No time to rest

This is with reference to your editorial “BJP, interrupted” (August 26). The by-election results were not in favour of the BJP and the top-brass of the party needs to introspect as its Bihar unit has underestimated the outcome from the grand alliance between the RJD and the JD(U). It is very clear that in these by-elections local factors played an important role; there is no Modi wave at all.

Of course, assembly elections are different from general elections, but even so, the BJP should have done better at least in Bihar. The power play lasted only for a couple of months and BJP has to work very hard to wrest power in the ensuing elections to the State assemblies of Maharashtra, Haryana and J&K.

The party cannot be complacent, and the newly elected president must devise a sound political strategy to come out with flying colours. Each passing day is important in the development process.

KNVS Subrahmanyam

Hyderabad

Right the imbalance

This refers to the article “The IITs have lost their way” by Anurag Mehra (August 27). As far as technical education in India is concerned, various imbalances still exist: first, the quantitative (and not qualitative) expansion of institutions offering technical education; second, the outdated curriculum followed by some institutions; third, the inadequate infrastructure facilities. This is why quality education is still an unrealised dream. As a result, a large number of educated people in our country are unemployed and that has made investment in human resources unproductive.

Students graduating from the good institutions largely migrate to western countries. As for the large number of colleges coming up every year, most of them seem more interested in money-making.

Unless and until the mindset of the policymakers and those who run educational Institutions changes, there is no point in crying for quality. Before granting permission and affiliation to new schools and colleges, the Government should be cautious on matters of infrastructure facilities, skills, knowledge and competency of faculty members. Excellence in higher education can be realised only if we redesign and restructure the courses, curriculum and content from the primary education level.

S Lakshminarayanan

Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu

Not such good news

With reference to the article “Massive potential of online open courses” by Bijendra Jain and Shan Balasubramaniam (August 26), education courses online and offline are being offered by all and sundry. That is definitely not good news. It may appear that the education-starved Indian population is craving cost-effective education. But in the absence of proper regulation, the corporate sector will not be able to make an assessment of the education standards of new applicants or of existing employees for purposes of promotion.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has been offering online open courses in a big way. But its placement record is quite poor. Worse still is imparting technical education online. How can such institutions provide a platform that has the requisite infrastructure for carrying out experiments? IGNOU has a tie up with certain education institutions, but there is a big gap in understanding the subject. It is high time these online open courses were regulated to protect the interests of students.

KV Rao

Bangalore

India must catch up

With reference to the editorial “Progress on GST” (August 25), GST implementation in India is way behind schedule. More than 140 countries have introduced GST in some form. It has been part of the tax landscape in Europe for the past 50 years and is becoming the preferred form of indirect tax in the Asia-Pacific region. But all stakeholders must deliberate upon their processes to ensure a smooth transition into the GST regime instead of being caught off-guard. While the Government is actively preparing for the new law and procedures, businesses would also need to gear up to be able manage this change well.

Vivek George

Tripunithura, Kerala

Buckle up, PSBs

I have some suggestions for PSBs and the role of the board. The board should be broad-based. Its members should consist of industry and field experts. They should not run businesses with family members at the helm. There should not be more than two shareholders as members. The board should not have sanctioning or approving powers. It should only strategise and give powers to executive committees.

The managing committee should consist of executive committee members and two representatives from among the other members.The nominees of the RBI and the Government nominee, and the shareholder and professional directors will have a tenure of not more than one year. The EC should be headed by the CMD, EDs (two or more), and general managers. GMs should come from field operations and have completed a tenure in each of the banking activities at earlier levels, and GMS in the committee should be rotated at least once a year.

All the sanctioning committee meetings should be held by video-conferencing or tele-conferencing with the cases presented by the sourcing branch and/or its immediate controlling office. If the sourcing branch is a specialised branch, the branch head can present the case. The minutes should be recorded digitally and a digital copy sent to the concerned sourcing branch, its controlling office, and the processing centre at the corporate, zonal or regional office.

P Ramaseshan

Hyderabad

Actions speak

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley doesn’t miss an opportunity to say that the BJP provides better governance and by virtue of that it would be possible for the Government to exceed a growth rate of 8-9 per cent. One is reminded of the saying: “Where boasting ends, there dignity begins”. In its first 100 days in office, the BJP has done precious little to ameliorate the condition of the poor or enhance economic growth. If rhetoric were the yardstick of its success, then of course, it would be the best.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Ranipet, Tamil Nadu

Coal losses

The Supreme Court’s observation that the coal block allocations since 1993 are illegal, casts a shadow on the previous government’s policies of natural resource allocation. Though an abrupt cancellation of all the licences would adversely affect the economy which has just begun to show signs of recovery, stern action is needed.The apex Court’s observations vindicate the stand of the former CAG and the losses incurred by the exchequer are much more than what he projected as the looting continued for two decades. The Government should take a policy decision to nationalise the mining sector.

Kiran Jose

Kottayam

The Government should take back all the mines where production has not started and auction them. Illegal allocations happened because of coalition politics and cronyism. Let our businesses pay the market price for the raw material before they talk of social welfare schemes. This is the right time for the Government to introspect and find ways to correctly price our natural resources.

CR Arun

Email

Such aberrations do not surprise anyone any longer as scams have become synonymous with the ruling regimes in this country. Contrary to popular belief that private entities encroach upon and siphon off rich national resources, that the Government at the time kept vested interests above the national interest in the allocation of coal blocks is a fraud on the nation.

R Prabhu Raj

Chennai

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