Best of BS Opinion: Magister Ludi, a Vibrant future for aid, and more

Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for today

Ahead of the first monetary policy announcement of the new fiscal year, commentators had almost unanimously expected the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee to raise the repo rate by a quarter percentage point. But the committee bucked expectations and opted to keep the rate unchanged though inflation is nowhere near the mandated 4 per cent and is unlikely to hit that target anytime soon. The rationale for this is unclear yet the credibility of the experts lies in their ability to invent rationale. If this is what passes for expertise, writes T N Ninan here, then the role of experts may be overrated. “At the same time, he adds, India has its own recent history of non-expert policy action, and that history does not say much for itself." 

In other views:
 

Devangshu Datta assesses the UN’s cryptocurrency solution to disburse cash more effectively and painlessly to refugees. Read it here
 

Mihir Sharma says the Indian diaspora may create problems for Indian foreign and domestic policy going forward. Read it here
 

Arundhuti Dasgupta surveys the legacy of the Chipko movement. Read it here
 

QUOTE OF THE DAY
 

‘I will assure you that it will not be business as usual, where it will be a government department type of an organisation’
 

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar on the government media fact-checking body