The Hindu Editorial Analysis In English | Free PDF Download

Table of Contents

Focus on inflation

• Festival season around the corner
• Reserve Bank of India: key rate unchanged at 6.5% in its policy review
• Stance: neutral to calibrated tightening
• Rate hike was expected after the U.S. Fed raised rates
• It seems that RBI is worried more about LIQUIDITY

• Notably, the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to keep rates steady was strongly endorsed by its members, with just a lone member voting against the decision.
• RBI officials termed inflation control as their legal mandate
• Current Account Deficit has not yet stabilised: it is widening still, meaning that rupee depreciation has scope to compress imports further.

Repo rate:

at which the Reserve Bank lends to banks 6-member monetary policy committee rate cut is off
the table One basis point is onehundredth of a percentage point

Augmenting life

• 2018 Nobel Prize for Chemistry: a tribute to the power of evolution.
• Frances H. Arnold, an American who was given ½ of the prize, used ‘directed evolution’ to synthesise variants of naturally occurring enzymes that could be used to manufacture biofuels and pharmaceuticals.
• ½ for George P. Smith & Sir Gregory P. Winter: evolved antibodies to combat autoimmune diseases and even metastatic cancer through a process called phage display.
• 2018 Physiology and Medicine prize: James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo different strategies can inhibit the metaphorical ‘brakes’ acting on the immune system and thereby unleash the system’s power on cancer cells to curb their proliferation.

• These immunologists have enhanced the power of the body’s immune system to go beyond its
natural capacity.
• 2018 Physics: ½ for Arthur Ashkin for enabling us to individually hold, study and manipulate
tiny bacteria and viruses using ‘optical tweezers’.
• ½ for Gérard Mourou & Donna Strickland who share the other half of the Physics prize, have
been honoured for their methods to generate ultra-short pulses of laser light.
• In sum, the prize-winners have drawn upon the fundamental forces in science and reached out beyond human physical limitations.

Avoiding the currency basket case

• Indian rupee was once a multilateral currency
• Even after Independence, Dubai and other Gulf state were using RBI-minted Gulf rupees until 1966.
• 1950s-1970s: gold smuggling was rampant on the Konkan coast
• Only the devaluation of the Indian rupee in 1966, after the 1965 war, led to such nations switching to their own currencies.
• Nepal and Bhutan regularly conduct bilateral trade with India in rupees.

• The value of the rupee itself has varied over the years too – contrary to WhatsApp rumours, the rupee was never equal to the U.S. dollar.
• 1947: ₹3.30
• 1966: ₹7.50
• 1995: ₹32.4
• Reasons: Wars, 5 year plans requiring foreign loans, political instability, Oil Price Shock of 1973
• The ongoing U.S.-China trade war, Iran sanctions and further upward movement in oil prices will continue to test the rupee’s valuation.
• India should consider formalising the rupee payment mechanism with friendly countries
such as Russia, with a focus on reducing its overall current account deficit.
• A lower rupee is a recipe for a higher import burden, spiralling eventually into a currency
crisis.
• Tax rate rationalisation, with lower tax rates as an end goal, would increase the tax base and
increase compliance with tax returns.
• Administrative agreements with countries like the U.K. and Switzerland which can offer mutual tax sharing should be encouraged.
• To restore the rupee’s multilateral nature, we must unshackle its usage.

Important News

• India, Russia sign S-400 missile deal after summit
• One of the biggest defence deals in recent times
• “India gives top priority to its relations with Russia. In this rapidly changing world, our relations have become more relevant,” Mr. Modi said after the meeting, his third summit with Mr. Putin this year.
• U.S. Embassy: “transaction-by-transaction basis” waiver

• Congolese doctor, Yazidi activist get Nobel Peace Prize
• SC notice on faulty J&J hip implants
• A Supreme Court Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Friday sought the Union government’s response to a petition seeking action against officials who cleared the sale of the “faulty” DePuy ASR hip implants of Johnson and Johnson “without proper clinical trial.”
• Firing fiasco: U.P. to retrain police
• Days after an Apple employee was shot dead by a Uttar Pradesh police constable in Lucknow for not stopping his SUV, some 40,000 policemen are being sent back to the classroom.
• Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) O.P. Singh told The Hindu that in the past five to six years, there has been a huge erosion in training standards.
• Delhi HC acquits Ilyasi of murder
• Eighteen years after the wife of the anchor of ‘India’s Most Wanted’ died of stab wounds, the Delhi High Court on Friday acquitted Suhaib Ilyasi of murder charges, while not ruling out the possibility of the deceased committing suicide.
• Pence speech signals a new Cold War
• U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence’s accusations in a stinging speech on Thursday, warning of a tougher approach towards Beijing may have been familiar to China’s leaders.