VisVoice

  Deep depreciation of the Indian Rupee A layman tries to understand Indian Rupee, which was quoting around ₹88 per USD two months back, is now threatening to breach ₹92 levels. And in percentage terms, it is 4.5%. As a layman, I attempt to find out the reasons. The monthly imports into India now averages around USD 82 billion, of which merchandise imports alone accounts for USD 65 billion. The average monthly exports from India is USD 72 billion and the share of merchandise exports is less than 50%, the range being USD 34-38 billion. Hence on any month, the merchandise trade deficit is still at USD 25-30 billion and the overall trade deficit is reduced to USD 10 billion, thanks to the substantial increase in the dollar revenue from the services sector. When a country is still reeling under trade deficit, it is logical that the value of the local currency depreciates against the major international currency viz. USD, though the percentage of depreciation has come down considerably ...

  SBT 1985 POs   'unfurl' their nostalgia  in Jan 2026 It was 1987 when the 1985 batch of POs (Probationary Officers) met together for their last training, prior to permanent posting.  After years of struggle to organise a meet with little success, finally a get together of the SBT 1985 batch POs happened in Taj Vivanta,  Marine Drive Ernakulam on 20th January 2026. The entire credit for this goes to my friend Sreeprakash, who coordinated the entire event end to end.  Sitting (L to R):Shri/Smt. -  TTM Tharakan, Sreeprakash, Hari Govind Menon, Sujatha, Geeta, S.K. Ray, Viswanathan, Ashok Menon  Standing (L to R): Shri-  Harishankar, Ashok Kumar, Sivadas, Kishore Babu, Adwait Hebbar, Vinayak Prabhu, Sashidaran, Sudhish, Sasikumar, Girishkumar, Parthsarthy, Thomas Mathew  Some interesting titbits or minutes of the get-to-gether, whatever way you choose to call: * 20 out of the original batch number of 42/43/44 (no consensus reached😊as...