Sedition law

This refers to the editorial ‘Time to repeal law on sedition’ (April 11). Repealing the law completely will be an extreme step as it will endanger political stability and, in the process, affect economic and social development. An amendment in the law should be the way to deal with any misuse of the law.

Arrest or criminal action as a response to any criticism expressed against the government should not be carried out hurriedly, rather a systematic procedure of investigation should carried out before any action is taken. All false probes, wrong convictions or unwarranted criminal trials should be regulated strictly by a watchdog body that can be formed with an amendment to the law. A well-executed amendment can assuage the concerns of violation of basic rights and individual freedom.

Mumbai

The Election Commission (EC) needs to be lauded for deciding to defer the screening of the biopic on the Prime Minister, which was proposed to be released just before the commencement of elections. It also needs to stop the NaMo TV channel, which has been conveniently inserted among the news channels by all the dish service providers.

With increasing sophistication of electioneering, the time has come to strengthen the EC. As a first step, the selection of the Chief Election Commissioner, who is presently appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister, should be entrusted to a committee as is done in the case of the Central Vigilance Commissioner.

Similarly, the members of the EC should also be selected through a transparent process. The involvement of the leader of the principal opposition party in the selection process would lend a degree of fairness to the process.

Jaipur

The situation in the healthcare sector isn’t that flattering, as exploitation of patients seeking medical attention and intervention is quite rampant. The unholy nexus between doctors, pharma companies and health insurance firms is hurting patients.

Once labelled a noble profession, medicine has over the years degenerated to very low levels. The is primarily due to the exorbitant fees charged by colleges and corporatisation of hospitals. If a corporate hospital is doing well and adds considerable value to the shareholders, it is definitely at the cost of consumers, namely the patients.

Also, business schools encourage their students to view everything from the angle of profit and wealth creation for shareholders. In the medical sector, this is akin to robbing Peter (patients) and paying Paul (shareholders), which is not a healthy business model for a developing country like India.

This is nothing but exploitation. Why should not the pricing policy be based on cost plus profit — with profit ranging from, say, one per cent to a maximum of 20 per cent depending on the volume and value of the product/service sold?

Bengaluru

It is important for the regulator to ascertain whether broking firms with preferential access to the high-speed algorithmic trading platform have made undue/super-normal gains, as suggested by a preliminary forensic analysis. The inherent nature of real-time/preferential high-frequency trading render an unfair advantage to the member using the co-location facility. Provision of TBT (tick by tick) feeds and disclosure of latency can significantly offset the opacity in operations and reduce arbitrage.

It is important to implement the proposed relaxed norms for order limits and standardise the processing at managed co-located facilities, in order to strengthen the overall knowledge-based DMA (direct market access) trading framework and reduce the net costs/overheads for authorised members. Imposition of a use-based congestion charge and OTR (order to trade ratio) penalty for violating the market price tolerance-levels, are some of the stringent diktats which are expected to level the playing field for participants and discourage spoofing.

New Delhi

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