Congress accuses BJP of 'greed for power'

The Congress's Jharkhand unit on Friday accused the BJP of "greed for power" which, it said, has led the saffron party to put on hold withdrawal of support to the Shibu Soren government in the state.

Alleging that the BJP was again "playing the game of numbers", a Congress release here said "Frequent change of decisions among the BJP and the JMM has not only left Jharkhand reeling under a political crisis, but also lowered the dignity of democratic norms."

It accused the BJP of "greed for power ignoring principal problems like naxalism, electricity and water crisis and poverty in the state."

"As per its political strategy, the BJP has forced JMM to write the letter of apology and for government formation by the BJP," the Congress claimed.

PCC leader Radhakrishna Kishore claimed that JMM-LP leader Hemant Soren had met a few Congress MLA yesterday at the residence of Congress MLA Gopalnath Sahadeo.

"Our MLAs told Hemant Soren that if you have any proposal you can put it before the AICC leadership. But, the Congress will not initiate any move unless it is sure that a transparent, stable and a full-term government is possible," Kishore said.

Meanwhile, Congress leader and former deputy chief minister Stephen Marandi, who was in the erstwhile Shibu Soren-led UPA government, told a press conference along with other PCC leaders here that JMM leaders were feeling "suffocated" because of their party's alliance with the BJP.

"But they are unable to do anything, may be due to the fear of the anti-defection law," Marandi, who was a former JMM leader and broke up with Shibu Soren before the 2005 assembly elections after being denied party ticket, said.

Marandi was apparently referring to JMM MLAs Simon Marandi and Teklal Mahato's open criticism of the party leadership for again going to the BJP after it withdrew support.

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20100430/814/tnl-congress-accuses-bjp-of-greed-for-po_1.html

BJP withdraws support to Soren Govt in Jharkhand

BJP's four-month honeymoon with Shibu Soren ended abruptly on Wednesday with the party withdrawing support to the JMM-led government, a day after the Jharkhand Chief Minister sided with the UPA in the Lok Sabha.

A meeting of the BJP top brass, headed by party chief Nitin Gadkari, decided to withdraw support immediately giving indications that the new experiment in Ranchi has floundered.

"The BJP Parliamentary Board has decided to withdraw support immediately to the Shibu Soren government. He (Soren) has behaved in a very dubious manner and voted with the government during the cut motion. BJP has taken very serious note of this betrayal and dubious conduct," senior BJP leader Ananth Kumar told reporters here.

New equations in Jharkhand appeared to be in the offing with AICC in-charge of the state K Keshav Rao saying, "There is nobody untouchable in politics....(We were) never averse to it (forming a government with JMM). After all we contested the election there to form a government. In politics there is no last word."

BJP leader and Jharkhand Deputy Chief Minister Raghubar Das will submit a letter to the state governor withdrawing support to the JMM-led government later in the day.

"The Deputy Chief Minister and all BJP ministers in the Jharkhand government will also submit their resignations to the governor," Kumar said.

Kumar, who along with former party president Rajnath Singh was part of the negotiations with Soren just four months ago to form a government, refused to comment on whether BJP's coalition experiment has failed in the state.

With elections to the state legislature throwing up a hung assembly, BJP had formed a coalition government with Soren.

In the 82-member Jharkhand Assembly, BJP and JMM have 18 seats each, Congress 14, RJD 5, JVM 11, ASJU 5, JD(U) 2, CPI(ML) 1 and others and independents six. One member is nominated.

Source:http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20100428/814/tnl-bjp-withdraws-support-to-soren-govt_1.html

Monetary Policy: What it means for us

The Monetary policy can be termed as "The annual RBI vision document" for the coming year. It is basically a synopsis of what has been done by the central bank in the preceding year and clear indication of what it plans to do in the coming year in the domains under its purview.

The monetary policy for 2010-11 has been announced on 21st April 2010. This article will try to decipher its contents for the common man.

Monetary measures
-Bank rate has been maintained at the earlier level of 6%
-Repo rate has been increased by 25 basis points to 5.25
-Reverse repo rate has been revised to 3.75% from 3.5%
-Cash reserve ratio has been increase to 6% from 5.75% effective 24 April 2010

The above actions in effect will mean that almost close to Rs 12500 crores will be taken out of circulation. Meaning there will be a reduction in loans being given out at least at the lower spectrum or alternatively and practically this could lead to increase in interest rates, more competition among banks to get customers (better rates, better service). The net effect is expected to be that inflation will be contained and more stability in prices can be expected.

From the economy point of view too this will support the recovery of the economy meaning better salaries and employment opportunities in the medium term. The actions also don't seem to be detrimental to meeting the requirements of government and private credit demand.

Financial Stability Report:
As a fall out of the financial crisis the RBI came up with the idea of a Financial Stability Unit to monitor the economy and carry out regular stress testing and creating related reports. The current report has mentioned that the first FSR has indicated concerns relating to rising inflation, government borrowing and capital flows. The good news is that the banking sector has been indicated to be stable and have a high ability to withstand stress. (For the common man this is a sign of relief considering the closure of banks in almost all countries across the globe). The central bank adds a word of caution saying financial stability cannot be taken for granted and hence is considering making the FSR a half-yearly exercise.

Base Rate:
The base rate system will be implemented from the 1st of July 2010 and is expected to create a more transparent system of loans, result in better pricing and also ensure that the central bank's monetary policies are well transmitted to the common man.

Interest rate futures
The central bank has proposed to introduce Interest rate futures on 5 year and 2 year notional coupon bearing securities and 91 day treasury bills.

No collateral for SME loans
The RBI has announced its intention to mandate banks not to ask for any collateral for loans of upto Rs. 10 lakh when availed by Micro and Small enterprises. This will result in a boost to entrepreneurship and probably boost more cheaper services and better products in the market. Employed individuals can now take that important step towards becoming 'employer' and thus add to the growth of economy.

Focus on Financial inclusion at the rural level
The bank has indicated its commitment to revive rural co-operative banks and also facilitate more Large Adivasi Multipurpose Co-operative societies (LAMPS) and Farmers Service Societies (FSS) to enable the broader idea of financial inclusion of the farmers. For us this could mean that over the long term farmers will have more and easy access to cheap credit thus helping them boost productivity and maybe finally lead to a reduction in food inflation.

Spreading the net of banking
Continuing its intention of increasing banking penetration the RBI is putting pressure on Private and Public banks to have a clear Financial Inclusion Plan. It is also relaxing norms relating to Business Correspondents. This could mean that there will be more access to banking services in each nook and corner resulting in better cash flow and improvement in the standard of living of all citizens at the lower end of the financial spectrum. For us this could mean more contribution from the agriculture and rural sectors resulting in a long term stabilizing of prices.

Urban Sector co-operative banks (UCB)
After over 6 years of banning the setting up of UCBs the RBI is considering revisiting the ban to improve penetration of UCBs and also allowing them to enter new areas of business. This could mean more choices in banking for the urban customer looking at alternatives to the Commercial banks. This would also lead to more off-site ATMs so you don't have to travel long distances in your car to withdraw cash from an ATM.

Customer Service
The RBI is seriously looking at issues relating to levying excessive interest rates and charges of loans and advances. The central bank is looking at mandating banks to pull up their socks vis-à-vis customer service especially as the banks are considered privileged institutions and a special public utility service. It is looking at brining in regulations relating to issuing guidelines on customer service and also ensuring the implementing the same through on-site and off-site inspections and making it mandatory for board meeting to discuss and deliberate on customer service. We could expect more smiling banking executives and also have reasonable rates of interest on loans.

The other announcements relate to Regulatory and Supervisory measures for Commercial Banks and Institutional developments which will not have a very direct effect on the common man, yet, will be discussed in a separate article as it has high relevance for the banking sector.

Source: http://in.finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance/loans_basics/77/monetary-policy-what-it-means-for-us/