The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) announcement of withdrawal from circulation of the ₹2,000 currency notes has caused much incredulity. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin quipped, “500 doubts, 1,000 mysteries and 2,000 blunders”, and Rajya Sabha member P. Chidambaram said, “Demonetisation has come full circle”. The Union government has distanced itself from the decision by letting the RBI announce it.
The corporate members of the expert committee could have exposed much more of the wrongdoings but they have chosen to be formalistic. So, an opportunity to expose and clean up corporate manipulations has been missed.
Indian agriculture is a gamble on the Monsoon. This cliché would have been sufficient ground for the Goods and Services Tax authorities to slap a tax of 28 per cent on the value of crop output if agriculture had not been kept out of the ambit of GST.
The US hit the debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion on January 19 and as early as June 1, the US government may run out of money to pay its bills if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt ceiling. US treasury secretary Janet Yellen reaffirmed that defaulting on the US debt obligation would be a “catastrophe” and would put into question Washington’s “global economic leadership”. The debt ceiling refers to the maximum amount of money the government can borrow to meet its financial obligations.
None of the arguments that the RBI has given to justify the demonetisation move are valid.
In a sudden though not unexpected move, currency notes of the denomination Rs 2,000 are being withdrawn from circulation. This is announced via a notification released by the Reserve Bank of India and not the government (as at the time of demonetisation). These notes are not being withdrawn from circulation, but actually, they will stop circulating right away given that they will have to be deposited in a bank or exchanged for lower denomination notes.
Does the Supreme Court-appointed expert committee’s report on Adani, based on interim results of ongoing investigations by markets regulator SEBI, clear Adani of blame, as his lawyer claimed after the report was made public? The answer does not quite blow in the wind.