First a look at what all have been achieved in the country since 2014.
Inflation - now lowest --- 4.9 percent
Unemployment -- 3.1 percent Forex - 650 bn -- GDP - 8.4 percent
## 250 million people pulled out of abject poverty
## More than 11 crore Toilets have been made across Indis under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
More than 4 crore houses under PM Awas Yojana
33 crore Ayushman Card for Free Health service
More than 43 crore loan application processed under Mudra Yojana
35 Crore beneficiaries under PM Fasal Yojana
More then 4 crore Soil Health Cards given to farmers
The NDA Government is focused on giving a boost to entrepreneurship. The ‘Make in India’ initiative is based on four pillars to boost entrepreneurship in India, not only in manufacturing but also in other sectors. New Processes: ‘Make in India’ recognizes ‘ease of doing business’ as the single most important factor to promote entrepreneurship.
Average income of people has increased by 50%
GST has enabled one nation, one market, one tax
- Direct transfer of Rs 34 lakh cr using PM Jan Dhan scheme has led to savings for government.
- Female enrollment in higher education has gone up by 28% in 10 years
It's human .... the wrong doers often scream louder.... Look here who used to pressurise RBI.....?
No, it's not Late Arun Jaitley as the Finance Minister or PM Narendra Modi.... two holy cows from Congress school --- Late Pranab Mukherjee and Rajya Sabha member P Chidambaram
In his recent book 'Just A Mercenary?: Notes from My Life and Career', former RBI Governor D. Subbarao makes the so-called revealation.
Former RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao has claimed, in his memoir, that the Finance Ministry under Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram used to pressurise the central bank to soften interest rates and present a rosier picture of growth to shore up sentiments.
There is 'little understanding and sensitivity' in the government on the importance of the central bank's (that is RBI) autonomy.
"Having been both in the government and in the RBI, I can say with some authority that there is little understanding and sensitivity within the government on the importance of central bank autonomy," he writes in the book.
Subbarao was finance secretary (2007-08) during UPA-1 before taking over as the governor of the RBI for five years on September 5, 2008.
In a chapter titled 'Reserve Bank as the Government’s Cheerleader?', Subbarao recalls that pressure by the government was not confined to the Reserve Bank’s interest rate stance.
On occasion, he writes, the pressure extended to pressuring the RBI to present rosier estimates of growth and inflation at variance with our objective assessment.
"I remember one such occasion when Pranab Mukherjee was the finance minister. Arvind Mayaram, the finance secretary, and Kaushik Basu, the chief economic adviser, contested our estimates with their assumptions and estimates, which I thought was par for the course," he writes.
What upset him, Subbarao says, was that almost seamlessly the discussion moved from objective arguments to subjective considerations, with suggestions that the Reserve Bank must project a higher growth rate.
There was also a need to present a lower inflation rate in order to share responsibility with the government for 'shoring up sentiment'.
"Mayaram went to the extent of saying in one meeting that 'whereas everywhere else in the world, governments and central banks are cooperating, here in India, the Reserve Bank is being very recalcitrant," he recalls.
The former RBI Governor said that his refusal to fall in line evidently once upset Chidambaram (FM) enough to do something very unusual and uncharacteristic to go public with his strong disapproval of the RBI's stance.
"In his 'doorstop' media interaction outside the North Block about an hour after the Reserve Bank put out its hawkish policy statement, expressing concern on inflation, Chidambaram said (that) 'growth is as much a concern as inflation. If the government has to walk alone to face the challenge of growth, we will walk alone," Subbarao recalls.
Subbarao also says he was invariably discomfited and annoyed by this demand that the RBI should be a cheerleader for the government.
"It also dismayed me that the Ministry of Finance would seek a higher estimate for growth while simultaneously arguing for a softer stance on the interest rate without seeing the obvious inconsistency between these two demands," he writes.
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| Pranab with key BJP leaders |
The former RBI Governor points out that he used to take a firm position that the central bank cannot deviate from its best professional judgement just to doctor public sentiment.
"Our projections must be consistent with our policy stance, and tinkering with estimates for growth and inflation would erode the credibility of the Reserve Bank," he notes.
Subbarao also writes that he had run-ins with both Chidambaram and Mukherjee on the RBI’s policy stance as both of them pressed for softer rates although their styles were different.
"Chidambaram typically argued his case like the lawyer that he so eminently is, while Mukherjee was the quintessential politician."
Mukherjee let his view be known and left it to his officers to argue his case, he says, adding that "the net result was an uncomfortable relationship".
The former RBI governor recalls that in October 2012, shortly after Chidambaram returned as Finance Minister from the Home Ministry, he set about in earnest to reverse the fiscal profligacy of the Mukherjee regime, possibly to compensate for the fiscal tightening he was embarking on.
"So, he very much wanted a softer monetary regime and put enormous pressure on the RBI to lower the interest rate. On objective considerations, I could not oblige him though," Subbarao writes.
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