The language tangle

Following the emergence of vociferous protests from States like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal against the three-language formula recommended by the draft new education policy authored by the Kasturirangan Committee, it was revised finally to assuage the apprehensions about the imposition of Hindi in non-Hindi speaking States. As a country known for its linguistic and religious diversity, any effort by the Centre to impose Hindi on non-Hindi speaking States needs to be decried. Language learning must be left to the discretion of the learners and thrusting a language like Hindi on States like Tamil Nadu goes against the very spirit of federalism.

Sholavandan, TN

This refers to the ‘Bold steps needed to boost the economy’ (June 5). As stated in the article, there is an urgent need to strengthen the physical and social infrastructure. It is pertinent to note that as a nation we had taken the decision to spend a stipulated percentage of GDP in education and health several decades back. But the achievement has been dismal and the time is ripe to analyse the quality of the spending. It may also be worthwhile to adopt the concept of zero budgeting in select departments.

Bengaluru

This refers to ‘For clean air, focus on energy efficiency’ (June 5). We should not talk about pollution only on world environment day. Looking at the way pollution is impacting our lives, time has come to take some drastic measures before it is too late to make amends. Energy efficiency should be the way of life for all. The government has done its part by substantially slashing LED prices, but we consumers must ensure that we only use LED bulbs in our houses to reduce the carbon footprint as much as possible. Only a collaborative approach by all stakeholders will ensure that we achieve a greener environment.

Noida

The most disturbing indicators presented in the article ‘The paradox of India’s Green Revolution’ (June 5) are the eight-fold increase in the prevalence of obesity in children and an around four-fold increase in overweight children in the 5-9 years age-group between 1999 and 2015.

In due course, most of these children would grow up to becoming overweight/obese adults. It has been pointed out in the last two National Family Health Surveys (2005-06 and 2015-16) that the incidence of obesity among adults is on the rise in India. With young children also contributing to this phenomenon, it is but a matter of time before obesity becomes a quietly ticking bomb, waiting to explode.

Apart from malnutrition, it is now time health planners also focussed on over-nutrition, as increased incidence of obesity is a sure invitation to major health problems such as diabetes, heart attack, stroke, osteoarthritis and some types of cancers.

Noida

This refers to the report ‘PFRDA official: 75% of NPS’ ₹1,270-crore exposure to IL&FS marked down’ (June 5). With an asset-base of ₹3.2-lakh crore, ₹1,000 crore in red may not look very significant. But, for the Indian pension fund, which is managed under multiple regulatory guidelines and is under pressure to maintain credibility and trust, as the game is with the retirement corpus of people who have nothing else to fall back post-retirement, the stakes are high.

The Centre has to look at infusing professionalism in fund management seriously. Whether it would be admitted openly is another matter, but the manner in which the government has been influencing fund management by statutory bodies, banks and organisations in which the government is a stakeholder does not reflect professionalism.

For pension funds, perhaps the government could consider legislating for investment of the entire corpus in G-Secs guaranteeing reasonable return on funds invested.

Mumbai

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