Friday, August 19, 2016 B DECCAN HERALD 11

Panorama Army chief files affidavit in

SC against V K Singh. P12
Who really moved my interest rate?
By R K Pattnaik and Jagdish Rattanani the lower level of per capita income (rate could be a flood of capital and when the asfiscaldeficit,currentaccountdeficit,capi- vestment. However, the threat of inflation
of economic growth minus rate of popu- surge becomes a trickle, stops or reverses, talflowsetc.Theseinterventionsalsoimpa- stands in the way. This challenge was faced

T he monetary policy of the Reserve

Bank of India has become one of the
most watched media events these
days in the light of persistent demands to
lower interest rates. This undue attention
lation growth), say 1.5 to 2% in the 1950s
to 6.5% currently, the income in the hands
of the public has gone up.
Of course,there is disparitybutthe high-
er per capita income has led to a significant
placing undue pressure on the currency.
The RBI has to manage this volatility,
which it does through its monetary instru-
mentsliketheopenmarketoperationsand
cash reserve ration (CRR) at the long end
ctedinterestratesbutinanindirectmanner. byRBIgovernorsintherecentpastbuthad

onthemonetarypolicypointstohowmuch
change the country has witnessed in policy
framework and socio-economic environ-
ment in recent years.
Historically, India has not been an infla-
tionary economy. The high episodes of in-
flation (21% in 1974-75, 20.2 in 1980-81 and
15.2% in 1991-92) were on account of dis-
ruptions in oil prices which were unpre-
dictable and sudden. However, the period
ofinflation,whichsurfacedin2008-09and
still remains a threat, was as a result of the
contribution from food components in the
consumerprice basket.Inotherwords,the
potential threat to inflation stems from the
persistence of food inflation.
Generally, it is believed that food infla-
tion is on account of supply shocks. But
there is also a strong demand-side prob-
lem. When the economy has moved from
shift in consumption and dietary patterns
which have changed to favour protein
(pulses), animal protein and fruits, vegeta-
bles etc. This is also otherwise known as
protein inflation. Initiatives like the Mini-
mum Support Prices (MSP), the Mahatma
Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(MGNREGA), rise in rural credit, in-
creased female participation in the labour
force are some of the contributing factors
on the demand side.
These are positive initiatives but what
also shows up is the lack of foresight of the
policy makers to recognise that when the
incomelevelsgo up,consumption patterns
will change and the economy should be
prepared to absorb the resultant supply
shocks. Urgent policy intervention to aug-
ment protein and vegetable production,
andanemphasisonagricultureproduction
should have been the supply side policy fo-
cus of the government. India has failed on
this front.
When supply doesnt match demand,
whatwegetisinflation,andmonetaryman-
agement of inflation has to be done predo-
minantly through the lever of interest rate.
This apart, liberalisation and globalisation
have brought their share of challenges
alongside in terms of the volatility of capital
flows to India. We dont know when there
andrepoandreversereporatesintheshort
term. Theseinstrumentsareusedtoeither
suck out or add liquidity depending on the
market conditions, resulting in an impact
oninterestrates.Thus,whathascomeinto
focus is the price of quantity of money, that
is,interestrate.Accordingly,theRBImoved
todirectlymakinginterestrateasthetarget
variable to control inflation and to anchor
inflation expectations.
Thisisinamarkedcontrasttotheearlier
RBI policy framework, which focused on
credit management and then on quantity
ofmoneymanagement,takingintoaccount
moneydemandintheeconomyandmatch-
ingthesupplyofmoney(theso-calledmon-
eystockorbroadmoneyorM3).Thisap- caught between the devil and the deep sea. (Pattnaik is Professor at SP Jain Institute
proach was followed later by a multiple
indicator approach, recognising not only
moneysupplybutalsootherindicatorssuch
Indirect control
aparticularlysnowballingeffectduringthe
tenures of D Subbarao and Raghuram Ra-
Theindirectcontrolofinterestratesworked jan, partly because governments were get-
well for some time but slowly became re- ting impatient and industry became more
dundant when it was recognised that the demanding.
avowedobjectiveofmonetarypolicyisprice In his book, Who Moved My Interest
stability, linking monetary management Rate, Subbarao says, the high interest
with liquidity management. Under this ap- rate regime would be the main area of dif-
proach, what we have now is a direct focus ference between the government and the
on short term interest rate signalling RBI. And as Rajan succinctly noted in a
through the overnight policy repo rate. press release on June 20, 2016: We can
Wheninflationpersisted,everyincrease neverabandoninflationtofocusongrowth.
inthepolicyreporatemadethecostofbor- Thisthenisthecentralbanksphilosophy,
rowingfromthecreditmarketcostlier(the whichallstakeholders,particularlythegov-
banklendingrateincreased).Withthis,the ernment and the markets, must recognise
industrycaptainsbecameunhappy.But,on and respect. So the answer to Who really
the other side, when the RBI reduced the moved my interest rate? should be quite
policy repo rate, the corresponding reduc- simple: It is not the RBI but a host of condi-
tion in bank lending rate did not follow and tions, not all of which the RBI can or does
credit did not pickup. The RBI thus is control.
Intheultimateanalysis,marketsandthe ofManagementandResearch,Mumbai,and
government clamour for a lower interest Rattanani is Editor, SPJIMR)
rate to drive credit uptake and augment in- (The Billion Press)

An ecosystem where Photography: 176

years and still clicking
the first photographer-prince

startups help each other

By Tabeenah Anjum
andtheonlyonetostartaform-

W ith shutters clicking

more than ever, the
176th year of World
PhotographyDayonAugust19,
2016, is unfortunately also
marked by the shutters going
down on the oldest darkroom
studio of India, Bourne and
The angel fund, Jumpstart Ventures, has backed more than 45 businesses, giving $20 million since 2011 Shepherd.
ThecelebrationonAugust19
is linked with 1839, the year the
By John F Wasik French government offered
the invention to world. Howev-
al course in photography in an
institution other than a photog-
raphy studio. His personal stu-
dio, creatively christened pho-
tukhana,hadlatestequipment.
A vibrant domain
RanjitHoskote,anotedartcrit-
ic and curator looks at the tran-
sition, this way: Photography
inIndiais,andhasalwaysbeen,
a vibrant domain. It is an en-
semble of varied impulses,

W henstartupsbegin,itsakintoJoseph
Campbells mythical heros journey.
Instead of battling hydras and gor-
gonsalone,entrepreneursoftenhelpeachother
faceobstacles likeentrenchedmarkets,financ-
ing and abject fear of failure.
Itisasymbioticrelationshipthatmakessense
to Shradha Agarwal and Rishi Shah, both 31
andco-foundersofContextMedia,ahealthcare
media company in Chicago. The two entrepre-
neursareexpandingtheir10-year-oldcompany,
which they started when they were students at
Northwestern University. They have made a
point ofsupportingotherstartupsbyfinancing
an angel fund called Jumpstart Ventures. The
fund has backed more than 45 businesses, giv-
ing $20 million since 2011.
Although there are no precise estimates on
how many such ecosystems exist, the Kauff-
man Foundation, a research organisation fo-
cusing on entrepreneurship, found that nearly
every one of the more than 360 major metro-
politan areas in the United States had such a
network in place.
ContextMedia provides customised health-
care information on screens at doctors offices
and other sites. Doctors can show patients dig-
ital 3D anatomical diagrams of procedures us-
ing ContextMedia wallboardsor tablets.
Theirmaterial is now viewed by more than 6
million patients a month at 25,000 medical
practices or healthcare locations. More than
400peopleworkatthecompany,whosereven-
ue last year was $63.5 million. It hopes to add
more than 200 workers by the end of the year.
Although ContextMedia has made inroads
into a notoriously difficult market to crack
doctors waiting and examination rooms it
wasdonewithoutventurecapitalists,whowere
notwillingtotakearisk,Agarwalsaid.Support
from the Chicago entrepreneurial community
not only got her company started, but it also
helped the company clear some high hurdles.
ProfessorsatNorthwesternfirsthelpedShah
andAgarwal.Andthefoundersbootstrapped,
or self-funded, their enterprise during the re-
cession. In 2008-2009, we slowed down,
Agarwal said, so we had to reconnect to our
journey, which was our passion for changing
healthcare.With the Jumpstart fund, she says
she now wants to pay it forward to other en-
trepreneurs.
These support systems need to be diverse to
be effective, though. According to the World
Economic Forum, which surveyed more than
1,000 entrepreneurs around the world, what
startups value most are accessible markets,
funding, regulatory framework, an educated
workforce and major universities. That does
not mean, however, that the network always
provides robust financial backing from big-
money players like large venture capital firms.
An ecosystem also offers social and psycho-
logicalsupport.Whatfuelsentrepreneurialsuc-
cess, Agarwal noted, are passion and purpose.
When she started her company, she wanted an
enterprisethatwouldhaveapositivesocialand
GROWING TOGETHER: Shradha Agarwal and Rishi Shah, the founders of ContextMedia, struggled to get their now-thriving healthcare media
company through early lean years and now are helping other startups to do likewise, through their angel fund Jumpstart Ventures. NYT
personal effect. She started with diabetes edu-
cation, a disease that affected both her and
Shahs relatives in India. When Agarwal inter-
views candidates for the Jumpstart Ventures
portfolio, she wants to find like-minded people
who are passionate about their mission.
Mert Iseri, co-founder and chief executive of
SwipeSense, a company focused on reducing
hospital infections, was someone who fit the
bill. Also a former Northwestern student, he
met Agarwal in 2012. Iseri, 28, was focused on
providing a digital hand hygiene solution to
combatthe100,000annualdeathsintheUnit-
ed States from hospital-acquired infections.
Suchinfectionscost$28billionayearinrelated
health care expenses.
Shradhabecameourfirstinvestorandgave
us our first check for $25,000 and employed
radical candor, in her mentoring, Iseri said.
That included discussions about tough deci-
sionsthathadtobemadewhenbuildingabusi-
ness, such as hiring, firing and determining
long-term goals.
"It is always difficult to fire someone, Iseri
said. He described one situation where a sales
representative was a high performer but didnt
fit the culture at SwipeSense. Shradha was
veryclear;herdirectfeedbackwastopartways
right then and there, and she highlighted that
no amount of short-term results can justify
holding on to folks who wont be long-term
members of the team.
SwipeSenses initial presentation at Health-
box, a Chicago-based incubator, raised $1 mil-
lionin2011afteroneofitsfirstdemonstrations.
Iseri credited Agarwals continuing support
with helping his company secure more than
$12millionthroughseveralroundsoffinancing.
Iseriwouldnotdisclosehiscompanyssalesbut
said it had annual revenues in the seven fig-
uresandwasexperiencingsignificantmonth-
over-month growthwith its customers.
Direct guidance
Agarwal,heremployees,co-investorsandangel
investors have also bolstered entrepreneurs by
simplybeingnearbyandgivingdirectguidance.
For instance, ContextMedia provided office
spacetoPackback,whichoffersonlinelearning
communities and digital textbooks for college
students. Agarwal and ContextMedia employ-
ees often interacted with the firms workers to
offer advice.
Weve been in seven office spaces since we
werefoundedfouryearsago,saidJessicaTenu-
ta,aco-founderandheadofdesignofPackback.
Shradha showed us how to hire and incorpo-
rate our values while mentoring us. We made
great connections while being in their space.
Packback now has 24 employees and a
$250,000 investment from Mark Cuban, who
took a 20% stake in the company after the co-
founders presented on the reality show Shark
Tanktwo years ago.
TenutaandPackbacksco-foundersKasey
Gandham, Nick Currier and Mike Shannon
have also garnered support in other ways. The
companyworkswith1871,abusinessincubator
inChicagothatoffersclasses,co-workingspaces
and access to venture capitalists.
Fortheirpart,IseriandTenutawereinspired
by their experiences to mentor other startups.
These may be at university-based or private in-
cubators and accelerators, in co-working envi-
ronmentsorthroughotherangelinvestorsand
venture capitalists.
Agarwal characterised the payoff as the
communal support through learning, wellness
and volunteer opportunities. She added that
herenterpriseandthoseshebackshaveabias
toward action and scaling to the market.That
meansanentrepreneursvisionmusteventually
translate into revenues, profit, growth and a
commitment to giving back to the community
and other entrepreneurs.
The network of support offered by startup
ecosystems,though,willnotgetentrepreneurs
entirely past the fear of failure and rejection. A
plunge into the unknown is part of making it
past those perilous first years.
When I was a girl, my mother pushed me
into the deep end of a pool to get me to swim,
recalled Agarwal. She said it was the only way
to learn. She was one of four daughters in her
family,allofwhomwerepushedtoearncollege
degrees by my grandmother.
IfAgarwalandherpeerssucceed,theircom-
panies will also contribute to social good such
as better medical education and improved
health outcomes. They will, in her words, be
solving problems worth solving.
International New York Times
er, the Day owes recognition to
the efforts of renowned Indian
photographer O P Sharman.
Concerned that there was no
day dedicated to photography,
he wrote letters to various pho-
tographersacrosstheworldand
contacted The Royal Photo-
graphic Society, UK, and Pho-
tographic Society of America,
andthatshowitstarted.Healso
pioneered the International
Photographic Council in 1983.
Year 2016 saw landmark
changes in the Indian photo-
graphic landscape with the
closureofKolkatasBourneand
Shepherd studio, the oldest,
perhaps, in the world!
Founded by British photo-
graphers William Howard,
Samuel Bourne and Charles
Shepherd, its 156 years of rich
legacy was already facing the
march of digital technology
when it lost its sheen to a fire in
1991 that charred most of its
beautiful archives. The long-
term impact of the fire com-
poundedbylegaldifficulties,and
theincreasingdominanceofdig-
italtechnologyfinallyforcedthe
studios closure in June 2016.
Similarly, the Mahatta Stu-
dios,a101-year-oldcompanylo-
cated in M block, Connaught
Place, New Delhi, is closing too.
Mahatta and Co, which opened
in Srinagar, is one of the oldest
in the country and shut its film
developing studio in 1990s.
Besidesstudios,societiessuch
astheBombayPhotographicSo-
ciety and other prestigious soci-
eties of Madras and Calcutta
served the new art since 1856.
TheEastIndiaCompanydeclar-
ing photography to be the most
accurateandeconomicalmeans
of recording the architectural
andarchaeologicalmonuments
forofficialrecords,travellersetc,
underlined the arts unique util-
ity. Photography became a key
element of the Archaeological
Survey of India, too.
Sudhir Kasliwal, a sixth gen-
eration royal jeweller and a not-
ed photographer who still uses
his darkroom and old format
cameras, says that kings loved
and patronaged photography.
He says: Rulers like Raja of
Chamba,RamSinghII,theMa-
harajaofJaipur,MaharajaofBe-
naras and other princes practi-
ced this art. Ram Singh II was
ranging from photography as
anextensionofartisticpractice,
through photo-journalism, to
the exploration of documenta-
tion form in the interests of his-
torical or cultural enquiry.
We are also blessed to have
several generations of photog-
raphers active simultaneously,
eachrepresentingthequest,cri-
sis and artistic resolutions of a
different moment in postcolo-
nial Indian history, whether
Raghu Rai, Dayanita Singh,
Ram Rahman, Ravi Agarwal,
SamarJodha,GauriGill,Bharat
Sikka,GigiScaria,SohrabHura
or Ryan Lobo.
He added: (With) the wide-
spreadavailabilityofthemobile
phone camera it is a matter of
happiness to note that we have
so many serious practitioners
towhomphotographyremains
a procedure of discovery with
whichtoapproachtheenigmas
of the social and the natural
world at large - a way of engag-
ing with the complexities of the
world.
ArecentinitiativeistheDelhi
PhotoFestival,which,according
to its directors, was the need of
the hour. Despite so many pho-
tographers and cameras after
the digital revolution, very few
placesexistedtoshowcasetheir
workinprint.Ithasmadepho-
tography like a festival, to cele-
brate, to feel within and above
all, huge prints, says Prashant
Panjiar.
AlivinglegendofIndianpho-
tography S Paul, a photojour-
nalist whose work is a narrative
of India, believes the digital era
of photography to be a positive
omen but at the same time it
was alarming for photojournal-
istsandtheirprofession.Digital
photography has given a boom
to photography but the space is
shrinking for professional pho-
tographers... their designation
is shrinking at the cost of the
popularisation of photos.
S Paul was the first Indian to
have been profiled with a port-
folio by worlds oldest and most
prestigious,TheBritishJournal
of Photography in 1967 and
1969.Paul,labelledastheHen-
ry Cartier Bresson of India by
theprestigiousB&Wmagazine
of USA, turns 87 on August 19,
on World Photography Day!
DHNS

WHATS THE BUZZ

Quality of relationship and security is responsive social partners

can affect your sleep
How well you think
your partner under-
stands and cares for
you may be linked to
the quality of sleep you
get, a new study finds.
One of the most important functions of sleep is
to protect us against deteriorations in physical
health. However, this protective function of sleep
can only be realised when we have high quality un-
interrupted sleep, known as restorative sleep.
Restorative sleep requires feelings of safety, se-
curity, protection and absence of threats. For hu-
mans, the strongest source of feelings of safety
whether parents in childhood or romantic part-
ners in adulthood, researchers said.
(Findings show that) having responsive part-
ners who would be available to protect and com-
fort us should things go wrong is the most effec-
tive way for us humans to reduce anxiety, tension
and arousal, said Emre Selcuk from Middle East
Technical University in Turkey.
High good cholesterol levels
may cause premature death
Both high and low levels of high-density lipopro-
tein (HDL) cholesterol commonly called good
cholesterol for helping reduce the risk of stroke
and heart attack - may increase a person's risk of
premature death, a new study has claimed.
Conversely, intermediate HDL cholesterol levels
may increase longevity, researchers said. The re-
lationship between increased levels of HDL cho-
lesterol and early death is unexpected and not ful-
ly clear yet. This will require further study, said
Ziyad Al-Aly, professor at Washington University.
Researchers studied kidney function and HDL
cholesterol levels in more than 1.7 million male
veterans from 2003-2004. and followed them till
2013. Patients with kidney disease frequently
have lower levels of HDL cholesterol, which
might explain their increased risk of early death;
however, the association between elevated HDL
cholesterol levels and premature death in these
patients has been unclear, researchers said.
For years, HDL cholesterol has been credited
with helping to remove plaque-building bad cho-
lesterolfrom arteries. However, too low and too
high are both associated with higher risk of death.
Junk food during pregnancy
ups ADHD risk in children
A diet high in fat and
sugar during pregnancy
may be linked to atten-
tion-deficit/hyperactivi-
ty disorder (ADHD) in
children with behav-
ioural problems early in life, a new study warns.
The study led by scientists from King's College
London and the University of Bristol in the UK is
the first to indicate that epigenetic changes evi-
dent at birth may explain the link between un-
healthy diet, conduct problems and ADHD.
The new study compared 83 children with ear-
ly-onset conduct problems such as lying, fight-
ing with 81 children who had low levels of con-
duct problems. It assessed how the mothersnutri-
tion affected epigenetic changes (or DNA methy-
lation) of IGF2, a gene involved in foetal develop-
ment and the brain development of areas impli-
cated in ADHD cerebellum and hippocampus.
Researchers found that poor prenatal nutrition,
comprising high fat and sugar diets of processed
food and confectionary, was associated with high-
er IGF2 methylation in children with early onset
conduct problems and those with low conduct
problems. Higher IGF2 methylation was also as-
sociated with higher ADHD symptoms between
the ages of seven and 13, but only for children who
showed an early onset of conduct problems.
Results suggest that promoting a healthy pre-
natal diet may ultimately lower ADHD symptoms
and conduct problems in children. This is encour-
aging given that nutritional and epigenetic risk
factors can be altered, said Dr Edward Barker.