CHENNAI | FRIDAY, 10 AUGUST 2018 TAKE TWO 3. <

ARCHIS MOHAN

New Delhi, 9 August

With the exception of the demonetisationdecision of November 8, 2016, the influencethat Swaminathan Gurumurthy exerts on

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the economicpolicies of the government that he leads, hasapparently been unobtrusive.

But to understand the compelling clout that the 69-year-old torchbearer of “Bharatiya economics” wieldson the Modi government, and the significance of hisappointment as a part-time director on the board ofthe Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday, it isimportant to examine the successful policyinterventions by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM),an economic think-tank affiliated to the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in the past four years.

Officially, Gurumurthy is the co-convenor of the SJM,but is the leading light of the outfit after the passing awayof the outfit’s founder Dattopant Thengdi. Within theSangh Parivar, the SJM has led the fight against the Modigovernment’s land acquisition Bill, forced thegovernment to offer palliatives to the MSME sector afterthe implementation of the Goods and Services Tax and,most recently, has ensured that the government puts itsMSME amendment Bill in the cold storage. It is alsobelieved to have convinced Modi to replace the PlanningCommission with NITI Aayog. But the SJM turned a criticof the NITI Aayog when Arvind Panagariya helmed it.

Those of a certain vintage would rememberGurumurthy as the crusader against the DhirubhaiAmbani-led Reliance Industries Limited in the late 1980s,when he penned a series of articles on the corporate groupthat he co-authored with then Editor of the Indian ExpressArun Shourie in 1986.

Gurumurthy is a chartered accountant by training,and an RSS activist in his commitment. Heis currently the editor of the Thuglakmagazine, having succeeded ChoRamaswamy, and known for his strongviews on Hindutva, against the Nehru-Gandhi family and is a lifelong critic ofTamil Nadu’s Dravidian parties.

Gurumurthy is also much admiredwithin the Sangh Parivar for his integrity,that he has stayed away from electoralpolitics despite his proximity to L K Advani,and more recently to Modi, as also to lure ofany public office. In his Twitter bio,Gurumurthy states: “Mahaswami (his guru) in whom Isaw God advised me out of electoral politics.”

Gurumurthy is proud of his integrity, and was knownto cycle to the local RSS shakhaeven after he had become asuccessful chartered accountant and could afford a car.

After his appointment to the RBI Board, he tweeted:“Story of my appointment as director RBI. This is the firstdirectorship ever. Never accepted any private or PSUdirectorship. Not even audit of Public Sector Undertakings(PSUs) or private companies. Wanted to be free to speak.

But when pressure built up I am needed to do somethingin public interest I had to accept.”

Few who have known him are willing to criticiseGurumurthy, with the exception of Mohan Guruswamy,who in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government of 1998-99was the advisor to Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, butquit amid controversy. Both Gurumurthy andGuruswamy competed for proximity to Advani. “RBI getslobbyist and flaky RSS economics purveyor S Gurumurthyas director. Now we must expect the rupee to become$1=~40,” Guruswamy tweeted on Tuesday.

Gurumurthy was born into a poor family in SouthArcot district of Tamil Nadu in 1949. According to a reportin India Today from 1987, a scholarship helped himcomplete his Bachelor of Commerce degree, after whichhe completed his chartered accountancy and in 1975started his own accountancy practice.

It was also around this time that he met Indian Expresschairman Ram Nath Goenka. In 1976, Gurumurthy wasappointed adviser to the Express, and became a confidantof Goenka. His chartered accountancy firm counted VijayMallya and the Chhabrias as its clients, and he is known tobe a mediator in corporate battles.

In February 2011, Gurumurthy was also a source ofsome embarrassment to Advani, forcing the BharatiyaJanata Party leader to send a letter of apology toCongress president Sonia Gandhi. Advani had releaseda report at a press conference then titled “India’scorruption and crime money parked in Swiss bank andother tax havens”. It was prepared by a four- membertask force, which included Gurumurthy and currentnational security adviser Ajit Kumar Doval. Advaniapologised after Sonia Gandhi had sent a protest letterto him stating she held no foreign bank accounts.

Over the years, apart from his criticism of foreign-educated economists, including justifying the departureof Raghuram Rajan as RBI governor, Gurumurthy has alsohighlighted the problem of “jobless growth”. In the run up

to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Modi reliedon data collated by Gurumurthy that said thejob growth in Manmohan Singh years hasbeen a low 2.7 million between 2004-2010.

The Modi government’s MUDRA — theMicro Units Development and RefinanceAgency — initiative is also believed to havecome from Gurumurthy. When as the RBIgovernor, Rajan opposed relaxed norms forlending that Gurumurthy, and even Modiand BJP chief Amit Shah, felt that the“foreign educated” economist didn’t under-stand Indian conditions and was proving to

be a stumbling block to employment generation. However, Gurumurthy has revised his views on

MUDRA in recent months, and has criticised thefailure of the Modi government to implement thescheme efficiently before bringing in demonetisation.He also said that the MUDRA initiative “was stoppedby the Reserve Bank, which did not want to give upmonetary control” and “control over financing smallerplayers…”. His appointment to the RBI board may wellpresage interesting times.

BLOOMBERG

9 August

The decision by Saudi Arabia to haltnew investments and unload assets inCanada is likely to have limited impact.

Saudi assets in Canada are confinedmainly to stakes in upscale hotel oper-ators, some small stock holdings incompanies like Canadian NationalRailway Co., and grain facilities.

Most investments have been madeby Saudi billionaire Prince AlwaleedBin Talal through his KingdomHolding Co., a Riyadh-based con-glomerate with investments in hotels,real estate and equities. The compa-ny’s international hotel unit joined BillGates’s Cascade Investment andCanadian Isadore Sharp in a 2007 buy-out of management company FourSeasons Hotels, taking a 47.5 per centstake. “The matter does not affect theday-to-day operations of FourSeasons,” spokeswoman Sarah Tuitesaid in an email. “It is business as usu-al as we continue to welcome guests toour hotels and resorts worldwide.”

Alwaleed’s influence in the king-dom has diminished after his arrestlast year in an anti-corruption sweep byCrown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,who is seen to be sending a message tocritics of his leadership with this latestreaction against Canada.

Wheat Board

G3 Global Grain Group, a joint venture

between state-owned SaudiAgriculture & Livestock InvestmentCo. and US agri-food company BungeLtd., bought a 50.1 per cent stake in theCanadian Wheat Board for C$250 mil-lion ($192 million) in 2015. SALIC boost-ed its stake to 75 per cent a year later.The partnership also holds an interestin a grain export terminal being builtnear Vancouver. On Tuesday, officialsof the Winnipeg, Manitoba-based G3said the company continues to buyand sell grain as usual. Officials didn’timmediately return requests for com-ment on Wednesday. Last year,Toronto-based technology startup QDSolar received funding from a groupthat included Saudi’s King AbdullahUniversity of Science and Technologyand Netherlands-based venture capitalfirm DSM Venturing. Saudi lenderNational Commercial Bank has anasset manager that held investments in41 Canadian companies includingSuncor Energy, Canadian NaturalResources Ltd. and Canadian PacificRailway Ltd. in its AlAhli NorthAmerica Index Fund, according to May2017 filings. CN Rail, at $473,500, wasthe largest Canadian investment of thefund’s $148.2 million portfolio.

Two-way trade between the two istiny — around 0.4 per cent of Canada’stotal trade in 2017. Canada exportedC$1.37 billion worth of goods to SaudiArabia last year, mostly tanks and oth-er armored fighting vehicles and theirparts, according to Statistics Canada.

Saudi investment

freeze won’t affect

Canada muchTorchbearer of ‘Bharatiya economics’

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His appointment to the RBI board could presageinteresting times at thecentral bank

NEWSMAKER/SWAMINATHAN GURUMURTHY: CONVENOR, SWADESHI JAGRAN MANCH

In the run up to the2014 Lok Sabhaelections, Modirelied on datacollated byGurumurthy thatsaid the job growthin Manmohan Singhyears has been a low2.7 million between2004-2010

Most investments in Canada have been made by Saudi billionaire Prince

Alwaleed Bin Talal through his Kingdom Holding Co., a Riyadh-based

conglomerate with investments in hotels and real estate PHOTO: REUTERS