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Fuel prices will be raised a day after election results, says P Chidambaram

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3 years ago

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Fuel prices will be raised a day after election results, says P Chidambaram

Former finance minister P Chidambaram tells Indivjal Dhasmana that the government has contained the petroleum prices due to the forthcoming assembly elections. But cutting the petroleum subsidy gives a signal that prices will rise and such signals were given by cuts in fertiliser and food subsidies too, he says. Edited excerpts

Our problem is not lack of capital. Our problem is lack of jobs. In India, unemployment is at a very high level. The urban unemployment rate is about 8.2 per cent. The rural unemployment rate is about 5.6 per cent, which is mostly because of the disguised unemployment. What we need are job-creating investments, not capital-intensive investments. We have abundant capital, we don’t have jobs. Therefore, I protest, I reject an approach which is based on capital-intensive investment.

I am not unhappy that they did not compress the fiscal deficit too much. This is the time when there must be fiscal liberalisation. You are reiterating that you will reach the four per cent fiscal deficit target in 2025-26, three years from today. If that is your goal, this compression of 0.5 percentage points for the next financial year is not sufficient. You will have to still compress about 2.5 percentage points in the remaining two years. How are you going to do that? For this year I am willing to live with 6.9 per cent of fiscal deficit.

This is an unusual economic theory. So far I have heard every (RBI) governor, finance minister saying that if the government borrows too much from the market, it will crowd out private borrowings because the private sector will not have enough money to borrow in the market and even if money is available interest rates will be high. This is what we have heard for the last 20 years. Today, you turn it around on its head and say if the government borrows more, it will crowd in private investments. This is illogical. Either what you said for 20 years was wrong or what you say now is wrong. I think what you say now is wrong.

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Absolutely wrong. People are suffering from high inflation today. WPI (inflation) has crossed 12 per cent and the CPI (inflation) is touching the upper limit of six per cent. This is not the time to cut subsidies when inflation is high, people have lost jobs, lost incomes and they are suffering because of the pandemic. Crude oil prices have touched $90 a barrel, so petroleum prices will normally rise. The government has contained it because of the elections. You take it from me petroleum prices will rise after the date of counting. You have a petroleum subsidy of Rs 6,517 crore in the current year and you are reducing it to Rs 5,813 crore in the next year. What is a signal? The signal is crude oil prices will rise, I am cutting my subsidy. Be prepared, prices will rise. The same thing is with fertiliser. So what do they tell the farmers? Brace yourself, fertiliser prices are going to rise. There is the cruellest cut in the food subsidy. The current year subsidy is Rs 286,469 crore. You have cut it to Rs 206,831 crore, a cut of Rs 80,000 crore, about 40 per cent. What does that mean? Either you will reduce the ration quantity, which is difficult. Therefore you will increase the price.

I am not against wealth creation. I even support wealth accumulation because new wealth is new capital and new capital is new investment. The point is at what point wealth creation should stop. Put some ceiling, some cap somewhere. What is this Rs 53 trillion wealth for 142 people. This means Rs 37,000 crore is the average wealth (per person) of these 142 people. This will perhaps grow this year and next year. When will this stop? If there are so many wealthy people beyond our imagination, you should tap into that wealth.

A finance minister under Narendra Modi has nothing to do. The finance minister only has to read a speech drafted in the PMO. So you must tell me the finance minister under which prime minister?

A finance minister under Manmohan Singh would in 2022-23 crafted a Budget which emphasises on three Ws — work: how do you create jobs; welfare: how do you reach out or make gestures or comfort people who have suffered in the last two years; wealth: how do you create wealth. All three Ws would have been balanced in a Manmohan Singh government’s Budget.

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What they are saying is that five elections are around the corner. I would have normally been populist, this time I have restrained myself, I have not been populist. You want to congratulate the finance minister for not doing a wrong. You have to do the right thing if you need my congratulations.

Complete News Source : Business Standard

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Winner of BTS’ Jungkook lookalike competition in Chicago is an all-too-familiar face as ‘lore runs deep’

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1 hour ago

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November 25, 2024

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Winner of BTS’ Jungkook lookalike competition in Chicago is an all-too-familiar face as ‘lore runs deep’

On Sunday, The BTS Jungkook lookalike contest winner was crowned in Chicago. Impersonators sporting his signature piercings and tattoos swarmed the venue.

Social media personality Andrew Alexander, who’s previously been documented as sharing “striking similarities” with BTS’ Jungkook, won the K-pop star-focussed lookalike competition in Chicago on Sunday, November 24, 2024. (Instagram )

The chain reaction set off by YouTuber Anthony Po’s super-viral Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest in Manhattan on October 27, led fans to the K-pop chapter of this journey a month later.

On Sunday, November 24, the new US trend surrounding celebrity lookalike contests saw BTS’ Jungkook enthusiasts turning up for registration in droves. As the Hindustan Times (and several other outlets) previously reported, the event held at Ping Tom Memorial Park in Chicago, Illinois, handed out a $20 cash prize and a bottle of Soju to the winner. As it turned out, some older fans of the K-pop septet already knew the much-debated winner of the anticipated turnout.

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Also read | HT Exclusive: BTS Festa, NCT Nation, top K-dramas and more now streaming on Channel K – Amazon Prime Video at 1 INR

A flurry of fan-shared videos and photos popped up online on Sunday (US time), capturing the three finalists in action as the trio, like other Jungkook impersonators showed up dressed in variations of black outfits. Ultimately, Andrew Alexander, a widely renowned YouTube sensation, was crowned the winner. Even if the name doesn’t ring a bell, some BTS fans will remember the content creator from a years-old YouTube video, in which his sister “turned” him into the beloved K-pop group’s maknae.

Who is Andrew Alexander, the winner of Chicago’s Jungkook lookalike competition?

According to the social media personality’s YouTube videos, Andrew is a third-year university student living in California. He clearly flew into Chicago, especially for the Jungkook contest scheduled this week.

Over four years ago, Alexander’s sister, Ashley, posted a video titled “I turned my brother into BTS Jungkook,” as she highlighted how “a lot of people say he looks like” the K-pop star. Given their “striking similarities,” as reflected not only their resemblance (though not validated by a lot of fans) but also their mannerisms, Andrew’s other sister (presumably), Amber, said at the time, “It’s so funny every video we post, there’s at least 20 new people that are like ‘I don’t know if anyone’s ever said this but, Andrew looks like Jungkook’”.

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However, Andrew himself did not admit to the similarities. That didn’t stop BTS fan pages from drawing comparisons between him and the BTS singer.

In a video posted before the viral winning announcement, Andrew’s sister documented the scene at the competition venue. Ashley wrote confirmed in the caption, “He flew from LA we flew from NY.” Ironically, the ultimate Jungkook lookalike contest participant was also registered as #7, a number that holds great emotional significance in the BTS fandom, given the group’s member count.

Also read | With no tickets to Taylor Swift’s Toronto Eras stop, NYC influencer forced to shell out thousands of dollars last minute

A netizen who’d had been a longtime fan of the Alexander siblings clan – all YouTube personalities – commented on one of Andrew’s posts on November 24, “been a fan since 2018,” as they added a reference to Ashley’s YouTube channel “ur mom ashley.”

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In yet another video posted by Amber Alexander, she also recorded the full-circle moment: “He flew all the way from California for this (crying emoji) after years of getting comments saying he looks like Jungkook @andrewalexander WON THE LOOKALIKE COMPETITION.”

Hours before show time, Ashley also took to her TikTok profile (@aaashleyk), showing a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how the family ‘Jungkook-ified’ Andrew by drawing the pop star’s famously known hand tattoos and suggesting that he needed a lip ring as well. For his final look, Andrew also showed up with Jungkook’s eyebrow and ear piercings. 

Fans react to the winner being crowned for the lookalike contest

While some instantly approved the decision with comments like “Andrew is actually the ONLY one who looked like jungkook, the others literally have no similarity at all,” others who probably never tracked the siblings’ years-old digital footprints were lost why this win was especially gaining momentous traction online.

“If Andrew didn’t win, I would have hosted another one to make sure he won,” someone else wrote in the comments. Others quipped along the lines of how Jungkook had returned from the military and “Kinda crazy how they let Jungkook win his own lookalike competition.”

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Those familiar with Andrew’s journey, definitely agreed with how the contest “cooked” with its final decision, especially since “the lore runs deep.” Who could’ve known that this was years in the making at a time when lookalike contests weren’t a norm?

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