Disclaimer: This DD is to help start forming a market view as per RBI announcements. Also a gentle reminder that fundamentals play out over a longer time frame than intraday. The authors take no responsiblity for your yolos.
With contributions by Asli Bakchodi, Bran OP & dragononweed!
​
What is the RBI?
RBI is the central bank of India. They are one of the key players who affect India’s economic trajectory. They control currency supply, banking rules and more. This means that it is not a bank in which retailers or corporates can open an account with. Instead they are a bank for bankers and the Government of India.
Their functions can be broadly classified into 6.
· Monetary authority
· Financial supervisor for financial system
· Issuer of currency
· Manages Foreign exchange
· Bankers bank
· Banker to the government
This DD will take a look at each of these functions. It will be followed by a list of rates the RBI sets, and how changes in them can affect the market.
1. Monetary Authority
One of RBI’s functions is to achieve the goal of “Price Stability” in the economy. This essentially means achieving an inflation rate that is within a desired limit.
A monetary policy committee (MPC) decides on the desired inflation rate and its limits through majority vote of its 6 members, in consultation with the GoI.
The current inflation target for RBI is as follows
Consumer Price Inflation (CPI): 4%
Upper Limit: 6%
Lower Limit: 2%
An increase in CPI means less purchasing power. Generally speaking, if inflation is too high, the public starts cutting down on spending, leading to a negative impact on the markets. And vice versa. Lower inflation leads to more purchasing power, more spending, more investments leading to a positive impact on the market.
2. Financial Supervisor For Financial System
A financial system consists of financial markets (Capital market, money market, forex market etc.), financial institutions (banks, stock exchanges, NBFC etc) & financial assets (currencies, bills, bonds etc)
RBI supervises this entire system and lays down the rules and regulations for it. It can also use further ‘Selective Credit Controls’ to regulate banks.
3. Issues of currency
The RBI is responsible for the printing of currency notes. RBI is free to print as much as it wants as long as the minimum reserve of Rs 200 Cr (Gold 112 Cr) is maintained. The RBI has total assets or a balance size sheet of Rs. 51 trillion (April 2020). (1 Trillion = 1 Lakh crore)
India’s current reserves mean our increase in currency circulation is well managed.
4. Manages Foreign Exchange
RBI regulates all of India’s foreign exchange transactions. It is the custodian of all of foreign currencies in India. It allows for the foreign exchange value of the rupee to be controlled. RBI also buy and sell rupees in the foreign exchange market at its discretion.
In case of any currency movement, a country’s central bank can directly intervene to either push the currency up, as India has been doing, or to keep it artificially low, as the Chinese central bank does. To push up a currency, a central bank can sell dollars, which is the global reserve currency, or the currency against which all others are measured. To push down a currency, a central bank can buy dollars.
The RBI deciding this depends on the import/export and financial health of the country. Generally a weaker rupee means imports are more expensive, but are favourable for exports. And a stronger rupee means imports are cheaper but are unfavourable for exports.
A weaker rupee can make foreign investment more lucrative driving up FII. A stronger rupee can have an adverse effect of FII investing in markets.
5. Banker’s Bank
Every bank has to maintain a certain amount of reserve with the RBI. A certain percentage of a bank’s liabilities (anywhere between 3-15% as decided by RBI) has to be maintained in this account. This is called the Cash Reserve Ratio. This is determined by the MPC during the monetary policy review (which happens every six weeks at present).
It lends money from this reserve to other banks if they are short on cash, but generally, it is seen as a last resort move. Banks are encouraged to meet their shortfalls of cash from other resources.
6. Banker to the government
RBI is the entity that carries out ALL monetary transactions on behalf of the Government. It holds custody of the cash balance of the Government, gives temporary loans to both central and state governments and manages the debt operations of the central Government, through instruments of debt and the interest rates associated with them - like bonds.
The different rates set & managed by RBI
- Repo rate
The rate at which RBI is willing to lend to commercial banks is called as Repo Rate.
Banks sometimes need money for emergency or to maintain the SLR and CRR (explained below). They borrow this from RBI but have to pay some interest on it. The interest that is to be paid on the amount to the RBI is called as Repo Rate.
It does not function like a normal loan but acts like a forward contract. Banks have to provide collateral like government bonds, T-bills etc. Repo means Repurchase Option is the true meaning of Repo an agreement where the bank promises to repurchase these government securities after the repo period is over.
As a tool to control inflation, RBI increases the Repo Rate making it more expensive for banks to borrow from the RBI with a view to restrict availability of money. Exact opposite stance shall be taken in case of deflationary environment.
The change of repo rate is aimed to affect the flow of money in the economy. An increase in repo rate decreases the flow of money in the economy, while the decrease in repo rate increases the flow of money in the economy. RBI by changing these rates shows its stance to the economy at large whether they prioritize growth or inflation.
- Reverse Repo Rate
The rate at which the RBI is willing to borrow from the Banks is called as Reverse Repo Rate. If the RBI increases the reverse repo rate, it means that the RBI is willing to offer lucrative interest rate to banks to park their money with the RBI. Banks in this case agree to resell government securities after reverse repo period.
Generally, an increase in reverse repo rate that banks will have a higher incentive to park their money with RBI. It decreases liquidity, affecting the market in a negative manner. Decrease in reverse repo rate increases liquidity affecting the market in a positive manner.
Both the repo rate and reverse repo rate fall under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility tools for RBI.
- Cash reserve ratio (CRR)
Banks in India are required to deposit a specific percentage of their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) in the form of CASH with the RBI. This minimum ratio (that is the part of the total deposits to be held as cash) is stipulated by the RBI and is known as the CRR or Cash Reserve Ratio. These reserves will not be in circulation at any point in time.
For example, if a bank had a NDTL (like current Account, Savings Account and Fixed Deposits) of 100Cr and the CRR is at 3%, it would have to keep 3Cr as Cash reserve ratio to the RBI. This amount earns no interest.
Currently it is at 3%. A lower cash ratio means banks can deposit just a lower amount and use the remaining money leading to higher liquidity. This translates to more money to invest which is seen as positive for the market. Inversely, a higher cash ratio equates to lower liquidity which translates to a negative market sentiment.
Thus, the RBI uses the CRR to control excess money flow and regulate liquidity in the economy.
- Statutory liquidity ratio (SLR)
Banks in India have to keep a certain percentage of their net demand and time liabilities WITH THEMSELVES. And this can be in the form of liquid assets like gold and government securities, not just cash. A lot of banks keep them in government bonds as they give a decent interest.
The current SLR ratio of 18.25%, which means that for every Rs.100 deposited in a bank, it has to invest Rs.18.50 in any of the asset classes approved by RBI.
A low SLR means higher levels of loans to the private sector. This boosts investment and acts as a positive sentiment for the market. Conversely a high SLR means tighter levels of credit and can cause a negative effect on the market.
Essentially, the RBI uses the SLR to control ease of credit in the economy. It also ensures that the banks maintain a certain level of funds to meet depositor’s demands instead of over liquidation.
- Bank Rate
Bank rate is a rate at which the Reserve Bank of India provides the loan to commercial banks without keeping any security. There is no agreement on repurchase that will be drawn up or agreed upon with no collateral as well. This is different from repo rate as loans taken with repo rate are taken on the basis of securities. Bank rate hence is higher than the repo rate.
Currently the bank rate is 4.25%. Since bank rate is essentially a loan interest rate like repo rate, it affects the market in similar ways.
- Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR)
This is the minimum rate below which the banks are not allowed to lend. Raising this rate, makes loans more expensive, drying up liquidity, affecting the market in a negative way. Similarly, lower MCLR rates will bring in high liquidity, affecting the market in a positive way.
MCLR is a varying lending rate instead of a single rate according to the kind of loans. Currently, the MCLR rate is between 6.65% - 7.15%
- Marginal Standing facility
Marginal Standing Facility is the interest rate at which a depository institution (generally banks) lends or borrows funds with another depository institution in the overnight market. Overnight market is the part of financial market which offers the shortest term loans. These loans have to be repaid the next day.
MSF can be used by a bank after it exhausts its eligible security holdings for borrowing under other options like the Liquidity adjustment facilities.
The MSF would be a penal rate for banks and the banks can borrow funds by pledging government securities within the limits of the statutory liquidity ratio.
The current rate stands at 4.25%. The effect it has on the market is synonymous with the other lending rates such as repo rate & bank rate.
- Loan to value ratio
The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is an assessment of lending risk that financial institutions and other lenders examine before approving a mortgage. Typically, loan assessments with high LTV ratios are considered higher risk loans.
Basically, if a companies preferred form of collateral rises in value and leads the market (growing faster than the market), then the company will see the loans that it signed with higher LTV suddenly reduce (but the interest rate remains the same).
Let’s consider an example of gold as a collateral. Consider a loan was approved with gold as collateral. The market price for gold is Rs 2000/g, and for each g, a loan of Rs 1500 was given. (The numbers are simplified for understanding). This would put LTV of the loan at 1500/2000 = 0.75. Since it is a substantial LTV, say the company priced the loan at 20% interest rate.
Now the next year, the price of gold rose to Rs 3000/kg. This would mean that the LTV of the current loan has changed to 0.5 but the company is not obligated to change the interest rate. This means that even if the company sees a lot of defaults, it is fairly protected by the unexpected surge in the underlying asset. Moreover, since the underlying asset is more valuable, default rates for the loans goes down as people are more protective of the collateral they have placed.
The same scenario for gold is happening right now and is the reason for gold backed loan providers like MUTHOOT to hit ATHs as gold is leading the economy right now. Also, these in these scenarios, it also enables companies to offer additional loan on same gold for those who are interested Instead of keeping the loan amount same most of the gold loan companies.
Based on above, we can see that as RBI changes LTV for certain assets, we are in a position to identify potential institutions that could get a good Quarterly result and try to enter it early.
Conclusion
The above rates contain the ways in the Central Bank manages the monetary policy, growth and inflation in the country.
Its impact on Stock market is often seen when these rates are changed, they act as triggers for the intraday positions on that day. But overall, the outlook is always maintained on how the RBI sees the country is doing, and knee jerk reactions are limited to intraday positions. The long term stance is always well within the limits of the outlook the big players in the market are expecting.
The important thing to keep in mind is that the problems facing the economy needn’t be uni-dimensional. Problems with inflation, growth, liquidity, currency depreciation all can come together, for which the RBI will have to play a balancing role with all it powers to change these rates and the forex reserve. So the effect on the market needs to be given more thought than simply extrapolated as ‘rates go low, markets go up’.
But understanding these individual effects of these rates allows you to start putting together the puzzle of how and where the market and the economy could go.

This is an updated copy of the version on BadHistory. I plan to update it in accordance with the feedback I got.
I'd like to thank two people who will remain anonymous for helping me greatly with this post (you know who you are)
Three years ago a festschrift for Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri was published by Shubhra Chakrabarti, a history teacher at the University of Delhi and Utsa Patnaik, a Marxist economist who taught at JNU until 2010.
One of the essays in the festschirt by Utsa Patnaik was an attempt to quantify the "drain" undergone by India during British Rule. Her conclusion? Britain robbed India of $45 trillion (or £9.2 trillion) during their 200 or so years of rule. This figure was immensely popular, and got republished in several major news outlets (here, here, here, here (they get the number wrong) and more recently here), got a mention from the Minister of External Affairs & returns 29,100 results on Google. There's also plenty of references to it here on Reddit.
Patnaik is not the first to calculate such a figure. Angus Maddison thought it was £100 million, Simon Digby said £1 billion, Javier Estaban said £40 million see Roy (2019). The huge range of figures should set off some alarm bells.
So how did Patnaik calculate this (shockingly large) figure? Well, even though I don't have access to the festschrift, she conveniently has written an article detailing her methodology here. Let's have a look.

How exactly did the British manage to diddle us and drain our wealth’ ? was the question that Basudev Chatterjee (later editor of a volume in the Towards Freedom project) had posed to me 50 years ago when we were fellow-students abroad.

This is begging the question.

After decades of research I find that using India’s commodity export surplus as the measure and applying an interest rate of 5%, the total drain from 1765 to 1938, compounded up to 2016, comes to £9.2 trillion; since $4.86 exchanged for £1 those days, this sum equals about $45 trillion.

This is completely meaningless. To understand why it's meaningless consider India's annual coconut exports. These are almost certainly a surplus but the surplus in trade is countered by the other country buying the product (indeed, by definition, trade surpluses contribute to the GDP of a nation which hardly plays into intuitive conceptualisations of drain).
Furthermore, Dewey (2019) critiques the 5% interest rate.

She [Patnaik] consistently adopts statistical assumptions (such as compound interest at a rate of 5% per annum over centuries) that exaggerate the magnitude of the drain

Moving on:

The exact mechanism of drain, or transfers from India to Britain was quite simple.

Convenient.

Drain theory possessed the political merit of being easily grasped by a nation of peasants. [...] No other idea could arouse people than the thought that they were being taxed so that others in far off lands might live in comfort. [...] It was, therefore, inevitable that the drain theory became the main staple of nationalist political agitation during the Gandhian era.

- Chandra et al. (1989)

The key factor was Britain’s control over our taxation revenues combined with control over India’s financial gold and forex earnings from its booming commodity export surplus with the world. Simply put, Britain used locally raised rupee tax revenues to pay for its net import of goods, a highly abnormal use of budgetary funds not seen in any sovereign country.

The issue with figures like these is they all make certain methodological assumptions that are impossible to prove. From Roy in Frankema et al. (2019):

the "drain theory" of Indian poverty cannot be tested with evidence, for several reasons. First, it rests on the counterfactual that any money saved on account of factor payments abroad would translate into domestic investment, which can never be proved. Second, it rests on "the primitive notion that all payments to foreigners are "drain"", that is, on the assumption that these payments did not contribute to domestic national income to the equivalent extent (Kumar 1985, 384; see also Chaudhuri 1968). Again, this cannot be tested. [...] Fourth, while British officers serving India did receive salaries that were many times that of the average income in India, a paper using cross-country data shows that colonies with better paid officers were governed better (Jones 2013).

Indeed, drain theory rests on some very weak foundations. This, in of itself, should be enough to dismiss any of the other figures that get thrown out. Nonetheless, I felt it would be a useful exercise to continue exploring Patnaik's take on drain theory.

The East India Company from 1765 onwards allocated every year up to one-third of Indian budgetary revenues net of collection costs, to buy a large volume of goods for direct import into Britain, far in excess of that country’s own needs.

So what's going on here? Well Roy (2019) explains it better:

Colonial India ran an export surplus, which, together with foreign investment, was used to pay for services purchased from Britain. These payments included interest on public debt, salaries, and pensions paid to government offcers who had come from Britain, salaries of managers and engineers, guaranteed profts paid to railway companies, and repatriated business profts. How do we know that any of these payments involved paying too much? The answer is we do not.

So what was really happening is the government was paying its workers for services (as well as guaranteeing profits - to promote investment - something the GoI does today Dalal (2019), and promoting business in India), and those workers were remitting some of that money to Britain. This is hardly a drain (unless, of course, Indian diaspora around the world today are "draining" it). In some cases, the remittances would take the form of goods (as described) see Chaudhuri (1983):

It is obvious that these debit items were financed through the export surplus on merchandise account, and later, when railway construction started on a large scale in India, through capital import. Until 1833 the East India Company followed a cumbersome method in remitting the annual home charges. This was to purchase export commodities in India out of revenue, which were then shipped to London and the proceeds from their sale handed over to the home treasury.

While Roy's earlier point argues better paid officers governed better, it is honestly impossible to say what part of the repatriated export surplus was a drain, and what was not. However calling all of it a drain is definitely misguided.
It's worth noting that Patnaik seems to make no attempt to quantify the benefits of the Raj either, Dewey (2019)'s 2nd criticism:

she [Patnaik] consistently ignores research that would tend to cut the economic impact of the drain down to size, such as the work on the sources of investment during the industrial revolution (which shows that industrialisation was financed by the ploughed-back profits of industrialists) or the costs of empire school (which stresses the high price of imperial defence)

​

Since tropical goods were highly prized in other cold temperate countries which could never produce them, in effect these free goods represented international purchasing power for Britain which kept a part for its own use and re-exported the balance to other countries in Europe and North America against import of food grains, iron and other goods in which it was deficient.

Re-exports necessarily adds value to goods when the goods are processed and when the goods are transported. The country with the largest navy at the time would presumably be in very good stead to do the latter.

The British historians Phyllis Deane and WA Cole presented an incorrect estimate of Britain’s 18th-19th century trade volume, by leaving out re-exports completely. I found that by 1800 Britain’s total trade was 62% higher than their estimate, on applying the correct definition of trade including re-exports, that is used by the United Nations and by all other international organisations.

While interesting, and certainly expected for such an old book, re-exporting necessarily adds value to goods.

When the Crown took over from the Company, from 1861 a clever system was developed under which all of India’s financial gold and forex earnings from its fast-rising commodity export surplus with the world, was intercepted and appropriated by Britain. As before up to a third of India’s rising budgetary revenues was not spent domestically but was set aside as ‘expenditure abroad’.

So, what does this mean? Britain appropriated all of India's earnings, and then spent a third of it aboard? Not exactly. She is describing home charges see Roy (2019) again:

Some of the expenditures on defense and administration were made in sterling and went out of the country. This payment by the government was known as the Home Charges. For example, interest payment on loans raised to finance construction of railways and irrigation works, pensions paid to retired officers, and purchase of stores, were payments in sterling. [...] almost all money that the government paid abroad corresponded to the purchase of a service from abroad. [...] The balance of payments system that emerged after 1800 was based on standard business principles. India bought something and paid for it. State revenues were used to pay for wages of people hired abroad, pay for interest on loans raised abroad, and repatriation of profits on foreign investments coming into India. These were legitimate market transactions.

Indeed, if paying for what you buy is drain, then several billions of us are drained every day.

The Secretary of State for India in Council, based in London, invited foreign importers to deposit with him the payment (in gold, sterling and their own currencies) for their net imports from India, and these gold and forex payments disappeared into the yawning maw of the SoS’s account in the Bank of England.

It should be noted that India having two heads was beneficial, and encouraged investment per Roy (2019):

The fact that the India Office in London managed a part of the monetary system made India creditworthy, stabilized its currency, and encouraged foreign savers to put money into railways and private enterprise in India. Current research on the history of public debt shows that stable and large colonies found it easier to borrow abroad than independent economies because the investors trusted the guarantee of the colonist powers.

​

Against India’s net foreign earnings he issued bills, termed Council bills (CBs), to an equivalent rupee value. The rate (between gold-linked sterling and silver rupee) at which the bills were issued, was carefully adjusted to the last farthing, so that foreigners would never find it more profitable to ship financial gold as payment directly to Indians, compared to using the CB route. Foreign importers then sent the CBs by post or by telegraph to the export houses in India, that via the exchange banks were paid out of the budgeted provision of sums under ‘expenditure abroad’, and the exporters in turn paid the producers (peasants and artisans) from whom they sourced the goods.

Sunderland (2013) argues CBs had two main roles (and neither were part of a grand plot to keep gold out of India):

Council bills had two roles. They firstly promoted trade by handing the IO some control of the rate of exchange and allowing the exchange banks to remit funds to India and to hedge currency transaction risks. They also enabled the Indian government to transfer cash to England for the payment of its UK commitments.

​

The United Nations (1962) historical data for 1900 to 1960, show that for three decades up to 1928 (and very likely earlier too) India posted the second highest merchandise export surplus in the world, with USA in the first position. Not only were Indians deprived of every bit of the enormous international purchasing power they had earned over 175 years, even its rupee equivalent was not issued to them since not even the colonial government was credited with any part of India’s net gold and forex earnings against which it could issue rupees. The sleight-of-hand employed, namely ‘paying’ producers out of their own taxes, made India’s export surplus unrequited and constituted a tax-financed drain to the metropolis, as had been correctly pointed out by those highly insightful classical writers, Dadabhai Naoroji and RCDutt.

It doesn't appear that others appreciate their insight Roy (2019):

K. N. Chaudhuri rightly calls such practice ‘confused’ economics ‘coloured by political feelings’.

​

Surplus budgets to effect such heavy tax-financed transfers had a severe employment–reducing and income-deflating effect: mass consumption was squeezed in order to release export goods. Per capita annual foodgrains absorption in British India declined from 210 kg. during the period 1904-09, to 157 kg. during 1937-41, and to only 137 kg by 1946.

Dewey (1978) points out reliability issues with Indian agriculutural statistics, however this calorie decline persists to this day. Some of it is attributed to less food being consumed at home Smith (2015), a lower infectious disease burden Duh & Spears (2016) and diversified diets Vankatesh et al. (2016).

If even a part of its enormous foreign earnings had been credited to it and not entirely siphoned off, India could have imported modern technology to build up an industrial structure as Japan was doing.

This is, unfortunately, impossible to prove. Had the British not arrived in India, there is no clear indication that India would've united (this is arguably more plausible than the given counterfactual¹). Had the British not arrived in India, there is no clear indication India would not have been nuked in WW2, much like Japan. Had the British not arrived in India, there is no clear indication India would not have been invaded by lizard people, much like Japan. The list continues eternally.
Nevertheless, I will charitably examine the given counterfactual anyway. Did pre-colonial India have industrial potential? The answer is a resounding no.
From Gupta (1980):

This article starts from the premise that while economic categories - the extent of commodity production, wage labour, monetarisation of the economy, etc - should be the basis for any analysis of the production relations of pre-British India, it is the nature of class struggles arising out of particular class alignments that finally gives the decisive twist to social change. Arguing on this premise, and analysing the available evidence, this article concludes that there was little potential for industrial revolution before the British arrived in India because, whatever might have been the character of economic categories of that period, the class relations had not sufficiently matured to develop productive forces and the required class struggle for a 'revolution' to take place.

A view echoed in Raychaudhuri (1983):

Yet all of this did not amount to an economic situation comparable to that of western Europe on the eve of the industrial revolution. Her technology - in agriculture as well as manufacturers - had by and large been stagnant for centuries. [...] The weakness of the Indian economy in the mid-eighteenth century, as compared to pre-industrial Europe was not simply a matter of technology and commercial and industrial organization. No scientific or geographical revolution formed part of the eighteenth-century Indian's historical experience. [...] Spontaneous movement towards industrialisation is unlikely in such a situation.

So now we've established India did not have industrial potential, was India similar to Japan just before the Meiji era? The answer, yet again, unsurprisingly, is no. Japan's economic situation was not comparable to India's, which allowed for Japan to finance its revolution. From Yasuba (1986):

All in all, the Japanese standard of living may not have been much below the English standard of living before industrialization, and both of them may have been considerably higher than the Indian standard of living. We can no longer say that Japan started from a pathetically low economic level and achieved a rapid or even "miraculous" economic growth. Japan's per capita income was almost as high as in Western Europe before industrialization, and it was possible for Japan to produce surplus in the Meiji Period to finance private and public capital formation.

The circumstances that led to Meiji Japan were extremely unique. See Tomlinson (1985):

Most modern comparisons between India and Japan, written by either Indianists or Japanese specialists, stress instead that industrial growth in Meiji Japan was the product of unique features that were not reproducible elsewhere. [...] it is undoubtably true that Japan's progress to industrialization has been unique and unrepeatable

So there you have it. Unsubstantiated statistical assumptions, calling any number you can a drain & assuming a counterfactual for no good reason gets you this $45 trillion number. Hopefully that's enough to bury it in the ground.
^{1. Several authors have affirmed that Indian identity is a colonial artefact. For example see Rajan 1969:}

^{Perhaps the single greatest and most enduring impact of British rule over India is that it created an Indian nation, in the modern political sense. After centuries of rule by different dynasties overparts of the Indian sub-continent, and after about 100 years of British rule, Indians ceased to be merely Bengalis, Maharashtrians,or Tamils, linguistically and culturally.}

^{or see Bryant 2000:}

^{But then, it would be anachronistic to condemn eighteenth-century Indians, who served the British, as collaborators, when the notion of 'democratic' nationalism or of an Indian 'nation' did not then exist. [...] Indians who fought for them, differed from the Europeans in having a primary attachment to a non-belligerent religion, family and local chief, which was stronger than any identity they might have with a more remote prince or 'nation'.}

Bibliography

Chakrabarti, Shubra & Patnaik, Utsa (2018). Agrarian and other histories: Essays for Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri. Colombia University Press
Hickel, Jason (2018). How the British stole $45 trillion from India. The Guardian
Bhuyan, Aroonim & Sharma, Krishan (2019). The Great Loot: How the British stole $45 trillion from India. Indiapost
Monbiot, George (2020). English Landowners have stolen our rights. It is time to reclaim them. The Guardian
Tsjeng, Zing (2020). How Britain Stole $45 trillion from India with trains | Empires of Dirt. Vice
Chaudhury, Dipanjan (2019). British looted $45 trillion from India in today’s value: Jaishankar. The Economic Times
Roy, Tirthankar (2019). How British rule changed India's economy: The Paradox of the Raj. Palgrave Macmillan
Patnaik, Utsa (2018). How the British impoverished India. Hindustan Times
Tuovila, Alicia (2019). Expenditure method. Investopedia
Dewey, Clive (2019). Changing the guard: The dissolution of the nationalist–Marxist orthodoxy in the agrarian and agricultural history of India. The Indian Economic & Social History Review
Chandra, Bipan et al. (1989). India's Struggle for Independence, 1857-1947. Penguin Books
Frankema, Ewout & Booth, Anne (2019). Fiscal Capacity and the Colonial State in Asia and Africa, c. 1850-1960. Cambridge University Press
Dalal, Sucheta (2019). IL&FS Controversy: Centre is Paying Up on Sovereign Guarantees to ADB, KfW for Group's Loan. TheWire
Chaudhuri, K.N. (1983). X - Foreign Trade and Balance of Payments (1757–1947). Cambridge University Press
Sunderland, David (2013). Financing the Raj: The City of London and Colonial India, 1858-1940. Boydell Press
Dewey, Clive (1978). Patwari and Chaukidar: Subordinate officials and the reliability of India’s agricultural statistics. Athlone Press
Smith, Lisa (2015). The great Indian calorie debate: Explaining rising undernourishment during India’s rapid economic growth. Food Policy
Duh, Josephine & Spears, Dean (2016). Health and Hunger: Disease, Energy Needs, and the Indian Calorie Consumption Puzzle. The Economic Journal
Vankatesh, P. et al. (2016). Relationship between Food Production and Consumption Diversity in India – Empirical Evidences from Cross Section Analysis. Agricultural Economics Research Review
Gupta, Shaibal (1980). Potential of Industrial Revolution in Pre-British India. Economic and Political Weekly
Raychaudhuri, Tapan (1983). I - The mid-eighteenth-century background. Cambridge University Press
Yasuba, Yasukichi (1986). Standard of Living in Japan Before Industrialization: From what Level did Japan Begin? A Comment. The Journal of Economic History
Tomblinson, B.R. (1985). Writing History Sideways: Lessons for Indian Economic Historians from Meiji Japan. Cambridge University Press
Rajan, M.S. (1969). The Impact of British Rule in India. Journal of Contemporary History
Bryant, G.J. (2000). Indigenous Mercenaries in the Service of European Imperialists: The Case of the Sepoys in the Early British Indian Army, 1750-1800. War in History

Fellow idiots,
I posted this comment which seems to have angered the highly sophisticated /investing community. I don't mind being downvoted but at least provide some counter arguments if you're going to be a dick. So in the pursuit of truth and tendies for all, I have prepared some juicy due diligence (DD) for WSB Capital on why China is on the verge of collapse.
TL;DR at the bottom.
Point 1: Defaults in China have been accelerating aggressively, and through July 2019, 274 real estate developers filed for bankruptcy, up 50% over last year. A bonus? Many Chinese state controlled banks have been filing for bankruptcy as well. Just google "china bank defaults" or something similar. Notice how many articles there are from 2019? When the banking system fails, everything else usually fails too.
Point 2: The RMB has depreciated significantly. Last time this happened, in 2015-2016, there was a significant outflow of foreign invested capital. According to the IIF, outflows reached $725bn due to the currency depreciation.. This time is different why again? I have heard some arguments why there will be less outflow this time, but I struggle to buy them.
Point 3: Despite wanting to operate like a developed economy, China still has not been able to shrug off the middle income trap. Their GDP per capita is comparable to countries we normally associated with being developing/emerging markets. Tangentially related to point 10.
Point 4: China is an export-dependent economy, with about 20% of their exports contributing towards their GDP. Less exporting means less GDP, less consumption (because businesses make less money, they pay people less, who in turn spend less), which has a greater effect on GDP than any declines in exports would have at face value. Guess what? Chinese exports dropped 1% in August, and August imports dropped -1%, marking the 5th month this year of negative m/m export growth..
Point 5: Business confidence has been weak in China - declining at a sustained pace worse than in 2015. When businesses feel worse, they spend less, invest less in fixed assets, hire less until they feel better about the future. Which takes me to my next point.
Point 6: Fixed asset investment in China has declined 30 percentage points since 2010. While rates are low, confidence is also low, and they are sitting on a record amount of leverage, which means they simply will not be able to afford additional investment.
Point 7: They are an extremely levered economy with a total debt to GDP ratio of over 300%, per the IIF, which also accounts for roughly 15% of global total fucking debt. Here's an interview with someone else talking about it too.
Point 8: Their central bank recently introduced a metric fuckton of stimulus into their economy. This will encourage more borrowing....add fuel to the fire. Moreover, the stimulus will mechanically likely weaken the RMB even more, which could lead to even more foreign outflows, which are already happening, see next point.
Point 9: Fucking LOTS of outflows this year. As of MAY, according to this joint statement, around 40% of US companies are relocating some portion of their supply chains away from mainland. This was in May. Since May, we have seen even more tariffs imposed, why WOULD companies want to stay when exporting to the US is a lot more expensive now?
Point 10: Ignoring ALL of the points above, we are in a global synchronized slowdown, with many emerging market central banks cutting rates - by the most in a decade. Investors want safety, and safe-haven denominated assets are where we have seen a lot of flocking into recently. Things that can be considered safe-havens have good liquidity, a relatively stable economy, and a predictable political environment.
Would love to hear opposing thoughts if you think China is a good buy. I am not against China, nor any other country for that matter, but I am against losing money (yes, wrong sub etc.), and I can not rationalize why anyone would be putting in a bid.
TL;DR: the bubble is right in front of your face, impending doom ahead, short everything, fuck /investing.
Edit, since you 'tards keep asking me how to trade this, there are a few trades that come to mind:

• US treasuries still have room to run (before the autists say that's not yolo enough you could trade OTM calls on UST-linked ETFs, US govvie futures for gainz)
  
• Japanese yen
  
• Sell SPX companies with big supply chain exposure and heavy cost of capital, buy their competitors without these features.
  
• Open up apparel factories in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and sell to the US.
  
• Buy soybeans assuming farmers get a bailout from US
  
• I am sure there are plenty of China based ETFs which could be played, DYOR.
  
• Short any US listed company with mainland China domicile. If shit REALLY hits the fan between US/China, there are levers that US Govt. can pull to fuck them.
  

^{*not investment advice*}

1. Fragile five to Fastest growing economy - India
2. 11th largest to the 5th largest economy - India
3. Share of world GDP from 2.43% in 2014 to 3.08% in 2018
4. Average GDP 7.3% against 6.7% in previous regime
5. Forex reserves from 300 bn USD in 2014 to 420 bn USD in 2018
6. Doubling of FDI inflow from 36 bn USD in 2014 to 66 billion USD in 2018
7. Inflation less than 2.3 % (Nov 18) against 10.1% in 2014
8. Growth of sensex from 24,121.74 in 2014 to 36,395.03 on 12 Feb 19 (50.88%)
9. Fiscal deficit under control
10. Per capita income increased by 45% from Rs 86,647 in 2014 to Rs 1,25,397
11. IT exemption from 2 lakh in 2014 to 5 lakh (effectively 9.85 lakh with home loan)
12. Restaurant bills tax reduced from 18% in 2014 to 5%
13. Transaction charges through card down from 1% to 0%, domestic money transfer fee down from Rs 5 in 2014 to zero
14. Financial inclusion (32 crore bank accounts with 260 billion worth deposits). Almost 100% coverage from earlier 50%
15. DBT (savings of 83000 crores @ 15000 crore annually), No of govt schemes DBT applied to increased from 34 in 2014 to 433, 2.7 lakh fake mid-day meal students, 3.3 crore fake LPG connections, 87 lakh fake MNREGA job cards, 3 crore fake ration cards eliminated
16. Zero IT for businesses with turnover upto 60 lakhs
17. GST exemplifying cooperative federalism, rates of 83 items down from pre-GST rates, out of 1211 items only 35 items in above 18% slab, 39% reduction of cost of basic household items. Average 1 lk crore monthly revenue through GST collection. Exempted for business upto 40 lk
18. Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, constitution of NCLT, 3 lakh crores of NPAs recovered, 66 cases resolved, 260 cases liquidated, resolution of stressed assets, 2100 companies pay back 83000 crore to banks settling their pending loan repayments
19. 75 billion $ or Yen to Rupee exchange agreement with Japan
20. 1 lakh shell companies deregistered, FCRA licenses of 4800 NGOs cancelled
21. Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, properties of economic fugitives seized and auctioned
22. 1.9 lakh km of rural roads. Rural road connectivity at 91% from 55%
23. 36 new airports, from 65 in 7 decades to 106, all states now in air connectivity map
24. Effective international diplomacy following 59 visits to nations, 38 single, 10 double, 3 triple and 2 quadruple visits by PM.(Seen during Airstrikes,No Country opposed India)
25. Benami Act for action against Money Laundering
26. Rural sanitation coverage 95 % up from 39% (8.8 crore toilets)
27. Solar energy capacity increased 8 fold from 2.63 GW to 22 GW, 19. 8.5 GW of biogas grid installed.
28. Ganga waterway transportation, usage by shipping giant Maersk, cost of transportation reduced from 10/ton (road) / Rs 6/ton (rail) to Re 1/ton
29. More than 2.4 crore households lit up, rural electricity coverage to households up from 70 to 95%, only 19836 homes remain (in Chhatisgarh) out of 2,48,09,235
30. Electricity accessibility rank jump from 99 in 2014 to 26 in 2019
31. 7 crore new gas connections to 3.5 crore households u/69000 conections per day, coverage 90% from 55%, 82% return for refill, 42% beneficiaries Dalits
32. 14.4 crore mudra loans worth Rs 7 lakh crore disbursed
33. 18000 remote villages connected with electricity
34. 2.92 lakh km of optical fibre laid, 0.02% to 50% gram Panchayat connectivity
35. Swachh bharat mission has saved, according to WHO, 3 lakh lives and will save 1.5 lakh lives per year.
36. IT filers increase from 3.79 crore to 6.08 crore, enterprises registered for indirect tax up from 64 lk to 118 lakh
37. Entry of India in global regimes Missile Technology Control regime (MTCR), WA (Wassenaar Arrangement) and Australia Group
38. 17 crore soil health cards
39. 1.5 crore houses built, 91.37 crore in rural areas and 13.5 lakh in urban areas against 25 lakh houses built between 2010-2014. House for all target year is 2022.
40. 1,78,346 houses built in NE over existing 2875 houses built till 2014
41. Home loan interest rate down from 10.3 % in 2014 to 8.4% in 2018, annual savings of Rs 47,160 for 30 lakhs over 30 years, no GST on affordable housing, 5% on remaining
42. Trading agreement in rupee with Iran and UAE
43. Common service centres up from 84k to 3 Lakh
44. OROP implemented after 43 years, 35000 crores disbursed to 8 crore veterans
45. India's vaccination programme Indradhanush amongst 12 best practices of world
46. 5035 Jan Aushadhi and - 1054 medicines under price control (60-90% discounts).
47. More than 150 Amrit stores, reduction of cost of cromium cobalt Knee implant from 1.58-2.5 lakh to 54,720 and high flex implant from Rs181728 to 56490 (69%), 85% reduction in cardiac stent price to Rs 28000
48. 87% reduction in 400 cancer drugs
49. Rate of Interest on higher education loans dropped from 14.75 in 2013 to 10.88% in 2019, savings of 1.18 lakh on 10 lakh loan over tenure of 60 months, Rs 2000 savings on EMI
50. Data revolution: Cost of 1 GB $0.26 in India against $12.37 in US, $6.66 in UK and $75.2 in Zimbabwe. Unlimited mobile+ 45 Gb data = Rs 150 against Rs 1000 in 2013; annual savings of 10,200
51. Katra rail line work completed after 16 years
52. Dhola Sadiya bridge work completed after 16 years
53. Sardar Sarovar Dam work completed after 15 years
54. Aadhaar act
55. Pakyong airport completed after 10 years
56. Chennai Nashri Tunnel after 10 years
57. Assam NRC after 40 years
58. National War Memorial after 50 years
59. NE cpas after 60 years
60. Kollam bypass after 43 years
61. Indo-Bangladesh enclaves after 42 years
62. Bansagar canal project after 40 years
63. Bogibeel bridge after 23 years
64. Western peri expressway after 15 years
65. Kota Chambal bridge after 11 years
66. Maibang-Lumding Stretch completed
67. Delhi Meerut Expressway completed
68. Ganga Expressway project (world's longest) underway
69. Metros in Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Jaipur, Lucknow, Washermenpet
70. All umanned level crossings eliminated
71. Ayushman Bharat: annual 5 lakh health care to every family, 15.05 lakh hospital admissions for secondary/ tertiary treatment, 2.4 crore e-cards generated as on 10 Mar 19 in 170 days. Target 50 crore people.
72. 59minutes loan portal: 92,000 loan applications of MSME amounting to 30,000 crores approved, 6000 crores sanctioned till Nov 18
73. 87% of farming house (owning land of 2 hctrs) or 12 cr ppl to get kisaan sammaan nidhi of Rs 6000 pr year. Rs 5215 cr transferred directly to 2.6 crore farmers in 37 days (for households with holding less than 0.01 hectares incm per month so far was Rs 8136 agnst exp of 6594
74. 1.5 million electric rickshaws
75. Procurement of 36 Rafale on Government to Government Basis avoiding middlemen
76. 05 billion$ S 400 Triumf air defence missile system deal with Russia
77. 145 M777 howitzer deal
78. 22 Apache AH 64E multi-role combat helos
79. 200 KA-226T helicopters
80. 56 EADS CASA C-295 transport aircraft
81. 15 CH 47 Chinook tactical transport helicopters
82. 2.3 lakh Bullet proof jackets
83. 1.6 lakh Bullet-proof helmets
84. 777 mn USD Barak 8 LRSAM contract
85. 5 bn USD S-400 air defence systems
86. 10 Heron TP armed drones
87. 4 additional P8I MR aircraft
88. 40 units of Laser sensor border fence installed
89. 72,400 Sig Sauer Assault rifles
90. 100 self-propelled K9 Vajra howitzers
91. 700000 AK-103 Kalashnikov assault rifles indigenous facility
92. Surgical strikes in Myanmar, across LoC and in Pakistan. Only Country to bomb a Nuclear Powered Country
93. 240 million visitors at Kumbh Mela 2019, cost 4236 crores @ Rs 177 per tourist, revenue 1.2 Lakh crores
94. 833 teraflop supercomputer Param Shivay by IIT BHU at Rs 32.5 crores
95. Divisional status to Ladakh
96. 470 bed ESIC hospital in Ennore
97. 100 bed ESIC hospital in Tiruppur
98. Namami Gange - Ganga is 30% cleaner, 83 out of 97 ganga towns and 4456 villages achieved ODF status, 08 out of 16 drains emptying 16 crore l sewage into Ganga tapped. Target date Mar 2020
99. 5,45,122 ODF villages, 598 ODF districts, 27 ODF states/ villages
100. RERA implementation
101. Udaan scheme - flight cost down from Rs 5000/1000 km in 2013 to 3400/1000 km in 2018, 34 airports operationalised, small towns connected, all states on aerial
102. Preventive conservation of 39275570 folios, curative conservation of 3656863 filios, digitisation of 2.83 lakh manuscripts consisting of 2.93 crore pages
103. India is now world's largest 2-wheeler manufacturer, 2nd largest smartphone manufacturer (94% of mobiles sold now made in India), 4th largest automaker, 2nd largest steel producer
104. 5100 m Mandvi Bridge in Goa in 3.5 years
105. Ease of doing Business ranking jump from 134 in 2014 to 77 in 2019
106. Therubali - Singapur Bridge No 588
107. Restoration of Asurgarh Fort, Kalahandi
108. GeM portal with 731431 product categories, 180,862 registered sellers and 32114 govt buyers
109. 10% EWS reservation
110. 40% of ongoing 700 NH projects completed, adding 40,039 km between 2014-18 against 91,287 km between 1947-2014
111. Highway construction rate jumped from 12 km/day in 2014 to 27 km/day in 2019
112. 101 terrorists and 11 offenders extradited
113. 90,000 ex-partite Indians evacuated
114. Chabahar port, Sittwe port and Duqm port
115. Military installation in Seychelles
116. International logistics agreements with US, France and Singapore
117. Work underway on 25 MLD ZLD Common Effluent Treatment Plant at Gujarat Eco Textile Park and will save 25 million litres of water per day
118. Beautification of 65 railway stations, all stations fitted with LED lights, wi-fi, multi-brand food centres, kiosks, executive lounges, lifts (445 from 97 in 2014), escalators (603 from 199 in 2014), travellators and ramps
119. Record number of foot over bridges built
120. 871 new train services
121. 180 new rail lines
122. Dedicated railway freight corridor - 2 sections completed
123. 100% electrification of railways underway, first solar powered railway station (Guwahati). First solar powered train (world's second), savings of Rs 40 Lakhs and 90,000 ltrs diesel per year
124. Make in India semi-high-speed trains - Tejas, Gatiman and Vande Bharat
125. Humsafar and Antodaya trains, Deen Dayalu and Anubhuti coaches, UDAY double decker, glass dome Vistadome coaches
126. Project Swarn and Project Utkrisht to upgrade Rajdhani/Shatabdi and Mail/Express respectively
127. Largest coach production in world at ICF, Chennai
128. No more human extreta on railway tracks. Installation of 1.37 lakh out of 2.5 lakh completed in Jun 18.
129. 400 wi-fi railway stations (Aug 18)
130. 80% reduction in rail accidents
131. 10 high speed rail corridors underway, target date 2025-26
132. Export of world class customised coaches from MCF, Rae Bareli
133. LIC and Air India register profit
134. 2300 km rail tracks constructed, speed jumped from 4.1 km/day in 2014 to 6.53 km/day in 2018
135. Neem coating of urea
136. Gokul mission - record 160 million ton milk production
137. Online availability of CBSE and NCERT books
138. 10 crore LED bulbs distributed, 5000 crore savings
139. Investment in urban infrastructure jumped from 157703 crores to 795500 crores
140. Statue of Unity to commemorate Iron Man of India
141. Rs 2509 crore sales in Khadi
142. 482.36 million digital transactions worth Rs 74,978 crores in Oct 2018 against 0.3 million transactions worth Rs 90 crores in Nov 2016
143. 30% increase in ATMs, 208% increase of PoS machines from 10.81 lakh in May 14 to 33.32 lakh in Aug 18, 111% increase in credit cards from 1.94 crore in May 14 to 4.10 crore in Aug 18, 144% increase in debit cards from 40.17 crore to 98.02 crore
144. Ease of Doing Business Index 142 (2014) to 100 (2018)
145. Ease of getting electricity index 99 (2014) to 26 (2018)
146. UN's e-govt index 118 (2014) to 97(2018)
147. Globalisation index 112 to 107 (2018)
148. Innovation index 76 to 60 (2018)
149. Competitiveness index 71 to 39
150. Logistics performance index 54 to 35
151. Global peace index 141 to 137
152. DBR ranking 100 to 77
153. India ranks 3rd in global start up ecosystem
154. 06 crore jobs in MSME sector based on CII data
155. 448 million formal jobs based on EPFO, NPS and PPF data
156. 10 crore jobs in entrepreneurship via mudra and other schemes
157. 80% increase in tax payers, 51.3 % increase in gross tax revenue
158. Black Money report card - Voluntary income declaration scheme (Rs 65250 crore), IT search and survey operations (35,460 crore), Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana(5000 crore), Benami transactions Act (4300 crore), Black Money and Imposition of Tax Act (4100 crore)

160 Rs 6000 financial assiatence for pregnant women
161/1 . Sagarmala: port capacity increase from 8 to 14.7 lakh ton, cargo up from 89 to 116 MMT 8 new national waterways including ganga waterway NW-1 and Brahmaputra waterway NW-2.
161/2. domestic cruise service between Mumbai and Goa, ro-ro services on Ghoga-Dahej reducing travel distance from 294 to 31 km
161/3. New international cruise terminals at Chennai and Goa, railway line between Haridaspur and Paradip underway, LNG import terminal at Kamarajar port, Oil berth ai Jawahar Dweep,Coal berth at Mangalore port
161/4 . deep draft Iron ore berth at Paradip berth, JNPT SEZ, Kandla and Paradip smart industrial port city, largest dry dock and international ship repair facility at CSL, modernisation of 17 fishing harbours

1. 800 km Delhi-Mumbai Expressway underway
   
2. Replacement of bio-toilets with upgraded vacuum bio toilets in trains underway. Order for 500 placed on experimental basis.
   
3. No terror strikes in hinterland
   
4. 103 new KVs
   
5. 62 new Navodaya Vidyalayas
   
6. 6 new IITs against 16 in previous 57 years
   
7. 6 new IIMs against 13 in previous 57 years
   
8. 7 IIITs against 7 in previous 57 years
   
9. 02 new IISER
   
10. 12 new AIIMS against 7 in previous 57 years.
    
11. 141 new universities against 30 in previous 57 years
    
12. 01 new NIT
    
13. Life Insurances @ Rs 12 annual and @ Rs 12 monthly premiums
    
14. Atal Pension Yojana
    
15. Pension to 42 crore people of unorganised sector
    
16. Ambedkar memorial
    
17. BHIM application for digital payments
    
18. Khelo India Initiative for tracking of athletes' development, Rs 5 lk per annum scholarship for 1000 budding athletes per year for eight years each; monthly Rs 50000 out-of -pocket exptr, 2000 PETs, salary cap of coaches doubled from Rs 1-2 lk per month, target 15 yrs
    
19. Special Task Force for Olympics
    
20. RERA Act
    
21. Bullet train maiden project
    

182/1. Rs 6.92 lakh crore Bharatmala project, 44 economic corridors with 9000 km road, 2000 km port connectivity, 9000km roads to connect district HQs with NH,
182/2. 2000 km road with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, opening up of 185 choke points, road development to char dham, 12 greenfield expressways spanning 1900 km

1. 36 murtis retrieved and brought back to India in 2014-2019 under India Pride Project against 02 between 2000-2013, 02 in 90s, 03 in 80s, 01 in 70s and nil in 50s and 60s
   
2. Unemployment rate 3.8% against 13.8 % in 2013
   
3. India is a less-cash society now
   
4. Develpment of Trincomalee and Columbo port while checkmating China's Hambantota by taking operations of near by (15 km away) Mattala Rajapaksha International Airport
   
5. Plugging the 'double taxation avoidance' black money loophole through a new tax agreement with Mauritius
   
6. Deal with Switzerland for automatic tax data sharing from 01 Jan 2019
   

189/1 Varanasi - Varanasi ring road phase 1 completed, phase 2 underway, inland waterways terminal, Babatpur airport highway, 140 MLD Dinaput STP, facelift to railway station, big cow shelter for stray cattle, BPO centre, piped gas project, Varanasi-Balia rail project,
189/2. Vande Bharat Express, Kashi Vishwanath temple - Ganga Ghat corridor project, renovation of all bathings ghats, LED illuminations of ghats and major roads, underground electricity cabling,
189/3. new sewage plants, 02 cancer treatment facilities, 65th to 29th rank in swachhata sarvekshan (2016), 90% ODF district.

1. Creation of 100 Smart cities, 100 crore per year per city for 05 years, 500 acres for retrofitting, 50 acres for redevelopment, 250 acres for green field projects, 10% of energy from renewable resources, 80% of green building construction, special purpose vehicles.

191/1 Development of 500 AMRUT cities underway, urbanization project of rejuvenation and transformation which includes beach front development, prevention of beach erosion, improvement of water supply, replacement of pipelines,
191/2. New sewerage connections, greenery and open spaces, digital and smart facilities, e-governance, LED streetlights, public transport, storm water drainage projects in a phased manner, Target date 2022

1. Increase in Child Sex Ratio (CSR) in 104 BBBP (Beti Bachao Beti Padhao) districts, anti-natal care registration in 119 districts and institutional deliveries in 146 out of total 640 districts as in Mar 18. CSR of Haryana increased from 871 to 914.
   
2. International Yoga Day
   
3. Aspirational Districts Programme: 115 'backward' districts placed under 'prabharis' and for competitive development on the basis of 49 performance indicators, target year 2022.
   

195/1. Make in India: 16.4 lakh crore investment committments, 1.5 lakh crore investment inquiries, 60 bn USD FDI, 26 sectors covered, 23 positions jump in World Bank's Doing Business Report (DBR), 32 places in WEF's Global Competitiveness Index (GCI),
195/2 19 places in Logistics Performance Index, 42 places in Ease of Doing Business index, schemes include Bharatmala, Sagarmala, dedicate freight corridors, industrial corridors, UDAN-RCS, Bharat Broadband Network, Digital India.

1. 251 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) and Post Office Passport Seva kendras (POPSKs) against 77 till 2014, target of one PSK every 50 km across India.
   
2. Unanimous election of Justice Dalveer Bhandari to ICJ forcing UK to pull out own nominee Christopher Greenwood, demonstrating India's clout in international arena.
   
3. India Post Payments Bank: India's biggest banking outreach with 1.55 lakh post offices (2.5 times banking network) linked to IPPB system
   
4. Philip Kotler award, Seoul Peace prize, Champion of the Earth Award, Grand Collar of the State of Palestine, Amir Abdulla Khan Award, King Abdulaziz Sash award, Amir Amanullah Khan award.
   
5. 1900 gifts and memorabilia received by Modi auctioned and 11.7 crores added to Namami Gange fund, 1.4 c of Seoul Peace award also to Nammami Gange.
   

New Adds

1. Removal of article 370 and thereby also 35a after several decades.
   
2. Giving citizenship to persecuted minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan through passing of CAA.
   
3. Trust for creation of Ram Mandir underway.
   
4. Abolishment of Haj subsidy.
   
5. Abolishment and criminalization of instant triple talak.
   
6. Deal with Bodo community.
   
7. Getting Maulana Masood Azhar listed as an UN designated terrorist.
   

​
Source - https://www.reddit.com/IndiaRWResources/comments/bgkus6/200_achievements_of_modi_govt/
​
List more achievements in the comment section and lets make the list bigger, a big thank you to our fallen kar sevak u/Alive_Firefighter

Indian Equity Summary-
· Sensex ended higher by 1.2 percent as the bullish trend persisted for the fifth consecutive week in the domestic equity market ,on the back ofØ positive global cues and optimism over the development of Covid-19 vaccine .The focus is now turning to Q1FY21 earning season and more importantly for guidance and viewpoints of management.
· Going forward, global factors like development on the US -China relationship front , any resurgence of Covid-19 cases globally, as economiesØ have started opening up ; will continue to dictate the trend of the domestic equity market. We expect the trading range for Nifty between 10800-11200 in the near term.
Indian Debt Market-
· The bond prices fell as the yield on the latest 10-year benchmark 5.79% 2030 paper settled at 5.80% on Jul 17 compared with 5.76% on Jul 10.Ø
· Reserve Bank of India announces the auction of three Government of India 91day, 182 day and 364 day Treasury Bills for an aggregate amount ofØ ₹35,000, to be conducted on 22nd July 2020.
· State Governments announced to sell securities by way of an auction to be conducted on 21th July 2020, for an aggregate face value of ₹ 9,000 Cr.Ø
· We expect that RBI will be in wait and watch mood before taking any major decision of rate cut on the back of recent inflation print.Ø
· We expect the 10 year benchmark yield to trade between 5.80-6.05% in near term.Ø
Domestic News
· India’s retail trade has suffered a business loss of about Rs 15.5 lakh crore in past 100 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic as per theØ Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT).
· The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the US to India has crossed the $40 billion mark as on year to date, reflecting the growing confidence ofØ American companies in the country.
· Forex reserves rose by $3.1 billion on a WoW basis to hit a record high of $516.36 billion for the week ended July 10, according to Reserve BankØ of India (RBI).
· According to the latest data released by the Ministry of StatisticsØ & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), India’s retail inflation(CPI) grew to 6.09% in the month of June as against the prior released figure of 5.84 in April for the month of March.
International News
· Hong Kong's April-June unemployment rises to 6.2%, being the highest in over 15 years.Ø
· Japan’s exports plunged 26.2% in June while Imports fell by 14.4% in June on a year on year basis , as per the data released byØ Ministry of Finance (MOF).
· Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China fell 1.3% in the first half of this year from a year earlier to 472.18 billion yuan ($67.47Ø billion)as per China’s commerce ministry.
· Gross domestic product (GDP) of China rose to 3.2% in the second-quarter from a year earlier as per the National Bureau ofØ Statistics, faster than the 2.5% forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll, with the easing of lockdown measures and ramping up of stimulus by policymakers to combat the virus-led downturn.
· US GDP is expected to contract by an annualised rate of 37% in the Q2 2020 and by 6.6%for 2020 as a whole as per theØ International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff.
Link - http://www.karvywealth.com/data/sites/1/skins/karvywealth/Download_media_report.aspx?FileName=B98EB615-C7D5-409D-AFF1-05C92C06DBE4|5234282
vH�X��Py

DISCLAIMER- THIS IS NOT A POST BY ME. I AM MERELY SHARING THE POST BY COPY PASTING IT HERE.

SOURCE OF THIS ENTIRE ARTICLE Quora Article by SAKET KUMAR

Original Article has all pictures and graphs for you to refer to. This post only has the text. The text in Bold are hyperlinks in the original article which not here.

I am trained as a Scientist so first I have to present credible relevant data before I can convince anyone. First I will answer the question with 1 picture and explain 3 parameters.
The below image is not fake. They are NASA satellite images of India taken during night time.

As you can see one on the left is from 2012 and on the right is from 2016. The research paper written by Luis R. Martinez from University of Chicago shows that increased use of electricity at night is parallel to country’s economic growth. Further he states in that paper authoritarian countries like China and Russia are fudging their GDP anywhere from 15 to 30% every year. You can read the research paper here How Much Should We Trust the Dictator's GDP Growth Estimates? or you can read Washington Post article .
Now the 3 Parameters
Modi became PM on May 26th 2014. In October 2014 IMF came out with a report which said** India set to become $2 trillion economy in 2014: IMF** . India’s GDP was ~$1.9 Trillion when Modi became PM. Fast forward now the same IMF says India’s GDP is $3.2 Trillion . Here is the snap shot directly from IMF website.

**Note: IMF always slightly understates GDP to account for any observational bias and inaccuracies. This is GDP estimate from a totally neutral source so you can’t say this is BJP propaganda or call it as fake.
→Conclusion from GDP data: Modi government added $1.2 Trillion to GDP in 5 years. India reached $1 Trillion GDP in 2007 India had joined trillion-dollar club in 2007 so even after 7 years of being in power UPA couldn’t even make India $2 Trillion economy. When Atalji left office in 2004 India had $700 billion GDP according to World bank report . So UPA in 10 years added $1.2 Trillion in GDP but Modiji did the same in 5 years.
Inflation: Inflation in Economic terms is general increase in prices and fall in purchasing power parity. As you know when there is increase in inflation prices rise on many goods and services and your purchasing power decreases. Just because prices increased on goods and services doesn’t mean your boss is going to increase your salary unless you are a Central government employee where you get Dearness allowance - Wikipedia to compensate for high inflation. Let’s look at inflation from 1998 :

Inflation directly affects the common man. When Atalji came to power in 1998 inflation was through the roof at 13.5%. He cracked down on inflation and brought it down to ~4% and maintained the same through out his Premiership. This is a PM who cared for the common man. Now look at the graph after 2004. UPA always maintained high inflation which on average was above 8%+ which emptied people’s pockets faster than they could spend. Just see how the graph dips when Modi became PM in 2014. Keeping inflation down is one of the paramount tasks of any BJP Prime Minister.
Important Note: GDP growth in some ways is tied to inflation. If you have a GDP growth rate of 10% with 10% inflation then it’s no use. It’s better to have GDP growth of 5% with low inflation rate of below 2%. Lower the inflation the better for the economy as long as it is not in negative. UPA always boasts about high GDP but never ever mention inflation rate during their term because they know they will be caught with pants down. Some people can see through the BS of UPA’s high GDP growth. GDP surged under UPA because it purchased growth at a high price .
→Conclusion from Inflation data: Inflation was always low under Atalji and Modiji. No Economist can deny that. No amount of propaganda from Congress can deny this brutal truth. In between all the lies even the scammer, fraud and corrupt Chiddu accepts it** High inflation was a big red in the UPA-2 report card: P Chidambaram**
Forex Reserves: When Atalji became PM in 1998 India’s forex reserves was ~$30 billion . When he left office in 2004 it had jumped to $114 billion . When Modi became PM on May 26th 2014 the forex reserves was $303 billion . Now as of March 13th 2020 forex reserves is** Forex reserves surge by $5.69 billion to reach record $487.23 bn** .
***Note: It is exactly because of our lower forex reserves we had to approach IMF in 1991. In return for IMF bail out India had to open up it’s markets for outside investment. If India doesn’t have enough forex then Economy comes to a standstill as India will lack the capability to pay for external goods and services which it imports. We import 90% of our Oil from abroad. If there is no oil then there is no economy.
→Conclusion from Forex data: Atalji as PM increased forex from $30 billion to $114 billion in 6 years during Pokran sanctions and unfavorable economic climate. Atalji’s government added $114B - $30B = $84 billion into forex. At the end of UPA tenure forex was $303 billion. So UPA in 10 years added $303B - $114B = $189 billion. Now how much did Modi Sarkar added in 5 years? $487B - $303B = $184 billion. As you can see just like GDP what UPA did in 10 years Modiji government has done the same for forex in 5 years. And we still have 4 more years to go. I hope India reaches $1 Trillion in forex which can help India project power. None of the countries who are barking on CAA will bark again when you have a war chest of Trillion dollars.
Final Conclusion: I have only added 3 parameters to my answer since the question is asking everything to be in 1 picture which is not possible. But anyone can tell you simple truth if Modiji hasn’t done anything since he became PM then all the above parameters would be worse off than how UPA left them in 2014. Those 3 are very very important parameters for India. If India is performing worse like some morons who are predicting apocalypse for Indian economy are saying then the data is not backing them up.

US Venezuela Policy is About Oligarchy, Not Democracy

The proven oil reserves in Venezuela are recognized as the LARGEST in the world, totaling 297 billion barrels.
While ignoring (and even supporting) the atrocities of authoritarian regimes in places like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Uzbekistan, US oligarchs have targeted Venezuela for “regime-change” in the name of “democracy”.
Currently, the US is engaging in economic warfare against Venezuela to foment a coup and remove its democratically elected president Nicolás Maduro.
Without providing solid evidence, our corporate-controlled government and mainstream media portray Maduro as a corrupt, repressive, and illegitimate leader with little to no support.

Ask yourself:

Do I ever see officials from the Venezuelan government appear in corporate news shows to tell THEIR side of the story?
What people DO get to comment on Venezuela and what are their credentials and agenda? Are these people essentially public relations agents for the US-orchestrated coup?
Does corporate news provide me with historical background of US imperialism in Venezuela to put these current events in context?

What Corporate-Controlled Media will NOT Tell You

The CIA was involved in the failed coup against Venezuela's popular leader Hugo Chavez in 2002.
Venezuela is not a strictly socialist country; it has a “mixed” economy - not unlike Norway or other Scandinavian countries.
Venezuela is a DEMOCRACY - unlike US-allies Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
In 2012, Jimmy Carter went on record saying:
“As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we've monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world”
The opposition to Maduro knew they were going to lose the last election and so boycotted it in attempt to delegitimize the results.
The US actually tried to dissuade Maduro’s opponents from running!
Maduro invited international observers into the country in 2018 to monitor the last election but the opposition asked the UN not to send observers!
More than 80% of the Venezuelan population had not even HEARD of Juan Guaidó before Trump and the US state proclaimed him the “rightful” president.
Maduro’s approval ratings within his country are on par with opposition-controlled National Assembly. According to an October poll by opposition-aligned pollster Datanalisis, Venezuela's National Assembly, of which Juan Guaidó is president, has a disapproval rating of 70%.
Venezuela WANTS to sell its oil to the US – the US is their largest market and refines a majority of their oil.
US companies Chevron Corp, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Weatherford International all have operations in Venezuela, and are allowed to continue to engage in transactions and activities with PDVSA and its joint ventures through July 27.
“No State or group of States has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any other State. The foregoing principle prohibits not only armed force but also any other form of interference or attempted threat against the personality of the State or against its political, economic, and cultural elements.” Organization of American States Charter

Why is the US Corporatocracy so Keen to Remove Maduro?

While Venezuela’s economy is not a strictly-state-run economy, its oil industry is nationalized and uses its revenues for the benefit of its citizens (especially the poor).
After years of crippling US sanctions Maduro stepped over a crucial line in October when his government announced that Venezuela was abandoning the US dollar and would be make all future transactions on the Venezuelan exchange market in euro.
Saddam Hussein also went off the dollar in favor of the euro in 2003 – we started dropping bombs on him the next month.
A similar decision by the Gadhafi government in Libya (2011) was quickly followed by a devastating US-orchestrated conflict - culminating in Gadhafi's capture by radical Islamists who sodomized him with a bayonet before killing him. Since then, Libya has gone from Africa's wealthiest country to a truly failed-state complete with a slave trade! To make matters worse, after the collapse of the Libyan government, its military arms were smuggled out of that country and into the hands of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria - enabling US-orchestrated chaos in those countries.

Who cares what currency a country uses to trade petroleum?

Answer: US oligarchy

The US dollar is central to US world economic domination.
Like all other modern currencies, it is a fiat currency – backed by no real assets to prop up its value.
In lieu of a “gold standard” we know operate on a de-facto “oil-standard”:
"After the collapse of the Bretton Woods gold standard in the early 1970s, the United States struck a deal with Saudi Arabia to standardize oil prices in dollar terms. Through this deal, the petrodollar system was born, along with a paradigm shift away from pegged exchanged rates and gold-backed currencies to non-backed, floating rate regimes.
The petrodollar system elevated the U.S. dollar to the world's reserve currency and, through this status, the United States enjoys persistent trade deficits and is a global economic hegemony." Investopedia
“The central banking Ponzi scheme requires an ever-increasing base of demand and the immediate silencing of those who would threaten its existence. Perhaps that is what the hurry [was] in removing Gaddafi in particular and those who might have been sympathetic to his monetary idea.” Anthony Wile

US Foreign Policy is about Oligarchy Not Democracy

Since World War II, the US has attempted to over-throw the 52 foreign governments. Aside from a handful of exceptions (China, Cuba, Vietnam, etc.), the US has been successful in the vast majority of these attempts.
US foreign policy is not about democracy – it is about exploiting the world’s resources in the interests of a small, ultra-wealthy global elite.
This exploitation benefits a small percentage of people at the top of the economic pyramid while the costs are born by those at the bottom.

US CIA Coup Playbook:

How to Plunder Resources from Foreign Countries While Pretending to Support Democracy

1. Find a country with resources you want.
2. Send in an “Economic Hitman” to offer bribes the country’s leader in the form of personally lucrative business deals. If he accepts the deal, the leader will amass a personal fortune in exchange for "privatizing” the resources you wish to extract.

If the leader will not accept your bribes, begin the regime-change process.
3) Engage in economic warfare by imposing crippling sanctions on the country and blame the ensuing shortages on the leader’s “socialist” policies.
4) Work with right-wing allies inside country to fund and organize an “astroturf” opposition group behind a corporate-friendly puppet.
5) Hire thugs inside country to incite unrest and violence against the government in coordination with your opposition group. Use corporate media to publicize the orchestrated outbursts as popular outrage and paint a picture of a “failed state” mired in corruption and chaos.
6) When the government arrests your thugs, decry the response as the brutal repression. Use corporate-owned media to demonize the target government as a despotic regime while praising your puppet opposition as champions of democracy.
7) Work with right-wing military leaders to organize the overthrow the government (offer them the same business deals the current leader refused).
8) If a military-led coup cannot be organized, create a mercenary army to carry out acts of terrorism against the government and its supporters. Portray the mercenaries as “freedom fighters” and their acts of terrorism as a “civil war”.
9) If the target government has popular and military support and is too well-defended for your mercenaries to over-throw: label the country a “rouge state” and wait for the right time to invade. Meanwhile, continue to wear the country’s government and populace down using steps 3 – 8.
10) Escalate the terror campaign within the country to provoke a military response from the country against the US. If they won’t take the bait , fabricate an attack or threat that you can sell to the US population as justification for an invasion.
11) Once the government is removed, set up your puppet regime to provide the illusion of sovereignty. The regime will facilitate and legitimize your appropriation of the country’s resources under the guise of "free" trade.
12) As you continue to extract the country’s resources, provide intelligence and military support to the puppet regime to suppress popular dissent within the country.
13) Use the demise of the former government as yet another example of the impracticality of “socialism.”
What Can I Do?
Call your senators and representatives to voice your opposition to US regime-change efforts in Venezuela.
https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/
Please share this message with others.
Sources included at: https://link.medium.com/8DiA5xzx4T

‘Venezuela’: Media’s One-Word Rebuttal to the Threat of Socialism

ALAN MACLEOD FEBRUARY 8, 2019
A recent Gallup poll (8/13/18) found that a majority of millennials view socialism favorably, preferring it to capitalism. Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in the United States, while new leftist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) policies of higher taxes on the wealthy, free healthcare and public college tuition are highly popular—even among Republican voters (FAIR.org,1/23/19).
Alarmed by the growing threat of progressive policies at home, the establishment has found a one-word weapon to deploy against the rising tide: Venezuela. The trick is to attack any political figure or movement even remotely on the left by claiming they wish to turn the country into a “socialist wasteland” (Fox News, 2/2/19) run by a corrupt dictatorship, leaving its people hungry and devastated.
Leading the charge have been Fox News and other conservative outlets. One Fox opinion piece (1/25/19) claimed that Americans should be “absolutely disgusted” by the “fraud” of Bernie Sanders and Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, as they “continue to promote a system that is causing mass starvation and the collapse of a country,” warning that is exactly what their failed socialist policies would bring to the US. (Back in the real world, while Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez identify as socialists, Warren is a self-described capitalist, and Booker is noted for his ties to Wall Street, whose support for his presidential bid he has reportedly been soliciting.) A second Fox Newsarticle (1/27/19) continues in the same vein, warning that, “At the heart of Venezuela’s collapse is a laundry list of socialist policies that have decimated its economy.”
The Wall Street Journal (1/28/19) describes calls for negotiations in Venezuela as “siding with the dictator.”
In an article entitled “Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn and the Starving Children of Venezuela,” the Washington Examiner (6/15/17) warned its readers to “beware the socialist utopia,” describing it as a dystopia where children go hungry thanks to socialism. The Wall Street Journal (1/28/19) recently condemned Sanders for his support of a “dictator,” despite the fact Bernie has strongly criticized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and dismissed Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, as a “dead Communist dictator” (Reuters, 6/1/16).
More supposedly centrist publications have continued this line of attack. The New York Times’ Bret Stephens (1/25/19) argued: “Venezuela is a socialist catastrophe. In the age of AOC, the lesson must be learned again”—namely, that “socialism never works,” as “20 years of socialism” has led to “the ruin of a nation.” The Miami Herald(2/1/19) cast shame on Sanders and AOC for arguing for socialism in the face of such overwhelming evidence against it, describing the left’s refusal to back self-appointed president Juan Guaidó, someone whom less than 20 percent of Venezuelans had even heard of, let alone voted for, as “morally repugnant.”
This useful weapon to be used against the left can only be sustained by withholding a great number of key facts—chief among them, the US role in Venezuela’s devastation. US sanctions, according to the Venezuelan opposition’s economics czar, are responsible for a halving of the country’s oil output (FAIR.org, 12/17/18). The UN Human Rights Council has formally condemned the US and discussed reparations to be paid, with one UN special rapporteur describing Trump’s sanctions as a possible “crime against humanity” (London Independent, 1/26/19). This has not been reported by any the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN or any other national US “resistance” news outlet, which have been only too quick to support Trump’s regime change plans (FAIR.org, 1/25/19).
Likewise, the local US-backed opposition’s role in the economic crisis is barely mentioned. The opposition, which controls much of the country’s food supply, has officially accepted responsibility for conducting an “economic war” by withholding food and other key goods.
For example, the monolithic Empresas Polar controls the majority of the flour production and distribution crucial for making arepa cornbread, Venezuela’s staple food. Polar’s chair is Leopoldo Lopez, national coordinator of Juan Guaidó’s Popular Will party, while its president is Lorenzo Mendoza, who considered running for president against Maduro in the 2018 elections that caused pandemonium in the media (FAIR.org, 5/23/18).
Conspicuously, it’s the products that Polar has a near-monopoly in that are often in shortest supply. This is hardly a secret, but never mentioned in the copious stories (CNN, 5/14/14, Bloomberg, 3/16/17, Washington Post, 5/22/17, NPR, 4/7/17) focusing on bread lines in the country.
Also rarely commented on was the fact that multiple international election observer missions declared the 2018 elections free and fair, and that Venezuelan government spending as a proportion of GDP (often considered a barometer of socialism) is actually lower than the US’s, and far lower than most of Europe’s, according to the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The London Daily Express (2/3/19) demonstrates that redbaiting works equally well on either side of the Atlantic.
Regardless of these bothersome facts, the media has continued to present Venezuela’s supposedly socialist dictatorship as solely responsible for its crisis as a warning to any progressives who get the wrong idea. So useful is this tool that it is being used to attack progressive movements around the world. The Daily Express (2/3/19) and Daily Mail (2/3/19) condemned UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for his “defense” of a “dictator,” while the Daily Telegraph(2/3/19) warned that the catastrophe of Venezuela is Labour’s blueprint for Britain. Meanwhile, the Greek leftist party Syriza’s support for Maduro (the official position of three-quarters of UN member states) was condemned as “shameful” (London Independent, 1/29/19).
“Venezuela” is also used as a one-word response to shut down debate and counter any progressive idea or thought. While the panel on ABC’s The View (7/23/18) discussed progressive legislation like Medicare for All and immigration reform, conservative regular Meghan McCain responding by invoking Venezuela: “They’re starving to death” she explained, leaving the other panelists bemused.
President Trump has also used it. In response to criticism from Senator Elizabeth Warren over his “Pocahontas” jibe, he replied that she would “make our country into Venezuela” (Reuters, 10/15/18).
The weapon’s effectiveness can only be sustained through a media in lockstep with the government’s regime-change goals. That the media is fixated on the travails of a relatively small and unimportant country in America’s “backyard,” and that the picture of Venezuela is so shallow, is not a mistake. Rather, the simplistic narrative of a socialist dictatorship starving its own people provides great utility as a weapon for the establishment to beat back the domestic “threat” of socialism, by associating movements and figures such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jeremy Corbyn with an evil caricature they have carefully crafted.

Corporate Propaganda Blitz Against Venezuela’s Elected President: MSM Will Not Let Facts Interfere With Coup Agenda

Facts Don’t Interfere With Propaganda Blitz Against Venezuela’s Elected President Joe Emersberger
Guaidó, anointed by Trump and a new Iraq-style Coalition of the Willing, did not even run in Venezuela’s May 2018 presidential election. In fact, shortly before the election, Guaidó was not even mentioned by the opposition-aligned pollster Datanálisis when it published approval ratings of various prominent opposition leaders. Henri Falcón, who actually did run in the election (defying US threats against him) was claimed by the pollster to basically be in a statistical tie for most popular among them. It is remarkable to see the Western media dismiss this election as “fraudulent,” without even attempting to show that it was “stolen“ from Falcón. Perhaps that’s because it so clearly wasn’t stolen.
Graph: Approval Ratings of Main Venezuelan Leaders Nov 2016 - July 2018 Data from the opposition-aligned pollsters in Venezuela (via Torino Capital) indicates that Henri Falcón was the most popular of the major opposition figures at the time of the May 2018 presidential election. Nicolás Maduro won the election due to widespread opposition boycotting and votes drawn by another opposition candidate, Javier Bertucci.
The constitutional argument that Trump and his accomplices have used to “recognize” Guaidó rests on the preposterous claim that Maduro has “abandoned” the presidency by soundly beating Falcón in the election. Caracas-based journalist Lucas Koerner took apart that argument in more detail.
What about the McClatchy-owned Miami Herald's claim that Maduro “continues to reject international aid”? In November 2018, following a public appeal by Maduro, the UN did authorize emergency aid for Venezuela. It was even reported by Reuters (11/26/18), whose headlines have often broadcast the news agency’s contempt for Maduro’s government.
It’s not unusual for Western media to ignore facts they have themselves reported when a major “propaganda blitz” by Washington is underway against a government. For example, it was generally reported accurately in 1998 that UN weapons inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq ahead of air strikes ordered by Bill Clinton, not expelled by Iraq’s government. But by 2002, it became a staple of pro-war propaganda that Iraq had expelled weapons inspectors (Extra! Update, 10/02).
And, incidentally, when a Venezuelan NGO requested aid from the UN-linked Global Fund in 2017, it was turned down. Setting aside how effective foreign aid is at all (the example of Haiti hardly makes a great case for it), it is supposed to be distributed based on relative need, not based on how badly the US government wants somebody overthrown.
But the potential for “aid” to alleviate Venezuela’s crisis is negligible compared to the destructive impact of US economic sanctions. Near the end of the Miami Herald article, author Jim Wyss cited an estimate from the thoroughly demonized Venezuelan government that US sanctions have cost it $30 billion, with no time period specified for that estimate. Again, this calls to mind the run-up to the Iraq invasion, when completely factual statements that Iraq had no WMDs were attributed to the discredited Iraqi government. Quoting Iraqi denials supposedly balanced the lies spread in the media by US officials like John Bolton, who now leads the charge to overthrow Maduro. Wyss could have cited economists independent of the Maduro government on the impact of US sanctions—like US economist Mark Weisbrot, or the emphatically anti-Maduro Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez.
Illegal US sanctions were first imposed in 2015 under a fraudulent “state of emergency” declared by Obama, and subsequently extended by Trump. The revenue lost to Venezuela’s government due to US economic sanctions since August 2017, when the impact became very easy to quantify, is by now well over $6 billion. That’s enormous in an economy that was only able to import about $11 billion of goods in 2018, and needs about $2 billion per year in medicines. Trump’s “recognition” of Guaidó as “interim president” was the pretext for making the already devastating sanctions much worse. Last month, Francisco Rodríguez revised his projection for the change in Venezuela’s real GDP in 2019, from an 11 percent contraction to 26 percent, after the intensified sanctions were announced.
The $20 million in US “aid” that Wyss is outraged Maduro won’t let in is a rounding error compared to the billions already lost from Trump’s sanctions.
Former US Ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield, who pressed for more sanctions on Venezuela, dispensed with the standard “humanitarian” cover that US officials have offered for them (Intercept, 2/10/19):

And if we can do something that will bring that end quicker, we probably should do it, but we should do it understanding that it’s going to have an impact on millions and millions of people who are already having great difficulty finding enough to eat, getting themselves cured when they get sick, or finding clothes to put on their children before they go off to school. We don’t get to do this and pretend as though it has no impact there. We have to make the hard decision—the desired outcome justifies this fairly severe punishment.

How does this gruesome candor get missed by reporters like Wyss, and go unreported in his article?
Speaking of “severe punishment,” if the names John Bolton and Elliott Abrams don’t immediately call to mind the punishment they should be receiving for crimes against humanity, it illustrates how well the Western propaganda system functions. Bolton, a prime facilitator of the Iraq War, recently suggested that Maduro could be sent to a US-run torture camp in Cuba. Abrams played a key role in keeping US support flowing to mass murderers and torturers in Central America during the 1980s. Also significant that Abrams, brought in by Trump to help oust Maduro, used “humanitarian aid” as cover to supply weapons to the US-backed Contra terrorists in Nicaragua.
In the Miami Herald article, the use of US “aid” for military purposes is presented as another allegation made by the vilified Venezuelan president: “Maduro has repeatedly said the aid is cover for a military invasion and has ordered his armed forces not to let it in, even as food and medicine shortages sweep the country.”
Venezuela Accuses U.S. of Secretly Shipping Arms After Weapons Found on Plane with Possible CIA Ties | Democracy Now!
Calling for international aid and being democratically elected will do as little to protect Maduro’s government from US aggression as being disarmed of WMD did to prevent Iraq from being invaded—unless there is much more pushback from the US public against a lethal propaganda system.
​
When Is a Democracy not a Democracy? When It’s Venezuela and the US is Pushing Regime Change. Venezuela has as much right to call itself a democracy as does the United States. Until that is understood by enough people, the Trump administration will continue to devastate Venezuela’s economy with illegal sanctions and push it towards civil war.
Suggested Reading:
UN Rapporteur: US Sanctions Cause Death in Venezuela
Guaido is playing it fast and loose with the Bolivarian Constitution to justify a dictatorship
Trump’s Economic Sanctions Have Cost Venezuela About $6bn Since August 2017
How could Venezuela's president 'steal' the 2018 election from an unknown who didn't run?
In other news...
The Largest Protest Ever Was 15 Years Ago. The Iraq War Isn’t Over. What Happened?

Please add on as you deem fit. Immediately below are those that seem necessary to me.
1) Real Fiscal Deficit Numbers: The fiscal deficit number and target shared in the budget presentation did not take into account independent lending by govt orgs such as,
Food Corporation of India: Has been borrowing for the last 3 years. Has not been paid by the govt during this time. While FCI has released some figures, what is the total amount it has borrowed?
Same with orgs such as NABARD, PFC, Fertilizer corp, and so many other that we don't even know about.
2) Real financial state of orgs like LIC, National Small Savings Fund: These are the orgs that fund the loans of the govt as well as Food Corp, Fertilizer Corp etc.
What do their respective balance sheets truly look like? How much money did LIC really lend to banks and NBFIs over the years, that is now considered NPA?
3) RBI related questions:
As the RBI had increased SLR (CRR for that matter) requirements for commercial banks, and policy dictated that (public) banks store that money in govt securities; can the govt tell us how much this total amount is? And why it forces banks to behave this way?
And more broadly, does the govt understand that forcing banks to park their money this way, and simultaneously crowding out private lending by taking such huge loans from govt orgs and banks; is an important part of why successive RBI interest cuts have no meaningful impact in reducing commercial rate for lending?
4) Another RBI question: The RBI continues to build up its forex reserves. (approx $471 Billion as of last week); even though multiple experts (including some RBI folk) have said that beyond a point, trying to use reserves to stem a money outflow will be futile. Many have said that around 450 billion is already beyond sufficient in our current situation.
And, not allowing for natural adjustment/strengthening of the Rupee right now may lead to risky situations if the global outlook does turn negative. Rupee continues to be a Last Money In, First Money Out segment for more foreign investors, and is the govt prepared to risk a SE Asia-like currency crises, just so that the RBI has more reserves, a part of which the govt can quietly gobble up?

In mid-2015, China ended years of speculation over its gold reserves by announcing that it had 1,658 tons of gold. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) had increased its official gold holdings by 60% since its last disclosure in 2009. China had 1,054 tons of gold in its reserves as of April 2009.
By 2015, the price of bullion had dipped to its lowest since the 2011 gold bull run that pushed the metal to highs of $1,900 per ounce. The East Asian economic giant had been accumulating gold as the USD strengthened, pushing the prices of bullion to some of the lowest levels of the decade.
China is an export powerhouse and is not only the world’s largest exporter but also the largest holder of foreign exchange (forex) reserves. The country has over $3.11 trillion worth of foreign exchange holdings, to shield it during economic emergencies.
These vast forex reserves also buoy its native currency and give it much-needed clout in international affairs. These immense reserves increase the footprint of the US dollar in international trade. Its dollar reserves have also been a significant contributor to the current global savings glut.
The Chinese manufacturing sector holds a lot of US government bonds, and these savings — plus those made by other Asian countries — have directed mass capital flows to US households.
Beijing has, however, clarified that it is diversifying its reserves away from the dollar.
Beijing is highly exposed to American currency. Its overdependence on the dollar has been behind its silent gold-buying spree that raised its reserves from 1,658 tons in 2015 to 1,848.31 tons by the fourth quarter of 2019.
Economists note that China’s bid to decouple from the dollar heightened with the China-US trade war. The US threatened not only Chinese stocks listed in the US with delisting, but slapped massive tariffs on their exports. China, on the other hand, used its dollar-pegged currency, the Yuan, to fight back against the US’s punitive measures.

China Diversifying its Forex Reserves

In August, the PBOC allowed the Yuan’s value to fall against the dollar to cheapen its exports. The move increased the prices of American goods, a move that not only caused a massive shockwave in the market but also angered the US president so much that he called China an outright currency manipulator.
Besides diversifying to other currencies, China has also accumulated “shadow reserves.” Diversification away from the USD will also give the Yuan a more significant role in global finance. It is this Chinese desire to counteract a highly US dollar-centric system that has seen the country buy up massive amounts of gold as part of its alternative investments.
One factor that has gone almost unnoticed is the massive accumulation of gold by Chinese citizens. They have collectively imported over 12,000 tons of gold into the country since 2009. Switzerland is the world’s largest importer of gold, buying about 22% of all global gold imports as per 2018 data.
It is closely followed by China, which raked in close to 16% of all gold imports in the same year. Hong Kong, India, and the United Kingdom are also part of the world’s biggest gold-buyer markets. Switzerland might be a global leader in gold imports, but it is also the largest exporter of the premier precious metal.
The central European country is a gold refinery hub, and it is home to four of the world’s largest gold refineries. The mountainous country is home to Newmont Mining’s Valcambi SA, which refines close to 1,400 metric tonnes of the precious metal every year.
Switzerland is such an exporter of gold that of the 3,100 tons of the yellow metal produced in the country in 2016, 2,716 tons went to exports.

China Keeps Most of its Gold

China is the world’s second-largest importer of gold, but unlike Switzerland, most of the gold China imports remain in China. As an illustration, China imported $64 billion worth of gold in 2016, and only exported a paltry $1.2 billion worth of it. In essence, China was $62.7 billion richer by the end of that year.
The East Asian nation not only stores its imports but also buys a large share from Hong Kong, the fifth most prolific importer of the precious metal. The Pearl of the Orient bought 842 tons or 8.7% of the world’s gold imports in 2016. In that year, Hong Kong sold 1,337 tons to China, dipping its hands into its reserves in its bid to meet the insatiable Chinese demand for gold.
The Chinese have not always had it easy with gold. Mao Zedong banned the individual purchase of gold, and the ban was enforced for decades afterward. The Chinese bank was the only buyer of gold in the country, and it only allocated its gold reserves to a small number of state-owned jewelers.
In the early 2000s, the ban on individual gold purchases was lifted, and the Chinese gold rush began in earnest. The world’s busiest physical gold exchange was launched and opened to the public, flourishing as the government put measures in place that encouraged the gold trade.
This excitement and clamor for gold moved a lot of gold from western vaults to the east as the most massive movement of gold recorded in recent history took place.
Since then, the Chinese demand for gold takes 14% of the world’s supply, yet the country has been the largest producer of the yellow metal since 2007. The nation consumes over two times more gold than it mines with a large percentage of its citizens spending massive amounts of cash on gold adornments.
Many Chinese millennials spend thousands of Yuan on fashionable jewelry. Their parents, on the other hand, buy 24-carat clunky gold jewelry, the perfect investment vehicle for that generation.
The jewelry — evocative of gold ingots — is easy to sell and the money recouped when the need arises. They also buy matt ranges of gold jewelry, shunning tacky pure gold adornments for creative and lower carat gold designs.

Gold is a Safer Investment in a Debt-Ridden Global Economy

China has been a net importer of gold since the 1990s, but its significant purchases have increased since the global economic recession. The Chinese central bank — the supervisors of the Shanghai Gold Exchange — has encouraged the gold trade in the country by enabling the commerce of fine gold at its lowest spreads.
Sun Zhaoxue, the China Gold Association president, has, in the past, said:
“Individual investment demand is an essential component of China’s gold reserve system, and we should encourage individual investment demand for gold. Practice shows that gold possession by citizens is a useful supplement to national reserves and is very important to national financial security …. We should advocate to ‘store gold among the people’ [“People’s Gold”] and guide a healthy, positive development in this segment … This is the aim of our gold strategy.”
She goes on to ask for a strategic national gold strategy to make China resilient against multiple economic occurrences. To this end, the Shanghai Gold Exchange has made tremendous steps in making the gold trade as easy as possible, even launching an app to aid it.
China’s centuries-old infatuation with gold has led them to accumulate over 20,000 tons of gold because the People’s Bank of China does not buy gold from the domestic market.
Consequently, all the gold that is purchased by the Chinese stays in the local market. Pundits also believe that the Chinese central bank holds more gold than its official reserve numbers portray. The economic giant underreports its gold holdings to enable it to accumulate more of the precious metal at lower prices.
As China slowly delinks from a USD that has already lost its value due to prevailing high debt to GDP ratios globally, it stands out as one nation prepping for an oncoming economic catastrophe that could inevitably lift prices.
The World Bank has already issued a warning that the current wave of debt is untenable. Global debt percentages now exceed 322% of GDP. Central banks have pushed the global economy to the brink due to easing policies meant to stimulate economic activity.
Unfortunately, they find themselves intertwined in a broadening circle of money printing activities, which will eventually lead to extreme inflation. The management of inflation means that real rates will keep falling, and gold values will keep rising.
In debt-ridden financial systems, he who holds the gold makes the rules. And China is ready to step up.

1. Fragile five to Fastest growing economy - India
   
2. 11th largest to the 5th largest economy - India
   
3. Share of world GDP from 2.43% in 2014 to 3.08% in 2018
   
4. Average GDP 7.3% against 6.7% in previous regime
   
5. Forex reserves from 300 bn USD in 2014 to 420 bn USD in 2018
   
6. Doubling of FDI inflow from 36 bn USD in 2014 to 66 billion USD in 2018
   
7. Inflation less than 2.3 % (Nov 18) against 10.1% in 2014
   
8. Growth of sensex from 24,121.74 in 2014 to 36,395.03 on 12 Feb 19 (50.88%)
   
9. Fiscal deficit under control
   
10. Per capita income increased by 45% from Rs 86,647 in 2014 to Rs 1,25,397
    
11. IT exemption from 2 lakh in 2014 to 5 lakh (effectively 9.85 lakh with home loan)
    
12. Restaurant bills tax reduced from 18% in 2014 to 5%
    
13. Transaction charges through card down from 1% to 0%, domestic money transfer fee down from Rs 5 in 2014 to zero
    
14. Financial inclusion (32 crore bank accounts with 260 billion worth deposits). Almost 100% coverage from earlier 50%
    
15. DBT (savings of 83000 crores @ 15000 crore annually), No of govt schemes DBT applied to increased from 34 in 2014 to 433, 2.7 lakh fake mid-day meal students, 3.3 crore fake LPG connections, 87 lakh fake MNREGA job cards, 3 crore fake ration cards eliminated
    
16. Zero IT for businesses with turnover upto 60 lakhs
    
17. GST exemplifying cooperative federalism, rates of 83 items down from pre-GST rates, out of 1211 items only 35 items in above 18% slab, 39% reduction of cost of basic household items. Average 1 lk crore monthly revenue through GST collection. Exempted for business upto 40 lk
    
18. Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, constitution of NCLT, 3 lakh crores of NPAs recovered, 66 cases resolved, 260 cases liquidated, resolution of stressed assets, 2100 companies pay back 83000 crore to banks settling their pending loan repayments
    
19. 75 billion $ or Yen to Rupee exchange agreement with Japan
    
20. 1 lakh shell companies deregistered, FCRA licenses of 4800 NGOs cancelled
    
21. Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, properties of economic fugitives seized and auctioned
    
22. 1.9 lakh km of rural roads. Rural road connectivity at 91% from 55%
    
23. 36 new airports, from 65 in 7 decades to 106, all states now in air connectivity map
    
24. Effective international diplomacy following 59 visits to nations, 38 single, 10 double, 3 triple and 2 quadruple visits by PM.(Seen during Airstrikes,No Country opposed India)
    
25. Benami Act for action against Money Laundering
    
26. Rural sanitation coverage 95 % up from 39% (8.8 crore toilets)
    
27. Solar energy capacity increased 8 fold from 2.63 GW to 22 GW, 19. 8.5 GW of biogas grid installed.
    
28. Ganga waterway transportation, usage by shipping giant Maersk, cost of transportation reduced from 10/ton (road) / Rs 6/ton (rail) to Re 1/ton
    
29. More than 2.4 crore households lit up, rural electricity coverage to households up from 70 to 95%, only 19836 homes remain (in Chhatisgarh) out of 2,48,09,235
    
30. Electricity accessibility rank jump from 99 in 2014 to 26 in 2019
    
31. 7 crore new gas connections to 3.5 crore households @69000 conections per day, coverage 90% from 55%, 82% return for refill, 42% beneficiaries Dalits
    
32. 14.4 crore mudra loans worth Rs 7 lakh crore disbursed
    
33. 18000 remote villages connected with electricity
    
34. 2.92 lakh km of optical fibre laid, 0.02% to 50% gram Panchayat connectivity
    
35. Swachh bharat mission has saved, according to WHO, 3 lakh lives and will save 1.5 lakh lives per year.
    
36. IT filers increase from 3.79 crore to 6.08 crore, enterprises registered for indirect tax up from 64 lk to 118 lakh
    
37. Entry of India in global regimes Missile Technology Control regime (MTCR), WA (Wassenaar Arrangement) and Australia Group
    
38. 17 crore soil health cards
    
39. 1.5 crore houses built, 91.37 crore in rural areas and 13.5 lakh in urban areas against 25 lakh houses built between 2010-2014. House for all target year is 2022.
    
40. 1,78,346 houses built in NE over existing 2875 houses built till 2014
    
41. Home loan interest rate down from 10.3 % in 2014 to 8.4% in 2018, annual savings of Rs 47,160 for 30 lakhs over 30 years, no GST on affordable housing, 5% on remaining
    
42. Trading agreement in rupee with Iran and UAE
    
43. Common service centres up from 84k to 3 Lakh
    
44. OROP implemented after 43 years, 35000 crores disbursed to 8 crore veterans
    
45. India's vaccination programme Indradhanush amongst 12 best practices of world
    
46. 5035 Jan Aushadhi and - 1054 medicines under price control (60-90% discounts).
    
47. More than 150 Amrit stores, reduction of cost of cromium cobalt Knee implant from 1.58-2.5 lakh to 54,720 and high flex implant from Rs181728 to 56490 (69%), 85% reduction in cardiac stent price to Rs 28000
    
48. 87% reduction in 400 cancer drugs
    
49. Rate of Interest on higher education loans dropped from 14.75 in 2013 to 10.88% in 2019, savings of 1.18 lakh on 10 lakh loan over tenure of 60 months, Rs 2000 savings on EMI
    
50. Data revolution: Cost of 1 GB $0.26 in India against $12.37 in US, $6.66 in UK and $75.2 in Zimbabwe. Unlimited mobile+ 45 Gb data = Rs 150 against Rs 1000 in 2013; annual savings of 10,200
    
51. Katra rail line work completed after 16 years
    
52. Dhola Sadiya bridge work completed after 16 years
    
53. Sardar Sarovar Dam work completed after 15 years
    
54. Aadhaar act
    
55. Pakyong airport completed after 10 years
    
56. Chennai Nashri Tunnel after 10 years
    
57. Assam NRC after 40 years
    
58. National War Memorial after 50 years
    
59. NE cpas after 60 years
    
60. Kollam bypass after 43 years
    
61. Indo-Bangladesh enclaves after 42 years
    
62. Bansagar canal project after 40 years
    
63. Bogibeel bridge after 23 years
    
64. Western peri expressway after 15 years
    
65. Kota Chambal bridge after 11 years
    
66. Maibang-Lumding Stretch completed
    
67. Delhi Meerut Expressway completed
    
68. Ganga Expressway project (world's longest) underway
    
69. Metros in Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Jaipur, Lucknow, Washermenpet
    
70. All umanned level crossings eliminated
    
71. Ayushman Bharat: annual 5 lakh health care to every family, 15.05 lakh hospital admissions for secondary/ tertiary treatment, 2.4 crore e-cards generated as on 10 Mar 19 in 170 days. Target 50 crore people.
    
72. 59minutes loan portal: 92,000 loan applications of MSME amounting to 30,000 crores approved, 6000 crores sanctioned till Nov 18
    
73. 87% of farming house (owning land of 2 hctrs) or 12 cr ppl to get kisaan sammaan nidhi of Rs 6000 pr year. Rs 5215 cr transferred directly to 2.6 crore farmers in 37 days (for households with holding less than 0.01 hectares incm per month so far was Rs 8136 agnst exp of 6594
    
74. 1.5 million electric rickshaws
    
75. Procurement of 36 Rafale on Government to Government Basis avoiding middlemen
    
76. 05 billion$ S 400 Triumf air defence missile system deal with Russia
    
77. 145 M777 howitzer deal
    
78. 22 Apache AH 64E multi-role combat helos
    
79. 200 KA-226T helicopters
    
80. 56 EADS CASA C-295 transport aircraft
    
81. 15 CH 47 Chinook tactical transport helicopters
    
82. 2.3 lakh Bullet proof jackets
    
83. 1.6 lakh Bullet-proof helmets
    
84. 777 mn USD Barak 8 LRSAM contract
    
85. 5 bn USD S-400 air defence systems
    
86. 10 Heron TP armed drones
    
87. 4 additional P8I MR aircraft
    
88. 40 units of Laser sensor border fence installed
    
89. 72,400 Sig Sauer Assault rifles
    
90. 100 self-propelled K9 Vajra howitzers
    
91. 700000 AK-103 Kalashnikov assault rifles indigenous facility
    
92. Surgical strikes in Myanmar, across LoC and in Pakistan. Only Country to bomb a Nuclear Powered Country
    
93. 240 million visitors at Kumbh Mela 2019, cost 4236 crores @ Rs 177 per tourist, revenue 1.2 Lakh crores
    
94. 833 teraflop supercomputer Param Shivay by IIT BHU at Rs 32.5 crores
    
95. Divisional status to Ladakh
    
96. 470 bed ESIC hospital in Ennore
    
97. 100 bed ESIC hospital in Tiruppur
    
98. Namami Gange - Ganga is 30% cleaner, 83 out of 97 ganga towns and 4456 villages achieved ODF status, 08 out of 16 drains emptying 16 crore l sewage into Ganga tapped. Target date Mar 2020
    
99. 5,45,122 ODF villages, 598 ODF districts, 27 ODF states/ villages
    
100. RERA implementation
     
101. Udaan scheme - flight cost down from Rs 5000/1000 km in 2013 to 3400/1000 km in 2018, 34 airports operationalised, small towns connected, all states on aerial
     
102. Preventive conservation of 39275570 folios, curative conservation of 3656863 filios, digitisation of 2.83 lakh manuscripts consisting of 2.93 crore pages
     
103. India is now world's largest 2-wheeler manufacturer, 2nd largest smartphone manufacturer (94% of mobiles sold now made in India), 4th largest automaker, 2nd largest steel producer
     
104. 5100 m Mandvi Bridge in Goa in 3.5 years
     
105. Ease of doing Business ranking jump from 134 in 2014 to 77 in 2019
     
106. Therubali - Singapur Bridge No 588
     
107. Restoration of Asurgarh Fort, Kalahandi
     
108. GeM portal with 731431 product categories, 180,862 registered sellers and 32114 govt buyers
     
109. 10% EWS reservation
     
110. 40% of ongoing 700 NH projects completed, adding 40,039 km between 2014-18 against 91,287 km between 1947-2014
     
111. Highway construction rate jumped from 12 km/day in 2014 to 27 km/day in 2019
     
112. 101 terrorists and 11 offenders extradited
     
113. 90,000 ex-partite Indians evacuated
     
114. Chabahar port, Sittwe port and Duqm port
     
115. Military installation in Seychelles
     
116. International logistics agreements with US, France and Singapore
     
117. Work underway on 25 MLD ZLD Common Effluent Treatment Plant at Gujarat Eco Textile Park and will save 25 million litres of water per day
     
118. Beautification of 65 railway stations, all stations fitted with LED lights, wi-fi, multi-brand food centres, kiosks, executive lounges, lifts (445 from 97 in 2014), escalators (603 from 199 in 2014), travellators and ramps
     
119. Record number of foot over bridges built
     
120. 871 new train services
     
121. 180 new rail lines
     
122. Dedicated railway freight corridor - 2 sections completed
     
123. 100% electrification of railways underway, first solar powered railway station (Guwahati). First solar powered train (world's second), savings of Rs 40 Lakhs and 90,000 ltrs diesel per year
     
124. Make in India semi-high-speed trains - Tejas, Gatiman and Vande Bharat
     
125. Humsafar and Antodaya trains, Deen Dayalu and Anubhuti coaches, UDAY double decker, glass dome Vistadome coaches
     
126. Project Swarn and Project Utkrisht to upgrade Rajdhani/Shatabdi and Mail/Express respectively
     
127. Largest coach production in world at ICF, Chennai
     
128. No more human extreta on railway tracks. Installation of 1.37 lakh out of 2.5 lakh completed in Jun 18.
     
129. 400 wi-fi railway stations (Aug 18)
     
130. 80% reduction in rail accidents
     
131. 10 high speed rail corridors underway, target date 2025-26
     
132. Export of world class customised coaches from MCF, Rae Bareli
     
133. LIC and Air India register profit
     
134. 2300 km rail tracks constructed, speed jumped from 4.1 km/day in 2014 to 6.53 km/day in 2018
     
135. Neem coating of urea
     
136. Gokul mission - record 160 million ton milk production
     
137. Online availability of CBSE and NCERT books
     
138. 10 crore LED bulbs distributed, 5000 crore savings
     
139. Investment in urban infrastructure jumped from 157703 crores to 795500 crores
     
140. Statue of Unity to commemorate Iron Man of India
     
141. Rs 2509 crore sales in Khadi
     
142. 482.36 million digital transactions worth Rs 74,978 crores in Oct 2018 against 0.3 million transactions worth Rs 90 crores in Nov 2016
     
143. 30% increase in ATMs, 208% increase of PoS machines from 10.81 lakh in May 14 to 33.32 lakh in Aug 18, 111% increase in credit cards from 1.94 crore in May 14 to 4.10 crore in Aug 18, 144% increase in debit cards from 40.17 crore to 98.02 crore
     
144. Ease of Doing Business Index 142 (2014) to 100 (2018)
     
145. Ease of getting electricity index 99 (2014) to 26 (2018)
     
146. UN's e-govt index 118 (2014) to 97(2018)
     
147. Globalisation index 112 to 107 (2018)
     
148. Innovation index 76 to 60 (2018)
     
149. Competitiveness index 71 to 39
     
150. Logistics performance index 54 to 35
     
151. Global peace index 141 to 137
     
152. DBR ranking 100 to 77
     
153. India ranks 3rd in global start up ecosystem
     
154. 06 crore jobs in MSME sector based on CII data
     
155. 448 million formal jobs based on EPFO, NPS and PPF data
     
156. 10 crore jobs in entrepreneurship via mudra and other schemes
     
157. 80% increase in tax payers, 51.3 % increase in gross tax revenue
     
158. Black Money report card - Voluntary income declaration scheme (Rs 65250 crore), IT search and survey operations (35,460 crore), Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana(5000 crore), Benami transactions Act (4300 crore), Black Money and Imposition of Tax Act (4100 crore)
     

160 Rs 6000 financial assiatence for pregnant women
161/1 . Sagarmala: port capacity increase from 8 to 14.7 lakh ton, cargo up from 89 to 116 MMT 8 new national waterways including ganga waterway NW-1 and Brahmaputra waterway NW-2.
161/2. domestic cruise service between Mumbai and Goa, ro-ro services on Ghoga-Dahej reducing travel distance from 294 to 31 km
161/3. New international cruise terminals at Chennai and Goa, railway line between Haridaspur and Paradip underway, LNG import terminal at Kamarajar port, Oil berth ai Jawahar Dweep,Coal berth at Mangalore port
161/4 . deep draft Iron ore berth at Paradip berth, JNPT SEZ, Kandla and Paradip smart industrial port city, largest dry dock and international ship repair facility at CSL, modernisation of 17 fishing harbours

1. 800 km Delhi-Mumbai Expressway underway
   
2. Replacement of bio-toilets with upgraded vacuum bio toilets in trains underway. Order for 500 placed on experimental basis.
   
3. No terror strikes in hinterland
   
4. 103 new KVs
   
5. 62 new Navodaya Vidyalayas
   
6. 6 new IITs against 16 in previous 57 years
   
7. 6 new IIMs against 13 in previous 57 years
   
8. 7 IIITs against 7 in previous 57 years
   
9. 02 new IISER
   
10. 12 new AIIMS against 7 in previous 57 years.
    
11. 141 new universities against 30 in previous 57 years
    
12. 01 new NIT
    
13. Life Insurances @ Rs 12 annual and @ Rs 12 monthly premiums
    
14. Atal Pension Yojana
    
15. Pension to 42 crore people of unorganised sector
    
16. Ambedkar memorial
    
17. BHIM application for digital payments
    
18. Khelo India Initiative for tracking of athletes' development, Rs 5 lk per annum scholarship for 1000 budding athletes per year for eight years each; monthly Rs 50000 out-of -pocket exptr, 2000 PETs, salary cap of coaches doubled from Rs 1-2 lk per month, target 15 yrs
    
19. Special Task Force for Olympics
    
20. RERA Act
    
21. Bullet train maiden project
    

182/1. Rs 6.92 lakh crore Bharatmala project, 44 economic corridors with 9000 km road, 2000 km port connectivity, 9000km roads to connect district HQs with NH,
182/2. 2000 km road with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, opening up of 185 choke points, road development to char dham, 12 greenfield expressways spanning 1900 km

1. 36 murtis retrieved and brought back to India in 2014-2019 under India Pride Project against 02 between 2000-2013, 02 in 90s, 03 in 80s, 01 in 70s and nil in 50s and 60s
   
2. Unemployment rate 3.8% against 13.8 % in 2013
   
3. India is a less-cash society now
   
4. Develpment of Trincomalee and Columbo port while checkmating China's Hambantota by taking operations of near by (15 km away) Mattala Rajapaksha International Airport
   
5. Plugging the 'double taxation avoidance' black money loophole through a new tax agreement with Mauritius
   
6. Deal with Switzerland for automatic tax data sharing from 01 Jan 2019
   

189/1 Varanasi - Varanasi ring road phase 1 completed, phase 2 underway, inland waterways terminal, Babatpur airport highway, 140 MLD Dinaput STP, facelift to railway station, big cow shelter for stray cattle, BPO centre, piped gas project, Varanasi-Balia rail project,
189/2. Vande Bharat Express, Kashi Vishwanath temple - Ganga Ghat corridor project, renovation of all bathings ghats, LED illuminations of ghats and major roads, underground electricity cabling,
189/3. new sewage plants, 02 cancer treatment facilities, 65th to 29th rank in swachhata sarvekshan (2016), 90% ODF district.

1. Creation of 100 Smart cities, 100 crore per year per city for 05 years, 500 acres for retrofitting, 50 acres for redevelopment, 250 acres for green field projects, 10% of energy from renewable resources, 80% of green building construction, special purpose vehicles.

191/1 Development of 500 AMRUT cities underway, urbanization project of rejuvenation and transformation which includes beach front development, prevention of beach erosion, improvement of water supply, replacement of pipelines,
191/2. New sewerage connections, greenery and open spaces, digital and smart facilities, e-governance, LED streetlights, public transport, storm water drainage projects in a phased manner, Target date 2022

1. Increase in Child Sex Ratio (CSR) in 104 BBBP (Beti Bachao Beti Padhao) districts, anti-natal care registration in 119 districts and institutional deliveries in 146 out of total 640 districts as in Mar 18. CSR of Haryana increased from 871 to 914.
   
2. International Yoga Day
   
3. Aspirational Districts Programme: 115 'backward' districts placed under 'prabharis' and for competitive development on the basis of 49 performance indicators, target year 2022.
   

195/1. Make in India: 16.4 lakh crore investment committments, 1.5 lakh crore investment inquiries, 60 bn USD FDI, 26 sectors covered, 23 positions jump in World Bank's Doing Business Report (DBR), 32 places in WEF's Global Competitiveness Index (GCI),
195/2 19 places in Logistics Performance Index, 42 places in Ease of Doing Business index, schemes include Bharatmala, Sagarmala, dedicate freight corridors, industrial corridors, UDAN-RCS, Bharat Broadband Network, Digital India.

1. 251 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) and Post Office Passport Seva kendras (POPSKs) against 77 till 2014, target of one PSK every 50 km across India.
   
2. Unanimous election of Justice Dalveer Bhandari to ICJ forcing UK to pull out own nominee Christopher Greenwood, demonstrating India's clout in international arena.
   
3. India Post Payments Bank: India's biggest banking outreach with 1.55 lakh post offices (2.5 times banking network) linked to IPPB system
   
4. Philip Kotler award, Seoul Peace prize, Champion of the Earth Award, Grand Collar of the State of Palestine, Amir Abdulla Khan Award, King Abdulaziz Sash award, Amir Amanullah Khan award.
   
5. 1900 gifts and memorabilia received by Modi auctioned and 11.7 crores added to Namami Gange fund, 1.4 c of Seoul Peace award also to Nammami Gange.
   

Press Conference with the Governor of the People's Bank of China 任中国人民银行行长 Yi Gang 易纲 on current monetary and regulatory matters in the People's Republic of China for the year 2021

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
I shall be presenting the position of the People's Bank of China on the current forecast for the fiscal year 2021, with emphasis on the growth predicted for the country and the ramifications it has for the monetary policy of the PBOC. Additionally, I shall address the demand for the People's renminbi as a reserve currency for the Federal Republic of India.
Concerning the growth of the economy for 2021, official growth stands at 6,3 percent. We raise our satisfaction with some positive changes have occurred in the structural adjustments of the Chinese economy in previous quarters, but deep problems remain amid uncertainties. While the the trade war with the United States has been officially ended and there has been regulatory and financial reform, we raise concerns with the additional oversight that has been placed on the digital economy and infrastructure of firms operating in the country. We would like to raise - in coordination with the State Council, that the policy is in response to both the U.S. CLOUD Act and European GPDR to which the burden is regrettable.
Of more pressing concern is the slowing growth for the year that has missed the official target of the PBOC and the government. Thus I shall state that the People's Bank will continue the prudent monetary policy that is neither too loose or too tight, and ensure reasonably ample liquidity in the interbank market. However. The Bank shall begin a further stimulus package to address the slowing growth through creating further domestic credit growth and boost consumer demand.
The additional aim will be to allow for easier borrowing for businesses that does not hold substantial non-performing loans that have been flagged to the Ministry of Finance. This relates to the new Supplementary Measures that are now being issued:

• Article 1. In the process of identifying nonperforming loans, all banks shall strictly abide by the relevant stipulations of the Measures with regard to the statistics and identification of bad loans. Bad loans identified in accordance with the current regulations stipulated by the Ministry of Finance may be reported individually.
  
• Article 2. Standards and procedures stipulated by the Ministry of Finance shall continuously apply to the verification of bad loans. We herein request all branches of the People’s Bank of China to pass this Notification to the urban commercial banks, urban credit cooperatives, rural credit cooperatives and their affiliates, credit investment companies, financial companies, and financing and leasing companies within their geographical jurisdiction.
  

Regarding State-Owned Enterprises, credit expansion will delegated by State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), under guidance by the PBOC.
With this screening policy in place - essentially window guidance, we hope to avoid flooding of inefficient credit creation.
As to the matter of the size of the stimulus, the PBOC shall roll out a $260 billion package, with targeted support for performing small- and medium banks that have has viable credit profiles. Banks that fail to meet this requirement shall be reported to regulators to shore up, with asset sell-offs and NPL write offs - with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (a percentage of the $144 billion operating budget has been allocated for this write-off, complimented with the National Debt Service allocations as outlined by the Ministry of Finance's projected budget for 2021)
Concerning the state of the renminbi and its valuation, should growth projections worsen, the Bank is willing act robustly in the defence of the currency. Current repo rates shall remain in line and compliment current inflation metrics.
Concerning more fascinating matters, the internationalisation of the renminbi is a policy that we at the PBOC would encourage policy makers to continue upon. Due to the dominance of the American dollar, the US government can issue debt and print money freely. It gains from seigniorage, as people hold dollars for use in transactions. As the world has seen, especially in recent years, control of dollar-clearing systems enables the United States to limit others’ financial access - which is of particular concern for the PBOC. Many global goods, especially commodities, are priced in dollars. These benefits also provide the United States with political gains and soft power. The same can be assumed for the renminbi and China should further relaxation of capital accounts and the not too loose or restricted monetary policy of the PBOC continues as it has.
From 2009, the dollar has held steady at 60% of global reserves over the past decade, after declining from 70%. With the euro area’s troubles, the euro’s share has slipped; developing economies now hold about 24% of their reserves in euros, down from 31% in 2009. Other currencies – Swiss, Australian, Canadian – increased their attractiveness for a time, but their market size is limited and cyclical conditions have dampened some interest. The Japanese yen and British pound will continue to play a modest role, though we remain pessimistic on the role of the British pound should a No Deal Brexit be followed through. SDRs, which represent less than 3% of global reserves, suffer from a lack of private trading, invoicing, borrowing and lending, granted the renminbi has been added to the basket peg in which SDRs are issued by the IMF.
Given the decision of the Indian government to divest from the their dollar holdings, the PBOC shall announce the sell of $20 billion of National Government Bonds to the Reserve bank of India as well as a purchase of $30 billion worth of renminbi to be held in forex reserves.
Due to this measure, we hope to see that the liquidity of the Renminbi expands as international interest picks up, to which the PBOC shall facilitate all currency purchases as well as bond issuance to those who seek a stable investment.

Press Conference with the Governor of the People's Bank of China 任中国人民银行行长 Yi Gang 易纲 on current monetary and regulatory matters in the People's Republic of China for the year 2022

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) is gladdened to announce that the efforts made by the Bank to consolidate financial markets and reign in unproductive credit and the misappropriation in debt lending are seeing bountiful returns. For the 2022 year forecast, we are thus heartened to state that the economy has exponentially preformed to bring growth above 7 percent, beating negative analysis on efforts on the PBOC and government's meaningful reforms to address core structural issues that have threatened the Chinese and global economy.
While we have identified specific measures in relation to consumer demand and business growth, in conjunction with the improving regulatory framework, we foresee promising inflationary movement and are pleased to see an adaptive labour market take hold in overall trends for key benchmarks.
In regards to the current developments in the Banks's stimulus efforts, we shall maintain the current level of market guidance and capital assistance. While we continue this approach, we are constantly assessing the Mainland's capital markets liquidity and should concerns be spotted that identify general overheating, the PBOC is ready to address those concerns and enforce targeted measures.
Now, onto the main elements of the year's statement: the current status on the internationalisation of the Renminbi and policy responses to optimise a favourable environment as well as new guidelines on capital market
The following discussion shall be complimented with the following handout:

The Renminbi - The People's Currency, and Soon the World's?

The Continued Dollar Dominance

• First, a blunt fact: while multiple reserve currencies have co-existed before, and of course dominance today does not guarantee dominance in the future, with the British pound's fall as a gentle reminder of this, the PBOC is pragmatic in stating that dollar's demise looks a long ways off. Part of this is the on-the-ground data indicating that the drive to internationalisation has indeed lost much of its momentum as a reserve currency.
  
• There is no better reminder that the US dollar is dominant than the rout across emerging market economies sine 2016-2020. The worst-performing currencies of 2019 shared a disproportionate reliance on the greenback. In 2015, 62 per cent of countries anchored their currencies to the dollar and about the same percentage of developing countries borrow in the currency.
  
• On the other hand, less than 30 per cent of countries use the euro as an anchor for their exchange rates and only 13 per cent of external debt for developing countries is euro-denominated. The pound and the yen barely show up in the data.
  
• When it comes to global currency reserves held by central banks, the dollar is unrivalled. While its share of global foreign-exchange reserves has fallen for five consecutive quarters, global central banks have more or less held some 60 per cent or more of their reserves in the greenback since 1996. Even with a loss of confidence in US markets, forex holdings in the Renminbi have been somewhat insignificant.
  

Chinese Efforts to Open Up the Renminbi - An Uneven Effort

• In March 2019, China introduced its first renminbi-denominated oil futures contract, an attempt to have an alternative for domestic and international investors and traders to the petro-dollar order. However until the central government creates bilateral agreement with major oil-producing (OPEC) states to accept payment in Renminbi, this will continue to see sub-optimal results.
  
• Since gaining a spot in the IMF's Special Drawing Rights basket of reserve currencies in 2015, China has also extended local currency swaps with various countries, including those along its landmark Belt and Road initiative, as well as took steps to open up its local bond market to foreign investors. Though given the sputtering results in BRI agreements and the concerns on excessive lending to questionable projects/governments, the BRI as a route to internationalisation has taken a backseat for policy makers.
  
• Of concern to the PBOC and MOF policy analysts is that internationalisation of China's currency has stalled, and by some measures even reversed. As in 2016, the Renminbi was the fifth most actively used currency for domestic and international payments, with a roughly 2 per cent share, according to SWIFT. That's a drop from 2014 and 2015 when the use of China's currency doubled — in a year — to 2.8 per cent.
  
• When only international payments are considered, the Renminbi drops to eighth place behind: the dollar, which comprises nearly 45 per cent; the euro with 32 per cent; followed by the Japanese yen, British pound, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar and Australian dollar, which all have a share of 5 per cent or less.
  
• Allowing market forces to play a larger role in determining the Renminbi's value and opening up the capital account would require a complete overhaul of the country's financial system. While we realise that such a policy shift would bring some expected gains, the PBOC sees little reason to make a great pivot towards liberalisation, but instead a concerted series of smaller policies - or to put it more traditionally, 'Crossing the river by grasping the stones on the riverbed.'
  

Making The Cross Across the Riverbed Towards A More Global Renminbi
The PBOC has issued the following in its Guiding Measures to the Chinese Mainland and SAR financial markets:

• A new rule shall be instituted on cross-border Renminbi FDI which stipulates that, in principle, all the foreign enterprises are allowed to raise Renminbi funds in offshore Renminbi markets and repatriate them back to the mainland in the form of FDI. Previously, the foreign firms’ behaviours of remitting Renminbi back into Mainland were subjected to the PBOC’s approval on a case-by-case basis.
  
• These transactions are to be settled in Hong Kong accounts, thus increasing the amount of Yuan in circulation offshore; these offshore Renminbi will be distinctly referred to as CNH rather than the onshore CNY. Furthermore, this allows the PBOC to act should the policy be abused by market speculators looking for an easy entry into China's domestic capital markets.
  

This new rule will further buoy the offshore Renminbi (“Dim Sum”) bond market and accelerate the pace of Renminbi internationalisation.

• The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall begin to broker with OPEC states an agreement on settlement of trade in crude oil and its derivatives be conducted in Renminbi, in a further boost to the Shanghai International Energy Exchange and Shanghai crude oil futures market.
  
• The extension of the “mini-QFII” scheme to India, Pakistan, ASEAN, the Republic of Korea and Japan which will allow some foreign central banks, beyond only a handful of smaller nearby Asian countries, to start building a limited amount of currency reserves even before anything like full currency convertibility will be authorised and conducted. QFII stands for Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor, a designation that allows a company to invest in Chinese bonds and equities — though again, within guiding limits issued by the PBOC on a case-by-case basis.
  
• Regulators will begin a similar pilot scheme - RQFII - that would allow financial institutions with a physical mainland presence to remit currency from their Hong Kong subsidiaries back to the mainland — and, potentially, foreign central banks to invest small amounts of Renminbi in the Chinese interbank bond market.
  
• The Hong Kong Monetary Authority already has QFII status, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore has applied, with the PBOC accepting further applications.
  
• Foreign institutions will be given a capped access of no more than $100 million in Hong Kong accounts to derivatives, including financial futures, commodity futures and options in testing the markets' reaction to foreign operators.