A recent survey has shown that 45 per cent of Kashmiris are mentally distressed. This is not surprising given the perpetuation of violence in the Valley. Denied proper education and job opportunities, the youth have become foot soldiers. If the State government is sincere, it has to identify the problem areas and take the help of the Centre to address them. Sealing porous borders, checking subversives and terrorists, and bringing back Pandits are vital. Urgent efforts have to be made to sustainably tap the economic potential of the region.

CV Krishna Manoj

Hyderabad

GST rethink

Even if GST is passed, how will it benefit the exchequer? Every time there have been reforms in indirect taxes, there has been continued fall in collection. Direct tax collection in 2015-16 was ₹7.48 lakh crore and indirect tax ₹7.11 lakh crore. If we apply the ratio of the pre-reform period, then the collection of indirect taxes should have been ₹30 lakh crore.

SC Aggarwal

New Delhi

Old wine

This refers to your editorial, ‘No miracle cure’ (July 15). With existing SDR for stressed assets already put in place by the RBI, it is not clear how the new S4A is going to resolve the issue of NPAs. Just because there would be no takeover of delinquent firms, it’s not clear how S4A will lead to improvement in the loan portfolio of banks.

Srinivasan Velamur

Chennai

The S4A scheme evolved after studying the impact of NPAs on the banking system. There is no miracle to cure the problem of restructured debts. While the threshold of ₹500 crore is aimed at giving solace to ailing banks, it is more beneficial to the SME sector in the range of ₹10 crore to ₹100 crore. Reviving ventures at the bottom of the pyramid will enable quick recovery for the economy as well as banks. To supplement the revival, schemes such as Make in India and Digital India should be integrated.

S Veeraraghavan

Coimbatore

Although HCC has come forward, there are some lacunae. How can a company which has become an NPA because of lack of cash flow service 50 per cent of the debt outstanding? Besides, the bank has to provide upfront 20 per cent even for accounts under S4A. Also, the scheme is applicable  only to accounts with an exposure of ₹500 crore and more. Let the Government pay  off the 50 per cent outstanding by providing a long-term loan to the company and the RBI extend this to other firms with an exposure of ₹100 crore plus.

TSN Rao

Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh   

Select with care

It’s good the Government is taking time to zero in on the new governor of the RBI. We can no longer afford to narrow our perceptions of the role of the RBI to merely managing key rates or delving into bank NPAs. PSBs have huge bad loans in their books due to flawed system architecture. The Government is their owner, not the RBI. The Government has since set up a bank board and now ought to follow it up by systemic reinvention of its banks. The need is for prescience and a grasp of world economic and monetary trends, and finding opportunities in unprecedented challenges. The capacity to meet and overcome such recurrent external episodes must underline the choice of the next governor.

R Narayanan

Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

Smart cities, smart villages

This refers to ‘Why a smart village scheme makes sense’ by Ashok Kumar Shukla (July 14). The measures suggested for supporting rural populations and livelihoods are noteworthy. The measures suggested have been attempted in the last 70 years, efficacy notwithstanding. However urbanisation as a trend has been unstoppable all over the world. The share of rural economy in the world has fallen from 6.4 per cent in 1995 to 3 per cent in 2010, and employment from 42 per cent to 33 per cent. In India, agriculture contributing just 15 per cent to GDP is overburdened with a population of over 60 per cent.

V Vijaykumar

Pune

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Send your letters by email to bleditor@thehindu.co.in or by post to ‘Letters to the Editor’, The Hindu Business Line, Kasturi Buildings, 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.

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