dosanomics then? fnie-images.s3.amazonaws.com/gall_content/2020/2/... · the elaborate thali...
TRANSCRIPT
06 A woman with a book and a pen has the power to move nations. Awoman with a mind and a voice has the power to change worlds
Sasha Temerte KNOWLEDGEPEDIA
Famous for rich, buttery flavours along with the extensivevegetarian and meat dishes, the thali comprises sarson kasaag, makke ki roti, tandoori roti peeli dal, rice and variousmeat dishes
The thali is loaded with hot and spicy lentils, vegetables, sidu, which is a kind of bread and meetha bhaat (sweet rice mixed with nuts). The thaliblends in both sour and sweet flavours
The elaborate thali comprises dal baati churma, missi roti,gatte ki sabji, panchmela dal, laal maas, bajra roti,buttermilk and desserts like malpuas and moong ka halwa
DECODING
Thalinomicssimply means
economics of ameal in India
The Economic Survey of India for the first time introduced the term Thalinomics — theeconomics of a plate of food in India — in an attempt to figure out how much a mealcosts. The 2019-20 Economic Survey has found that veg thalis became 29% more
affordable compared to 2006-07, while non-veg thalis became 18% more affordable
A vegetarian thaliincludes a serving of
cereals, lentils and veg-etables; a non-vegetari-an thali includes a serv-
ing of cereals, lentilsand meat
The Govt has tried tocalculate if the costof a thali for bothvegetarians and
non-vegetarians hasincreased
For this, price datefrom the consumer price
index for industrialworkers for around 80
centres in 25 states/UTsfrom April 2006 to Oct
2019 was used
The governmentclaims that thecost per thali
during this periodhas actuallydecreased
But a non-vegetarian thaligained `11,787on an average
per year
The govt also claimsthat an average house-hold of five individualsthat eats two vegetari-an thalis a day gainedaround `10,887 on an
average per year
What isDosanomics then?
Former governor ofRBI Raghuram Ra-jan used dosa to elu-cidate complex eco-
nomic theories. When Rajanbecame Governor, banks inIndia were offering a high rateof interest (about 10%) butthe inflation rate was alsovery high (about 10%).EXAMPLE: Let us suppose thata retiree has a total saving of
`1,00,000. He wishes to use thismoney to buy a dosa. Now, thecost of a dosa today is ̀ 50. So,today he can buy 2,000 dosaswith his saved money. But theretiree knows that he can in-vest this money in a term de-posit and the next year he willhave more money to buydosas. But, quite often, wedon’t account for inflation. Letus explain further...
SCENARIO 1High-interest rate, High inflation 10%➤ The retiree knows that if he puts his money in abank’s fixed deposit at 10% p.a. for one year, he will beable to buy 10% more dosas next year.➤ So, by the end of the year, he gets back his principleof `1,00,000 and an interest of `10,000. So, he can buy220 dosas for `50 each. Right?➤ What’s the catch here? Inflation!➤ As the economy is experiencing 10% inflation thisyear, the price of dosa increased from `50 to `55. So,with his `1,10,000, he can still buy only 2,000 dosas. So,the net gain of investing in a term deposit was zero.➤ His purchase power is still the same: 2,000 dosas.
SCENARIO 2Low-Interest rate, Low inflation 5.5%➤ Now, let’s say the economy was experiencing a 5.5%inflation rate. With an 8% interest rate, the retireewould have `̀ 1,08,000 in his account. The rate of a dosa now is `̀ 52.75 (because of a 5.5% interest rate).➤ This would allow the retiree to buy approximately2,048 dosas.➤ High inflation; High-interest rate — 2,000 dosas➤ Low Inflation; Low-interest rate — 2,048 dosas➤ Dosanomics tells us that the retirees are earning(48/2000) 2.5% more dosas even with lower interest rates!
When a studentasked
Rajan
Even with inflation rates lowering, why aredosa prices continuing to rise?
Rajan responded,“You have hit on an-other issue in eco-
nomics, which is calledthe Balassa-Samuel-
son effect.”BALASSA-SAMUELSON
EFFECT states that countrieswith high growth in produc-tivity also have high wagegrowth.
Rajan explained that thetechnology for making dosashasn’t improved much. But,staff wages are constantly in-creasing. While workers infactories and banks can nowserve a larger audience be-cause of technological ad-
vances, the dosa business has-n’t been scaled yet. Balassa-Samuelson Effect states thatin a fast-growing economylike India, the sectors thataren’t improving their tech-nology will see higher priceinflation than others.
Thus, the overall effect isthat citizens of developingcountries have to endurehigh inflation. Often gov-ernments keep interest rateshigh to relieve the inflationpressure from the lowest in-come group.
By CHAITANYA BAWEJA,
Machine Learning Engineer
CONCLUSION: Rajan claimed that the only way is to holistically lower inflation.
SIZE OF THE THALI
Avegetarian thali has been defined asone that consists of 300g of cereals
(rice and wheat), 150g vegetables (pota-to, onion, tomato, brinjal, cabbage, cauli-flower and okra) and pulses (arhar, gram,moong, masoor and urad). For a non-veg-etarian thali, dal has been replaced byegg, fish and goat meat.
THE TERM
Taking a cue from his predecessor Raghuram G.
Rajan’s DOSANOMICS, chiefeconomic adviser KSubramanian unveiledThalinomics in the EconomicSurvey for 2019-20.
PRICE FLUCTUATIONSThe chapter ‘Thalinomics: TheEconomics of a Plate of Food in India’states the absolute prices of a veg-etarian thali have decreased signif-icantly since 2015-16, acrossIndia. However, the price of avegetarian thali has increased in2019 (April-October), mainlydue to the increase inprices of vegetablesand dal. “…theincrease in the rateof inflation in the thali
during 2019-20 is a temporaryphenomenon that should revert as
has happened in earlier years,”the survey states.
PUNJABI THALI
HIMACHALI THALI
RAJASTHANI THALI
The Nagaland thali brims with vegetables, chillies and a variety of meat and fish, which are often smoked, driedor fermented
NAGA THALI
The MP thali comprises poha (rice flakes cooked withspices), rogan josh, saboodana khichdi, korma, seekhkebab, achari gosht etc; rounded off with the famousBhopali paan
MADHYA PRADESH THALI
The thali is simple, less spicy and oily, yet intricatelyflavoured. No Odia cuisine is complete without rice, fish,seafood, saag and yogurt
ODISHA THALI
The state’s thali is a mix of steamed and fried goodiesincluding dishes such as Dal bhat (boiled rice and lentil soup),Thukpa, the noodle-based soup, momos, Phagshapa etc
SIKKIM THALI
The state’s thali has mouth-watering dishes such aschhilka, dhuska, kurthi daal, red rice, lal saag, dehatichicken, dudh peetha, sattu ka parantha, ghugni, litti-chokha, balushahi etc
JHARKHAND THALI
Rice dishes along with meat preparations such as rogan josh, yakhini, harissa etc form the delicious Kashmiri thali, accompanied with the favourite beverages – noon chai and kahwah
JAMMU AND KASHMIR THALI
An amalgamation of flavours ranging from spicy to sweet,the thali comprises sambar, avial, pineapple/mangopachadi, kichadi, olan and for non-veg, there is seafood
KERALA THALI
THESURVEY
INDICATES... that the reforms undertaken a
year ago to enhance agriculturalproductivity as well as efficiency
and effectiveness of agricul-tural markets for better and
more transparent price discov-ery led to change in prices of thali.
SSiimmpplliiffyyiinngg ffuurrtthheerr,, aann iinnddiivviidduuaall wwhhoo wwoouulldd hhaavveessppeenntt aarroouunndd 7700 ppeerr cceenntt ooff hhiiss//hheerr ddaaiillyy wwaaggeeoonn ttwwoo vveeggeettaarriiaann tthhaalliiss ffoorr aa hhoouusseehhoolldd ooff ffiivveeiinn 22000066-0077 iiss aabbllee ttoo aaffffoorrdd tthhee ssaammee nnuummbbeerr
ooff tthhaalliiss wwiitthh aarroouunndd 5500%% ooff hhiiss//hheerr ddaaiillyywwaaggee iinn 22001199 ((AApprriill-OOccttoobbeerr))..
QUESTIONS RAISED
Has a thali become affordable? Hasinflation in the price of a thali
increased or decreased? Is the infla-tion the same for a vegetarian thalias for a non-vegetarian one? Is theinflation in the price of a thali differ-ent across states and regions inIndia? Which components account forthe changes in the price of a thali –
the cereals, vegetables, pulses orthe cost of fuel required for its
preparation? asked theEconomic Survey.
THE ORIGIN OF ECONOMIC COMPAR-
ISON WITH FOOD
T halinomics may just evolveinto India’s very own Big
Mac Index, which informallymeasures the purchasing powerparity of currencies of dif-ferent countriesthrough a pricecomparison ofMcDonald’shamburgerin thestatedgeographies.