Get on track

This refers to the editorial, ‘Rebooting the Railways’ (November 24). The Railways grew from a single kilometre of track before 1848 to become one of the world’s largest networks comprising more than 1,15,000 km. Freight charges and passenger fares account for 65 per cent and 27 per cent respectively of its total revenue. No government at the Centre seemed to have the courage to take hard-nosed measures to modernise.

For most passengers (especially in urban and semi-urban areas) railway stations are a home away from home. That emphasises the importance of enhancing facilities at stations. The core, unresolved issue is poor facilities on trains, such as unhygienic toilets. Moreover, the safety of passengers, especially women, is at great risk nowadays, in the absence of proper security arrangements.

People are ready to bear a hike in fares if a pleasant and safe journey is assured in return.

S Lakshminarayanan

Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu

Gross neglect by the Government has brought disrepute to most public sector organisations including the Railways. When accidents happen or services do not meet expectations, employees are blamed and a comparison made with private sector counterparts or ‘excellent’ services available abroad.

Some measures need to be taken to improve the services. For instance, steps must be taken to reduce the number of accidents. . Overload is the main reason for this, and because of livelihood compulsions, no one complains. This issue must be tackled by staggering office hours, increasing services and providing better and faster alternate arrangements for travel. Victims of accidents should get better medical attention and in case of death, survivors should get reasonable compensation fast. Identification is a tough job for the authorities, though. A proper audit should ensure that accidents are not caused by obsolete infrastructure or inefficient men/machines. And whilesuperfast trains can be introduced, the public has a right to demand safety on the existing tracks.

MG Warrier

Mumbai

Salute the relationship

Barack Obama at our Republic Day parade opens up new avenues in bilateral relations. The current recalibration in Indo-US relations is as much a product of the pragmatism of the two incumbent leaders as of a changed global economic dispensation. Three decades of highly inward looking coalition governments spared our economy but stymied our equations with other nations, big and small.

In the past decade, powerful economies such as the US, Europe and Russia have plunged even as India advanced. Over the next decade, the world economy could shift east. That would bring new political equations. The upcoming Obama visit is surely a vindication of our newfound economic standing; more importantly, it would signal relearning forgotten lessons in realpolitik.

Our pan-Indian vision was skewed and prevented us from having more broad-based strategies. This must change.

R Narayanan

Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

A polyglot plan

In view of globalisation, it helps if one knows some foreign language too. I suggest a four-language formula: compulsory English and Hindi, two optional languages (mother tongue or regional language), and one foreign language. To begin with, every school must have the option to decide which optional and foreign language they can easily take up. Urdu and/or Sanskrit can be additional optional choices if the school has the facility.

Mahesh Kapasi

New Delhi

Debatable discounts

The advent of Reliance in e-commerce sector would certainly impact other players due to its brand, robust technology and creation of additional buying options for existing online customers. However it is debatable whether discount pricing would increase sales and cannibalise its physical outlets as quality and logistics are a decisive factor in food and grocery purchases.

Vikram Sundaramurthy

Chennai

Don’t blame us

This refers to your edit, ‘Rebooting the Railways’ (November 24). We need a strong government and a productive government workforce. If need be we should add more people to our government services so that they can facilitate the smooth running of this nation. We should have relevant laws for our times and the implementation of these laws should be given utmost importance. The Government should not do business and lock up capital and by doing that provide unequal protection to our workforce. The general workforce is not protected but it not so in the case of government employees.

The Railways should be looking for investment from the private sector and the Government should incentivise these private investments. The Government is responsible for running the Government and not a business. It has been proven in Japan and other countries that when the private sector runs the Railways it is good for the consumer.

We need universal free and quality education for all and we need quality and free healthcare from the Government. Don’t blame the people, it is because of the Government that we have a lot of unsolved problems, which in turn is the reason for the bad state that we find ourselves in.

CR Arun

Email

Most of the daunting problems faced by the Railways owe their origin to political factors rather than the business scenario. This is because, for too long, Indian Railways was headed by self-serving ministers who exploited the ministry as a tool of votebank politics. Thus, many projects such as opening new lines were sanctioned without regard for feasibility or fiscal prudence. According to one estimate it would cost over ₹5 lakh crore to complete the ongoing projects alone

Reluctance to increase fares and reduce surplus staff has added to the adverse operating ratio. Now the loss per passenger-km has gone up to 23 paise. Poor maintenance coupled with overusing railway tracks to accommodate more trains on popular demand have further risked safety.

YG Chouksey

Pune

Way to go

In the analytical article, ‘It takes two to tango’ by Radhika Merwin (November 24) the writer has rightly said that the consolidation and merger between Kotak Mahindra Bank and ING Vysya Bank would be more beneficial to the former. It is again true that one plus one may be larger than two — the sum is always bigger than its parts put together.

As a fourth large bank is in the making, another two or three can be considered for due consolidation. Merging State Bank associates with SBI, would trigger the consolidation of PSBs with BOB, BOI, PNB, Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, Indian Bank and others. Perhaps, before the completion of the first tenure of the present BJP government, this can take shape through some policy announcements in Budget 2015.

RS Raghavan

Bengaluru

Making the most of it

Europe, Japan and China have announced stimulus and reduced interest rates to perk up their respective economies. Fund houses are borrowing at low rates and parking in stock markets. Hence, the stock market boom being experienced in India and elsewhere is not because of the fundamental strength of the economy. There is need to tread carefully in the stock market since any adverse news would make these fund houses take their money back, leading to sharp correction. More so because the current stock market boom has led to a higher PE multiple rather than because of better earnings of the underlying stock.

Sridhar Narasimhan

Email

Towards consolidation

With reference to the editorial, ‘Towards defragmentation’ (November 22), the mega deal struck between Kotak Mahindra Bank and ING Vysya Bank is expected to create another major entity in the Indian private banking space next only to ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank that jointly hold immense potential to transform the economy. The important thing is that the deal is market driven to create a win-win situation for both of them.

With conditions becoming conducive after a prolonged lull, banks are keen to tap the growth opportunities. The capacity to bear the risk/setback is critical in this increasingly uncertain and intensely competitive environment; the higher the risk, the higher will be the reward. Consequently, it follows that the bigger the size the higher will be the risk-bearing appetite. Size matters now and hence is a welcome proposition.

The market regulator should encourage more such market-driven mergers for the renewed stability of the financial system that in a way also add value to stakeholders. Consolidation in the public sector banking space has been extensively debated for a long time but without concrete results. While the Government is keen to push the process forward, you’re right that PSBs must take the cue from this and begin looking at mergers seriously.

Srinivasan Umashankar

Nagpur

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