Miracle maker

Lee Kuan Yew is a giant who transformed Singapore from a third world country into one of the world’s wealthiest. With a population of 5.4 million, its per capita income is $81,000; India, with a population of 1.3 billion, has a per capita income of not even $2,000!

Santhosh Mathew

Puducherry

Payback time

This refers to your edit, ‘Patient tantrums’ (March 23). The EU has exported deflation to the US. The interest rate deferential is being priced in the currencies. This is the reason for the rally in the dollar. The problems in the Eurozone are not confined to the EU. When the RBI governor pointed out that the actions by the Federal Reserve were somehow affecting countries like India, no one found any merit in his argument. But now it is biting the bullet Because of the dollar strength, the board of governors have downgraded growth for the US; inflation too is expected to make a slow comeback.

In the present system someone else will pay for someone else’s problems. The world paid for the financial crisis in the US and now the US must pay for the mindless austerity policies of the EU which has successfully exported its deflationary pressures to the US. In an age of free movement of capital the world over, volatility is inevitable. Let the nation and corporates be prepared for the eventual liftoff in the interest rates in the US.

CR Arun

Email

Some questions about urea

As analysed in the article ‘Time the government fixes the urea problem’ by Uday Jha (March 23), there are sound grounds to reduce the cost-ineffective subsidy on the use of urea by farmers (its excessive use reduces agricultural productivity and has less nutrient value vis-à-vis phosphatic and potassic fertilisers). It is unlikely the government is unaware of this. So we must ask: Why does it cling to the subsidy in spite of the fact that we spent ₹8,540 crore in 2013-14 for its misdirected overuse? Why do we import about 8 million tonnes of urea which includes the support for this uneconomic usage? Is it because the urea producers and importers influence policymaking in this direction? Was the stopping of production of urea in Madras Fertilisers a victim of this lobby? Is it that controlled sale and price of urea gives rise to misuse of the purchased urea for other non-agricultural gains?

The government has notified the new urea investment policy. When will it introduce new urea meaningful use policy?

YG Chouksey

Pune

Reality bites

J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who had credited Pakistan for the peaceful elections in the State and tried to deny its role in the terrorist attack on Rajbagh police station in Kathua, has finally accepted the reality and asked Pakistan to rein in subversive elements operating from within its territory. The LAC and international border between India and Pakistan are protected by the Pakistan Army and no “non-state” actor can infiltrate from the Pakistani side into India without the connivance of the Pakistan Army. Sayeed must be realistic in his Pakistan policy.

MC Joshi

Lucknow

Sayeed must understand that he cannot smoke the peace pipe alone with Pakistan or terrorists. The two recent terrorist incidents in the State should make him desist from that. It is imperative that the PDP which has formed a government with the BJP, works with the Indian government to establish peace in the valley.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Ranipet, Tamil Nadu

Lazy readers

The candid remark that “Indians would rather spend on shoes, not on books” (March 23) is not wide off the mark, and should be an eye-opener to every doting and well-meaning parent. Email, cell phones, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and so on are taking a heavy toll on the reading habit. The maxim goes, “Reading is to the mind what is exercise to body.” Reading definitely enriches one’s mind and personality. Almost everything about a book is famously summed up by Charles Kingsley: “Except a living man, there is nothing more wonderful than a book.”

CG Kuriakose

Kothamangalam, Kerala

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