Boosting social sector

Apropos ‘Tweak CSR rules to lift social sector’ (March 7), robust human capital is crucial for the stable growth of the social sector, which is one of the pivotal pillars for boosting economic activities.

The health and well-being of human-beings and parting quality education to develop their skills are paramount to ensuring their optimum contribution to society.

Notwithstanding the reforms in the healthcare and education sectors, they are still inadequate in most regions of the country.

Both the Central and State governments have to allocate more funds in these investment-starved sectors, and encourage the private sector to focus their CSR activities on healthcare and education to improve the quality of human capital.

VSK Pillai

Changanacherry, Kerala

Ensure 100% irrigation

This refers to ‘Weather stress’ (March 6). India is basically an agricultural country. Had the successive governments (since Independence) taken effective steps to ensure 100 per cent irrigation facilities for the cultivable lands across the country, India would have freed its agricultural sector from the vagaries of monsoon/weather by this time.

After all, there is no paucity of monetary resources in the country. Moreover, spending money on irrigation is a capital expenditure because it will increase the assets in the rural economy. Needless to say, it will increase the production of crops and marketable surplus too. That said, there is no point in speaking about a $5 trillion economy, when the aforesaid problem still persists in the agricultural sector.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Chennai

Multilateral order

This refers to ‘The crisis in multilateralism’ (March 6). The multilateral order set up in the aftermath of World War 2, marginally recalibrated after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, has been sitting on a simmering crisis. The Covid pandemic, the failure to provide adequate support to the poorest countries of the world, the ensuing economic crises, and the food and energy crises in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine have only exacerbated it.

India’s suggestion to focus on common concerns such as climate change and environmental protection, education and health could help begin the repair. As home to a sixth of humanity, a fast-growing economy and representative of the Global South, India must be proactive in revitalising the multilateral order.

N Sadhasiva Reddy

Bengaluru

Newer challenges

Even as as the Foreign Ministers of G20 got together in Delhi last week, its Quad group held its own review targeting China over concerns in Indo-Pacific arena. China promptly took umbrage, stating that state-to-state interactions should pursue peace and development and contribute to mutual trust and regional stability rather than exclusivity.

Self-serving groups and sub-groups of nations still stymie progressive UN resolutions, to serve domestic politics. The collective inability of men at an august world body to rise to newer challenges, is unfortunate.

As the host nation of G20, India gets a legacy of problems and perhaps an opportunity to find solutions to some of them, particularly a prompt closure to the global politico-economic muddle over Ukraine. A distant possibility, even if every nation is losing to differing degrees.

R Narayanan

Navi Mumbai

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