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As we know, inflation is a rise in price levels. In India at the moment, there is a slide in the value of the rupee, and simultaneously food, fuel and manufactured items are raising in price, leading in a high inflation. This is an exmple of stagflation becuase it is a 'cost-push' inflation (inflation caused by rising costs of products).  In India, the inflation rate was expected to rise 6.7% (by economists) but it actually rose 7.23%.

India's inflation rate rose to 7.55% in August, rise that was much faster than expected by analysts. The primary reason behind this is a rise in India's food prices. In order to decrease inflation and lower prices, the Reserve Bank of India tried to raise interest rates. This should cause a decrease in consumption and demand. Thus in the long-run, disinflation will occur as firms will be forced to lower prices in order to maintain a profit. However, altering interest rates has been tricky for central policy-makers as India imports a large quantity of their food from the US, who ultimately have control the prices.  The US will probably add to India's inflation as they are "likely to push up global commodity prices".  Even through raising interest rates, which can be damaging as they hurt businesses and consumer confidence, India still has little control over global prices. As a result, India's inflation will raise even. 

Unemployment is the condition of someone of working age (16-64) who is willing and able to work, actively seeking employment, but unable to find a job. The unemployment rate is the percentage of the total force in a nation that is unemployed. This article lists unemployment rates in various states of India, compares unemployment rates in rural and urban areas and also provides unemployment of women compared to men. The differences are extreme. India had a nation-wide unemployment rate of 3.8% (for June 2012) while the rate is as high as 17.9% in Goa. The lowest unemployment rate is in Gujarat at 1%. There are also large differences between male and female unemployment in India. While male unemployment stands at 2.9% female is at 6.9%. If we focus on a specific state in India, the female unemployment rate was highest in Goa at 46.2%. The unemployment rate is also very different between rural and urban areas. The article only provides figures for females. 28% of females were unemployed in rural areas compared to 17.9% in urban areas on a national level. The highest female unemployment rate in urban areas is in Sikkim at 51.1%. - Julieta Fischer

India's investors and some politicians want the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to lower its interest rates so that more firms could invest in capital goods in the country. This would increase investment, which in turn would shift aggregate demand to the right and lead to GDP growth. RBI however argues that lowering the interest rates could cause inflation to go up, which in turn would have a great effect on India's lower class citizens. The RBI also argues that interest rates are not very high at the moment, and blame the lack of investment in 'bad governance and lack of reforms'. If the RBI lowered the interest rates and investment did not increase much as they argue, while inflation goes up, many poor people would suffer in the process as they wouldn't be able to buy as many essential goods such as food. This would cause a movement along the aggregate demand curve as price level goes up. On the other hand, from an investor's perspective this would be the best way to generate economic growth, which would benefit the country as a whole if it led to more investment on capital goods.

Investors in India are asking the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for lower interest rates, so that more can be invested in order to accelerate the country's growth rate (which has been decelerating). However, the RBI is concerned that this could lead to an increase in inflation (which is already high) as AD would increase, causing the country to produce beyond its full level of employment, meaning that price levels would raise more than RGDP proportionally (demand pull inflation). The RBI believes that people are more concerned with inflation as it causes the price of food to go up, affecting poor families. However, there is a possibility that growth is of more importance to Indians when looking at the country's economic performance. Other factors such as an increase in oil prices and a poor-monsoon could drive food prices even higher. As result the Indian RBI must be very cautious whether it will be worth lowering interest rates.