Sweeping changes

With reference to the editorial, “Gold in a spot” (March 7) sweeping changes need to be made in many areas by having a national gold policy. This should address issues such as the free flow of gold; usage of reserves; artificial rigging, fixing and arbitrage; unnecessary payment of vault, courier, insurance and banking charges; losses due to conversion; creating loan funds. Let us have a global settlement centre by asking the international settlement bank to be an arm of the RBI and use our idle reserves through interventions, swaps, lease quotes and guarantee gold trade by physicals, too.

KR Prakash

online

Clean up

With reference to “Doing good by diktat” by Meera Siva (Statistalk, March 7), IT companies with offices in the suburbs can spend money on improving the landscape to match Western standards. If they are going to depend on the panchayat office or municipality for the upgradation it is not going to happen.

They can also adopt some areas for planting trees along the streets and maintaining them to absorb the heat and carbon dioxide generated by the air conditioners and diesel generators their offices use. It is distressing to see that even the traffic islands are not maintained by the companies whose names are advertised there.

Subramaniam Balaraman

online

Pressure tactics

With reference to “Wrong prescription for weak banks” by SS Tarapore (March 7), it is completely true that real NPAs are being concealed by both private as well as public sector banks. It is also a known fact that PSBs are often pressured to lend to certain corporates despite the latter not being in the best of financial health.

So we cannot totally blame the United Bank of India for the fiasco. Lenders must take a more cautious and judicious approach and there should be complete transparency; government should not be allowed to exert any pressure.

Bal Govind

Noida

Being human

It is ironical that a law introduced by the British against Indian ‘mutineers’ was invoked against Indian nationals — Kashmiri students in Meerut. It is a clear comment on the fragile ties between the Kashmir Valley and the rest of India. .

The question is why the Kashmiri students should bear the brunt of the Indian cricket team’s defeat at the hands of its Pakistani counterpart. Incidents like this show the continued alienation of the Kashmiris.

The equation of religion with nationalism and the acceptance of Hindu nationalism as the mainstream are problematic and result in further alienation of sections of the heterogeneous population. The Meerut incident underlines that we need more patriotism and less jingoism, more humanity and less religion.

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Kerala

Polite police

I worked for 22 years as a filler in a petrol pump in Dubai. When I read the item “Delhi most unsafe for women travellers” (March 7) I was reminded of a time a rescue vehicle of Dubai Police reached our filling station with a car belonging to a Punjabi lady. The car had run out of petrol, and when the Dubai Police noticed this, they brought the car to the filling station, filled petrol, started the vehicle and gave a salaam to the lady. This is culture.

Kunhi Mohammed Cholasser

Ramapuram, Kerala

Space sales analysis

With reference to the Catalyst article, “Corner store vs endless @isles” by Jason Nathan (March 7), retail management has hada facelift with regard to visual merchandising and space management. As more crowds throng the stores shops have to meticulously and aesthetically design their interiors. . In most hypermarkets or malls, we can see vast spaces left under-utilised. Most retail shop-owners seem to be unaware of the importance of their location and space utilisation.

M Vignesh

Madurai

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