This refers to ‘Digital push: Insurance soon for your money in mobile wallets’ (January 30). Money in the mobile wallet cannot be compared with savings in banks. Banks do their lending operations out of deposits and there is an element of default risk. Hence bank deposits are covered by deposit insurance. Organisations providing mobile wallets are not supposed to use the funds for lending operations and there is no default risk. Then why should the funds be covered under insurance? It will only increase transaction costs. What is required is secure transactions.

S Kalyanasundaram

Email

The time’s not right

This refers to the editorial, ‘Renouncing cash’ (January 30). The implementation has many infrastructure and operational issues, and will take a lot of time. The pressing issue of the economy today is to put enough cash in the hands of the consumer, the manufacturer and the wage-earner to restart the business cycle. Incentives and disincentives can be thought of once the economy stabilises.

S Veeraraghavan

Coimbatore

Push for healthy food

I am extremely happy to learn that the jallikattu issue has led to a dip in the sale of carbonated drinks. Junk food and carbonated drinks are extremely harmful to children.

One of the main reasons for their popularity is that our film stars and sportspersons endorse these products. I appeal to them to think past financial gains and endorse only those products that enable a healthy lifestyle. For instance, badminton champ Pullela Gopichand refused to endorse soft drinks because they are detrimental to the health of children.

Our policymakers too should consider this when drafting the FDI policy. The Government should give wholehearted support to small businesses and household eateries that deal with healthy Indian food.

Veena Shenoy

Thane, Maharashtra

Stumped by Trump

Donald Trump had sent an unequivocal message to the international community that his controversial election promises were not empty rhetoric. He cannot be faulted for his intention to make Americasafe from terror, but the weapon he has deployed to accomplish his objectives militates against the liberal, secular and democratic ethos and values that define the character of American society.

America is a land of immigrants. Its rise as a global superpower needs to be attributed to its liberal democratic framework and its welcoming of talented immigrants from different parts of the world . Trump’s protectionist trade measures and restrictive immigration policy will do more harm than good to America.

M Jeyaraman

Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu

The good, the bad and the ugly

Thanks to demonetisation, some sort of financial discipline is emerging. However, growth-oriented sectors have taken a beating. Housing, real estate, services, commodities buying and selling, and the finance sector are facing the music. Several SMEs and MSMEs have closed down or are on the verge of closing down, and talk of retrenchment is making the rounds.

Basically, the Indian economy is cash-reliant; going digital is not easy when some 60 per cent of the population still needs to be fully educated. Forcing people to opt for electronic payments even for small amounts is totally impractical. Consumer spending is going down, production is diminishing, growth is pegged down to 6.5 per cent, there’s no direction. The ensuing Budget should show the way to bring the economy back on the rails.

A Sathyanarayana

New Delhi

Films are films

It is unfortunate that film director Sanjay Leela Bhansali was recently attacked on the sets of his forthcoming film, Padmavati , in Jaipur for allegedly presenting distorted historical facts. Films are sometimes fictional, and sometimes based on real life incidents and history. They do research the subject, but they never claim they are ‘real’. Objections can be sorted out, but resorting to violence is unacceptable.

Mahesh Kumar

New Delhi

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