This is with reference to the article ‘A case for raising the retirement age’ (January 6). In India with large-scale unemployment among youth, raising the retirement age is no solution.

Instead, the government should have policies for helping the aged. The Atal Pension Yojana is one such type of scheme that guarantees pensions to elders from the unorganised sector.

Most countries that have raised the retirement age are developed nations that do not face the problem of unemployment. Secondly, these are the countries that are sparsely populated and hence face scarcity of working population. In India we don’t have the same level of social security prevailing in the West.

Veena Shenoy

Thane

Health benefits

Apropos ‘Mission millets’ (January 6), millets consumption is slowly gathering momentum only in certain parts of the country.

The dependency on wheat and rice as staple foods continues and this trend can be reversed only by vigorous publicity capaigns expalining the health benefits of millets. Millet diet should be made compulsorily provided at least 2 times a week in all hospitals, educational institutions etc.

There will certainly be a positive response from all the food takers in the entire country and keeping in view of maintaining good health with less medical costs more people will start consuming millet foods boosting up the scale of production of millets and demand automatically.

Katuru Durga Prasad Rao

Hyderabad

Ball in Centre’s court

This refers to ‘Why is the GST Tribunal a non-starter?’ ( January 6). Despite GST coming a long way since 2017, through legislative changes and its efficient administration, much more needs to be done make life easy for taxpayers. It may be recalled that GST as a key indirect tax reform, was first mooted by the then Union Finance Minister in his Budget speech in 2006-07, to be implemented from April 1, 2010.

But much water has flowed since its launch in 2017 by then Finance Minister, the late Arun Jaitley.

Interestingly, all decisions of the GST Council, headed by the incumbent FM, are taken through consensus and the option of exercising a vote has not thus far taken place. However, the absence of a viable ‘appellate’ authority, in respect of the GST regime, has raised eyebrows. For sure, this issue ought to be urgently addressed . It’s high time the Centre proved its “credentials” on this count.

Kumar Gupt

Panchkula (Haryana)

Base subsidy on eligibility

Apropos “Recast farm subsidies” (January 6), with more than 80 per cent of Indian farmers being small and marginal land holders, the distribution of subsidies on various farm inputs may not always reach the needy for the simple reason that a small farmer is incapable of deploying required farm derivatives in essential quantities.

It is therefore essential to design farm subsidy schemes with focus on the most deserving failing which there is every possibility of a misuse, which is hard to detect.

Rajiv Magal

Halekere Village (Karnataka)

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