Vilasrao Deshmukh Passed Away

Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was struggling with a life threatening liver ailment, died at Global Hospitals in Chennai on Tuesday afternoon. He was 67.

Deshmukh experienced improvement but turned crucial and died due to multiple organ failure at 2 pm. His family members, including his three sons, were by his side when he breathed his last.

He was  in the process of treatment at Breach Candy medical center in Mumbai for around last a week and needed to be shifted to super-speciality Global hospitals on August 6 as a result of deterioration in his condition.

A team of doctors, which includes famous liver transplantation surgeon Dr Mohamed Rela, had devoted their best to save him. Deshmukh was on life-support devices.

Attempts to save Vilasrao Deshmukh suffered a major setback after a  man in coma, whose liver and kidney were to be harvested and transplanted in Deshmukh, died hours before the operation yesterday night.

Manmohan Singh said "Mr Deshmukh was a trusted colleague and an able administrator who worked at panchayat, state and central levels with admirable dedication," Singh said in his message.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi called Deshmukh’s passing away as a great loss to the party.

The national flag will fly at half-mast.

Weak Independence Day Celebrations due to Faltering Indian Economy

India is getting ready to enjoy its 66th Independence Day August 15, it looks like to be not a moment to celebrate with its economy declining as a result of the global economic downturn and poor governance.

The economic growth worsened greatly to 5.3 % in the first quarter, which was 9.2 percent in the corresponding period last year. D. Subbarao, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, mentioned clearly in a conversation at an event recently in Thiruvananthapuram last week that the we should concentrate more on controlling  inflation rather than aiming substantial growth. The RBI believes that decrease in interest rates would do very little to improve growth. In fact, it concludes that even more decline of the interest rate at this time, instead of encouraging growth,could worsen inflationary pressures.

Last month the RBI cut its growth prediction for this financial year (April-March) from 7.3 %to 6.5 %. This year's discouraging monsoon might negatively effect on the production, inflation and budget. The less monsoon this year will add to problems regarding inflation and sharpened economic slowdown which has been there since late last year. Farming output remains to be more crucial for India than for many other emerging economies.

Looking ahead, the RBI's more aggressive tone indicates that there is a increasing likelihood that the central bank will keep rates unaffected this year.