Placating the IMF

Placating the IMF THERE are, it would appear, no limits to the brazenness of those managing this country's economic affairs. At the end of last year our foreign exchange reserves had nosedived to Rs 1,880 crore, barely enough to finance 13 days' imports. This, there can be little doubt, is the closest that India has come to going bankrupt, to being forced to renege on its international financial commitments. In sheer desperation the government sent its officials scurrying to Washington to plead with the IMF to bail it out. This the IMF has been pleased to do. The grant of loans amounting to $ 1,786 million