North Block's fat cats

Many Indians consider a cat crossing their path a bad omen, but the mandarins of the finance ministry appear to think otherwise. Visitors to North Block will find it impossible to avoid these cats because their presence isn’t accidental. Plagued by rats chewing up important files, finance ministry officials decided to draft cats into service to catch them — at least till the Budget is presented. Some years ago, it was truant monkeys that bothered the Budget-makers. It’s almost as though Indian Budgets unleash animal spirits.