Padmavati row: Rajasthan can't afford to be outraged by a fictional film

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Even as I write this, actress Deepika Padukone and director Sanjay Leela Bhansali have been forced to accept police protection after a fringe group in Rajasthan threatened them with physical harm, as it claimed to be outraged by their soon-to-be-released film Padmavati. One ex-royal has said he would do to Padukone what Lakshman, from Ramayana, did to Surpanakha — that is, cut off her nose and ears. “Rajputs never raise a hand on women,” was the caveat he added, before pronouncing the threat, implying that they did when it was necessary. His organisation has also accused Bhansali’s film — based mostly on a fictional 16th century poem — of inaccuracies, and has called for it to be banned.

Outrage, of course, is the national pastime, with everyone feeling entitled to it and frequently threatening violence if they are not placated. Films are an easy target for this anger. Even as the Padmavati row continues, a group of Brahmins in Maharashtra has called for the banning of National Award winning Marathi film, Dashakriya for allegedly showing the upper caste in a bad light (Really, now?). And, four days ago, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting withdrew Malayalam film S Durga and Marathi film Nude from the 48th International Film Festival in Goa. A bewildered Ravi Jadhav, the director of the second film, was reported as asking: “What do you expect a film on a nude model to be called?”

A look at Rajasthan’s social development statistics reveals, quite starkly, how incongruous it is for Rajput men to pretend to be the defenders of the honour of the women of the state. According to the 2011 Census, the sex ratio in Rajasthan is a dismal 928 women per 1,000 men, earning it a poor 23rd rank among 35 states and Union territories. The child sex ratio is even worse at 888. The literacy rate in Rajasthan is 67.06 per cent, keeping the state among the bottom few. Kerala, which tops the list, has a 93.91 per cent literacy rate. The female literacy rate is even worse 52.66 per cent. According to a 2016 report by Al Jazeera, 674 infants, mostly female, were abandoned in the state between 2007 and 2011, “highest only after Maharashtra”, forcing the state government to create a budget in FY16 to look after these children. Wouldn’t Rajput men be better occupied improving these statistics than defending the honour of a fictional queen?
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Gujarat elections 2017: BJP declares list, Rupani to contest from Rajkot

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday declared its first list of 70 candidates for the Gujarat Assembly polls with Chief Minister Vijay Rupani being nominated to contest from his traditional Rajkot West constituency.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel will contest from Mehsana, his traditional constituency, while state BJP chief Jitubhai Vaghani will contest from Bhavnagar West.

Gujarat will have two-phased polls on December 9 and 14. The first phase will cover 89 constituencies in 19 districts, and the second phase 93 seats in 14 districts.

The list comes days after the deliberations at the BJP Central Election Committee attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the presidentship of party chief Amit Shah.

The filing of nominations for the polls began on November 14.

Counting of votes will be taken up along with that of Himachal Pradesh on December 18.

Moody's upgrade: CEA Arvind Subramanian hopes other agencies follow suit

Top government officials today hailed the rating upgrade by Moody's as "long overdue" and hoped others such as S&P and Fitch will follow suit as it presses ahead with steps to ratchet up growth.

The US-based Moody's today upgraded India's sovereign rating after 13 years to Baa2 with a stable outlook, from Baa3 earlier.

"It's a welcome development, but we also feel it was long overdue... it's a recognition of the actions that the government has undertaken like GST, bankruptcy. We also need to keep all these things in perspective," Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian said.

The government, he said, "is going to do what it has to do on the domestic front -- employment growth, economic growth, reviving investment," he told reporters here.

Asked if he expects other agencies like S&P and Fitch to upgrade, he said: "Let's hope they are not inconsistent amongst each other."

Subramanian had earlier observed that rating agencies follow inconsistent policies while rating India and China.

Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said the upgrade is definitely a big vindication of the structural and institutional reforms that India is doing.

"The fiscal deficit consolidation, debt control and all so everything which the government has done in the past couple of years have been recognised. They are projecting a little rise in the trajectory going forward, so they are conscious of the real dynamics of the debt situation. We, of course, remain committed to the fiscal path," Garg said.

All you need to know about Moody's credit rating upgrade for India

STOCK MARKET - US-based rating agency Moody's on Friday upgraded India's sovereign credit rating by a notch to 'Baa2' from Baa3 and changed the outlook to stable from positive.

The rating upgrade comes after a gap of 13 years - Moody's had last upgraded India's rating to 'Baa3' in 2004. In 2015, the rating outlook was changed to 'positive' from 'stable'.

The 'Baa3' rating was the lowest investment grade, just a notch above 'junk' status.

Moody's has also raised India's long-term foreign-currency bond ceiling to Baa1 from Baa2, and the long-term foreign-currency bank deposit ceiling to Baa2 from Baa3.

Impact on rupee and stock market

G Chokkalingam, Founder & MD, Equinomics Research & Advisory believes the rating upgrade will improve foreign debt inflows and in turn strengthen the rupee, instilling confidence in the economy.

“Moody’s upgrade will trigger a virtuous spiral of more debt flows, equity flows, and FDI inflows, eventually strengthening the economic growth of the country,” he said.

Although he expects the market to rally nearly 2-3%, but eventually everything will boil down to concerns on the corporate earnings front and actual FII inflows.

A K Prabhakar of IDBI Capital also welcomed the move, saying it was much-awaited.

The rating upgrade will keep the rupee stronger, and will have a major impact on Bank Nifty since the cost of fund for recapitalisation will likely come down.

He expects Nifty50 to hit 10,700-10,900 by December end.

Markets check: Buy DHFL, Hindustan Zinc and Thermax

STOCK MARKET - Few trading ideas by Vaishali Parekh, Research Analyst - Technical Research at Prabhudas Lilladher:

NIFTY VIEW:
Nifty after correcting nearly by 50% of the recent swing has for now taken support at 10,100 levels. Market has witnessed a good bounce back rally from here, what now needs to be seen if Nifty manages to move past 10350 levels decisively for this rally to continue. The support for the day is seen at 10170 while resistance is seen at 10260.

BUY DHFL
CMP: Rs 623.50        
TARGET: Rs 685          
STOP LOSS: Rs 590
The stock is in an upward trend and now it has made a higher bottom formation pattern in the daily chart taking support at the significant moving average of 34-WMA and looks potentially attractive for further upside movement in the coming days. The stock looks poised for further gains and also the RSI has indicated a positive trigger signaling a buy and with good volume activity seen, we recommend a buy in this stock for an upside target of Rs 685 keeping a stop loss of Rs 590.

BUY HINDUSTAN ZINC
CMP: Rs 301.80        
TARGET: Rs 328            
STOP LOSS: Rs 288
The stock has more or less formed a higher bottom formation in the daily chart taking support at the 200-DMA which was at Rs 294. The stock looks attractive for an up move with potential and strength indicated with a positive bias. The RSI has also indicated a reversal in its trend and supports our view of a bullish run in the coming days. With decent volume participation witnessed, we recommend a buy in this stock for an upside target of Rs 328 keeping a stop loss of Rs 288.