Stagflation Spectre; Xi Outreach; Culture Cuddle
Opinion Watch
Stagflation Spectre
The Hindu has warned that the failure to ensure price stability along with lack of GDT rationalization could push India into a state of stagflation – an economic situation characterized by high inflation and low growth. It stated that RBI’s retail inflation projection of 5.7 per cent in the last quarter is now beyond the realm of possibility.
Retail inflation for February came at 6.44 per cent on basis of NSSO data, said Chennai-based daily, adding only a 4.1 per cent for March could help meet RBI projection, needing a whopping 230 basis points slump in retail price rise. Despite RBI hiking Repo rate by 250 points, core inflation stays above six per cent, while cereals and fruits sweat out mandarins of inflation management.
India imported inflation on the back of Ukraine War, but the government nurses it as a baby by exhibiting nonchalance to economic stress. Crude oil is now touching $70 a barrel, but government will not cut retail fuel prices. Economic growth may possibly not be fetching votes, but freebies indeed bring poll victories.
Xi Outreach
On a high after brokering normalization of ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Chinese President Xi Jinping is now in Moscow for three days. The Asian Age has sought to suggest in its Editorial that peace efforts from any quarter in the Ukraine War is welcome.
The daily has argued that there’s no justification to claims of the West that Xi’s outreach amounts to ratification of the Russian conquests in Ukraine. It also stated that the Russia-Ukraine War is now in a state of a stalemate.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the occupied Mariupol in the shadow of night when the city turned ghostly ahead of Xi visit. The West has shown least interest in Xi visit to Moscow, as reports came of Chinese ammunitions used in the Ukraine War, and the US-led alliance may continue to arm and fund Ukraine for a multi-year war.
Culture Cuddle
Norway has a very vibrant Indian diaspora. Over 20,000 Indians living in Norway are crucial parts of Norway’s knowledge-based economy. But Mrs Chatterjee had to wage a battle against Norway after she was separated from her children, which is now coming on the silver screen with Rani Mukherjee essaying the role of the furious mother.
The Pioneer in its Editorial examined the Norwegian Ambassador Hans Jacob Frydenlund defending his country from the fury of Mrs Chatterjee by arguing that he too fed his children with hands and shared bed with them. The daily empathized with the Ambassador, arguing that localized cultural norms must be respected by the immigrants as is the case in Saudi Arabia where non-Muslims cannot offer prayers in public and Europeans cannot spread legs for sunbath on the banks of River Ganga in Varanasi.
The Scandinavian countries are highly affluent and obsessive about idealism in personal spheres. The illiteracy of Norwegian authorities was bared in the Mrs Chatterjee case, and that should remain a lesson for the country, which is benefiting from Indians.
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