Rajan warns against 'euphoria' over fastest-growing tag


Pune, Apr 20 (PTI): Warning against being "euphoric" about India being the fastest-growing economy, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan today sought to contextualise his "one-eyed king" remarks about India's growth and said the country has a long way to go before it claims to have arrived.

"As a central banker who has to be pragmatic, I cannot get euphoric if India is the fastest growing large economy," he said.

Seeking to explain his 'one-eyed king' comments, Rajan said his comments were "hung out to dry out of context" and even offered an apology to the visually-impaired for hurting them by the use of the proverb.

Stating that the per-capita income of Indians remains lowest among BRICS, Rajan said, "We have a long way to go before we can claim we have arrived. We need to repeat this performance (economic growth) for 20 years before we can give each Indian a decent livelihood."

He also said India's global reputation holds great promise, but is seen as a country that has under-delivered and that it should "implement, implement, and implement" the structural reforms.

Speaking at the convocation of National Institute of Bank Management, Rajan said India is yet to achieve its potential growth though it is on the cusp of that and a substantial pick-up in growth can be achieved with pending reforms.

Making a reference to his last week's interview to a foreign publication where he likened India being the fastest-growing major economy to a case of the one-eyed man being king in the land of the blind, Rajan said his comments were interpreted as having denigrated the country's success rather than emphasising on the need to do more.

"... Every word or phrase that a public figure speaks is intensely wrung out of meaning. When words are hung out to dry out of context as in the newspaper headline, it only becomes a fair game for anyone who wants to fill in, meaning to create mischief," he said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had rebutted Rajan's remarks, saying compared with the rest of the world, the Indian economy is growing much faster and, in fact, the fastest.
Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman too had not taken Rajan's remarks lightly, saying better words should have been used.

Rajan today said commonly used words or proverbs can "most easily and deliberately be misinterpreted".

"If we are to have a reasonable public dialogue, we should read words in their context, not stripped of it," he said.

He, however, apologised to the visually-impaired whose association had criticised Rajan for using the proverb.

"I do want to apologise to a section of the population that I did hurt with these words, that is the visually impaired, or the blind," Rajan said.

Queried for his take on India being the 'bright spot', Rajan during last week's interview had said: "I think we have still to get to a place where we feel satisfied. We have this saying 'In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king'. We are a little bit that way."

Rajan further said: "We are often compared with China but the Chinese economy, smaller than us in the 1960s, is now 5 times our size. The average Chinese citizen is over four times richer than the average Indian".

But the Governor was quick to add that this was not to disparage what has, and is, been done. "The Centre and states have been creating a platform for strong and sustainable growth, and I am confident the payoffs are on their way, but until we have stayed on this path for some time, I remain cautious."

Stating that he was misunderstood with his usage of the phrase 'andhon mein kanha raja'...('In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king') he said he "used the phrase andhon mein kanha raja...which the proverb has a long, multinational history."

The RBI Governor added: "My intent in saying it, and it was an off-hand comment, was to signal that our outperformance was accentuated by the world's weak performance. But we are still hungry for more growth. I then explained that we are not yet at our potential, though we are at the cusp of a substantial pick-up in growth given all the reforms that are underway."

Calling for a culture of better and more rational public dialogue, he said, "but few read beyond the headlines. The interview became moderately controversial, with the implication that I was denigrating our success rather than emphasising that we need to do more."

Rajan's comments had created some uneasiness in the government with Jailtey asserting that the Indian economy is the fastest growing large economy in the world.

The Finance Minister also forecast a 8-8.5 per cent growth this year if the monsoons are normal.

  

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Comment on this article

  • Vincent Rodrigues, Frazer Town,B'lore

    Thu, Apr 21 2016

    Media and the politician spoil the nation.Please fix accountability to the politically motivated misguiding media which also do media trial against the cases in the court.

    DisAgree Agree [1] Reply Report Abuse

  • A. S. Mathew, U.S.A.

    Wed, Apr 20 2016

    The unreachable GDP target prediction by the Finance Minister
    Jaitley, Mr. Modi's fantasy economic prophecy telling repeatedly that India will be leading the world economy etc etc are brain storming rhetoric, far away from any reality.

    India's export is way down even with the very poor $/Rs rate. How many jobs are created so far?
    How many billions so far reached in the FDI sector even with 100% ownership? The Railway Minister went around to attract investment with 100% ownership in a dilapidated Government toy, he said that it takes $ 500 billion to revamp the Railway. How many billions have landed in the Indian Railway? How many Banks are headed towards capital crisis now? How many Indian expatriates working in the GCC countries due to the plugged oil price can be employed in India?
    How the Indian economy of $ 2.3 trillion can swim alone in the vast economic ocean faced with very violent economic crisis?

    The U.S. Government is boasting about the lowest unemployment rate, but why the economy is not growing even with very low oil price? The created jobs are very low paying service jobs.

    Politicians are well versed in political rhetoric all over the world to bluff and brainwash the electorate to keep their political party and leadership intact for ever.

    DisAgree [3] Agree [8] Reply Report Abuse

  • Bachu, Mangalore

    Wed, Apr 20 2016

    Rajan Sir start to count your days i dont think Modi govt. will tolerate you.Sooner or later they going to replace you with Asharam Bapu like figure

    DisAgree [2] Agree [15] Reply Report Abuse

  • Rakib, Mangalore

    Wed, Apr 20 2016

    Atleast we have some one sensible as RBI governor thanks to ManMohan Singh for bring him otherwise Feku hi Feku everywhere in government.

    DisAgree [2] Agree [9] Reply Report Abuse

  • A. S. Mathew, U.S.A.

    Wed, Apr 20 2016

    Srimathi Irani is a great choice as the Governor of the Reserve Bank, she can change the status of the Indian Rs through replacing the U.S. dollar as the world currency.

    DisAgree [1] Agree [7] Reply Report Abuse

  • PenMightierThanTheSword!, Mangalore

    Wed, Apr 20 2016

    "I think we have still to get to a place where we feel satisfied. We have this saying — 'In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king'. We are a little bit that way,"...RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan's description of Indian economy! Read: "India 'one-eyed' king in land of blind, says Rajan" — Business Standard | Press Trust Of India | Washington April 16, 2016.

    DisAgree [1] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Desi Jawan, Mangaluru

    Wed, Apr 20 2016

    When banks were lending money to all the folks (including Mallya) without any security he was quiet and when the govt is making efforts to stabilize the economy he has started speaking like MMS. Everyone is willing to speak out of turn without accepting accountability. If he cannot manage he should quit and move away rather than sending negative signals to foreign investors and encouraging them to take back the FDI. He should talk to the Govt if he has any solution and if it is not agreed he should make the way.

    DisAgree [5] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Ahmed, Mangaluru

    Wed, Apr 20 2016

    Once upon a time it was "India Shinning" now it is "Fastest Growing Economy". They always chant such things to brainwash public.

    DisAgree [5] Agree [14] Reply Report Abuse

  • A. S. Mathew, U.S.A.

    Wed, Apr 20 2016

    Dear Friend, now the rocket speed economic growth of India has created big problems for China and the rest of the world without having the right tool for them to challenge India's super sonic economic growth. Chinese jobs are shifting by the thousands to India every day, thus China will be in more trouble.

    Niketha Kruschove of Russia took off his shoes while speaking at the UN in 1960s hitting the podium " we will bury the capitalistic countries specifically targeting the U.S.", likewise India will be burying other nations through her economic prosperity generated by the BJP under the leadership of Mr. Modi. We all can be very proud about that.

    The greatest number of expatriates working in the GCC countries are from India, out of that 40% are from Kerala. Mr. Modi is not all interested in Kerala's economic problems, but he has to help the GCC countries at this very critical time they are faced with the totally unanticipated economic red ink created by the highly plunged oil price.

    DisAgree [1] Agree [1] Reply Report Abuse

  • A. S. Mathew, U.S.A.

    Wed, Apr 20 2016

    A few months back when Jaitely was speaking at the Columbia University predicted that the GDP of India will be 8-10% while World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were telling not more than 7.5%. Two months back when he visited, he kept quite about the GDP prediction. Recently when he came for the G-20 meeting, he had the grime face and worried about the world economy and that of India too in secrecy.

    If India is another planet and not a part of the good earth, the politicians can deliver baseless economic predictions to bluff the electorate.

    How many trillions of dollars have been disappeared from the world economy during the last 8 years?
    Now another big headache of commodity price plunging.

    Simply take the largest oil exporter Saudi Arabia, exporting close to 9 million barrels of oil/day. Oil price in June 2012 was $ 147.00/bl, in June 2014 it was 115.00/bl. Once it went all the way down to $ 27.00/bl. How many millions of dollars are lost for Saudi Arabia alone/day, how they can meet the budget?

    While talking with my personal friend in Calgary, Alberta he said the lay offs in the oil sector is by the thousands now due to the highly plunged oil price.

    Thus the whole world economy is caught up in a very serious crisis now due to the highly plunged oil-natural gas and other commodity prices but India is growing too fast, the only country in the world growing at that speed?

    DisAgree Agree [1] Reply Report Abuse

  • Shankar, Mangalore

    Wed, Apr 20 2016

    Economic growth rate is always relative. So what, we are the best among all other countries who are not performing as we do?

    DisAgree [11] Agree [4] Reply Report Abuse

  • CONRAD JOHN TAURO, SHIRVA/UDUPI/DUBAI

    Wed, Apr 20 2016

    Warning to PM.
    Economy to harm...

    DisAgree [3] Agree [12] Reply Report Abuse


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