finally!

I am so thrilled with this - Cleartrip Train Search http://www.cleartrip.com/trains
its still in beta and should work well soon. Its good they have done this without IR support which goes to show any search engine could have done this! NICE!

Inflation back up again

At 5.11%, the number is scary because this is a wholesale price index and a retail/consumer level price index - which is expected to be atleast a percent or more higher. A good part of the increase is due to the fuel price hike ( from about 4.25% a month ago). Whats scary is that the crude price isnt coming down and the new budget has been extremely disposoable income friendly which is bound to increase investment as well as consumption which in turn will lead to higher inflation. Again a bout of loan write offs for farmers which i think are good save for the usual problems-like did the deserving people really get it etc- will ensure some more cash flow albeit notional. Also loan write offs lead to a moral hazard problem - farmers will think they can usually take the loans and govt will always save them. The signalling problem is higher than anything else. So i am willing to switch to a home loan that offers a fixed rate of 9% anyday! my floating rate looks likely to go up again! Funnily the RBI and the Govt seem to be acting in oppossite directions towards inflation. Reddy garu must be worried!