Rajan warns against 'euphoria' over fastest-growing tag

April 20, 2016

Pune, Apr 20: Warning against being "euphoric" about India being the fastest-growing economy, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan today sought to contextualise his "one-eyed king" remarks about India's growth and said the country has a long way to go before it claims to have arrived.

"As a central banker who has to be pragmatic, I cannot get euphoric if India is the fastest growing large economy," he said.

Seeking to explain his 'one-eyed king' comments, Rajan said his comments were "hung out to dry out of context" and even offered an apology to the visually-impaired for hurting them by the use of the proverb.

Stating that the per-capita income of Indians remains lowest among BRICS, Rajan said, "We have a long way to go before we can claim we have arrived. We need to repeat this performance (economic growth) for 20 years before we can give each Indian a decent livelihood."

He also said India's global reputation holds great promise, but is seen as a country that has under-delivered and that it should "implement, implement, and implement" the structural reforms.

Speaking at the convocation of National Institute of Bank Management, Rajan said India is yet to achieve its potential growth though it is on the cusp of that and a substantial pick-up in growth can be achieved with pending reforms.

Making a reference to his last week's interview to a foreign publication where he likened India being the fastest-growing major economy to a case of the one-eyed man being king in the land of the blind, Rajan said his comments were interpreted as having denigrated the country's success rather than emphasising on the need to do more.

"... Every word or phrase that a public figure speaks is intensely wrung out of meaning. When words are hung out to dry out of context as in the newspaper headline, it only becomes a fair game for anyone who wants to fill in, meaning to create mischief," he said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had rebutted Rajan's remarks, saying compared with the rest of the world, the Indian economy is growing much faster and, in fact, the fastest.

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman too had not taken Rajan's remarks lightly, saying better words should have been used.

Rajan today said commonly used words or proverbs can "most easily and deliberately be misinterpreted".

"If we are to have a reasonable public dialogue, we should read words in their context, not stripped of it," he said.

He, however, apologised to the visually-impaired whose association had criticised Rajan for using the proverb.

"I do want to apologise to a section of the population that I did hurt with these words, that is the visually impaired, or the blind," Rajan said.

Queried for his take on India being the 'bright spot', Rajan during last week's interview had said: "I think we have still to get to a place where we feel satisfied. We have this saying 'In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king'. We are a little bit that way."

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‘Pay the worker before his sweat dries’: Madras High Court cites Prophet Muhammad’s teaching while ordering settlement of dues

News Network

December 21,2025

Invoking the teachings of Prophet Muhammad—“pay the worker before his sweat dries”—the Madras High Court has directed a municipal corporation to settle long-pending legal dues owed to a former counsel. The court observed that this principle reflects basic fairness and applies equally to labour and service-related disputes.

Justice G. R. Swaminathan made the observation while hearing a petition filed by advocate P. Thirumalai, who claimed that the Madurai City Municipal Corporation failed to pay him legal fees amounting to ₹13.05 lakh. Earlier, the High Court had asked the corporation to consider his representation. However, a later order rejected a major portion of his claim, prompting the present petition.

The court allowed Thirumalai to approach the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and submit a list of cases in which he had appeared. It also directed the corporation to settle the verified fee bills within two months, without interest. The court noted that the petitioner had waited nearly 18 years before challenging the non-payment and that the corporation could not be fully blamed, as the fee bills were not submitted properly.

‘A Matter of Embarrassment’

Justice Swaminathan described it as a “matter of embarrassment” that the State has nearly a dozen Additional Advocate Generals. He observed that appointing too many law officers often leads to unnecessary allocation of work and frequent adjournments, as government counsel claim that senior officers are engaged elsewhere.

He expressed hope that such practices would end at least in the Madurai Bench of the High Court and added that Additional Advocate Generals should “turn a new leaf” from 2026 onwards.

‘Scandalously High Amounts’

While stating that the court cannot examine the exact fees paid to senior counsel or law officers, Justice Swaminathan stressed that good governance requires public funds to be used prudently. He expressed concern over the “scandalously high amounts” paid by government and quasi-government bodies to a few favoured law officers.

In contrast, the court noted that Thirumalai’s total claim was “a pittance” considering the large number of cases he had handled.

Background

Thirumalai served as the standing counsel for the Madurai City Municipal Corporation for more than 14 years, from 1992 to 2006. During this period, he represented the corporation in about 818 cases before the Madurai District Courts.

As the former counsel was unable to hire a clerk to obtain certified copies of judgments in all 818 cases, the court directed the District Legal Services Authority to collect the certified copies within two months. The court further ordered the corporation to bear the cost incurred by the DLSA and deduct that amount from the final settlement payable to the petitioner.

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