The number of people who have died due to the heat wave is shocking. Over the last 20 years, average temperatures have been rising gradually. The main reasons for the current state of affairs are depleting green cover and water resources, and the heat generated by industries, automobiles and so on. The immediate and easy remedial action that can be taken to moderate heat is to improve green cover; it has been proved in other countries that vegetation can temper heat as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Lakhs of trees have been lost to road development . The government should provide incentives for corporates to develop or adopt forests and gardens.

M Raghuraman

Mumbai

Wrong-footed

The Nabard management has been caught on the wrong foot by attempting to ban lunch hour demonstrations by their employees invoking section 36 AD of the Banking Regulation Act. There is no such blanket prohibition authorised under the said Act. It is well settled that their demonstration should not affect the routine functioning of the organisation and should not undermine the confidence of depositors.

S Kalyanasundaram

Email

Credit policy again

The clamour for a rate cut is beginning to gain momentum once again and possibility of a rate cut by a minimum of 25 basis points is looking bright maybe even before the policy cycle or on the scheduled date of the monetary policy review on June 2. A few banks responded to earlier cuts and more are following suit.

Much will, therefore, depend on how aggressive banks are in terms of expanding their credit portfolio. Unseasonal showers have caused havoc and the forecast of deficient monsoons are factors could bring inflation back into focus. Concerns are also raised about the need to prop up the growth rate and boost the cycle of investment.

Developments across the globe are causing concern; that also has to be factored in. As in the past, the RBI governor will have the onerous task of working within constraints and yet keeping the wheels of the economy rolling.

Srinivasan Umashankar

Nagpur

The elephant in the room

This refers to your edit, ‘The return of retail’ (May 28). The retail investor’s direct holding in stocks is valued at ₹7.92 lakh crore, which is huge. To put this kind of money in the markets, the retail investor relies mainly on his broker. Our retail investors get zero research services from their brokers. There may be some corporate broking firms who advice their clients on the basis of sound research. But an overwhelming majority of retail investors get only order execution services from their brokers. This state of affairs is because of the commoditisation of the broking industry which has taken the broking business to wafer thin margins, charging very low brokerage fee.

Nowadays the broking office is nothing but a casino where you only get to hear about margin funding, high leverage for next to nothing as margin to trade in stocks and commodities. Unless the retail investor is lucky enough to have an account with a broker who advices on the basis of sound research and he chooses to take that advice, the quality of retail holdings will not improve markedly. We need to address the fundamental problem, which is the elephant in the room — retail broking industry and its business model.

CR Arun

Email

I completely agree that a 50 per cent jump in retail investors’ participation is good news, considering the fact that this class of investors have generally shied away from markets. But the timing is really questionable as the market has gone up considerably.

As it was considerably low in 2011-2013, retail investors were not getting into the markets. This has been the problem with retail investors as they generally enter when the market is bullish and sadly exit when it is bearish, rather than doing the opposite. With this backdrop participating in markets through equity mutual funds is the best route.

Bal Govind

Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Past not perfect

The former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has advised the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to focus on the past, but to focus on governance. He forgot that the ‘past’, whether 10 years or 60 years, impacts the present as well as the future of the nation. The past governance was totally based on populist and subsidy oriented policies to protect the ‘chair’ for the next few decades, even at the cost of the people’s interests. The unfortunate result of such thoughtless economic policies was soaring prices and suicides by farmers.

Hansraj Bhat

Mumbai

Beat the blues

This refers to ‘Private investments need a big push’ by Jyotsna Suri (May 28). We must accept that the more confident business houses are, the greater will be the results. Though there is much talk about the economic slump across the world, companies cannot do their job without human resources. The human strength in India is abundant. So naturally, companies located in India have greater chances of beating the economic blues. In a nutshell, a bit of courage is the need of the hour.

P Senthil Saravana Durai

Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu

Better timings

It is good and appreciable that logistic companies re-align the delivery schedule to beat the heat by delivery boys (‘E-commerce deliveries hit; firms tweak timings to beat the heat’ (May 28), on humanitarian grounds. Leave alone summer heat, it is advisable for courier and logistics companies to schedule their delivery timings in general between 8 and 11 am, and 5 and 8 pm so that people are available to receive parcels/letters at home. Staggering working hours would be beneficial to both the parties of the transaction deals.

This may help post offices snatch back lost business from the courier services and become more customer-friendly and viable. Moreover, with better and wider reach, the postal service may be suitably combined with some marketing efforts to exploit the customer base effectively.

RS Raghavan

Bengaluru

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