Pause Rates; SVB Contagion; Naatu Whisperers
Opinion Watch
Pause Rates
Since May last year, the Reserve Bank of India has hiked repo rate by 250 basis points, said The Indian Express in an Editorial to an argument against further increase. February inflation has marginally trended down, said the daily, reminding that Ashima Goyal and Jayanth Varma had voted against rate hikes in the last meeting of the RBI.
The Hindu on the other hand has exuded confidence from an uptick in the index of the industrial production (IIP) at 5.2 per cent in January on the back of shrinking of the gross value addition in the last two quarters of 2022 by 3.6 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively. The Chennai-based sought to lend its voice to a K-shaped economic recovery.
Voices are aplenty questioning the herd mentality of the RBI in copying the US Federal Reserve, which singularly is taking the largest economy into recession. The RBI surely looks short of ideas on combating the cereal-driven food inflation, while making the lives of entrepreneurs and middle class miserable with rate hikes.
SVB Contagion
The Economic Times has said that India may need not worry of the fallout of the 48-hour collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) following a surge in technology borrowing and falling bond prices. The SVB was high on the startup funding globally. The daily said that a slew of measures such as provision of emergency banking support, insurance-backed interventions, would stabilize the situations.
Yet, the daily underlined that the cause of the SVB collapse stays. Hopes are floating that the US Federal Reserve will see reasons and relook hawkish stand on inflation. It also stated at the same time that inflation would hog all limelight.
Startup ecosystem needs brainstorming, for leading lights among venture capitalists are now working as super financial czars, charging high interest rates. The crazy world of startups where they look to become unicorns overnight surely needs a reality check.
Naatu Whisperers
Several dailies have hailed double strikes of the creative Indian world by bagging Oscar awards. The Pioneer, while hailing the feats of the Elephant Whisperers and RRR’s Naatu Naatu, said that India’s soft power has enormous potential. The Hindu said that RRR’s feat shows that the film captured the imagination of the multi-cultural American society.
The Indian Express said that the Oscar laurels show greater global recognition to the fact that there is more to the Indian cinema than the Bollywood. The Noida-based daily underlined the “stubborn campaign by Rajamouli after RRR was snubbed and Chello Show gained India’s official entry to Oscar”.
The Bollywood is short of creative imagination, which is flourishing in the southern parts of the country. The mechanism for official entry to Oscar also needs a relook. At the same time, the audience should reject stereotypes and rusted scripts dished out on OTT platforms.
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