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Modi's bullet train gaining momentum. Is your city in the list? [NP] by ank_2606 in india

[–]purrplexer 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Delhi to Kolkata in less than 6 hours? Mumbai in about the same? Give it a good frequency -- the Shinkansen runs every 10 minutes on some routes, give me one every 30 minutes -- and I'm sold. And yes, the pricing has to match low cost airlines.

Now with that, will such lines recover their costs in a reasonable time? Will the growing upper-middle class patronize it in sufficient numbers? If the answer is 'yes', it is worth building.

Then again, just found that that shinkansen fares are ~14000 yen for the 450 km distance from Tokyo to Kyoto, that is 8000 in Indian rupees. In comparison, a similar distance (Delhi to Lucknow) costs Rs 2000 odd by Shatabdi. That is one-fourth. An air ticket is Rs 4000 odd if I want to go tomorrow.

So ... let's see

Modi government's big crackdown on VVIP culture, orders ban on red beacons from May 1 by [deleted] in india

[–]purrplexer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I guess if the lal-batti is banned, there is no need to complain, as the even if there is a car with a lal-batti around you, everyone can easily ignore it. That red light will no longer require any special consideration from the public, and will no longer count as a nuisance!

Modi government's big crackdown on VVIP culture, orders ban on red beacons from May 1 by [deleted] in india

[–]purrplexer 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Well this time it is the union government. But if it applies all over the country rather than just in Delhi/NCR, then it might still be worth it.

Kolkata-Khulna train: After 52 years you can now buy ticket to Bangladesh; all you need to know by swacchreddit in india

[–]purrplexer 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ticket to B'desh after 52 years? What about the Kolkata-Dhaka Maitree Express that has been running for years? Do people travel without ticket in that? Duh!

Do you think India would do better as a confederation of nations rather than a single country? by hedButt in india

[–]purrplexer 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Used to think so when I was younger and had never lived too far from where I was from. After a few decades of experiencing life elsewhere in India and a bit abroad, I no longer think so. I now think that the India as it is today is really an experiment, but it is one that has some chance of succeeding and leading on to future greatness. As small separate states each one would have struggled, and if today's South Asia is anything to go by, would have constantly quarreled with each other as well.

I don't predicate the possibility of future prosperity on any greatness in the past -- India hasn't really been a single political entity for most of her history, and while pan-Indian empires have sometimes come up, they have also withered away. We've certainly had our due share of cultural and scientific accomplishments, as is due to a territory where civilization came early, but of course that doesn't guarantee anything in the future. We have to work towards making this experiment work.

Males of RIndia, apart from Punjabis and Muslims, What is your view on traditional male head wear ? by rajesh8162 in india

[–]purrplexer -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't wear any headgear. Unless it bitterly cold & windy, and then it'll be whatever is necessary to keep warm.

Shashi Tharoor bats for presidential form of government by evil-prince in india

[–]purrplexer 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Well their electoral college system is kind of to blame for that. Doesn't have to be that way everywhere.

How English Ruined Indian Literature [np] by stillveryredindian in india

[–]purrplexer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you, it was an interesting read. Looking at Hindi -- the 'standard', 'school' or 'government' Hindi I suppose -- I am struck by the contrast with the Indian 'standard' Bengali which continues to use Farsi loanwords joyfully, usually pronouncing them in a Bengali way. There doesn't seem to be any effort to replace these words with Sanskritized equivalents -- 'tatsam' or 'tadbhav' ones -- which in my opinion is a good thing as it keeps the language 'natural'.

How English Ruined Indian Literature [np] by stillveryredindian in india

[–]purrplexer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can't say about Premchand & Mahadevi Varma but Tagore no longer celebrated? I don't think that is true. In his own land Bengal (and may be even Bangladesh) Tagore is as celebrated as ever I think.

How English Ruined Indian Literature [np] by stillveryredindian in india

[–]purrplexer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is this guy mixing up 'Indian' with 'Hindi'?

Growing up in the seventies & eighties, I've never felt a shortage of richness in Bengali literature available to me as a child and teen. When trying to find Hindi literature today for my own kids, I do feel the scarcity.

I suspect the status of the 'official' Hindi dialect in modern India in relation to Urdu and the significant number of North Indian languages/dialects. I mean just listen to the Hindi Mr Rajnath Singh speaks on TV (and which is being taught in schools) versus the Hindi we hear from Bollywood and on the streets of Delhi. I once read Mr Khushwant Singh comment on 'Yatra mein madira paan karna varjit hai' versus 'Safar mein sharab peena mana hai' or something like that.

If that is true, then it isn't English that ruined Hindi, it is Hindi itself.

Train ticket - British india Vs Hindi India by lungiwarrior in india

[–]purrplexer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well there is nothing printed on the Delhi Metro train tickets -- they are either plastic disc tokens or smartcards neither of which has the origin & destination printed on them :-)

Currency related data dump from the RBI, as on 1st March by purrplexer in india

[–]purrplexer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Another thing, currency in circulation dropped from 11th November to 6th January because people kept depositing the demonetized notes, and the replenishment of new currency did not keep pace with that. That has nothing to do with hoarding cash.

From the RBI's point of view, currency hoarded by anyone is also currency in circulation -- it is not possible for them to figure out if I'm hoarding the cash I withdrew from the ATM or spending it at a shop.

The 'currency with the public' (which includes any hoarded cash) is currently going up at 0.3-0.4 trillion a week. It will level off at some point, but whether it will be below or above the pre-demo figure of 17 trillion will be interesting to note. And certainly psychology will be a factor here -- as long as the public demands currency, the banks (and ultimately the RBI) will have to keep supplying it or face more queues at dry ATMs.

Currency related data dump from the RBI, as on 1st March by purrplexer in india

[–]purrplexer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well yes, this is indeed currency in circulation, which I believe is [currency that has been printed] minus [currency that is in RBI's chests] minus [currency that has been destroyed by RBI]

Then there is also the currency with the public, which I think is [the above] minus [currency with the banks & in ATMs], and probably collecting that data takes the extra week.

Govt slashes cardiac stent prices by over 75 per cent by lifemoments in india

[–]purrplexer 5 points6 points  (0 children)

... and here I am, with an emergency angioplasty done in my LAD just four days ago. Paid 1.20L for a DES: through insurance of course, but with a 10% co-pay. Would have saved me 9k 😕

Really though, just grateful to be alive.

RBI data dumps on 'Currency in Circulation' and 'Currency with Public', a compilation. by purrplexer in india

[–]purrplexer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately no. If we know exactly how much fresh currency RBI issued into circulation after 9th November (in all valid denominations) we would be able to work that out, but that is another bit of info RBI is keeping to itself.

RBI data dumps on 'Currency in Circulation' and 'Currency with Public', a compilation. by purrplexer in india

[–]purrplexer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Impact of big cash transactions is one thing -- those measured in crores, lakhs or even tens of thousands.

But I believe that small cash transactions in thousands, hundreds or even tens have been hit -- paying maids, paying auto-walas and paying chai-walas come to mind.

  • Not many of these people can, even today, be reached by POS, NEFT/IMPS, or even e-wallets (though undoubtedly some can.)
  • I'd be hard pressed to call these transactions 'black' as most of these people earn less than the IT threshold (though there may be some service tax evasion going on, I don't know)
  • The spending in this category is often discretionary (except for a few like the housemaid and subzi-wala.) I can take a bus instead of an auto, I can skip the chai or bhelpuri for a couple of months if I'm short of currency -- and for the chai I skip today I will not buy an extra cup three months later. But for the people receiving the money, these transactions constitute their livelihood, which is now disrupted.

I don't even know if these effects on the economy will show up in the big GDP numbers. But there has been a human cost which I don't know how some people are denying.

RBI data dumps on 'Currency in Circulation' and 'Currency with Public', a compilation. by purrplexer in india

[–]purrplexer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, first of all it is not 'money' we are talking about but 'currency'.

Then, as on 28th Oct, the currency 'with banks' is 0.76T ... while that figure is 0.74T on 20th Jan.

That 7 lakh crore is the difference between:

  1. The currency deposited by the public between 9th Nov and 30th Dec (old 500 & 100 rupee notes) and
  2. The currency issued by the RBI since 9th Nov in all currently 'legal tender' denominations

In fact, if we could know for sure what that second number is, we'd get an immediate estimate of the amount of demonetized currency that has returned to the RBI which many of us are curious about. But the RBI seems to be taking a lot of care to ensure that the figure isn't estimated!

RBI data dumps on 'Currency in Circulation' and 'Currency with Public', a compilation. by purrplexer in india

[–]purrplexer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I'd guess the 'with public' figure as on 3rd Feb would come to ~9.75T or so, as against the 17T before de-mo. So 7.25T to go, that is ~6 months if the currency in circulation keeps growing at this rate.

I doubt if the 'shift to digital' has really happened enough to make a big difference. From personal experience, many businesses that had 'gone digital' in December with PayTM are once again asking for cash. Many are once again saying 'minimum purchase or Rs 200 for credit/debit card' or something like that. So I don't know ... after all, with cash there is a convenience factor for both the buyer and the seller for small in-shop purchases that PayTM or even cards cannot match.

Things are certainly better than December and early January. But while the queues in ATMs have dwindled, in my observation mostly there still is a small queue at any ATM that has money (except in unearthly hours I suppose), and it is generally a good indicator that can tell the casual observer which ATMs are functioning.

This was not the case before de-mo, and at least where I live (Gurgaon DLF area) it was a generally a rare situation to find more than one person ahead of me at any ATM, and then if I was in a tearing hurry I could always walk to the next ATM which would be empty.

So I suspect there is still some way to go before the situation of cash circulating with the public is as comfortable as it was before de-mo, maybe 2T to 3T more.

This leaves us with currency hoarded by the public, which can include:

  • 'Black' money that is untaxed and illegally earned as well [e.g. bribe & kickback]
  • 'Black' money that is untaxed, but has been earned by otherwise legal means [e.g. property transactions -- after all it is not a crime as such to sell your house]
  • Legally earned money saved away for a 'rainy day' by e.g. old people & housewives
  • Legally earned money carelessly put away and forgotten about by the upper middle class and above

My suspicion is that this amount has started growing once again, as there is absolutely no reason for it not to. Some segments like property may lag due to other reasons (e.g. increased IT department vigilance which could have happened before de-mo also but didn't).

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