Rbi policy rate chart and info.

Latest RBI Bank Rates....

SLR Rate-21.5%
CRR-4%
MSF-8.25%
Repo Rate-7.25%
Reverse Repo Rate-6.25%
Bank Rate-8.25%
Base Rate-9.75%-10%

Repo (Repurchase) rate also known as the benchmark interest rate is the rate at which the RBI lends money to the banks for a short term. When the repo rate increases, borrowing from RBI becomes more expensive. If RBI wants to make it more expensive for the banks to borrow money, it increases the repo rate similarly, if it wants to make it cheaper for banks to borrow money it reduces the repo rate.

Reverse Repo rate is the short term borrowing rate at which RBI borrows money from banks. The Reserve bank uses this tool when it feels there is too much money floating in the banking system. An increase in the reverse repo rate means that the banks will get a higher rate of interest from RBI. As a result, banks prefer to lend their money to RBI which is always safe instead of lending it others (people, companies etc) which is always risky.

Repo Rate signifies the rate at which liquidity is injected in the banking system by RBI, whereas Reverse Repo rate signifies the rate at which the central bank absorbs liquidity from the banks. Reverse Repo Rate is linked to Repo Rate with a difference of 1% between them.

CRR - Cash Reserve Ratio - Banks in India are required to hold a certain proportion of their deposits in the form of cash. However Banks don't hold these as cash with themselves, they deposit such cash(aka currency chests) with Reserve Bank of India , which is considered as equivalent to holding cash with themselves. This minimum ratio (that is the part of the total deposits to be held as cash) is stipulated by the RBI and is known as the CRR or Cash Reserve Ratio.

When a bank's deposits increase by Rs100, and if the cash reserve ratio is 9%, the banks will have to hold Rs. 9 with RBI and the bank will be able to use only Rs 91 for investments and lending, credit purpose. Therefore, higher the ratio, the lower is the amount that banks will be able to use for lending and investment. This power of Reserve bank of India to reduce the lendable amount by increasing the CRR, makes it an instrument in the hands of a central bank through which it can control the amount that banks lend. Thus, it is a tool used by RBI to control liquidity in the banking system.

SLR - Statutory Liquidity Ratio - Every bank is required to maintain at the close of business every day, a minimum proportion of their Net Demand and Time Liabilities as liquid assets in the form of cash, gold and un-encumbered approved securities. The ratio of liquid assets to demand and time liabilities is known as Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR). RBI is empowered to increase this ratio up to 40%. An increase in SLR also restricts the bank's leverage position to pump more money into the economy.

Net Demand Liabilities - Bank accounts from which you can withdraw your money at any time like your savings accounts and current account.
Time Liabilities - Bank accounts where you cannot immediately withdraw your money but have to wait for certain period. e.g. Fixed deposit accounts.

Call Rate - Inter bank borrowing rate - Interest Rate paid by the banks for lending and borrowing funds with maturity period ranging from one day to 14 days. Call money market deals with extremely short term lending between banks themselves. After Lehman Brothers went bankrupt Call Rate sky rocketed to such an insane level that banks stopped lending to other banks.

MSF - Marginal Standing facility - It is a special window for banks to borrow from RBI against approved government securities in an emergency situation like an acute cash shortage. MSF rate is higher then Repo rate. Current MSF Rate: 8.25%

Bank Rate - This is the long term rate(Repo rate is for short term) at which central bank (RBI) lends money to other banks or financial institutions. If the bank rate goes up, long-term interest rates also tend to move up, and vice-versa. When bank rate is hiked, banks hike their own lending rates. Current bank rate is 8.25%

descriptive paper

Tackling Hunger Globally

Hunger is one of the indicators of the magnitude of social injustices that exist in the world. Its existence can be traced back very many years back. The French Revolution in the 18th Century was driven not only by demands for political freedom, but also by the lack of bread in Paris. Food has been the cause and effect of many riots occurring whenever government policies caused severe economic hardship and clashed with the basic human right to food. Tea was a non-edible food item that was used as a protest tool by a group of Boston citizens, to protest the British tax on tea imported to the colonies. The food crises around the world prompted the establishment of the World Food Programme.

In addition, many other United Nations agencies have included hunger or food security in their work programmes. These include: The United Nations Children Education Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Health Organisation and the different United Nations missions to war torn countries. The term 'hunger' is loosely defined and the meaning is often adapted to serve the purposes of those who may be experiencing it. For many, especially in affluent countries, hunger is the gnawing pain in the stomach when a meal is missed. On the other extreme, hunger is the physical depletion of those suffering from chronic under-nutrition.

Hunger is, however, multi-dimensional, encompassing the emotional and political aspects of the society. It includes the anguish of a farmer faced with the choice of selling the produce from his farm, to pay rent for the land or feeding his family with the food. It involves the grief of watching in helplessness as loved ones die for breaking the practices and policies set by a handful of elites. Restrictions and laws are put in place to ensure that the poor and hungry are forced to provide their labour in exchange for low wages or small portions of food. In order to maintain the status quo, regulations are in place to reduce the chances of self-sufficiency for the poor.

Even the Indian government's schemes of rice and wheat at extremely subsidized rates is a no-go-either that grain finds its way to the black market or the quality is too poor to be consumed by any human being. Population growth has been believed to be the cause of hunger in some parts of the world, as there is pressure on the world's limited resources. Thomas Malthus, an English economist, argued that population growth would inevitably outstrip the food and water supply at some point, since productive land and safe drinking water are finite resources. Mass starvation and anarchy would, therefore, be a consequence of a high rate of population growth. This belief and the problem of addressing the needs of a growing population led to drastic measures to reduce the rate of population growth. Hunger is a cause and effect of poverty. It is responsible for the debilitation of people physically, physiologically and psychologically. The most abundant asset available to the poor is labour, which could be used to earn a living. However, hunger means that this labour is ineffective, entrapping the poor in hunger and poverty. For the abjectly poor, the daily struggle of finding food for the family pushes aside any consideration of long-term development. While modern technology and medical research have discovered many innovative ways of fighting many pests and diseases, famines has been a source of serious distress for many years. The pressure to feed the world's population has resulted in the use of marginal, erosion-prone lands and deforestation. This makes the environment more prone to famine situations and the fertility of the land is undermined.

Natural disasters are indiscriminate and affect the poor and rich alike. An option to the hunger in present day is to reconstruct agriculture to be more self-reliant and discourage specialization. Help from aid agencies has to be reduced by increasing self-reliance, for that is a long-term measure. The development of farm cooperatives should be encouraged to facilitate and support farming activities among farm workers and urban migrants wishing to return to their rural homes. Increasing the amount of arable land under cultivation can also enhance food security.Reduction or cancellation of debts owed by farmers would be an incentive for their increased contribution towards ensuring food security. The exploitation of farm workers and small farmers is mainly because of their inability to exact a fair price for their labour and the goods they produce in a monopoly-controlled market. No wonder the suicides have become a regular feature in the rural districts. Unless the work is taken up on a war footing across the world, we will be put to shame repeatedly by skeletal expressions of people in places like Somalia, Ethiopia, and closer home in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh etc.