10th March

Tough Lessons

The article asks the corporates to take lesson from the recent losses they have suffered due to the exchange rate fluctuations and position themselves better in future to tackle such issues with sagacity.

For Indian corporates, the global economic downturn followed by steep rupee depreciation made them lose big time in the currency deals. As this was their first exposure to the globalized world, the learning curve has to be high. In pre-reform days, they were less exposed to the outside world and the exchange rates were relatively stable. But not anymore. Corporates who thought that the exchange rate is one way street and they would benefit indefinitely find themselves in a shock. Those who failed to hedge themselves against exposure are in a greater trouble and suddenly they find themselves shelling out more rupees to remit outside due to weakening currency. Even those who hedged suffered losses as they didn’t anticipate such a speed and scale of rupee depreciation against dollar – 15% since January. 

The wise thing to do for corporates now is to weigh their risk-return trade off and take only the risk they can bear. It is better for them to cut losses and exit rather then wait for the revival. Nonetheless, it is a lesson for them to concentrate on profits from their core business rather then treasury operations.

Setback for NDA

The article depicts the political cynicism that is currently underway in Orissa with BJD released the knot off BJP on the grounds of seat sharing issue while CPI(M) joins BJD in an attempt to create a third front at the Centre.

The separation of a decade long BJP-BJD alliance in Orissa marks the increasingly fragmented political landscape for the two nationalist parties and also strengthens the emergence of a third front at the Centre. Two major reasons that seem here for the parting besides the electoral conflict are the communalized politics played by the BJP in the state starting from the murder of Graham Stains and the recent church attacks and also the increasing popularity of BJD in the state which gave confidence to the party to reject BJP demands on seat sharing in the general and assembly elections. The alliance also enforced development plans in the state that left out Dalits and Tribals giving an excuse of Maoists threat that hindered the plans in tribal areas. 

However, CPI(M) alliance with BJD also marks the ideological compromises for the former and is reflection of its inability to refashion secular politics by joining ex-BJP ally and showing its dependence on electoral arrangements to keep BJP out.

A symbolic move

The article wonders whether the quest for designing a symbol for Indian Rupee would reach to its logical conclusion considering the diverse Indian history which cannot be represented in a single symbol as demanded by govt.

It could have been no better time to announce the competition for international symbol for Indian Rupee when it is seeing its historical lows against the dollar. However, the demand of the govt that the symbol should represent “historical and cultural ethos” of the country seems doubtful. The rupee came to existence since the time of Sher Shah Suri in 16th century and promoted pan-India by Britishers. While every country has a history or derivation for its symbol which is able to represent the nation in one single symbol; be it British pound, US Dollar or Japanese Yen. But the challenge for the designers of symbol of Indian Rupee is: to show India’s essence in one symbol; something which even the Indian polity has not been able to do. Just go to the election booth this general election and you will find numerous symbols on the voting machine.

Now the question is whether 2.5 lakhs and one month is enough for Indian designers to create a universally accepted symbol of India which has eluded Indian politics since past 50 years?