Dangers of increasing wealth.

"Inflation concerns do not warrant any additional interest rate increases, Bibek Debroy, chairperson of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), said, adding that businesses are contending with high interest rates due to the inefficiencies of the banking sector, resulting in a wide gap between borrowing and deposit rates." Mint. Twin balance sheet problem of banks have been sorted, "Non-performing assets are not what they used to be," "there has been empowerment in rural areas", which should increase consumption, and government has increased capital spending "in a big way". In January, Debroy predicted that "India's GDP will be close to USD 20 trillion by 2047 and per capita income may reach USD 10,000 (at current value of USD)." ET. "With prices on a steady rise across the world over the past few years, there may be a need to rethink long-term inflation targets, Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Ashima Goyal said at a CII event." ET. "Goyal also said that the distribution of weights in the inflation basket needs to be revised, joining others seeking urgent changes to the way the nation collects and uses data." Globally, interest rates remained low and stable for 25 years, wrote Surjit S Bhalla. "Until a series of supply shocks starting with Covid in 2020 and continuing with the Russian misadventure in Ukraine." Higher interest rates will not increase supplies. Hence, the "US Fed needs to answer as to how and why its policy of confronting supply shocks is any different than the failed RBI policy of many decades of raising rates as a response to droughts and consequent food inflation." Sounds very reasonable. "Food and beverages constitute 45.9% of the CPI (consumer price index) basket and within that, the consumer food price index (CFPI) constitutes 39.06%. This is in contrast to many advanced economies where food weights are much lower, for instance, UK (9.3%), US (13.2%), Canada (15.94%) and Germany (8.5%)," noted a report by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations." TOI. But then, Indians spend more on food. "The average Indian household will spend 35.3 percent of total household budget on food in 2025, increasing by 2.1 percentage points from 33.2 percent in 2005, Fitch Solutions said." The Print. Whereas, "In 2021, US consumers spent an average of 10.3 percent of their disposable income on food." ers.usda.gov. India's population is already over 1.4 billion and is expected to peak at 1.7 billion in 2064. Pew Research. And, "Food supply in India and across the globe will go down by at least 6 percent by 2050 as water crisis and heat stress caused by climate change will hit productivity, the Global Commission on Economics of Water (GCEW) has warned." DH. India will be a developed country in per capita income measured by purchasing power parity (PPP) by 2047, predicted Bhalla. TOI. A larger population with higher per capita income and falling production, what is Bhalla's predicted rate of inflation? At present RBI's mandate is to target CPI inflation rate of 4%, +/- 2%, that is 2-6%. ET. Debroy wants RBI to freeze. Prof Goyal recommends a higher target. How much? 10%, 20%, 100%? Pakistan's inflation rate has hit 45.64%. ANI. Do Debroy, Bhalla and Goyal want to emulate Pakistan? Or, perhaps, Argentina where it zoomed to 102.5% in February. They are eminent economists. All.