, Columnist
India's Missing Shock Therapy
Even the placebo of a rate cut would have been better than nothing for this anemic patient.
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India's economy has long been characterized as an elephant, a metaphor that got a whole new meaning on Wednesday when six blindfolded doctors were given the unenviable job of feeling up and, if possible, curing the comatose beast of its ennui.
The five men and one woman on the central bank's monetary policy committee ended their two-day meeting without so much as recommending a painkiller: A quarter percentage point cut in the policy rate was the consensus expectation; the panel didn't even prescribe that.