Central banker’s heart

MD Patra, Deputy Governor, RBI, recalled a famous central banker’s joke at a recent Treasury Heads seminar in the context of central bankers being impervious to the imminent recession and job losses while hiking policy rates. Patra, said; ‘A man needs a heart transplant. The doctor offers the heart of a five-year old boy. “Too young!” says the man. “How about the heart of a 40-year old treasury head?” “He doesn’t have a heart”. Then how about the heart of a 75-year old central banker?” “I will take it!” “But why?” “It’s never been used!”

Perhaps the only subject about which central bankers get emotional and abandon their rationality is financial markets, the plumbing of the operational architecture of monetary policy. He emphasised that it is for this reason that the RBI engages not only in their regulation, but also in their development.

Waiting for the Heroes

After the successful launch of India’s first private sector rocket from Sriharikota by Skyroot Aerospace, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh apologised to mediapersons for having made them wait.

“Sorry for making you wait. We are waiting for the two heroes to arrive,” said the Minister, adding:

“Like in a film shooting, everybody is waiting for the heroes to come, we will also wait for the two heroes,”. The heroes were — Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka — of Skyroot, the Hyderabad-based space tech start-up

Where is the rocket?

India’s historic first private rocket launch also ensured some lighter moments for the reporters, photographers and videographers covering the launch.

Used to seeing large size launches of rockets like Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (44 m tall) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (49.13 m tall), the media was surprised by the first television visual of the 6 m Skyroot’s rocket named Vikram-S.

Oh My God, this is so small? It’s like a Diwali rocket, said one. At the media centre terrace, photographers and videographers were glued on to the direction of the launch.

But, unlike the usual slow and steady pick up by the large rockets with thunderous sound and fire in the tail, Vikram just zipped into the sky without any noise, before the photographers and videographers could capture it. Despite their disappointment, they couldn’t hide their laughter.

Gender neutral law

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 has broken the glass ceiling and become the first law in India to use she/her pronouns while referring to all genders. The Bill’s “Interpretation” provision states that the pronouns “her” and “she” in the proposed legislation have been used for an individual, irrespective of gender. Though this may further the cause of women’s empowerment, the Babus in Law Ministry are a worried lot! Reason: What will happen if the government decides to further push the ‘SHE’ agenda in other existing laws as well. Then Babus have to burn the midnight oil to tweak thousands of laws which use he/his pronouns. A gargantuan task indeed if such a decision were to be taken! Our Bureaus