Detrimental practice

This refers to “Not above board” (From the Viewsroom column) by Tina Edwin (October 5), about appointment of favourites to the board of directors of public sector undertakings. Since Narendra Modi made an electoral promise to provide efficient governance, it was hoped that he would discard the previous government’s practice of burdening key positions in public institutions and commercial entities with loyal followers.

However, with the recent selection of persons with virtually no exposure to the role’s demands, BJP has not made matters any better. Its earlier move to appoint the head of ONGC for just a year and now the inclusion of a medical practitioner on its board as a member of the board shows how concerned the government is about good performance of PSUs.

Y G Chouksey

Pune

Women leaders

This refers to “Where have all the women leaders gone?”. No doubt, barring few women at leadership positions in banking and finance sector such as ICICI, SBI, AXIS Bank, JP Morgan, there are hardly any women at the helm. And it is despite that women have proven their credentials in the so-called male domains and have ventured into sectors like manufacturing as well. They have started getting into combative roles in armed forces. So it is to do with our mentality and lack of grooming of women leaders by Indian corporates.

Bal Govind

Noida

Unreliable ratings

This refers to “Deep dive into credit ratings” (October 9). Credit ratings are analytical tools assisting the lending banks in revision of lending rates annually, and to watch any incipient sickness of borrower companies. But the rating rationale relies only upon the past financial position of the company and the same may not indicate the future business prospects. At an investor level, it would be a cumbersome task to comprehend the underlying business intricacies from rating reports. In the absence of a proper investor guidance mechanism followed by rating agencies, rating may not be a good source for the investor to take an informed decision.

Sitaram Popuri

Bengaluru

Allegations on Shah Jr

Given the allegations involving BJP President Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, some muck is bound to stick to the ‘party with a difference’. Of course, the party cannot but be right behind the formidable Amit Shah. The expose has put Prime Minister in a tight spot; he is on record saying Na khaoonga, na khaane doonga (“Neither will I take bribes nor will I allow it”). Despite his association with Amit Shah, he might have to accede to demands for a probe to uncover the truth.

The allegations about Jay Shah’s business dealings could not have come at a worse time for the BJP and a more opportune moment for the Opposition. The latter can capitalise on the BJP’s pretensions to eliminate corruption.

Allegations such as the huge rise in the firm’s turnover, big loans against small collaterals and a stock trading company’s morphing into a wind power generating entity gleaned from the filings with the RoC need to be dispelled at the earliest.

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Chennai cinema

This is apropos the tax hike in Chennai theatres, which run to full capacity only on weekends and on weekday afternoons. Theatres can use variable pricing by charging less during non-peak hours to induce cinemagoers, thereby recovering costs.

TS Karthik

Chennai

Major inconvenience

This refers to Sravanthi Challapalli’s article on public toilets (October 9). “The inadequate number of public toilets” is felt all the more by women. Once a woman relieved herself in the shaded corner of a public park. She was caught by the patrol and produced in the court, but was discharged without any fine, but with a warning. The local authorities were admonished to provide adequate number of female toilets. This event took place abroad few months ago. The situation is far worse here.

K Mundanad

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