The 10000 sensex era again..

India’s benchmark stock index, the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex, fell below 10,000 last Friday, a level it hasn’t seen since 20 June 2006, finally catching up to macro-economic indicators that point to a rather stark conclusion: the country, and by extension, its people, are worse off now than they were 28 months ago.

1. The same 28 months that saw the Sensex cross the 21,000 mark had also witnessed other dramatic changes in factors affecting India’s economy and its standing as an investment for foreign companies and investors.
2. The prevailing sentiment in June 2006 was greed. In October 2008 it is fear supported in part by worsening economic data.
3. The Sensex closed at 9,975.35 on Friday. The rupee at Rs48.89. and inflation 11.48%
   
4. In June 2006, inflation was 5.21%. And the rupee was trading at Rs46.06 to the dollar.
   
5. The currency would go on a twisting ride that would see it touch Rs39 to the greenback in 2007 before threatening to touch Rs50 in recent weeks.
   
6. The rupee has lost more than 19% this year, the most since 1991 when an acute balance-of-payments crisis forced the nation to pawn its gold with the International Monetary Fund to pay for imports.
7. And the country’s industrial growth has slid from 9.6% in June 2006 to 4.9% now.
8. In 2006, not too many people in India were familiar with the term subprime mortgage, or housing loans extended to people with poor credit history that were bundled into complex securities and sold, and which eventually resulted in the collapse of several US investment banks and the ongoing credit crisis across the world.
9. Country’s fiscal deficit now is Rs116,890 crore sharply above the June 2006 level of Rs77,740 crore.
10. Some economists blame the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) tight monetary policy . As inflation soared on the back of growth and a global boom in commodity markets with the consequent increase in prices, the central bank could have made different measures to control it..