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BOOK REVIEWspecial feature60Name of the Book : Financial Policies and Everyday Life - The Indian ContextAuthor : S. S. TaraporePublished by : Academic Foundation, New DelhiPrice : ` 850/-No. of Pages : 306Reviewed by : Prof. R. D. Pandya, VadodaraAs it is generally known, when professional economists write books, articles or columnsin the journals, they are mainly addressed to the fellow economists, research scholarsin economics and to the policy makers. They are generally written in English. There arein fact very few professional economists who contribute books or articles in thevernacular languages for the benefits of general readers or aam aadmi. It is generallybelieved as indicated by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, that thestudents should learn the subject of science through their mother tongue so that they canimbibe and understand the contents of the subject of study. In fact when late Dr. I. G. Patel,who studied economics in the University of Cambridge in UK, returned to India, he wasadvised by his teachers that he should teach economics in vernacular language inIndia. This indeed indicates that the study of any subject in mother tongue is indeed usefulto understand the subject and participate in the discussion.Shri S. S. Tarapore, former Deputy Governor, RBI has precisely done this when hewas invited by “Divya Bhaskar”, a Gujarati daily to contribute a column in economicsfor the paper. Shri S. S. Tarapore recognizes that general reader could be baffled orconfused by the jargons in economics and therefore, it is his belief that it is the dutyof economists to make efforts to reach out and assist common persons to comprehendthe essence of financial polices to facilitate the understanding and making considereddecisions in the area of economic policies.Shri Tarapore has now come out with a publication “Financial Polices and Everyday life -the Indian context”. There are in all 70 articles or columns in this book which is dividedinto 8 Parts. This volume presents for the first time articles written in “Divya Bhaskar” forEnglish speaking readers.The book attempts to bring out the essence of monetary policy from the view pointof the common man who can understand how the monetary policy of RBI is formulatedand entangles on individuals. Sometimes, Shri Tarapore differs with the monetarypolicies pursued by the RBI but on the whole he believes that the RBI has handledmonetary policy deftly through difficult times. The book also deals with the implicationsof the interest rate policies as well as fiscal policies as they influence the commonpersons.It is interesting to know that Shri Tarapore has moved away from the commandingheights from banking problems to form a macro perspective and instead discussedat length, the various steps put in place to ensure that rights of small customers aresafeguarded. In this connection, he appreciates many achievements of Dr. Y. V. Reddy,October - December 2011The Journal of Indian Institute of Banking & Finance