Weekend Bites: RBI kills one bird with one stone, the future of 50-over cricket
“We use a stone to kill a bird” Shaktikanta Das, the governor of the Reserve Bank, said in Friday.
The story of the week
For the fourth time in a row, the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee has decided not to change the repo rate. The decision was unanimous.
The decision to hold the reference interest rate, say expertsis on expected lines and the RBI’s focus on withdrawing the accommodative monetary stance will help reduce inflation while sustaining growth.
Treasury yields jumped to a seven-month high after RBI said it may conduct open market operations to clear liquidity. There is no timetable for this yet and it will depend on the liquidity situation. Market participants said uncertainty over the timing and amount of auctions caused panic selling.
In a press conference, Governor Das also discussed extension of last date for deposit of Rs 2000 notes. Last week, the RBI said that notes worth 3.42 trillion rupees had been received back as of September 29 and 14,000 crore rupees were still outstanding.
The central bank advised banks to remain cautious for unsecured loans, which have grown much faster than total credit in the banking system.
Other news…
On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary, two months before parliamentary elections in three central Hindi-speaking states and six months before Lok Sabha elections, the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar published the results of a survey which revealed the castes comprising Other Backward Class and Extremely Backward Class categories, constitutes 63 percent of the state’s total population of more than 130 million. This prompted renewed demands, including from the Congress, for a national caste census.
On Tuesday, the World Bank raised its retail inflation forecast for India for 2023-24 to 5.9 percent from the 5.2 percent estimate made in April. The country’s economic growth forecast remains at 6.3%, supported by strong investment growth.
Air ticket prices are expected to rise with IndiGo on Thursday introducing a fuel surcharge of up to Rs 1,000 based on flight distance, in response to the rise in aviation turbine fuel prices over the past three months.
Walt Disney Co is in preliminary discussions with potential buyers including billionaires Gautam Adani and Kalanithi Maran for its streaming and TV business in India, Bloomberg reported.
Men represent more than 80 out of every 100 people in management positions in India. And the number has gotten worse for women since the pandemic.
Tech that: A word from the world of technology and startups
Dunzo on-demand delivery platform said one of its four co-founders, Dalveer Suri, would be leaving and announced an organization-wide restructuring starting this quarter.
TCS will consider share buyback on Oct. 11, when its board meets to approve second-quarter financial results.
Watch it: From The Morning Show
At the Asian Games, the Indian men’s cricket team secured a place in the final to secure at least a silver medal. With this, the Indian contingent will return with a load of… That’s a lot of medals. More than ever. And there is a lot of gold in them.
What is behind this? Is it the economy? Dive deep into it here.
What is Suveen obsessed with?
That was always on the cards.
T20 cricket started with the idea of removing the ‘boring’ middle overs from one-day cricket. It succeeded to such an extent that the future of cricket seems to have become synonymous with 20 overs per side.
As an inevitable collateral damage, one-day cricket – 50 overs per side – is rapidly losing audiences. It only comes to life when multi-nation tournaments start. The biggest of these started in India on Thursday.
The opening match was played between the two sides who had played out the pulsating final of the 2019 edition – one filled with the surest ingredient of a successful event: controversy. Still, reports say the stadium wasn’t very full on Thursday.
Still, it was the best-attended opening match of the ODI World Cup and organizers said they were happy with the numbers. It may be that the seating capacity of Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, 130,000, is so large that a large crowd can seem small.
Anyway, 50-over cricket needs a new meaning. Bilateral ODI series are barely making waves in the era of T20 leagues, which are so lucrative that players are giving up national contracts to focus on league cricket. How long will the ODI World Cup continue to be of interest?
The India-Pakistan final may provide an answer of sorts.
This is Suveen, signing off. Please send tips, comments, news or opinions on everything from poetic bankers to packed stadiums to suveen.sinha@bsmail.in.
(Suveen Sinha is the Chief Content Editor at business standard)