IMF brands demonetisation as 'November 2016 currency exchange initiative'

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has analysed the impact of demonetisation on the Indian economy on several occasions, but has avoided using the ‘D’ word. After its executive board concluded the Article IV consultation with India on July 18 this year, IMF said growth slowed to 6.7 per cent in 2017-18 following disruptions related to the “November 2016 currency exchange initiative” and the goods and services tax rollout in July 2017. Last year, a senior IMF official described demonetisation as a “vacuum cleaner” which sucked in cash, withdrawing it from the economy.

Fight for work

At a press conference on the Rafale fighter jet deal in New Delhi on Wednesday, former union finance minister Yashwant Sinha (pictured) had an interesting anecdote about privileges that ministers enjoy under a powerful leader. Sinha said one of the ministers in the cabinet of Bidhan Chandra Roy, the second chief minister of West Bengal from 1948 to 1962, complained to Roy that he didn’t have any work. According to Sinha, Roy told the minister: “I have given you a ministerial portfolio, a government bungalow, an official car and also a peon. Over and above this, now you want work too.” 

Being generous

The parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is busy giving final touches to its report on the Doklam issue. The committee comprises members of the Bharatiya Janata Party, besides Opposition heavyweights including Congress President Rahul Gandhi and party leader Shashi Tharoor, and Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Mohammed Salim. Predictably, the MEA is nervous about the committee’s findings, and there have been meetings between the parliamentarians and the ministry’s top brass. The committee will get together for its final meeting on Thursday before presenting the report to Parliament. The MEA has urged MPs to be “generous” since the matter concerns national security, but some Opposition members have argued that it is precisely for that reason — it concerns national security — that the committee’s report should be as incisive as possible.