The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and relevant to India

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and relevant to India

International Monetary fund, which is briefly called IMF, is one of the twin institutions which were established as a result of discussion among the monetary and financial delegations of the member countries of the United Nations held at Bretton Woods Z(U.S.A) in 1944. Its establishment on 1^st march, 1947, is a great land mark in the history of international economic relations, particularly in the monetary field.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an association of 186 nations, working towards strengthening the international fiscal system, protecting monetary stability, assisting international trade, endorsing greater employment, maintaining fiscal growth, and diminishing poverty rate across the globe.

Main functions of IMF are:

• Regulating rate of exchange changes the internal policies of the member-countries to restore equilibrium are not to be interfered with by the IMF.
• Assistance for meeting balance of payments deficit, There is, however, a limit to the amount which it can thus obtain.
• Rationing out scarce currencies, the IMF has increase the supply of such ‘scarce’ currencies by borrowing or by purchasing them against gold. The member-countries are permitted to impose exchange restrictions in cash of such ‘scarce’ currencies.
• Elimination of exchange restrictions, IMF allowed a period of transition extending over 3 years during which the members could remain such restrictions.
• Policy guidance to administrations and nationalized financial institutions on the basis of the assessment of fiscal trends cross national know-how;
• Providing study data, statistics, predictions and assessments based on the survey of international, local and respective financial systems and markets.
• Providing loans to assist nations to surmount financial difficulties;
• Providing provisional finances to help evade poverty in progressing nations and
• Providing technological support and training to aid nations enhance the administration of their financial systems.

Programs of IMF are Stand-by arrangements, Extended fund facility (EFF), Poverty reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), Supplement reserve facility (SRF), Contingent credit line (CCL), Special oil facility.

Role of IMF in shaping India’s development:

India joined the IMF on December 27, 1945, as one of the IMF's original members. India accepted the obligations of Article VIII in the IMF Articles of Agreement on current account convertibility on August 20, 1994. India borrowed both financial and other assistance from the IMF quite a number of times under several lending provisions of the fund.

The relationship between India and the IMF dates back to the time when India needed economic reform packages to strengthen its international reputation and fiscal policy. IMF provided major loans to India to structure its finances and maintain average economic growth rate.

India is among one of the developing economies that effectively employed the various Fund programmes to fortify its fiscal structure. Through productive engagement with the IMF, India formulated a consistent approach to expand domestic and global assistance for economic reforms. Whenever India underwent balance of payments crises, it sought the help of IMF and in turn the internationally recognized reserve willingly helped India to overcome the difficulties.

Net neutrality is the debate in India today

Net neutrality is the debate in India today

In net neutrality, differentiation is fine, discrimination is not we can differentiate based on what kind of content it is but if you discriminated based on who the content is for that is not fine.

Amid the ongoing debate over net neutrality, the major issue is that everyone has their own definitions of it. “The big problem is the term net neutrality is very confusing everyone seems to have their own definition. People talks to telecom companies who say we are for net neutrality. But what they implement may not be what others people call net neutrality. There is whole activist movement in India who have their version of Net neutrality.” Facebook may have two definition of net neutrality, one which applies for whatsapping into the issue. The committees has already in previous meeting taken note of the operators and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI).

Unfortunately, the definition of net neutrality is not very crisp and precise. And people conflate issues when they talk about network neutrality. People often say the principle of network neutrality is that all packets should be treated equally. The internet has never been neutral in the sense. Packets are not treated equally and that is fine. A packet is the unit of data that is routed between origin and destination on the internet.

Internet service providers or telecom firms should not provide competitive advantage to certain individual apps or services based on either quality of service or pricing. That is what Net Neutrality is. In Net neutrality, differentiation is fine, discrimination is not. You can differentiate based on what kind of content it is, but if you discrimination based on who the content is for that is not fine. The TRAI had received over 1 million comments on its paper over net neutrality with majority demanding implementation of ideal net neutrality.

Net neutrality calls for equal treatment to all internet traffic without any priority treatment to an entity or company on the basis of payment for content or service providers such as telecom companies, which is seems as discriminatory.