with reference to the article ‘Speed is the essence’, to justify the introduction of Vande Bharat trains on more routes in the country, it will be paramount that speed is significantly increased and the timing of departure does not clash with existing trains. That will help passengers and some air travellers may also look to shift. If Vande Bharat is considered Shatabdi 2.0 then it defies its whole purpose.

It will definitely provide a great boost for day travellers on Vande Bharat. On cattle menace, it should be allowed to run only on those routes which has least chance of this problem.

Bal Govind

Noida

‘Bond’ing time

The RBI report calling for innovative financing mechanism, to source the funding of the municipal corporations through bonds and to list them on stock exchanges, to explore the benefits in the secondary market sounds good, however there could be many obstacles.

Though earlier bond issues of Municipal bodies had the backing of sovereign guarantees of many State governments ensuring return on investment and timely redemption, they could not muster great investor confidence, due to poor operational performance and mismanagement of ULBs. The public resistance against the poor urban infrastructure provided by these bodies could also be a deterrent for levying additional taxes and charges on already overburdened citizens.

Additionally, listing guidelines obviate good credit rating of the bonds issues and majority of the corporations would fail to achieve this bench mark, owing to their poor financial track record. It would be a futile exercise to explore such plans, unless the administration and management of ULBS are streamlined and they are secluded from political control.

Sitaram Popuri

Bengaluru

SEBI’s welcome move

SEBI’s preliminary move to provide solace to shareholders of companies undergoing CIRP is proactive to invigorate the confidence level of the investing public who are now left in the lurch. It is understood that nearly 103 corporate debtors are undergoing CIRP.

Some investors entered stock markets way back in 1990 and invested in the IPO of a company called Usha Rectifiers, which later became defunct. Similarly, since then umpteen companies after amassing crores have vanished conning common people.

The Stock market capitalization to GDP (%) in India was reported at 97.29 per cent in 2020, according to the World Bank. In this context, an earlier directive will be most welcome and quintessential.

Roy Markose

Thiruvananthapuram

Right dosage matters

Apropos ‘Improving crop yield: Whom do farmers turn to for technical advice?’ (November 11), balance sheets of most farm chemical derivatives making firms are getting greener points as retail traders guide farmers on the chemicals to be used, oblivious of its effectiveness vis-a-vis crop.

Although this is a dangerous trend, academic institutions must walk an extra mile to reach farmers, to promote not merely the use of right chemicals but in its calibrated application since both wrong selection of chemicals and excessive dosage harms crops as well as human health, apart from encouraging the pests attain immunity, as has happened in the case of pink boll-worm haunting cotton crop.

Rajiv Magal

Halekere Village (Karnataka)

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