What RBI chief conveyed through Lata Mangeshkar's "Aaj phir..."

Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das today announced key decisions taken by the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee. Amid the announcement to keep steady policy rates -- repo and reverse repo rates -- Das referred to the lyrics of a song sung by the late Lata Mangeshkar.

“We are living in a world of Knightian uncertainty in the absence of determinate knowledge about the next mutation of COVID-19. The ability to forecast the future course of the economy is so contingent on the evolution of the virus that one prognosis is as good or as bad as the other and as ephemeral. If the last two years of living with the virus have taught us anything, it is to remain humble, but grounded in self-belief, never losing confidence and optimism,"  the RBI Governor said.

“As the great Lata Mangeshkar, whom we lost recently, sang in her immortal voice – ‘aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai’. Together with the spirit behind the next line of this beautiful song, she has conveyed an eternal message of optimism," he said.