RBI and its worries

v The RBI Credit Policy has given conflicting signals about the stance of Monetary Policy. Faced with high inflationary expectations on one hand and tight liquidity in money markets on the other, it has left interest rates and CRR unchanged, while announcing Open Market Operation (OMO) to ease liquidity. Recently it has intervened in foreign exchange markets in amounts that could possibly impact the Rupee, and perhaps only help increase liquidity. The Indian Money market is plagued with a different type of disease where cut in policy rates does not transfers to market interest rates. A number of restrictions on the functioning of money, bond and credit markets render it unresponsive to the RBI’s policy rate changes. The operating framework of monetary policy, which works by keeping money market rates within the bracket of policy rates of repo and reverse repo rates, has broken down. This has rendered policy rates irrelevant. In the process of tightening monetary policy in response to inflation it employed many instruments (Policy interest rates, CRR, SLR, and OMO). The multiple objectives, multiple instrument framework only suggests that RBI reacts to the situation in the market on a day to day basis, where different instruments have been moving in different directions.

Mining and Environment

Mining companies give us the metals and minerals that humanity uses for shelter, survival, work and pleasure, as well as the expansion into space and interplanetary endeavors. At the same time, they want to conduct this business in an environmentally responsible manner. Yet mining by its very nature requires that land, air and water systems be disturbed. While the economic benefits of the industry are as important today as they ever were, the public has become increasingly concerned about the impact that mining is having on the natural environment.

The metals and industrial minerals that mining produces can find their way into the environment and become pollutants. The byproducts that occur with the metals, such as sulphur and arsenic, can be dangerous to the environment if they are released. The fuels and chemicals the industry uses to do its job are potential pollutants too. Mining creates and employs hazardous substances that must be handled with a lot of care.

Other pollutants produced by the mining industry are of more concern to the workers in the industry than to the public which are at large. Dusts, for example, which are most of the time hazardous hygienically, are produced by a lot of mining activities. Noise, too, is a form of pollution of concern for those in the environment of work. In uranium mines, the products of radioactive decay are a principal concern.

The challenge for industries is to find, extract and process mineral resources with the least possible environmental disruption. To be able to meet this challenge, they adopt an expanded range of protective measures, including: sensitive treatment of the land during exploration; environmental and aesthetic management of land under development; environmentally sustainable production procedures during the mining and metallurgical processes; and decommissioning and reclamation practices aimed at restoring the land.

Accountability and environmental performance are important issues for the mining companies, their share-holders and the public. Most companies now include a discussion of environmental topics in their yearly reports so as to keep shareholders and the public informed about the measures they are taking to protect the land, water and air quality at their operations.

Giving the children of prostitutes their due.

Critical comment is made concerning the plight of prostitutes children in India. Little attention has been paid to these children who are victims of their circumstances from birth, denied the opportunity to be free of their background, and deprived of an environment conducive to healthy physical and psychological development. The children suffer from nutritional deficiencies, minimal health care, nonavailability of basic needs, and social handicaps. Although government has initiated measures to improve conditions for these children, their status isolated them from the mainstream and places them on the lowest social rung. They are also likely to follow in their mothers footsteps, and eventually engage in procurement or pimping. Discrimination among the children is exhibited in education where boys are given priority, in denial of choice in joining a trade for self development, and/or in inheritance where prostitution earnings accrue to sons. The estimate 5,000,000 children of prostitutes in India deserve priority treatment. The mothers' backgrounds divide the children into several categories children of mothers dedicated as Devadasis or joins to fulfill parental religious belief, to combat poverty, or because of social pressures; children of those belonging to communities where prostitution is an accepted practice; those pursuing singing and dancing careers and who are attached to men as concubines for a longer period of time; and those who are hoodwinked into joining the trade. Prostitutes bear children out of a desire to enter into a tangible human relationship that is genuine, meaningful, and lasting. Sometimes children are economic and emotional necessities. There have been government efforts to provide benefits to Devadasi children. In addition, Chapter III of the Juvenile Justice Act attempts to protect neglected juveniles. Other approaches needed are Development Care Centers in every red-light district. Mothers need to realize the importance of keeping children away from the trade. They must also be informed of government programs and learn to value education. A cooperative effort must be undertaken by government and nongovernmental organizations and organizations of prostitutes to improve the future for these children.