21 highlights
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We sipped a glass of red wine to our own health, picked up bags of plump apricots from the bazaar, and found lodgings in the Bhimtal tourist home, where we continued to toast our health through the evening, and well into the night.
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The chowkidar offered us ‘chai’, but we asked for empty glasses, and raised a toast - to autumn views of Nanda Devi.
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That afternoon, we invited ourselves into an estate in Sitla, where Kanai and Lakshmi Lal made us feel like old friends over coffee and home-made cake. “How do I buy land here?” I asked them. “Get in the back of the queue”, Kanai reacted.
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It was to Satoli that my wife and I moved for an extended honeymoon, in 1997. We had taken a year off to celebrate our marriage, but as the romance of the monsoons yielded to the golden, intoxicated light of autumn, we couldn’t tear ourselves away. Our son spent his first 5 years in those forests, toddling up and down the paths, cramming his mouth with berries off the bushes, learning to swim in the irrigation tank, being rocked to sleep by Dave Matthews pounding into the stillness of the night.
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I was long possessed by the intent to live in nature, but even as I profess to live by reason and logic, I remind myself of the power of randomness.
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Where have all the 2000 rupee notes gone, an April article in the Frontline magazine asked. The Minister of State for Finance told the Parliament that, in November 2021, the pink notes accounted for 15% of the value of notes in circulation, down from 37% in 2018. This drastic reduction has nothing to do with the demand for 2000 rupee notes. It is clearly a part of the stated policy to move India towards a cashless economy. To nudge us along - not so gently - the RBI has stopped printing 2000 rupee notes.
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Meanwhile - you might ask - how is the cashless society project coming along? Not so hot. In November 2016, we had 17.74 tn rupees worth of notes in circulation. That number has now crossed 30 tn., a growth of 67%. India’s preference for cash is evident, not just in mandis and informal markets; even in e-commerce, half of deliveries are paid by Cash On Delivery (C.O.D.), and the percentage rises as you go from the metros to smaller towns.
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There has been a great deal of policy thinking about why people prefer to hold cash. Bruce Bartlett, a senior policy official in the US Reagan and Bush administrations summed it up well, “Convenience, dependability and anonymity.”
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Bruce Bartlett, a senior policy official in the US Reagan and Bush administrations summed it up well, “Convenience, dependability and anonymity.”
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The US dollar provides this service globally, and one of the more startling statistics to come my way was that over two-thirds of 100 dollar bills were held overseas in 2011. I haven’t seen a more recent number, but it seems logical that the recent strength in the dollar has driven demand even higher.
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does not qualify as policy, which must take into account people’s concerns and preferences, and find ways to address them. There has been a great deal of policy thinking about why people prefer to hold cash. Bruce Bartlett, a senior policy official in the US Reagan and Bush administrations summed it up well, “Convenience, dependability and anonymity.”
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Bludgeoning people into submission - as this government tried with demonetisation - does not qualify as policy, which must take into account people’s concerns and preferences, and find ways to address them. There has been a great deal of policy thinking about why people prefer to hold cash. Bruce Bartlett, a senior policy official in the US Reagan and Bush administrations summed it up well, “Convenience, dependability and anonymity.”
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cash. Bruce Bartlett, a senior policy official in the US Reagan and Bush administrations summed it up well, “Convenience, dependability and anonymity.”
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acquired a pre-dinner habit in May - checking the NSE (National Stock Exchange) site, to see whether foreign investors had once again taken money out of Indian equities. So far they have done so, every single day. I texted as much to Vivek Joshi on Thursday. “FIIs have a Systematic Withdrawal Plan”, he responded.
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I acquired a pre-dinner habit in May - checking the NSE (National Stock Exchange) site, to see whether foreign investors had once again taken money out of Indian equities. So far they have done so, every single day. I texted as much to Vivek Joshi on Thursday. “FIIs have a Systematic Withdrawal Plan”, he responded.
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I acquired a pre-dinner habit in May - checking the NSE (National Stock Exchange) site, to see whether foreign investors had once again taken money out of Indian equities. So far they have done so, every single day.
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I texted as much to Vivek Joshi on Thursday. “FIIs have a Systematic Withdrawal Plan”, he responded.
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“FIIs have a Systematic Withdrawal Plan”, he responded.
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FIIs have a Systematic Withdrawal Plan”, he responded
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“FIIs have a Systematic Withdrawal Plan”
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“FIIs have a Systematic Withdrawal Plan”,