Of all the stupidity committed by the Manmohan Singh administration, (and not all of them could be stopped in time by Rahul Gandhi), one would think that the ‘Rs.32-per-day-per-person-poverty-line’ by Montek Singh Ahluwalia as the pinnacle.
Who could ever imagine such a well learned man (or woman), entrusted with so much responsibility and power, would ever utter such nonsense! But he did, and followed it up with a revision to ‘Rs.28-per-day-per-person-poverty-line’ about 6 months later in March 2012.
But what do we know! As if to prove that learning, qualification or holding positions of responsibility is no guarantee against idiocy, out comes C. Rangarajan with his own gobbledegook.
Today, The Hindu reports C. Rangarajan as saying that the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI), may not be as high as being projected by the central bank. [link: http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/rangarajan-differs-with-rbi-on-inflation-projection/article5285129.ece]
Imagine, this guy was the Governor of RBI between 1992 to 1997. In fact, this wise old man has been in positions of power, responsibility, trust, and governance ever after. Just look at his service to the nation:
[link: http://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=8532&Mode=0]
BTW, the reference to charts on that page are not well formed. Chart2 link jumps to Chart3 and Chart3 link goes to the end of page.
While I have my personal doubts on the government estimates of WPI and CPI - for the indexes always seem to rate the inflation much lower than what is felt on the ground - blatantly spewing outright crap, by saying the actual rate of inflation is much lower, is either at best idiocy, at worse a complete disconnect, or even worse, outright crookedness.
With a learned man like C. Rangarajan, so much experienced, it is difficult to believe the latter two. Thus, the only option left is to call his utterances complete stupidity.
The proof of pudding is in the eating they say. And here is the evidence to call these wise men out. When I started cooking in April/May due to my mother’s incapacity, a 200ml of Ghee cost around Rs.80. I don’t have proof of that. But today it costs Rs.96.
Thanks to my packrat mother, I found a Ghee bottle of July 2013, which states the MRP as Rs.87. Of course, I have the October 2013 bottle. Here is a quick snap of both - July and October showing the prices.
Well there is the proof of pudding - what I actually ate!
If I had tried to argue that Rs.6 9 (thanks bro') increase in 4 months on a Rs.87 base price is less than 6% y-o-y to my economics teacher, incidentally also named Rangarajan of RKMHSS (Main) Chennai (God Bless his soul), he would have caned me - yeah, when I was in school, [just a few years ago, :-) /joking/] caning was accepted practice. And I am better for it!
:-)
Who could ever imagine such a well learned man (or woman), entrusted with so much responsibility and power, would ever utter such nonsense! But he did, and followed it up with a revision to ‘Rs.28-per-day-per-person-poverty-line’ about 6 months later in March 2012.
But what do we know! As if to prove that learning, qualification or holding positions of responsibility is no guarantee against idiocy, out comes C. Rangarajan with his own gobbledegook.
Today, The Hindu reports C. Rangarajan as saying that the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI), may not be as high as being projected by the central bank. [link: http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/rangarajan-differs-with-rbi-on-inflation-projection/article5285129.ece]
Imagine, this guy was the Governor of RBI between 1992 to 1997. In fact, this wise old man has been in positions of power, responsibility, trust, and governance ever after. Just look at his service to the nation:
- Governor, RBI : 1992-97
- Governor, state of AP : 1997-2003
- Chairman, 12th Finance Commission of India : 2003-04
- Chairman, PM’s Economic Advisory Council: 2005-08
- MP, Rajya Sabha: 2008-09
- Chairman, PM’s Economic Advisory Council: 2009-
[link: http://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=8532&Mode=0]
BTW, the reference to charts on that page are not well formed. Chart2 link jumps to Chart3 and Chart3 link goes to the end of page.
While I have my personal doubts on the government estimates of WPI and CPI - for the indexes always seem to rate the inflation much lower than what is felt on the ground - blatantly spewing outright crap, by saying the actual rate of inflation is much lower, is either at best idiocy, at worse a complete disconnect, or even worse, outright crookedness.
With a learned man like C. Rangarajan, so much experienced, it is difficult to believe the latter two. Thus, the only option left is to call his utterances complete stupidity.
The proof of pudding is in the eating they say. And here is the evidence to call these wise men out. When I started cooking in April/May due to my mother’s incapacity, a 200ml of Ghee cost around Rs.80. I don’t have proof of that. But today it costs Rs.96.
Thanks to my packrat mother, I found a Ghee bottle of July 2013, which states the MRP as Rs.87. Of course, I have the October 2013 bottle. Here is a quick snap of both - July and October showing the prices.
Well there is the proof of pudding - what I actually ate!
If I had tried to argue that Rs.
:-)
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