Next stop 100?

THE RUPEE SLID smoothly through 90; and eventhough it was hardly a surprise — it had been knocking at the door for the past week — the media was all aflutter.

- JAMAL MECKLAI

I have long felt that, for several decades now, the government has been using the rupee as a safetyvalve for failures in economic policy, and the brunt of this, of course, fallson the weakersections of society, who are much more hard pressed to pay the costs ofimported cooking and fuel oils. India has 700-800 million poorpeopleanditshould be the government’s focused approach to design policy to address their needs, rather than simply succumbing to the aging Ronald Reagan approach of trickle-down economics.