Articles by Manavendra

These Budgety Days. . .
Romesh Thapar DURING the past week, with national budgeting on the agenda, we have been fed on a steady diet of reactions from that mysterious being known as 'the common man'. The 'reactions' are, in fact, the concoctions of corrupt politicians, moronic news reporters, and a host of gossips whose commentaries on the present situation prove only one fact: that economic understanding is certainly not one of our national plus points.

Easy Money Euphoria Manavendra SIGNS of industrial revival and plentiful money supply seem to have made the authorities oblivious to the wider dangers of stagnation. There arc at least three clear indications of these new trends. First, plentiful money supply is an index of the existence of large unutilised capacity in industry. Second, after several weeks when the price index was between 1 and 2 per cent lower than in the corresponding weeks of the previous year, the price level has begun to rise again, even faster than last year (the wholesale price index for the week ending March 22, 1969 was 5.4 per cent higher than for the corresponding week in 1968). Third, States have "planned" for massive deficits in their budgets.