Karnataka bandh: No major impact on normal life so far
Bengaluru: The state-wide bandh called by pro-Kannada groups in Karnataka on Saturday, opposing the government's decision to create a corporation for the Maratha community here has had no major impact on normal life so far, other than sporadic protests and demonstrations by burning effigies.
Auto rickshaws, cabs, public transport buses, and metro services are available as of now, also hotels and provision stores were open.
Though scarce, there are movements of vehicles on roads in various parts of the city and similar reports have come from other parts of the state.
Activists of several Kannada organizations who are gathering near the city's Town Hall for staging demonstrations were detained and taken away by the police.
Protests have also been reported in Chamarajanagara, Bengaluru Rural, Gadag, Koppa, Hassan, Ramanagara, Chitradurga, Davangere, Bagalkote, Chikkamagaluru, Mandya among other districts so far.
A coalition of Kannada organizations led by Vatal Nagaraj have also planned to hold a protest rally in the city from Town Hall to Freedom Park, against the government's decision, later in the day.
Police have made elaborate security arrangements in the city to see that no untoward incidents take place.
Security has been beefed up around Chief Minister's official residence and home office here, where some activists have planned to lay siege.
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is in Belagavi to attend the BJP's state executive meeting.
Yediyurappa on Friday had urged the pro-Kannada groups not to go ahead with the bandh, calling it "unnecessary", as he asserted that Kannadigas and Kannada were his government's utmost priority.
Earlier, he had clarified that the decision to set up a Maratha Development Corporation had nothing to do with the Marathi language, and it is for the Maratha community residing in the state.
The pro-Kannada organizations had set a November 30 deadline for the government to withdraw its decision to establish Maratha Development Corporation.
The government's decision to create a body for the Maratha community is seen as a move by the ruling BJP to woo the community ahead of the Belagavi Lok Sabha, Maski, and Basavakalyan assembly bypolls, which are yet to be announced.
The community is said to have a considerable presence there.
The government had earlier announced the setting up of the Maratha Development Authority but subsequently changed it to the corporation, as the authority has to be constituted by law, by passing an act in the legislature.
Despite opposition, the government following the cabinet approval has even issued a formal order establishing the Maratha Development Corporation, with an allocation of Rs 50 crore, which has further irked the pro-Kannada groups.
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India should create strategic buffers to navigate 'most difficult' energy shock: CEA Nageswaran
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Saturday said India needs to create strategic buffers in the face of the "most difficult" energy shock that the country is facing amid the West Asia crisis.
Nageswaran also said the rising prices of fertiliser and petroleum products globally due to the crisis will make it challenging to achieve the 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal, while below normal monsoon and pass-through of higher energy prices could lead to "potential inflation spike".
He also said India has employment challenge emanating from AI, and there is a need to ensure that IT sector becomes more competitive and not lose jobs to AI, and instead create jobs that use AI within the IT sector or in other services.
Speaking at the ICPP Growth Conference organised by the Ashoka University, Nageswaran said the current account deficit (CAD) in the current fiscal could rise to over 2 per cent of GDP, from less than 1 per cent in FY'26.
"The ... priority for us is to create strategic buffers. This energy shock is the most difficult one compared to any other previous energy shock in terms of energy lost as a percentage of total global energy supply, not just oil, including gas.
"And we also need to use this occasion to think about other areas where we are vulnerable in terms of import dependence, nickel, tin, and copper. We need to build strategic buffers if we have to make a shot at manufacturing and becoming indispensable," Nageswaran said.
Since the beginning of the war in West Asia on February 28, crude oil prices soared to a four-year high of USD 126 per barrel on Thursday, from about USD 73 level before the war.
Stating that geopolitics will compel policymakers to be nimble and flexible and shed old model of thinking, Nageswaran said India is better prepared than many other countries to deal with the crisis because of the fiscal leeway that the country has due to lowering of fiscal deficit ratio to 4.4 per cent of GDP in FY'26.
Nageswaran said the West Asia conflict is more of a price shock than supply shock for India as the government is managing the supply side deftly.
"This particular conflict, which is going to be on a low simmer or a high flame situation, whatever it is, it is going to be there with us in some form or the other because the military conflict may be over, but the strategic conflict is well and truly alive. It will be so for some time," Nageswaran said.
He said the conflict has four channels of shock: price and supply shock, trade impact, sticky logistics costs and remittance shock.
India imports 60 per cent of its LPG usage and of that, 90 per cent flows through the now closed Strait of Hormuz.
Nageswaran said the pass-through of high global energy prices would have to be a "balancing act". He said some pass-through is already happening in commercial LPG, and the levy of export duty on diesel and ATF.
The government has cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to shield customers from the impact of the rise in petroleum prices. "We are coming around to arriving at a certain modus vivendi with respect to burden-sharing between the fiscal policy side, inflation, households and the oil marketing companies. So it has to be a balancing act," Nageswaran said.
