HAPPY, PEACEFUL AND PROSPEROUS 2014!
By Ruma Dubey
Short Description: As 2013 hobbled its way to the exit door, one could not wait to see the back of the year, a push and shove, if possible was a good idea! Corruption scandals dominated the political landscape like always but what made 2013 different is that people in four state elections have said “Enough is enough!” and preferred to show Congress the door. A new party has taken centerstage in Delhi and it is yet to prove itself, whether it will walk the talk. As the year closed and a swanky New Year was ushered in with new hope, a quick look back at the year that was. Its back to basics - an A,B,C,D... of 2013.
A – Arvind Kejriwal was undoubtedly the man of the year, with his Aam Aadmi Party, proving to be the dark horse and becoming CM of Delhi. How long this uneasy alliance with Congress remains is to be seen. Hope 2014 we will see him nationally.
B – Banking License - Well, we could walk into an L&T Bank or Reliance Bank in 2014 as the RBI Governor gets ready to announce the final names soon. Surely, banking in India will undergo a sea change over the next few months, or maybe not?
C – Current Account Deficit or CAD. These words must be haunting the Finance Minister as all arms are being let go from the financial arsenal. CAD is expected to be less than 3% GDP during the current financial year," the RBI said in the half-yearly report. Well, let’s see... seems like a tall order right now.
D – Devyani Khobragade. This diplomat is threatening to undo all that which India and US had built up, in terms of relationship. The nation being angry for the way she was arrested and imprisoned was wrong but maybe, it is time for the diplomats to also stop living abroad like the way they did during the license raj days.
E – Egypt was literally on the boil through the year. Egyptian army chief General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi removed the country's then-incumbent president Mohamed Morsi from power and suspended the Egyptian constitution, leading to violent protests and it still continues.
F – Food Security Bill. A complete political gimmick, the Congress is hoping that this Bill alone would help it regain its vote bank. When hungry, do not give a man a fish but teach him how to fish….
G –Gold. The Finance Minister wants the entire country to stop buying gold and the entire blame for the runaway CAD was laid on Indian’s buying gold. But has the Govt checked how much gold smuggling has gone up since these restrictions were imposed?
H –Housing sector has never been so bad. The rising interest rate sapped out whatever little demand was there. But that dream house continues to remain out of reach for most in India.
I –Inflation, especially food inflation remained worrisome through the year. CPI for Nov’13 came in at 11.24% v/s 10.17% in Oct’13.Till this comes down, we cannot expect interest rates to come down.
IIP in October contracted to 1.8% v/s at 8.2% (YoY) which was then, in 2012, actually a 16-month high. Unlike last year, expectations are muted thus disappointment might be lower.
J – Jet Airways- Etihad kept the market and the entire aviation industry on tenterhooks, the first deal to happen after the Govt allowed foreign airlines to buy up to 49% in Indian airlines.
K – Kudos to ISRO! Mangalayan, India’s first Mars Orbiter mission was launched, a victory for our space scientists and a small attempt at showing to the world that India did indeed, at one time, produce a Aryabhatta.
L –Lokpal Bill hogged all the headlines during the last week of December. The Parliament has passed a ‘watered down’ version of the original but what we have in place will also be equally effective; something is better than nothing!
M – MCX- Equity was launched in Feb’13 but its downfall happened quickly, putting to rest any doubts we had about any other exchange taking off and a cloud now hangs over the listing of BSE.
N –Narendra Modi was the Prime Ministerial candidate for BJP and he has pretty much ruled the political stage in India. After a year of hearing him put down the Congress, hopefully in 2014, we will start hear him talk about development and his plans for India.
O –Oil on the international arena remained cool. But in India, oil or fuel prices have been on the boil and as we enter into the New Year, this price hikes may not taper.
P –Plenum was a new word which we learnt this year. China announced, after almost a decade, announced its Third Plenum, abolishing the one-child policy and also made some sweeping changes in the financial sector.
Q –QE Tapering was undoubtedly the most watched word by the market and the marketmen. Addressing his last press conference, Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, due to retire by on 31st Jan’14, started the process of ending what he had started. The Fed has purchased more than $1 trillion in Treasuries and mortgage bonds during 2013 in an effort to encourage job creation
R – Raghuram Rajan, took the market by storm; suave, well spoken and young, he is like a messiah today. Apart from his academic achievements, the way he spoke, with so much clarity and hope, with a vision for the future and all this with authority, truly warmed the heart.
S – Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement was a never-before seen farewell, with the entire nation bidding him adieu with tears in their eyes. A person like him is born once is a lifetime and we all are happy that we could see him during our lifetime.
T – Tehelka’s death is a big tragedy as this was a bold piece of journalism; the shame which is Tarun Tejpal will be long forgotten but people will miss Tehelka; it is still alive but how long is the question and will it have the same punch as all leave?
U – Uttarakhand tragedy is something which we cannot simply get over. Mankind might make have made huge amount of scientific progress but do we have the technology to measure or anticipate the fury of Mother Nature? Or can any modern equipment build a temple as strong as the one built in Kedarnath over 1000 years ago?
V – Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines was grounded last year but this year, debtors sold off his pledged shares of group companies ; basically one after the other, we saw the family silver being sold off…living life King size does not really help!
W – Wockhardt was down consistently with the company coming under the US FDA scanner. And not just this company, many Indian pharma companies have come under this scrutiny. It also comes as a wakeup call to Indian pharma companies where like us Indians, sab kuch chalta hai. More importantly, we as Indians should become more vigilant and try and avoid drugs from companies which are not US FDA compliant.
X – Xi Jinping, the President of China took charge 13 months ago and in 2013 he made moves which established him as China’s strongest leader since Deng Xiaoping and aims to carve out a historical role for himself to equal the man who set the world’s most heavily populated country on its rise to become the world’s second largest economy.
Y – Young women of India, have become more vociferous, shouting out loud against any form of abuse, violence and discrimination. Yes, given the right cause, the ‘internet’ generation is very much alive and kicking. Kudos to Youngistan!
Z – Zen or meditation in Indian, is gaining prominence. Given the stressful life we had in 2013 and more so in 2014, best to make Zen a part of your day-to-day life.