Thought-provoking article

Aarati Krishnan’s well-researched and thought-provoking article, ‘Games multinationals play’ ( Business Line , January 31) was excellent and threw light on the manipulative ways of multinational companies that shortchange unwary investors. Such companies are still regarded in India as paragons of corporate governance and transparency, which is a pity.

But Shekar Viswanathan’s article titled ‘Suzuki's Maruti or Maruti's Suzuki’ highlighting the benefits that would accrue to the shareholders of MSIL with respect to SMC’s decision to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary in India was an entirely contrary view.

Gangadharan Mani

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Worth emulating

‘I don’t endorse the brands I don’t believe in’ and ‘I don’t endorse alcohol and tobacco either’, says Amitabh Bachchan ( Business Line , January 31). This is a principled stand.

Amitabh is reported to have refused to endorse Pepsi a second time in response to a schoolgirl asking him about the mismatch between what her teacher said about “negative things” in the cola and the claims of the Bollywood icon about the international brand. His stand seeks to fill the gap between practice and perception. Money alone should not be the guiding factor to appear in advertisements.

KV Seetharamaiah

Hassan, Karnataka

Scorched earth policy

‘Under-recoveries are not all gas’ by Anand Kalyanaraman exposes a big problem ( Business Line , January 31). The Congress government is deliberately letting under-recoveries balloon.

It is adopting a scorched earth policy knowing well that it will not come back to power and wants to put a Narendra Modi-led NDA government in trouble! That is against the interest of the nation.

Raman

Chennai

Save, don’t subsidise

‘Enough of this urea populism’ by Uttam Gupta ( Business Line , January 31) clearly illustrates the need for the government to think how to save poor farmers without ramping up the subsidy. The Centre should find ways to do so effectively.

Karthikraja

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Dilli door ast

This is with reference to ‘A comprehensively corrupt government’ by Harsh Lohit ( Business Line , January 30). Do the rural poor of Haryana know about Aam Aadmi Party and the difference between the AAP and other parties that ruled them in the last two decades?

Going by what the writer says, 65 per cent voters in Haryana are based in villages, so it will be fallacious to expect a Delhi-like poll result. Haryanvis need to look beyond.

Raghavan Sundar

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Customer disservice

Customer and consumer services in India leave a lot to be desired. Take, for instance, the errors and incorrect names on PAN cards. If a mistake is made by the card-issuing officials in spite of the application carrying the correct details, the officials should not ask the applicants for a correction form.

The necessary correction should be directly done by the officials themselves after cross-checking the original form. Only an update or name change genuinely calls for the use of correction forms. Besides, the customer care unit for PAN cards is not up to the mark; executives lack knowledge and courtesy. It is high time serious and effective steps are taken to improve customer care and train its staff well.

P Senthil Saravana Durai

Vazhavallan, Tamil Nadu

Just do it

Kris Gopalakrishan’s family trust should be praised for their liberal donation of ₹225 crore towards establishing the Brain Reasearch Centre in IISC. Such philanthropy, which benefits society and the nation should be encouraged by the government and the people.

All big business houses should follow this example and donate liberally for the cause of research in different spheres. The government should be liberal in its approach and should not come in the way by imposing unnecessary restrictions. It should also extend liberal tax benefits to such causes.

VS Ganeshan

Bangalore

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