New Delhi, June 8 -- It's a study in contrasts. About a month to the day, the US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged in a wait-and-watch response to the uncertainty about how President Donald Trump's tariffs will raise inflation and/or slow growth, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) saw no merit in waiting for the fog to lift.

It cut rates for the third time in a row and by a larger-than-expected 50 basis points to 5.5%. Not content with that, it went in for what many might term an 'overkill,' lowering the cash reserve ratio (CRR), or the amount of bank deposits impounded with RBI, by 100 basis points, which will over the course of this year release an additional Rs.2.5 trillion of liquidity into ...