in this section, we are presenting our readers/aspirants compilation of selected editorials of national daily viz. The Hindu, The live mint,The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Economic Times, PIB etc. This section caters the requirement of Civil Services Mains (GS + Essay) , PCS, HAS Mains (GS + Essay) & others essay writing competition
1. Storm warning: India must prepare as US Fed shifts stance
If the balance sheet of the US Federal Reserve represented an economy, it would be the world’s third largest at $7.9 trillion. Any prospective change in the size of its balance sheet or its interest rates influences financial markets across the world, forcing other central bankers to adjust their policy stance. This week the Federal Reserve’s board indicated that it may raise interest rates by late 2023 and look at shrinking its balance sheet to adjust to changing economic conditions. It was enough to rattle financial markets.
Widespread vaccination and huge fiscal support have charged up the US economy. Driven by consumer spending, the annualised growth of the world’s largest economy this year is expected to be a robust 6.4%. Simultaneously, inflation has soared to 5% in May, way above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%. Therefore, as financial markets second guess when the current loose monetary policy will be reversed, there will be bouts of volatility. This will affect almost everyone as foreign portfolio investments get reallocated according to changes in US interest rate. Global financial market volatility is now a given.
Within this larger context, RBI and GoI face another challenge. The pace of India’s economic recovery has slowed after the second wave. The current policy challenge is to keep interest rates low to support growth even as consumer inflation has begun to trend upwards to 6.3% in May. Financial market volatility can squeeze space for both monetary and fiscal policy. Both RBI and GoI need to prepare for a scenario where the Indian economy will need continued monetary support and additional fiscal packages to revive domestic consumption even when financial markets are volatile. It’s best to work out the details of fiscal support early as the best antidote to a volatile phase is to provide certainty to all stakeholders.
2.My book, your ‘ism’: Let old classics enable an honest engagement with the past
If you are woke, you will point fingers at others you think are still asleep, and sometimes those others will complain. So it is no surprise that when the charity English Heritage said the work of Enid Blyton has been criticised for “racism, xenophobia and lack of literary merit”, it set off high emotions among the long-dead author’s many desi fans. Actor Pooja Bhatt voiced their widespread frustration: “There goes my childhood.”
What people read can change over time. It can be that your treasured bedtime reading as a child is not your children’s favourite. That’s free choice and also a natural process of change. But it’s a very different case when authors and texts are comprehensively branded by ‘isms’ that took shape long after them, and aggressively removed from circulation. Readers are then denied the opportunity to form their own relationship, including a complex one in which black, white and grey coexist. Retrospective judgments, labelling old classics as morally suspect, can sabotage any honest engagement with the past.
That’s true for India’s literary heritage, too. For example, today’s cultural commentators can recoil at what they see as colonial sympathies in Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Anandamath or what may be judged as sexism in Kalidas’s Shakuntala. But these are our heritage, which we should meet in all its rich density, instead of through narrow moral straightjackets. Societies are endlessly shapeshifting. Today’s codes on equality will give way to tomorrow’s. Through it all let our collective library expand. Let readers be the judge.