Sunday 7 December 2008

India unveils $4bn stimulus plan


India (which recently received £825 million of your money in foreign aid from Gordon Brown) has announced $4bn (£2.72bn) in extra spending to boost its own economy as the global financial crisis tightens.

The Indian government said it was also planning a substantial spending increase in next year's budget. The move came as the Reserve Bank of India cut its key interest rate by one percentage point, from 7.5% to 6.5%, on Saturday to encourage spending.

It is the third time since October the central bank has cut rates, which are now at their lowest since June 2006. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office said in a statement: "The government has decided to seek authorisation for additional planned expenditure of up to 200bn rupees ($4bn) in the current year."

The Indian prime minister's office said the government was keeping a close watch on the economic situation and would take any additional needed to "maintain the pace of economic activity". Under the plan, various categories of tax will be cut by up to 4 percentage points to encourage consumer spending.

The package also includes measures to boost infrastructure spending, help businesses, and aid labour-intensive export sectors such as textiles and handicrafts.

Mr Singh, who recently took control of the finance ministry, last week forecast that India's economy would grow by 7.5% in the year to March 2009.
Whilst the British economy disappears down the shit house....

Pip pip

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is a good story even in abnormal state!
Do u agree this sop will help retrieve the economy?
Do u think the bigs in the world of Indian politics can bring succour to the people? People I mean man on the street, what R K Laxman's man.Do u think that new economic policy changes will bring even modeate changes? Do u think that every man wants house? or do u think tha every man wants food and reasonable life? Do u think every man can afford a flat or house of his own ? I have my own doubts after really seeing the length and breadth of the country as a regular reporter and then as a specila correspondent and then a column writer. I finally stopped writing just because today's writing job is something sensational and certainly not reader friendly? I wish I should be wrong! News paper reporters think reporting the terrorist-dead- bodies at morgue in spite of the fact the local muslims refused the dead to be buried. Is it reporting oris it giving a chance to terrorists to know where these dead bodies are there? Once they know they will attack the locations to get the bodies and they would like to bury them and call them as Martyrs. Do we need this kind of reporting. Do u think the sops given really going to help the poor man on the street. We cannot be ignoring the ordinary poor man please. Dr Balakrishnan

Colonel Wilberforce Buckshot said...

In answer to your numerous questions I say an emphatic NO I do not believe it will change anything. I agree with you totally.

So perhaps you can explain to me why throwing my money at your problem will make any difference given the aforementioned issues with our obvious accord in recognizing and understanding those issues.

Will the Indian Government reign in it's nuclear weapons program or it's space program and planned lunar mission as a part of this alleged economic support plan?.

Will the Indian Government refund my £825 million in order to prevent thousands of elderly people dying from cold and/or starvation in Britain this winter?.