RBI&rsquo;s 50-bp rate cut, which comes after three years, surprised us positively, as we were expecting a 25-bp cut in the April monetary policy meeting. A status quo in CRR rate is, however, in line with our expectations, given the recent improvement in money market liquidity conditions. RBI&rsquo;s move to increase the borrowing limit of commercial banks under the marginal standing facility from one to two per cent of NDTL is also encouraging, as it should help provide a bigger cushion to the banking system in the event of any severe liquidity shortage.

RBI eases while maintaining caution: Gunit Chadha

Business Standard

The controversy surrounding Reliance Industries&rsquo; offshore KG-D6 gas block has thrown up multiple legal and policy issues. It is important that they be resolved quickly and with a view to ensuring fairness, efficiency and impartiality, because the solution could set the blueprint for the evolution of the Indian exploration and production industry.

Honour the contract

To do or not to do was the big question the RBI Governor answered rather emphatically. When RBI began its rate- tightening cycle in March 2010, India&rsquo;s GDP growth was appearing stable at eight per cent, despite global uncertainties and elevated levels of inflation.

Needed shift in stance: R Shankar Raman

The global economy is at crossroads. The structural problems faced by all developed economies in terms of high fiscal deficit and high government borrowing, coupled with lower growth, is impacting the growth prospects of all emerging economies, including India.

Ahead of the curve, a balancing act: V Balakrishnan

There will be monetary transmission, following the rate cut. The transmission of the last CRR cut could not happen fully, as we thought to wait until the policy and do a comprehensive cut in the lending rates. It will not happen across the board. It will be specific to segments where the mark-up of the base rate is significantly high. So, in our case, it will be largely for the SME sector.

BS Jury

It&rsquo;s finally good to see bold moves from policymakers. Problem is, it&rsquo;s the wrong set of policymakers. We need bold moves from Delhi &mdash; to ease the supply constraints that are at the root of the current slowdown. We don&rsquo;t need bold easing from RBI when the inflation battle is still to be won, the current account deficit is at an all-time high and the currency is under pressure.

Need boldness from Delhi, not Mumbai: Sajjid Chinoy

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was itchier to cut policy rates than expected, but the 50-basis point cut may have been a bit too premature and aggressive, in our view. If the upside risk to inflation materialises, it could hurt RBI&rsquo;s credibility and leave the cuts doing little to raise growth on a sustained basis.

A bit too soon, a bit too much?: Leif Eskesen

A rate cut from RBI finally came after a three-year hiatus and the extent of easing surprised everybody. With below-trend growth and substantially lower core inflation, there was definitely a case for adjusting policy rates lower but 50bps at one go was a bold move. We think prodding banks to lower lending rates through a decisive move was the main reason for this larger-than-anticipated rate cut.

Mixing surprise with caution: Samiran Chakraborty

As the Indian economy appears to be tipping towards a further slowdown, RBI was left with no option but to come out with a supportive monetary policy that could help sustain domestic demand and bolster confidence in the economy. By reducing the policy rates by 50 bps and doubling the borrowing limit of banks from the current level of 1.0 per cent, RBI has sent a strong signal of monetary easing in order to support growth.

A judicious policy in challenging times: M D Mallya

The announcement by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor of a 50-basis-point reduction in the repo rate is a very timely and welcome move. The monetary policy recognises that it is imperative at this time to take measures that support growth. Financial year 2012 has witnessed a decline in India&rsquo;s growth rate. At the same time, inflation has moderated due to the cumulative impact of monetary policy actions taken over the last two years and the headline inflation numbers for March 2012, at 6.9 per cent, have come in close to RBI&rsquo;s projection of 7.0 per cent. Corporate performance has weakened due to higher input costs, higher borrowing costs, and adverse currency movement leading to lower profit margins. The need of the hour is for policy measures that give a fillip to growth and improve sentiment among businesses and households. In this context, the 50-basis-point reduction in the repo rate is a very timely move.

Welcome shift in focus, towards growth: Chanda Kochhar

The Reserve Bank of India has done more than it was expected to, and now the central government has no excuses left. The Monetary Policy Statement for 2012-13 that was released by RBI Governor D Subbarao on Tuesday announced a cut in the repo rate by 50 basis points (bps) to eight per cent. The reduction was larger than the markets expected; the consensus was that, if a cut would happen at all, it would be of 25 bps. In taking this action, the RBI has acknowledged that the monetary policy transmission mechanism in India is weak, and that smaller steps are unlikely to be as effective. However, it is instructive to read the entire statement. The RBI continues to be concerned that the economy conceals substantial inflationary pressures &mdash; the upside risk to inflation, it says, is considerable. Given that, it may be overoptimistic to expect this is only the beginning of a sequence of cuts.

No excuses left for Centre

The Reserve Bank seems to have decided to focus on boosting growth more than curbing inflation this time around. The move has put the inflation ball in government's court.

A move to set the ball rolling?

The rise of federalism as the rallying cry for regional satraps to assert themselves has coincided with the ascendance of strong women chief ministers. Not just West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, but AIADMK&rsquo;s J Jayalalithaa, too, is exerting her clout. In the absence of Banerjee at the chief ministers&rsquo; conference in Delhi on Monday, it was the Tamil Nadu chief minister who grabbed the limelight. In fact, Gujarat CM and BJP stalwart Narendra Modi made a beeline for Tamil Nadu Bhavan where Jayalalithaa was holding court as did Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Power women

Commodity futures has long been the subject of debate, ever since such trading was allowed in 2003. One section of the intelligentsia feels that such trading should be discontinued at least in essential commodities because it fans inflation, but others think a futures platform helps in efficient price discovery and is a tool to hedge risk. The recent suspension of futures trade in guar and soybean and a probe into futures trading in some other commodities has raised the debate again. Government officials, however, think neither should futures trading be allowed unchecked, nor should it be stopped without sufficient reason. A senior consumer department official explained why. He said people often lost money in commodity futures on account of their own bad decision-making and then blamed the entire market for this. It was, he added, the equivalent of having your pocket picked in a bar in Goa and blaming the entire club culture in the state.

Back to commodity futures

This refers to your edit &ldquo;An unjustified bailout&rdquo; (April 17). The failure of Air India&rsquo;s debt restructuring plans can be attributed mainly to the way in which the airline is being run, that is, like a departmental undertaking rather than a professionally-managed entity. It is better to sell off the airline rather than putting more money into it; there is no pride or justification in holding on to a loss-making unit just because it happens to be our national carrier. Many countries like Australia, Canada, Germany, China and so on have sold their ailing flag carriers. We can do the same. Air India is expected to attract buyers considering its asset size, infrastructure facilities and network. By selling Air India, the government will achieve two targets &mdash; it won&rsquo;t have to dole out more bailout packages and the sale proceeds will help fund the budgetary deficit.

Letters: Sell off Air India

If Indians in general have a predilection for acronyms and jargon, the domestic software industry has honed it to a fine art &mdash; often to the puzzlement of their global clients. One such favourite is MOM, which software professionals can easily tell stands for Minutes of Meeting. For example, after a meeting with offshore clients either through video or audio conference, the offshore team usually sends the clients MOM detailing what they discussed. So while talking to them, they may casually say, &ldquo;We are sending the MOM in a few minutes.&rdquo; If they are sending the details through an email, the subject line may read: &ldquo;Sending the MOM&rdquo;. Americans, though, are less enamoured of an acronym that is also a popular shorthand for mother. Recently a US-based client of a mid-sized IT services company took strong objection and forced people working on the project to drop the term.

MOM's the word

This refers to Nilanjana S Roy&rsquo;s column &ldquo;A charpai of her own&rdquo; (Speaking Volumes, April 10). The charges of uriyan-nigari (nudism) and phoohashi (vulgarity) against Saadat Hasan Manto and Ismat Chughtai were not so much about the sexual perversity of their writings as about the challenge they posed to the norms that were followed by Indian society in general and Muslims in particular.

Letters: Remembering Chughtai

Tickets on Jet Airways and IndiGo, two of India&rsquo;s largest airlines, will no longer be readily available on MakeMyTrip.com, the major online travel agency. The dispute centres on some of MakeMyTrip&rsquo;s marketing techniques, and should be closely watched. As more and more Indians buy products online, conflicts between big online retailers and the bricks-and-mortar producers whose goods and services the internet sites are reselling will only grow.

Clicks, bricks and brands

IIM should focus on domestic campuses and also they should focus on collaborating with domestic B-schools so that quality of education of these B-schools will improve with guidance and support of IIMs.

Students' corner

If B-schools produce only 25,000 employable MBAs against the 200,000 required, the critical issue is how to increase the number of institutes without sacrificing quality. To begin with, permission to open new management colleges should be given only to educationist-entrepreneurs &mdash; those who have knowledge, experience and passion for quality education. If funded by business houses or politicians, the appointment of a well-known educationist as director with full autonomy should be a pre-condition. More weight should be given to the quality of faculty rather than the physical infrastructure. Also, there should be a prescribed minimum to be reached by a management institute within, say, four years.

Letters: Get quality faculty

Your edit has rightly pointed out that the decision by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to hand over Rs 30,000 crore to Air India is the most unjustifiable decisions in India&rsquo;s economic history. And there is every chance that this huge sum of money may also go down the drain because of mismanagement. Why should the taxpayers&rsquo; hard-earned money be wasted like this? We are debating the prospects of allowing foreign airlines to invest in domestic airlines and this move is set to help the ailing Kingfisher Airlines. So, why can&rsquo;t we follow the same route for Air India? What is good for Kingfisher should be good for Air India too.

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