I have an annuity policy of ICICI Prudential, on which an annuity of ₹283 per month is payable to me. It is credited to my bank account every month. Every year the insurance company asks for my Existence Certificate. For this purpose it sends me a form. I have to take it to one of the persons listed by it, sign on it in his presence and get it attested by him.

I am a senior citizen with certain ailments, which make my movement difficult. My question is why insurance companies follow this practice acquired from the British days? Instead, they can ask for self-attestation, which will certainly prove that the annuitant is alive.

The present government at the Centre has been placing a lot of emphasis on self-attestation and it is time that insurance companies also followed suit. I had opted for this annuity policy to save income tax and if I had known that annual Existence Certificate would be insisted upon after annuities start coming, I would not have taken this policy at all.

Will the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA), which professes to “protect the interests of the policy holders,” see the reason and take necessary steps? Lakhs of elderly annuitants would be grateful.

D Subbaram

Chennai

Double standards

Your editorial “Family matters” (September 19) has called a spade a spade. Related party transactions often act as a camouflage or conduit for unethical trade practices.

Having introduced stringent governance norms for related party transactions, softening them is akin to the linesmen turning a blind eye to offside goals and rules. Market regulator SEBI’s decision to entirely exempt government companies from related party transactions is definitely not only counter-productive and but also undermines the rules laid down after much deliberations.

It is totally unfair to change rules after the game has begun. It is indispensable that public sector firms strictly follow and practise the originally envisaged norms for related party transactions to set a healthy precedent for private sector.

CG Kuriakose

Kothamangalam, Kerala

Leave the RBI alone

This is with reference to the article “No need for financial super regulator” by SS Tarapore (September 19). Regulation for the sake of regulation is wrong. The RBI needs all the powers it wants to fulfil the mandate of price stability and attain a state of full employment in our economy. Just enact a law which will empower the RBI to achieve the dual mandates and leave the rest of it to the institution itself.

Lets not micro manage RBI and create super regulators who can never fulfil these mandates. When we enact this law let us have a provision stating the best talent will be given an opportunity to work at the board level and the appointment will be transparent.

People are being cheated every day by the different ponzi schemes which are running in different parts of the country. Government should focus on this major scam happening around us and try and stop these by acting fast.

NJ Ravi Chander

Bangalore

Dark India

It was quite disturbing that a girl child was “buried alive” and her burial site was declared a shrine in a Rajasthan village. Children are the legacy beyond the grave and confer certain immortality on parents. Still the parents in question acted from blind faith and abandoned the parental instinct to protect the offspring. It was unspeakable cruelty to sacrifice a child’s life under the irrational belief that she transmogrified into a “goddess incarnate”.

The instant gathering of local villagers with offerings of fruit, flowers and money to propitiate the ‘goddesses’ and seek favours from her spoke of the spell of primitive beliefs over them.

It was the nadir of inhumanity to seek to rationalise the ‘evil deed’ by holding that the elders only fulfilled the wish of the two-and-a half-year-old child’s wish to attain samadhi and be worshipped as a goddesses. This awful and appalling incident has shown how in many parts of our country people are still steeped in superstition. G David Milton

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Sensible thinking

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks about Indian Muslims’ patriotism and the similarity between India and US are worth taking note of. His confidence on Indian Muslims’s patriotism by not getting easily swayed by forces like al-Qaeda and the similarity he emphasised between US which embraced all people of the world and India whose people live all around are sensible. By these remarks, Modi shows his sensible thinking and reasoning. No doubt he is the right man to head the nation now. Hope all our so-called secularists, all-knowing elites and critics recognise Modi’s right approach.

VS Ganeshan

Bangalore

‘Yes’ to unity

The people of Scotland have voted against secession from the UK. And it is a sigh of relief for the British Prime Minister David Cameron. The UK is a small nation, but the people of Scotland have realised that the strength lies in being united. Secessionist forces in other parts of the globe need to take a leaf from the UK chapter.

KV Seetharamaiah

Hassan, Karnataka

Economics wins

It’s heartening to see that the Scottish people have decided to remain with the UK. It’s a victory for the ‘heads’ in the “heads versus hearts” campaign. The Scots realised the huge financial implications of the separation and chose to tread the safe path. The entire Euro Zone which is struggling under an economic slowdown can now heave a sigh of relief. The referendum will definitely help the Euro Zone to tide over the financial crisis they are facing.

Kiran Jose

Kottayam, Kerala

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send your letters by email to >bleditor@thehindu.co.in or by post to ‘Letters to the Editor’, The Hindu Business Line, Kasturi Buildings, 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.

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