100-day setback

This is with reference to your editorial, “Course correction” (September 18). The disappointing results within 100 days of its government is definitely a setback for the BJP, especially in States in which the party rules. The results clearly indicate that today’s electorate cannot be fooled. It is the time for the Centre to take up the challenge and address the economic situation on a war footing. Narendra Modi government was voted in with a thumping majority for ensuring good governance and development but no major development has yet been seen. Governing a small State like Gujarat is one thing, it’s quite another to govern the country.

Jayant Mukherjee

Kolkata

Perhaps the only silver lining in the BJP’s otherwise clouded scenario is it has opened its account in West Bengal. The BJP leadership cannot take these defeats lightly. It must introspect seriously and make corrections if it wants to maintain the same tempo to ensure its vote share remains intact.

HP Murali

Bangalore

Reforms a must

“The biggest problem with labour laws” by KR Shyam Sundar (September 18) succinctly focuses on the need to reform laws to confer on workers the right to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining — the core labour standard agreed upon by governments of all countries at the ILO as part of the code for decent employment. Non-ratification of this by India and its failure to enact laws to adopt the ILO Convention is the root cause for labour unrest in industrial clusters such as at Manesar, where workers were eventually locked up in jail for having staked their right to non-discriminatory conditions of work and fair wage. Reversing declining share in the country's GDP must be given top policy priority to secure good days ahead, especially for the poor.

KVA Iyer

Kochi

Widows have rights too

Actor-turned-politician Hema Malini’s recent remark that destitute widows from Bengal and Bihar should stay in the temples in their own states and not crowd Vrindavan is condemnable. It’s sad that she doesn’t know that every Indian citizen has the fundamental right to move around or settle anywhere in the country. If more widows (from other States) evince an interest to stay in Vrindavan, then facilities there need to be improved. It is as simple as that.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Ranipet, Tamil Nadu

It’s misleading

The headline given for the interview with John Holden, “We are making insurance an additional bank product” is misleading (September 18). Insurance can never be a banking product. After all it is an insurance product, distributed by the bank for the benefit of earning some commission. The business of insurance is risk transfer for premium whereas the business of banking is accepting deposits for the purpose of lending. Both are governed by different regulators and one cannot and should not do the business of the other.

S Kalyanasundaram

Email

Plum jobs

With reference to the article “Elite business schools and fatcat CEOs” (September 18), it is true that graduates from big B-schools opt for the best jobs. But merely being associated with a brand is no reflection of a true and efficient CEO and manager. The saying that “all the managers are not leaders, but all leaders are managers” holds good in the current scenario.

M Vignesh

Madurai

Hollow promise

This is with reference to the news proposal for upgrading Mangalore railway station to world standards. Mangaloreans were taken for a ride in 2009 when allocations were made in the Railway Budget for a similar upgradation. But not a single paisa seems to have been spent on this. What happened to the budgetary allocation? Does it not have any sanctity? What were our leaders doing? The present proposal has to be accepted with a pinch of salt as we do not know whether it is a political statement or something will come of it.

MS Rao

Mangalore

Any surprise?

The report that no Indian educational institution is included in the top 200 by QS World University Rankings should not surprise anyone. Our archaic and misguided legal prescription for preferential selection of students, teachers and professors, in which merit is pushed aside, is doing the damage.

R Veera Raghavan

Chennai

Go for it, women

With reference to “Women entrepreneurs emerging the key link in MNCs’ supply chain in India” (September 16), unless women are recognised for their achievements like men, no country can make progress. Some nations and societies are still backward because their women are not given the respect or the opportunities they deserve. .

Women who are successful and independent are usually the happiest. As more women come forward to take on new challenges, one hopes that society and the state will help them attain success. There is no need now for any kind of reservations anywhere and compulsory positions, not even in corporate world as women are in top positions on their own strength.

Mahesh Kapasi

New Delhi

Support SEZs

There are many revelations coming up with respect to SEZs. Out of 577 SEZs approved by the Centre, only 170 SEZs are now functioning across the country. One of the ideas behind the SEZ policy is to create more jobs in economically depressed areas. If the Government is serious about reaping the full benefits of the SEZs, it should strengthen the rules and regulations in order to keep controversies and corruption at bay.

P Senthil Saravana Durai

Tuticorin

Snoozing away

After the Lok Sabha elections, most of the BJP leaders are in snooze mode have gone into snooze and some have became power intoxicated. Many of them have become tools under the communal dictates of RSS. Being in power at Centre, the BJP workers have changed their attitude towards voters. BJP workers have rather started to think as masters rather than as servants of people.

KA Solaman

Alappuzha

COMMENT NOW