Shankkar Aiyar, Visiting Senior Fellow at IDFC Institute, writes in the New Indian Express on the slide in the rupee's value. Excerpts:

"Hashtags have emerged as the new milestones in economic history.  Every fall in the rupee has led to the creation of a new one – from #rupeeat68 in May 2018 to #rupeeat74 in October. Aggravating the angst is the uproar over fuel prices in an economy which imports 83 per cent of its requirement. Memes and jokes on fuel prices and exchange rate could acquire industry status. A WhatsApp forward, which found its way on to Twitter, translated pecuniary pain into a political parable.

It said, “#Dollar crosses 74. A slide of one more rupee and the Marg Darshak Mandal will have a new member”, a reference to how the 75-plus leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are being pensioned off by the new dispensation.

Dark humour does help ride over the waves of individual haplessness and systemic stasis. It also triggers expectations of action, the kind the app-addicted audience yearns for. In the run up to the bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, experts preached prescriptions and prophesied what Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urijit Patel and the MPC must do and will do."

Read the full article here.