Right lessons

This is with reference to ‘Lets not teach towards the test’ by Ambarish Mitra (March 2). Recently, NR Narayana Murthy observed that India didn’t make any earth-shaking invention in the past 60 years. This is mainly due to our faulty education system, which does not encourage research and invention. When even a small country like Estonia takes credit for the invention of Skype, India, despite having so many IITs and IIMs, has failed miserably to make any impact on innovative technology/ new inventions/ or research. This shows our premier institutes are merely pumping out graduates who are either going for big pay packages or ending up in the financial world. Our IITs and IIMs have not till date made any room for research or inventions.

One of the solutions to make our universities/premium institutes, research and invention-oriented is by making them autonomous with minimal or no government interference. Only people of repute with expertise and knowledge known for their academic flair should head the various educational institutes. The IITs/IIMs should be hubs for invention and research and should create more entrepreneurs/expertise who will create jobs.

India should learn from Silicon Valley (rather the US government), where risk-taking is encouraged and entrepreneurs are heroes. The HRD ministry should take initiative to make a difference.

Thane, Maharashtra

The Centre giving its stamp of approval to the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2018, which enables authorities to confiscate properties of offenders who take asylum in other countries to dodge arrest and prison if found guilty, is laudable. The ill-gotten money and lucre acquired through fraudulent means with the help of pliable officials and willing politicos may be utilised for welfare measures and infrastructure development. The Bill sends a loud message to fugitive offenders that the perception that their properties are safe back home is ill-founded.

Bengaluru

The new regulations to punish fugitive economic offenders and errant CA firms are welcome. The new National Financial Reporting Authority will now be able to punish errant CA firms whose lapses and dereliction of duty has caused heavy loss to the exchequer.

As in the case of Satyam Computers, the errant auditors who deliberately overlook the possible fraud must also be punished along with other economic offenders. The other Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill is also a welcome move. It has been our experience in the case of Vijay Mallya that till now we are unable to bring him back despite submission of all valid documents. Hope the Bill would make a difference.

Bheemavaram, AP

Apropos “Television killed news” by Tina Edwin (From the Viewsroom, March 2), the way the TV news channels trivialised the sad demise of Sridevi — full of innuendos, false sensationalisation and insensitivity — confirms once again that these channels refuse to enhance the quality of news content, analysis, priority and presentation even as they add to their numbers. The illusive pursuit of TRPs (target rating points) rather than gravity of the issue is the root cause of the malaise. The state of Hindi news channels is more pathetic. Raising a trivial issue every evening, seeking SMS-generated yes/no as response in the midst of on-going party-based analysts shouting at each other using the same old stock of arguments — this is regular practice. Nothing else can be more disgusting than this.

Pune

The editorial ‘Minding the watchdog’ (March 1) has very rightly pointed out that post PNB Scam, the ICAI self regulatory regime needs to be examined seriously and replaced with setting up NFRA. There has been inherent problems with unregulated and power corridor of ICAI that never points to misconduct of their CAs. PNB Scam is only tip of iceberg.

Kolkata

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