Gold-plated DA.

"India's benchmark inflation rate, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 6.01 percent year-on -year in January 2022, data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation... indicated," ET. As per the RBI, "in a notification on March 31, 2021, the Central Government, in consultation with the RBI, retained the inflation target at 4 percent (with the upper tolerance level of 6 percent and the lower tolerance limit of 2 percent) for the 5-year period April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2026." "The uptick in the food basket was due to a sharp rise in prices of oil and fats which climbed 18.70 percent year-on-year in January. Apart from this meat and fish prices saw a rise of 5.47 percent while that of vegetables gained 5.19 percent and pulses and products rose 3.02 percent." No need to panic because "all possible scenarios in the oil price range have been taken into account", said RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. ET. "Price stability is of upper most priority," he added. Thank you sir, we are so grateful. "Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India expects the nation's biggest fuel retailers to sharply raise pump prices after local elections end next month," The Print. "Even in the past, immediately after elections or the polling is over what we have seen oil marketing companies revising their prices and these revisions have been pretty sharp and in line with the global oil prices," said Dr Sunil Kumar Sinha of India Ratings and Research. As transport costs spike, the cost of all goods, including food, will jump. Rural Indians spend an average of 53% of earnings on food while urban Indians spend an average of 43%. TIE. "Economists say the poor tend to spend most of their expenditure on essentials like food." "Malnutrition in children has risen across India in recent years, sharply reversing hard-won gains, according to the latest government data," BBC. "Over 33 lakh (3.3 million) children in India are malnourished and more than half of them fall in the severely malnourished category with Maharashtra, Bihar and Gujarat topping the list, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has said," NDTV. Thankfully, as a retired IAS officer, Mr Das is most probably protected by a gold-plated pension which will soon be augmented by the government. "There have been multiple reports around increase in dearness allowance (DA) by up to 3 percent," News18, which will take it up to 34%. On top of that central government employees may get a lump sum of Rs 200,000 as arrears, Zee News. 'Dearness' stands for 'costliness'. Cost of any goods in India is priced in rupees. So, when prices go up it means the value of the rupee has gone down. "Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been net sellers every month since September, dumping $7.9 billion worth of local shares since," ET. As dollars are taken out it puts a downward pressure on the rupee. To add to the fun, Goldman Sachs is predicting that the US Federal Reserve may increase interest rates up to 7 times this year, Fortune. The rupee is bound to fall further against the dollar. Das says he knows what the price of oil will be. He says nothing about the value of the rupee, which will be used by us to buy fuel. Dearness Allowance will protect him.