Good Guy and Bad Bullies --- The Story of Mr. ₹ !!

This is for that little one who has been getting low scores in its marksheets and unable to prove his abilities to his mentors. Even though his mother, Ms. RBI, has slogged day and night to tame the decline in his scores, he is finding it difficult to show up! These days, Mr. ₹ is undergoing a tough phase of his business cycle. His main papers like "GDP growth" and "Interest rate theory" have never been his forte. He has specifically lost maximum marks in one of his concurrent courses named "Current Account Balance". He hates to study it and would rather go to buy his gold toys (inelastic demand for the much-wanted medallion). Mr. ₹ believes that marks and scores are all damned lies and are not a true reflection of his capabilities. Seeing this, his mother has put so many restrictions but Mr. ₹ continues to invest in gold toys. Thus, she is also extremely tensed about her son's performance and therefore trying all policy mixes with him. Till the month of august, she wanted him to be restricted (tightened) to his home (economy) but suddenly she wants him to broaden his horizon and expand the money supply.
Many of Mr. ₹'s mentors have been trying to explain to his mother that too much of regulation is bad for his long term career. They feel that his mom's fluctuating policies are repelling his foreign investor pals. They are all taking away their treasures (investment funds) which they had given to Mr. ₹.   They believe that all her actions are inward looking, over-protective and retrograde. His foreign friends have a reason to think this way! You know they have a Scrooge-natured relative named Uncle Sam who will be coming for inspection soon. Uncle Sam has planned to stop his supply of goodies (the extra dollars) because excessive quantitative easing might hurt his kingdom in future. Mr. ₹'s mother opened 12 doors (sectors) to offer a warm welcome to his foreign investor friends. She was of the opinion that the FDI study material they had would help her son to do well in his academics. Mr. ₹ knows that his efforts to become friendly with the hotshots abroad won't work.
Mr. ₹ is trying to tell his mother that he must try to approach his Indian comrades instead of begging for aid overseas. His mother has somehow been unfair towards his Indian friends; she never greeted them  due to which they stopped coming to meet Mr. ₹. Her cold demeanour was because his mother's colleague (the government) has always tried to influence her and made false complaints against Mr. ₹ 's Indian pals.  Now, the Indian ones smirk at him and have become intimate with their foreign pals.
Losing all birds in hand, the mother is now realising her folly. She loves her son too much and wants him to be very successful in life. It was the extreme affection that forced her to take such stringent measures. She can't forget the tough times of the East Asian Exam when her son burnt the midnight oil and emerged as a shining star. A beautiful thought dawned upon her that she must not believe in herd instinct instead let him discover his niche. She kisses him on his forehead and assures him that she will always walk beside him and never leave him astray.  

Here is how I imagined the depreciation of our currency in the recent months. Story-telling apart, I believe that the rupee really needs help! Some economists are even suggesting a new rupee saying it is too old now. Now this is too extreme a view. A devaluated currency doesn't mean a wasted one; it just means we need to  move towards policy correction. Like D.K.Joshi of Crisil rating agency has said that this decline in the value of rupee is actually a wonderful opportunity for Indian policymakers. Its time for us to channel our expectations to the positive side and earn dividends. For instance, one major hindrance to growth in India is infrastructure bottlenecks. As the Congress is mooting, we should now focus on faster environmental clearances, more liberal labour laws and more effective business incentives at SEZ's. Without getting too overawed by the dollar, we must focus on maintaining our current account balance and aiming higher growth. 

If we keep the faith going, this annus horribilis is sure to end !! Rupee, your time is bound to come... 

Comments

  1. This is a very well written piece Akshita! Made me all sad for the poor rupee. The situation is definitely grim but not out of hand. Also, we must be concerned with "long term career" of our Mr. Rupee (I forgot the key combination for the Rupee sign!)

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  2. Thank you Mridula!! Its an honour to have you as a regular reader of my blog!! I too feel equally bad for our poor Mr. ₹. The key combination was 20b9 --- Highlight the text ----- Press Alt+X!! Hope to see you soon !!

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