This refers to “Losing the plot on jobs” by Ashoak Upadhyay (June 11). Investment leading to jobless growth increases income inequity leaving the unemployed on the fringe. The social costs of unemployment in terms of crimes, alcoholism and the like are enormous. Add to this the plight of agricultural workers who have become victims of the “structural shift” to the service industry, reducing the contribution of agriculture to GDP to about 12-13 per cent with a large labour force numbering nearly 350 million dependent on it.

With India adding 12 million to the idle workforce annually, our economic strategy cannot ignore job creation while promoting investment and growth. This is an opportunity to chalk out really out-of-the-box and path-breaking economic planning and policy.

YG Chouksey

Pune

Haul in the big fish

It is strange that the bankers have joined hands and pitched for “dilution of government ownership”. What is the need for an ARC to take over NPAs and help in “reviving companies ridden with bad debts”? It should help banks to get back their money, which is the public’s money.

Those who take loans from banks should know the money belongs to the people. But big fish take loans running to crores and walk around like VIPs without even servicing their debts. The banks should deal with wilful defaulters and pitch for joint rapid action instead of asking ARCs to handle the cases.

What we need is not dilution of government equity but the will to perform, to use public sector banks to revive our economy by helping the really needy and honest citizens and businessmen, who are willing to pay back the money and help themselves and the nation grow. Privatisation is not the panacea.

SA Srinivasa Sarma

Hyderabad

Timely warning

Your editorial, “Harmful waivers” (June 11), is timely. Without assessing the economic position of the residual state after bifurcation and knowing that it would be a tough task he had to stick to his plan and he can not go back now.

The government should provide permanent godowns to stock crops at nominal rents; this will reduce the risks due to heavy rains. Loan waivers are not the solution. But without lending, banks cannot survive. A subsidy on crop insurance is certainly preferable to wasting tax payers’ money on loan waivers which are only a vote-catching device.

TSN Rao

Akiveedu, Andhra Pradesh

The waiving of loans should be subjected to a deep study of the various related factors and circumstances. Waivers tend to make loan payment delayed or skipped altogether. There are also the political considerations influencing repayment. The fallout can be harmful to borrowers. Crop insurance is a good alternative to loans.

TR Anandan

Coimbatore

As suggested , an institutionalised mechanism for the restructuring of debt for needy farmers and creation of robust crop insurance and agricultural income insurance schemes could help during times of crop failure and monsoon vagaries. The outright waiver of loans will prevent even honest farmers from getting further loans and augment fiscal stress.

NR Nagarajan

Sivakasi

Who wants freebies!

“How the experts sank the UPA” by Shekhar Swamy (June 11) makes valid points but the biggest problem was that the UPA did not take meaningful decisions, manage implementation of its policies and governed poorly. It failed to understand that people are looking for jobs and opportunities rather than freebies. Freebies were one of the main reasons for high inflation. People lost faith in the UPA.

Kirit

Minneapolis, USA

This is a well-balanced and fair diagnosis of the UPA’s strategy failure. Manmohan Singh had an agenda to make India a high-cost economy so that multinational companies could have a field day. This dream has gone awry. If Modi treads the same path, he too will not hang on to his seat too long.

NP Gopalan

Online

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