Whose sacrifice was it?

"The poor in India are paying a higher proportion of their income in tax due to the Goods and Service Tax (GST), claimed Mukulika Banerjee, an anthropologist at the London School of Economics." "Experts, however, fact-checked her, saying that the basket of products used commonly, including the poor is mostly untaxed or faces 5% GST at best." "Tautologically, the consumption basket of the rich has far higher GST than that of the poor. India's sub-middle classes pay very little tax," wrote Somnath Mukherhee. It is true that unpacked food items bear no GST, while articles of daily use are taxed at 5%. cashfree.com. Taxes on automobiles, air-conditioners, televisions, monitors and projectors have been reduced from 28% to 18%. These are probably seen as luxury goods, not for the poor. In April, "India is currently witnessing severe heatwave conditions across multiple regions, with 95 of the world's hottest cities located in the country, raising concerns over the impact of rising temperatures." newsonair.gov.in. Officially, India is the hottest country on the planet. Should the poor not desire automobiles and air-conditioners to protect themselves from this blistering heat? Why are lotteries taxed at 40% when they are bought almost exclusively by the poor? "Lotteries are said to exploit the poor, as they sell the false dream of easy money.This has resulted in cases of bankruptcy, loss of property and even suicide in the worst cases." MC. So, the poor are exploited twice, first by the lottery selling false dreams and then by the government, if the dream actually came true at odds of billions to one. "In the UK, lottery winnings are entirely tax-free upon receipt, with no deductions for income tax, capital gains tax, or any other direct taxes." "Whether you win 1,000 or 100 million pounds, you'll receive the full amount without deductions." uwaccountancy.com. In the UK, if you take the risk you deserve the reward in full. In India, you take 100% of the risk, the government takes 40% of the reward. Tautologically, whatever that means. Automobiles used to run on petrol. After paying 18% GST on an automobile, "Petrol tax in India consists of 55% of petrol's retailing tax while diesel is 50% of the fuel's retail value." cleartax.in. The retail price of petrol in India has been increasing from 60.50 per liter in 2015 (cleartax.in), when it was at an average of about $2.5 per US gallon in the US (eia.gov), which converts of about Rs 41.5 per liter, taking one dollar at Rs 63 (thomascook.in). In 2020, the retail price of petrol was hiked to Rs 80.43 per liter while it was at an average of $2.5 per gallon in the US, which converts to Rs 48 per liter because the rupee had fallen from Rs 70.96 to one dollar in January 2020 to 73.78 in December. The retail price of petrol has been over Rs 95 per liter in India since 2021, whereas it varied from about Rs 90 per liter in 2021 to around Rs 75 per liter in the US, the rupee having fallen to 86 to one dollar. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said four days ago, "From the government's side, for about 76 days, our objective has been to ensure no additional burden is placed upon the people. We have provided relief amounting to more than Rs 1 trillion annually this year through reductions in excise duty." TN. This is 'pants on fire stuff' (urban dictionary). Postponing the hike in the retail price of fuel till after assembly elections in various states (wikipedia) was a cynical exercise in conning people. The government's duty is to increase disposable income by levying the lowest possible taxes, especially on fuel which is price inelastic. But the government has raked in around Rs 50 trillion from the extortionate taxes on fuel since 2015 (ppac.gov.in) and so any reduction in the duty is not a subsidy. The worst con is that it is all being done for the poor when the poor are suffering the most from high indirect taxes, as Mukulik Banerjee claimed. "The attitude that just because most Indians are poor, we should not have high standards for Indian life explains why our roads are dangerous and why trains derail; our standards are low at almost every level," wrote Manu Joseph. Deliberately keep people poor through high taxes and then treat them like beggars by distributing taxpayer money just before election (pib.gov.in) and they will gratefully vote for you. If that is not cynical, what is? Tautologically.

Sri Lanka shows the RBI.

"The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced a record dividend payout of Rs 2.87 trillion to the government for FY2026-27." "The RBI's surplus transfers alone contributes nearly 91% of the budgeted non-tax revenue under the category of 'dividend/surplus from the RBI, nationalised banks and financial institutions' for FY27." For context, telecommunication company Airtel, with 424.5 million customers in India, 166.1 million in Africa, 56.4 million in Bangladesh and 21.3 million in Sri Lanka, reported a net profit of Rs 264.573 billion on consolidated revenue of Rs 1.815 trillion in 2024-25. assets.airtel.in. About 14.6% profit. For FY2026, Reliance Industries, India's largest industrial group, reported gross revenue of $124 billion and profit after tax of 10.1 billion (ril.com), which comes to about 8.15%. These are private sector companies whose aim would be to expand their businesses and increase revenue and shareholder value. While the RBI is the bank for the government, which projected a fiscal deficit (revenue less than  expenditure) of around Rs 17 trillion (prsindia.org), how is it able to generate over Rs 2 trillion in profits? "Generation of profits or surplus is not a goal for central banks," said RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra. On interest rates he said, "Our primary mandate is inflation. It is price stability. And it continues to be price stability, while keeping in mind the objective of growth." Price stability affects every Indian, especially poor people. "The Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) increased the petrol prices by Rs 2.61 per liter and diesel prices by Rs 2.71 per liter.., marking the fourth hike in less than two weeks. With the latest revision, cumulative increases in petrol and diesel prices are almost Rs 7.5 per liter since fuel rate revision resumed on 15 May." ET. Increasing cost of transport is sure to push prices of goods and services upwards. In addition, the Indian rupee has dropped from about 90 to one US dollar on 1 January 2026 (exchangrates. org.uk) to 95.76 to one USD this morning (xe.com) which will increase prices of all imported goods. The RBI started reducing interest rates from February 2019 when the consumer price index (CPI) inflation was at 2.65% (rateinflation,com) and continued to cut interest rates even though CPI inflation spiked to 5.53% in November and to 7.32% in December 2019, bringing it down to 4% in May 2020 and holding it at 4% till My 2022, even as inflation raged at over 6.5% (shriramfinance.in), and raising it in panic only because the US Federal Reserve raised its Funds rate by 25 basis points (bps) in March 2022 and was expected to increase it by 50 bps in May 2022 (Forbes). The RBI's commitment to price stability does not inspire confidence. Starting in December 2024 the RBI has slashed its interest rate by 125 bps to 5.25%. To support the rupee the RBI collected $4.2 billion from dollar-denominated Resurgent India Bonds in 1998, $5.5 billion from India Millennium Deposits in 2000 and $30 billion from FCNR(B) swap window in 2013, wrote Ashish Gupta. "Today, with rupee breaching 96 to the dollar, oil above $100 and CAD widening, whispers of a similar 'bazooka' are growing." In 2013, with US rates effectively at zero, Indian banks paid 2-3% for short-term deposits and 3-4% for long-term deposits. Now the Federal Funds rate is at 3.5-3.75% so Indian banks will have to pay in excess of 6% interest and, with around $700 billion in reserve, raising $30 billion will make little difference. "A rate hike is a much more potent defence," said Gupta. Higher rates will be anathema to the government but Sri Lanka may have taken some of its steam away. "Sri Lanka's central banks stunned markets by raising its policy rate by an outsized 100 basis points yesterday, and signaled more tightening as surging energy costs whip up inflation and batter its currency." Reuters. The shows independence and guts. Over to the RBI. And Mr Malhotra.

TFR colonialism.

"India's total fertility rate (TFR) has dropped to 1.9 from 2.1, according to the 2024 Sample Registration System (SRS) report, pushing most Indian states below the replacement fertility level of 2.1 children per woman. Only six states - Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand - continue to remain above the replacement mark, while Delhi recorded the country's lowest TFR at 1.2." ET. And that is a problem that could divide the country. The Constitution says that every parliamentary constituency should have roughly equal population. Which is fair. The problem is that populations of the Hindi states, mocked as the 'Cow Belt' (wikipedia) by non-Hindi people, are increasing while they are falling in the non-Hindi speaking states. The government proposes to increase the total number of seats in the Lok Sabha from 550 to 850 and adjust the number of seats of each state according to population  (PRS), based on the 2011 Census instead of the ongoing 2026-27 Census (censusindia.gov,in). If that occurs, Tamil Nadu's seat strength in the Lok Sabha will decline from 39 to 32 and Kerala's from 20 to 15, while UP will see a rise from 80 to 89, Bihar from 40 to 46 and Rajasthan from 25 to 30. Total control for the Hindi-speaking states. Hindi colonialism replacing British colonialism is unacceptable to non-Hindi states. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu announced a scheme, under which "families will receive Rs 30,000 for the birth of a third child and Rs 40,000 for a fourth child." "According to him, around 300,000 families - accounting for 58% of the total - currently have only one child, while about 217,000 families have two or more children." HT. If delimitation actually takes place and southern states refuse to accept it what will Prime Minister Narendra Modi do? Will he use the army and air force to bomb them into submission? He is ruthless enough to do so. He imposed a stringent lockdown on 24 March 2020 when there were only 519 cases of Covid (BBC), which was devastating for the poor migrant workers who had to walk hundreds of miles, with little children, back to their villages (TOI) without any help from the government. Populations could change quickly if there are fewer females. "Despite taking a series of steps to stop suspected gender selection and foeticide practices last year after alarm bells rang over a falling sex ratio at birth (SRB) in Haryana," the "SRB for the first four months is 895, sharply below last year's 925." TOI. For some unknown reason India reports SRB as the number of girls per 1000 boys, while the rest to the world counts the number of males per 100 females, the normal distribution being 105-107 boys to 100 girls (wikipedia). Which means India should normally have about 952 females to 1000 males at birth. However, "As per the latest 5th report of National Family health Survey (NFHS 5, 2019-21) of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare the sex ratio of the total population (females per 1000 males) is 1020 for the country as a whole, with a sex ratio rural at 1037 and sex ratio urban at 985." pib.gov.in. This is entirely laughable. If the normal SRB for India should be around 952 girls for 1000 boys, in keeping with the rest of the world, how can we have 68 extra females for the country and 85 extra females in rural areas, when thousands of girl babies are being aborted before birth? Even adult women are not safe. Twisha Sharma was found hanging in her marital home, apparently after months of abuse for dowry. Her lawyer husband Samarth Singh was absconding for 10 days before surrendering to police, and her mother-in-law, retired judge Giribala Singh, continued to defame the dead woman, accusing her of extra-marital affairs and mental problems. HT. Colonialism by these people would be worse than that of the British. Colonialism based on TFR. Disaster. 

Army of roaches from abroad.

"While questioning the genuineness of the law degrees of some advocates who had approached the top court over senior designations, the chief justice, Justice Surya Kant, lashed out at several bogus advocates in Delhi," and also, "hit out at unemployed youth, comparing them with cockroaches, and suggesting they become media and social media activists critical of the system." The Wire. Later on, CJI "clarified his recent remarks comparing some unemployed youth to 'cockroaches', asserting that his observations had been 'misquoted' and had been specifically aimed at people entering professions using 'fake and bogus degrees'."  TOI. Degrees are not everything. In 2025, "In a major embarrassment, Singapore Supreme Court has quashed an arbitral award against the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up to manage dedicated freight corridors in India after finding that the tribunal headed by retired CJI Deepak Misra had copied 212 out of 451 paragraphs from two earlier awards involving the same parties but on different issues." The other two judges may not have been "aware of Misra's 'copy-paste' job." TOI. People may appear ignorant despite having legitimate degrees. In July 2025, Prof Binay Panda wrote about "Courses that don't matter, graduates whom no one wants. Almost 20mn college-goers study subjects irrelevant to their future, delinked from what employers demand." TOI. Cockroaches? Azim Premji University's fifth State of Working India report (2026) says that "67% of India's unemployed youth aged 20-29 are graduates i.e. about 11 million people." "Between 2012 and 2019, India's GDP grew 6.7% annually but employment grew 0.1%." And, "The Economic Survey 2024-25 notes that only 8.25% of graduates are employed in roles aligned with their qualifications; nearly half are in elementary or semi-skilled work," wrote Ajit Ranade. Cockroaches? So desperate are the youth for jobs that they pay Rs 3.5 - 4.5 million to people smugglers to be taken into the US illegally by dangerous routes through snake-infested forests, known as the 'dunki' routes. The Wire. Cockroaches? In October 2024, around 3,000 'students', mostly Indians, queued outside Tandoori Flame restaurant in Brampton, Canada for jobs of waiters and servers. NDTV. Cockroaches? On 16 May, an Indian student, Abhijeet Dipke, in the US started a satirical party online which he named the 'Cockroach Janta Party'. wikipedia. "Indian politics has acquired an unusual mascot: the cockroach." Within a few days, it crossed 10 million followers on Instagram, higher than the 8.7 followers of the BJP on Instagram. However, the CJP's X account with 200,000 followers has been withheld in India, apparently "in response to a legal demand". "Its tongue-in-cheek membership criteria include being unemployed, lazy, chronically online and 'the ability to rant professionally'." BBC. However, the hate-filled followers of India's fascist party, mirroring the youth wings of other fascist parties (wikipedia), have reacted with rabid fury. Dipke has been receiving death threats. A screenshot of one message read, "Shut this account down, or join the BJP. Otherwise, will get you killed even in the US." TOI. As a precaution, police have been deployed outside his parents' home in Maharashtra. HT. Union Minister Kiran Rijiju accused CJP of seeking followers from Pakistan. In response Dipke showed over 94% of its Instagram followers were from India. Before the account was hacked. HT. Why such frothing ferocity? Is it perhaps reflecting the truth about India which the fascist party works assiduously to hide? Such a website can only be launched from outside India. Here Dipke won't last 10 seconds. Ram and his vanar sena (monkey army) went from Ayaodhya in India to kill Ravan in Sri Lanka. We hope Dipke with his 'Cockroach' army from abroad can rid us of the fascists. Jai Shri Ram. 

The bears are here.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is to pay a 'dividend' of Rs 2865.8846 billion (around Rs 2.87 trillion) to the Central government for the accounting year 2025-26. "This year's dividend payment by the central bank is 6.7% higher than the previous year's Rs 2.69 trillion," and that was 27% higher than the year before. This constitutes 90.8%of budgeted non-tax revenue of the Centre but is less than the Rs 3.16 trillion demanded by the Budget. DH. The RBI's balance sheet rose 20.61% to Rs 91.97 trillion as on 31 March 2026. "India's foreign exchange reserves fell by $8.09 billion to $688.89 billion in the week ended 15 May, according to data released by the RBI." Foreign currency assets fell $6.48 billion to $545.90 billion. ET. Was the RBI selling foreign currency to defend the rupee even though "Allowing the rupee to weaken" "raises the cost of imported goods and overseas travel in rupee terms, encouraging households and firms to economise on precisely those expenditures that strain the balance of payments," advised Prof Gita Gopinath. And, Chairman of the 16th Finance Commission, Arvind Panagariya posted on X, "Do not let the psychology of Rs 100 per dollar determine your policy response. 100 is just  number, like 99 and 101." News18. Clearly he does not watch cricket, where 100 is celebrated as a century and 200 or 300 are counted as centuries in a batter's record. wikipedia. Retailers have long known that items priced at 99.99 are seen as cheaper, than one priced at 100, by customers. News18. Sources told Reuters that "Within the central bank, there is a clear consensus that utilizing interest rate hikes to defend the currency would be counterproductive." And that, "the central bank prioritizes inflation control and economic growth over currency defense." ET. A fall in the value of the rupee will increase the value of imports and cause inflation. In addition, petrol and diesel prices were raised for the third time in less than 10 days - first by Rs 3, then by Rs 0.90 and now by Rs 0.87, for a total of nearly Rs 5 per liter. Mint. The government probably thinks that increasing prices furtively by small increments will not be noticed by people, but this will immediately add to transport costs and increase prices across all goods and services. Already, commercial vehicle drivers' unions in Delhi-NCR have called for a three-day strike in support of an increase in fares. TOI. "India's central bank may need to draw on its 2013 taper tantrum playbook and earlier balance-of-payments crises to mount an effective defense of the beleaguered rupee." This might involve selling dollar bonds abroad to increase foreign exchange reserves. "But any deposit plan or bond issuance will come at a steep cost as interest rates have risen sharply globally. Banks offered deposit rates of 3.5% to 5% in 2013, but would likely need to pay at least 8% to 9% to attract funds, said Madhavi Arora, economist at Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd." ET. We are told that the macro situation is much better than it was in 2013, when India, Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil and Turkey were labeled as the 'Fragile Five' because of their large current account deficits. BBC. Why the panic now, when, in December, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra bragged about a "rare Goldilocks period" for the Indian economy? DD News. The fear may be, "If RBI is seen to be intervening heavily and is yet unable to arrest the rupee's fall, markets may conclude that the central bank is losing the battle." If that happens, "Exporters delay repatriating export proceeds, Importers rush to prepay for shipments. Households buy gold and dollars," wrote former RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao. "The RBI sold a net $53.13 billion in the spot foreign exchange market in FY26" (BS), "has a short dollar book close to $100 billion in offshore and onshore markets" (Subhadip Sircar), has bloated its balance sheet to Rs 91.97 trillion and has handed over a cash bonanza of Rs 2.87 trillion to the government. So what are the RBI's options if it refuses to increase interest rates? Borrow abroad at 8-9%, which will deplete reserves, or print rupees by the sackful, which will tank the rupee. The bears have come for Goldilocks. Run. 

Mediate or fight.

Last Easter, "Catholic priests in dioceses across the United States welcomed the largest classes of converts they had seen in 15 or more years." And, "A former intelligence official testifies under oath that the US has been secretly retrieving and reverse-engineering crashed UFOs for decades, and that nonhuman 'biologics' have been recovered. Demonic vexation, teleportation, increased interest in religious practice - these phenomena are all signs that life feels, to many, increasingly charged with unseen forces. You might say it has been re-enchanted." DH. Not just the US, the Middle East is also getting weirder. "Pakistan's army chief is in Tehran as diplomacy around the Middle East war gathered pace," even as "US media outlets were reporting that the US is weighing new military strikes on Iran." Field Marshall Asim Munir "was welcomed by Iran's Interior Minister Eskander Momeni and Pakistan's Mohsin Naqvi. Naqvi had visited Iran for the second time in a week.., meeting President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi." TRT. Since Pakistan shares a 909 km (565 miles) border with Iran (wikipedia), its efforts to help Iran reach a deal with the US would be normal, except that Pakistan has signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SDMA) with Saudi Arabia, under which "both countries have committed to treating any act of aggression against one as an act against both (known as collective security) (wikipedia)." Iran attacked Arab countries between 28 February and 18 March 2026, during which, "Saudi Arabia was hit with at least 38 missiles and 435 drones." wikipedia. Following which, "Saudi Arabia launched numerous, unpublicized strikes on Iran in retaliation for attacks carried out in the kingdom during the Middle East war," marking "the first time that the kingdom is known to have directly carried out military action on Iranian soil." Reuters. In addition, "Pakistan has deployed 8,000 troops, a squadron of fighter jets and an air defence system to Saudi Arabia under a mutual defence pact, ramping up military cooperation with Riyadh even as Islamabad serves as the main mediator in the Iran war." "Pakistan has deployed a full squadron of around 16 aircraft, mostly J-17 fighters made jointly with China," a Chinese HQ-9 air defence system and may deploy up to 80,000 troops in Saudi Arabia if necessary. Reuters. Though Pakistan achieved independence in August 1947 (Britannica), "Till mid-August 1954, when it finally adopted Qaumi Taranah, the newly founded country had a flag, a governor-general, an army, and a blood-soaked disputed frontier with India, but no official song to give voice to its identity." "Thereafter, when it finally settled on an anthem, it was overwhelmingly Persian in content." The Wire. They did not adopt a song in Urdu because Urdu developed in northwestern India and was known as Hindustani at one time. Urdu is derived from Arabic and Persian, while Hindi is derived from Sanskrit. Britannica. And yet, though Pakistan has over 70 languages, Urdu is its national language and "while sharing official status with English, it is the preferred and dominant language used for inter-communication between different ethnic groups." wikipedia.  Their national anthem is not in their national language. How weird is that? Also, while acting as a mediator, will Pakistan attack Iran if there is open war between Saudi Arabia and Iran? Pakistani troops will be fighting Persians while singing their national anthem in Persian. In India, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has more followers on Instagram than the ruling BJP. ET. People seem to be doing weird things because they have lost faith in their governments, but are powerless to do anything to politicians and civil servants. No way to show their frustration.   

CJP could be the answer.

To boost manufacturing, a 'Make in India' initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 September 2014. The aim was to increase the growth rate and, as a result, the share of manufacturing to 25% of GDP by 2022. In fact, the share of manufacturing has fallen from 16.7% of GDP in 2013-14 to 15.9% in 2023-24. wikipedia. In May 2026, "India is preparing a fresh manufacturing push centered on identifying nearly 100 products that are either not produced domestically or are inadequately manufactured despite existing capability, signalling a sharper industrial policy focus amid shifting global supply chains, geopolitical tensions and the country's ambition to emerge as a global manufacturing hub." TOI. "The manufacturing activity's share in the GDP has declined to 13% in 2024 compared to 16% in 2015," because, "India's manufacturing growth is constrained by low spending on research and development (R&D) at just 0.6% of GDP and it should increase to 2% by 2035." ET. Countries "trying to emulate the East Asian model would produce, at best, manufacturing enclaves, with a tiny sliver of productive firms integrated into global value chains while the bulk of the labor force remains stuck in low-productivity activities," wrote Prof Dani Rodrik. "Competing successfully on world markets and with China at home requires skills, technologies and other capabilities that are in short supply," and "The result is that even when countries manage to pull more workers into manufacturing, this happens through the expansion of small-scale, mostly informal, enterprises and at the expense of productivity." Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman have complained about lack of investment by the private sector even though profits have increased by 30% since the pandemic. Mr Nageswaran blames "nepo babies" who choose to set up family offices elsewhere and live on passive investments rather than risk in new ventures. "The real reason India's richest don't want to invest domestically - and, possibly, why they take some of their cash abroad - is because they estimate local political risk as being too high." "If they earn money in India, their first instinct is to try and diversify geographically, so they escape New Delhi's control as much as they can." And if Indians are reluctant to invest here, why would multinationals? wrote Mihir Sharma. To protect Indian industries from competition the government raised tariffs on imports. "As of 2024, the average tariff on non-agricultural goods in India stood at 13% compared to significantly lower rates in China (6.5%), Malaysia (5.3%) and Vietnam (8.3%)." "In parallel, the government has significantly expanded the use of Quality Control Orders (QCOs) especially since 2020." CSEP.  And so, "A report by the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) warns that QCOs on fasteners are raising costs, choking supplies and disrupting production." "cutting MSME output and risks triggering bottlenecks in sectors such as automobiles and infrastructure." "Fasteners - bolts, nuts, screws, washers, rivets and studs - are produced in thousands of variants, often in small batches on the same machine." QCOs are restricting production. ET. "Large companies and factories have failed to generate jobs at the pace required to absorb a growing labor force. In that vacuum, the unorganized sector - small shops, workshops, grocery stores, tiny manufacturing units and street vendors - remains the fallback." "For 2025, the government estimates 79.2 million such entities, up from 73.4 million in 2023-24. These enterprises generated about Rs 20 trillion in output in 2025, compared to Rs 15.4 trillion in 2025-16." But, "Their share in India's value added has fallen from 9.1% in 2015-16 to 6.3% in 2025." Mint. Since profits have fallen, growth in wages of workers has stagnated. Wages of non-unionised contract workers have stayed at between Rs 10,000-15,000 per month for years and are insufficient to pay for rent and food. Workers in Haryana and Noida protested last month. BBC. Perhaps, it would be best if the government stayed out and didn't try to help. But control is power, and a life of no restraint. The Cockroach Janata Party (BBC) represents the mute. CJP could be the answer. Vote CJP.

No question, we have yoga and vaccines.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi "walked away after a joint press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, journalist Helle Lyng called out to him, asking why he does not take questions, but got no response." "Modi has not held a traditional press conference since taking office in 2014, and has rarely answered questions on his trips abroad." BBC. "The gagging of the Indian media now normalized after 12 years of a government obsessed with evading questions, either outrightly denying data, or not making data accessible. It is capped by zero press conferences by the prime minister - a first in independent India." "Later, Lyng was invited by the Indian Embassy - publicly on social media - to a presser by diplomats," where "she was told, incredibly, that India is the land of yoga, has handled Covid well, and exports vaccines and medicines." The Wire. No wonder, "India is 157th out of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders on 30 April." It's a drop of 6 places from 151 in 2025. The Wire. Who cares? We have yoga and Covid vaccine. The whole world must think we are a nation of mindless apparatchiks (wikipedia) programmed to babble inanity to protect Dear Leader from any accountability. China-based analyst Keji Mao recalled "presentations he had delivered years ago on China's industrial and technological ecosystem." The Vietnamese "listened carefully when he discussed the gaps between Vietnam and China," and "they openly acknowledged Vietnam's shortcomings and even asked for deeper analysis on areas where the country lagged behind China's industrial model." Indians, on the other hand, became "'quite argumentative' and attempted to challenge the Chinese participant on every point raised." BT. Contemptuously dismissing any comparison, Victor Gao, Vice President of the Center for China and Globalization, said, "We are probably minimum 20 years, if not 30 years, apart from each other in terms of economic development, science and technological development." BT. In the Netherlands, just before Mr Modi arrived, Prime Minister Rob Jetten said that "there were concerns among the Netherlands and other EU member states about 'developments in India' under Modi's BJP." To that MEA Secretary Sibi George pointed to India's 1.4 billion people, massive voter turnouts and a 'noisy democracy' powered by 900 million smartphones. The Wire. Voter turnout has been curtailed by Special Intensive Revision (wikipedia) just before elections with no time for corrections. In Bengal, "The BJP secured 292,24,804 votes against the TMC's 260,13,377: a margin of 32,11,427 votes that translated into a 127-seat lead. This is significantly lower than the 9.1 million voters deleted during the revision, and even lower than the 6.6 million voters removed for reasons other than death." DH. Definitely does not pass the smell test (idioms), the stench of rot still lingers. As for smartphones, India had the second highest number of internet shutdowns in 2024, after Myanmar. TOI. "The issue before the world is not whether India is an ancient civilization," It is. "The real question is whether modern India, government by a Constitution that promises equality to all citizens, is living up to those promises today," wrote AJ Philip. Ask no questions and you'll be told no lies. For some of us, a government that refuses to explain itself is fascist. But, we have yoga and Covid vaccine. So, there.

Not just a piece of paper.

"The rupee declined 10.8% in FY26 since the closing levels of last fiscal year - recording the worst performance since FY12. Much of this decline came during the pre-war period, even when the dollar was weakening, and other currencies were gaining," wrote Payal Bhattacharya. "India's close to $700bn in foreign exchange reserves will not run out because of higher imports. The only way reserves get depleted is if RBI decides to sell foreign exchange reserves to support the rupee." A weaker rupee is good. "A depreciation raises the cost of imported goods and overseas travel in rupee terms, encouraging households and firms to to economise on precisely those expenditures that strain the balance of payments. In doing so, it delivers - more effectively and more durably - the shift towards domestic spending that voluntary restraint seeks to achieve," Prof Gita Gopinath. India is losing foreign exchange as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are selling Indian stocks. "FIIs have been net sellers in 13 out of the past 20 months." In 2025, FIIs sold Rs 1.66 trillion in equities and bought Rs 947 billion of debt. But, "Since the US-Israel war with Iran began at the end of February, FIIs have sold Rs 2.03 trillion in equities and also pulled out Rs 125.12 billion from debt." Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) have been buying as FIIs have sold out. DIIs now hold 19.24% of the NSE-listed companies while FIIs hold 16.13%. In December 2020, FIIs held 21.16% while DIIs held 13.58%, wrote Sreedev Kanyakumar. Buying by domestic investors prevents any significant fall in share prices, limiting losses of foreign investors and repatriation of more foreign exchange. Since Sanjay Malhotra took over as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in December 2024, the RBI has slashed its interest rate by 125 basis points (bps) and also pumped nearly Rs 20 trillion into banks to bring down borrowing costs. "Yet, the funds simply leaked out of India's banking system as global money managers dumped local assets and took dollars home," wrote Andy Mukherjee. The RBI has been buying up government debt and "the amount of government paper (including treasury bills) held as on 28 February was Rs 21.34 trillion. It was Rs 15.58 trillion in March 2025." "Starting from automatic monetization, under which 4.6% of treasury bills were once issued by the government to RBI for funding the deficit," "In the 90s, we shifted to the market becoming the sole point of contact for the government." "However, with frequent OMOs (open market operations) in recent times, there has been a tendency for that debt to be transferred to RBI and held by it," wrote Madan Sabnavis. There has also been an "extraordinary rise in RBI's surplus transfers to the Union government. In 2023-24, it transferred Rs 2.11 trillion, which was 7.6% of the Centre's overall revenue receipts. The transfer for 2025-26 may be even larger than last year's record Rs 2.69 trillion." The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned of "quasi-fiscal" support by the RBI, wrote Ajit Ranade. The rupee has fallen not just against the US dollar but by nearly 12% against the Pakistani rupee and by 10% against the Bangladesh Taka. ET. The steep depreciation in the rupee is unfair because India has a low current account deficit, low external debt and is bringing down its fiscal deficit. India has also received a credit rating upgrade from three institutions. It is because of the flood of investment into artificial intelligence (AI) companies drawing funds away from emerging market economies, regardless of fundamentals, wrote Chief Economic Advisor V Ananatha Nageswaran. Theoretically, a central bank cannot go broke because it can print currency (ET), but printing currency makes it weaker, and if the currency keeps losing value, the wealth of the people and the country will become worthless. India may not be bankrupt but its citizens will feel like that. The rupee is not just a piece of paper. It is food, medicines, rent, education and travel for us. Say no to fiscal support. It's suicide.