with trained economists.