Free trade tangle

This refers to the article ‘Is free trade moribund in the US?’ (March 27). The so called ideological shift marked by the new ‘Chips and Science Act’ is not surprising as the US has always been driven by on self-interest, although often camouflaged with a coat of lofty principles.

The US championed the WTO because its markets were saturated and it wanted to exploit the emerging markets.

The current volte face is caused by the adverse impact of free trade on its economy. The story is bound to play out in the financial world too when the tide turns against it there.

Manohar Alembath

Kannur

Tread carefully

Apropos ‘RBI asks banks to make extra provisioning on top 20 business houses’ (March 27), RBI is right in advising banks to provision towards for their exposure to top 20 conglomerates of India as a part of its well conceived contingency plan.

Interestingly, while this is a precautionary measure, the ‘quantum’ has been left to the wisdom of respective boards of each bank.

This decision is driven by the recent collapses of banks in the US and Europe. Some of large corporations also have significant foreign debt exposure which need to be insulated from any likely global turmoil.

What else could explain the Union Finance Minister herself having recently asked the PSB chiefs to identify stress points, including “concentration risks and adverse exposures”?

However, both public and private sector banks must be watchful as there is no room for any complacency. Even some minor misreading on any one’s part, could have far reaching consequences for the entire Indian banking sector.

SK Gupta

New Delhi

Attitude change

This refers to the article “How to create a more gender inclusive workplace” (March 27). The phenomenon of “bropropriation” is not gender specific. Almost every organisation also has male bosses who take the credit for their male team members’ contribution. This is an attitudinal issue and difficult to do away with.

In a way “bropropriation” reminds one of the bosses who work through “ingroups” — preferring subordinates who have similar likes and priorities. They ignore the performance of outgroup members and attribute credit to the ingroups.

The good suggestions made in the article will bear fruit if the top managers themselves set an example by their positive attitude towards their female teams. The top should develop an organisational culture in which all team leaders bring about cohesiveness among and recognition of their members irrespective of gender difference.

YG Chouksey

Pune

Debt funds definition

This refers to the editorial (March 27) ‘Debt funds shorted’. One would think that the intention of the government was to deny to debt funds the benefit of indexation and LTCG. However, there seems to be a grey area in the definition of debt funds.

The amendment says debt funds are where ‘investment in equity is not more than 35%’. But debt funds are those in which equity investment is less than 65%. So instead of saying ‘not more than 35%’, it should have said ‘not more than 65%’.

However if there is no typo, then we have a new category of mutual funds in which investment in equity is between 35% and 65%. These are eligible for indexation and LTCG.

V Vijaykumar

Pune

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