Shankar Sharma's Special Appearances

If I am starved of entertainment during the day, and work demands a break, I tune in to these business channels where anchors and talking heads get paid to talk. The most amusing speaker according to me is Shankar Sharma - he is the Indian equivalent of a Dr.Doom or a human incarnation of a Nomura Securities. I was tuning in the other day, when Shankar Sharma was on one channel. It was irresistabl...e and irascible as usual. He says (and I paraphrase): "Inflation is not in our hands and only Growth is in our hands and yet RBI Governor has continued raising interest rates even at the cost of sacrificing growth. This 1930s thinking to monetary policy has to change.And hence the market will fall by 2500 points." Or something to that effect. Does he know what he is talking about? I am not concerned if and whether the markets will fall by 2500 points as market panics seldom have reason. But I am aghast at his knowledge of economics (as it is most people who are experts have got zero knowledge of economics but thats another matter) and impact on India. He should realise that India is not a small economy like Zimbabwe or Argentina which can afford hyperinflation. There will be issues - social and civil if ground inflation reaches a critical stage and we just can't afford it. There will be issues, he should know, with currency if Rupee touches 60 to a dollar and nobody will allow borrowing against your currency. So, RBI and its legacy of governors from Rangarajan to Jalan to Reddy to Subba Rao are well in their groove to know whats right for the country. I am a beneficiary of capital markets but that doesn't mean the country is less important than stock markets. People like Shankar Sharma who have this foot-in-the-mouth disease and self-righteousness can only make special appearances when the markets are already punished 25 per cent - so they can make more money for jam by going short on the market which is already in panic mode. Discerning viewers and investors will know who comes in when. Coming back to the currency and RBI's policy, now that China has cut interest rates and we have already raised 365 basis points since the last cut - RBI has got every trick in its sleeve to cut to grow. We don't need traders barred by SEBI to tell RBI what to do. RBI's Central Governors can rank amongst the best Governors in the world - they are not just here to sign one rupee notes; they are here to make sure the rupee note is honored by the rest of the world as well and retains the face value they sign on.