Below the line

For all those who had been hearing Bibek Debroy, Chairman to the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, over the years, it was well known that he had a gift of the gab and often floored people with his intellectual prowess.

But little do people know about his eye for detail. At his IBBI’s fifth Annual Day lecture, he was quick to point out that it was “not sensible” for the organisers to highlight how the IBC had performed well in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business index.

For those wondering why Debroy said this, it is because the World Bank Group had last month discontinued its Doing Business Report due to alleged manipulation of the index by top bank officers to favour China and Saudi Arabia.

“Thanks to the World Bank, doing Business is a buzzword for the wrong reasons now,” he quipped.

He went on to highlight that the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has a parallel ease of doing business ranking for States and that continues to be a buzzword, for the right reasons!

Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and the recent political developments in Punjab have been under the spotlight creating a social media frenzy. But many enthusiastic twitter users began tagging the wrong person in their posts.

Footballer Amrinder Singh had to eventually tweet urging people to stop tagging him and clarified that he was the goalkeeper of the Indian Football Team and not the former Chief Minister of Punjab. The tweet went viral on Thursday.

“Since this tweet got a lot of reach, I would like to take the opportunity to request every Indian to support their National Football Team. With your support, we will be always motivated to keep performing better,” the footballer tweeted from his handle @Amrinder_1

The political discourse in Andhra Pradesh just got worse this week. Actor-politician Pawan Kalyan’s comment on AP’s Information and Public Relation Minister Perni Venkataramaiah triggered a torrent of counter comments from his Cabinet colleagues.

Flaying AP government’s attempts to regulate the screenings and pricing of tickets, Pawan Kalyan indirectly referred to the Minister as ‘sannasi’ or good-for-nothing fellow. AP Minister for Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Kodali Nani shot back, calling the Jana Sena President ‘sannasinnara’ or a bigger good-for-nothing fellow. What followed that exchange of words between the two leaders was still worse, with Twitter and Facebook timelines getting jammed with a flood of memes, edited clips and vulgar comments.

Court hearings are, often, serious affairs. Once in a while they produce smiles. When the Madras High Court was hearing a PIL on rising non-performing assets (NPAs) in the country’s banking system, the Chief Justice asked the lawyer what is the extent of NPAs in the country?

Stumped by the sudden question, the lawyer professed a figure of ₹1.1 lakh crore and then corrected himself to say ₹11 lakh crore. Still not sure he said he will re-check.

Covid-ravaged Kerala is opening up with a vengeance. Schools, colleges, cinema theatres and tourism are being thrown open to the fully vaccinated even as the Delta variant sustains its spread in specific communities in the State and the daily death count stays stubbornly above 100. The State government, however, draws comfort from the ‘moderating’ test positivity ratio and daily new case/in-patient numbers. A feared third wave or not, it could no longer ignore the ‘huge social and economic costs’ from a prolonged lockdown, or the mounting unrest from powerful stakeholders. The State it seesm has decided to ride a tiger without quite knowing how, when, and where to dismount! Our Bureaus