When every penny counts

Bureaucrat Rachna Singh presents a collection of her articles in the form of a book, which will help you gain financial acumen in an interesting manner.

With her unusual amalgam of literary creativity and financial panache, Rachna Singh defies the conventional image of a writer. An IRS officer, presently posted as Commissioner, Income Tax, Rachna has come up with her new book, Penny Panache.

Talking about the genesis of her book, she says, “Last year, I was asked to pen a weekly financial column for a business paper. I was pleased, as this meant melding of my hitherto divergent interests. After penning the articles for a year, I realised to my dismay that my writings had an ephemeral shelf life. After a short span of time they found their way to the newspaper archives. So one fine day, I decided to bring my articles back to life with this compilation Penny Panache.”

Most people consider economics boring and dry, so books on economic issues rarely make it up the popularity chart. But Singh invites her readers to curl up in an armchair with a cup of coffee and enjoy the grand economic tour without a heavy academic baggage. Her tail-piece has an interesting observation ‘economics is not the cut and dry droning it is purported to be, but has all the chutzpah of a nerve-racking thriller.

This observation sets the tone of her book. Singh has divided her book into eight sections with quirky titles and sub-titles.

The first section, Street Savvy, maps out the state of the investor market. Write-ups like Bourses: Boom or Doom and Volatility: the Fear Factor that stalks the Stock Market, deal with the dynamic state of the share market in India.

The second section, Policy Patterns, is a collection of articles that are a balanced assessment of the benefits and negative fall-outs of various policy measures initiated in 2015-2016. Will GST Walk the Talk? Ifs and Buts of Gold Monetization...are some of the pieces in this segment.

The third part entitled, Banking Bulls and Bugbears, discusses various current banking issues. Why the Brouhaha About Federal Interest Hike, Paying for Defaulting Black Sheep are featured here. Section IV, Global Gimmicks, deals with some international economic issues that grabbed headlines in 2015-2016. The economic implications of the Iran deal and the Greek imbroglio are deliberated in Iran deal: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Its Curtains for Greece.

Section V, Currency Concerns, is a comment on the state of the Indian currency as well as the currency slide seen the world over. Will the Rupee Rally or Languish, Fall in Dragon Currency and the Dollar Juggernaut reflect on the subject.

Section VI, Controversy Clouds, attempts to judge certain policy controversies on a fair and factual wicket. The penultimate section, Current Coinages, is an engaging scrutiny of the new-fangled ideas that have taken root in the Indian economy.

The Start-up epidemic, algorithm trading, et al, are touched upon in the articles, Do Angels Profit, What has Upset the Start-up Applecart and The fault is not in Algorithm Trading. The finale, The Way Forward, obviously suggests a way out of certain economic quagmires, as fervently debated in Easing the Way for Taxpayers and Corporate Credit Overload: A Way Out.

Nitin Jain for The Tribune

A grand economic tour that engages the common reader

Any ignoramus, who wishes to decode the intricacies of matters economic, would find a ready reckoner in this assortment of articles on a range of issues that have been hitting the headlines. And what really adds pizzazz to this collection is the author Rachna Singh’s literary panache, a gold medallist in English literature with a special medal for distinction in linguistics, besides a doctorate in cinema and fiction. Lest you should wonder about this baffling combo, Singh happens to be an Income Tax Commissioner. As evident, she has kept her muse in fine fettle, though her domain is the cut-and-dry world of financial scrutiny.

Unravelling the complex arena of stock exchange and real estate, the unpredictability of the prices of crude oil and gold, the rate hike shivers, the inflation forecasts, currency battles, tax sanctuaries, the start-up syndrome, and much else with remarkable lucidity to make it comprehensible to a lay reader, the author diligently stays clear of economic jargon. Narrated and analysed with acumen, the book also takes a dig at all those “Doubting Thomases & Sceptical Simons, who believe economics is not the realm of the untutored reader”.

Just as Dr Charan Singh, the RBI Chair and Professor of Economics, IIM Bangalore, states in the foreword: “When I first began to read Penny Panache: Piecing the Economic Puzzle, I was intrigued by the literary flourish the author had given to the titles of her articles. Many a Slip Between SIPs, Not a Penny More, Bourses: Boom or Doom?, Do Angels Profit?, The Fault is Not in Algorithm Trading read more like the dust-jackets of exciting novels and less like a collection of articles on economics… A 25-year career span, with good training, ensured that she gained important insights into a multitude of economic subjects.”

Narrated and analysed with acumen, the book also takes a dig at all those “Doubting Thomases & Sceptical Simons, who believe economics is not the realm of the untutored reader”.

The eight segments of the book, Street Savvy, Policy Patterns, Banking Bulls & Bugbears, Global Gimmicks, Currency Concerns, Controversy Clouds, Current Coinages and The Way Forward avidly discuss Will GST Walk the Talk?, Ifs and Buts of Gold Monetization, Why the Brouhaha about Federal Interest Hike?, Paying for Defaulting Black Sheep, Iran deal: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, It’s Curtains for Greece, The Fall of the Dragon Currency, The Dollar Juggernaut, What has Upset the Start-up Applecart?, The Fault is not in Algorithm Trading, Easing the Way for Taxpayers, Corporate Debt Overload: A Way Out, Will the Rupee Rally or Languish?, and Populism or Socialistic Pragmatism, among other burning topics.

Singh succeeds in her attempt to dissect economic policies from varied perspectives, given her simplicity of style and a conversational tone that would fully engage an untutored reader in economics. I, for one, as a non-economist could decipher the jigsaw puzzle of global economic trends, and as a literary buff relished the delightful reading. That should reassure the author that she has been able to give a “grand economic tour without a heavy academic baggage” and she need not fear one bit that this compendium would be cast way to the “boredom bin”.

RENÉE RANCHAN

Sunday Guardian Live