Janata curfew
This relates to the broadcast by the Prime Minister and the report ‘Modi sets up ‘Covid-19 Economic Response Task Force under FM’ (March 20). The PM’s speech was a candid description on the various issues related to the virus and the government’s efforts to attend to the several problems which the people might have to face. The request to observe a ‘Janata Curfew’ on Sunday is a worthy suggestion. The formation of the ‘Task Force’ will create a platform to identify the various problems resulting from the virus and ensure prompt and effective response.
TR Anandan
Coimbatore
Covid task force
The Prime Minister’s speech has explicitly set the tone for the coming days. The main takeaway is fundamentally proscription of public places and compliance of social distancing. Concurrently he stressed upon eschewing the hospitals unnecessarily and adopt a type of self-medication by taking consultation from family doctors over phone or other means.
This approach is antithetical to combating Covid-19 and is also an overt admission by the government that it is ill-equipped to test the potential patients. Second, the PM exhorting all to demonstrate gratitude to those who have been relentlessly battling the pathogen is ostensibly a symbolic gesture.
Deepak Singhal
Chennai
Women as corporate leaders
Apropos ‘How to get women into C-suite jobs’, a major impediment in Indian women getting top-level jobs is the male mindset which believes that women are capable of taking up higher level responsibilities only up to a certain level. That this is a fallacy is increasingly being proved by women who when given top roles even in large organisations like State Bank of India have come out with flying colours.
The need, therefore, is to change the organisational culture and treat women as an integral and equal part of an organisation’s progress. Without this, the system of forcing men to promote women to higher posts in greater numbers, or promotion of women to non-HR positions may not deliver the desired results. Men will find ways of skirting them.
YG Chouksey
Pune
Customer-friendly apps
This refers to the news report ‘56% of users un-install apps within 7 days of installations: Study’ (March 20).
This study is critical for bank customers and bankers who are making deeper inroads into digital banking. The all-out efforts in designing new digital apps and making them user-friendly are welcome. For the apps to succeed, ease of use and safety are crucial. Studies by, say, Indian Banks’ Association or NIBM on the preferences of bank customers will show the way forward for better customer service and provide much required fillip to the digital transactions movement.
NK Bakshi
Vadodara
Nirbhaya case
This refers to ‘Nirbhaya case: 4 gang rape convicts hanged to death in Tihar Jail’ (March 20). This eventually marks the culmination of an ‘unduly’ prolonged legal battle representing the most horrific chapter in India’s history of sexual assault that literally rocked the entire nation.
However, it also goes without saying that their long-delayed executions makes a mockery of India’s archaic justice delivery system. One hopes the legal lacunae that might have cropped up during the hearing of this case are urgently plugged by suitably amending the relevant laws.
SK Gupta
New Delhi
Rope in private doctors
In order to facilitate the medical examination of coronavirus among people at a faster rate, the government could ask private doctors to chip in without without charging any fee. The private doctors may be directed to devote certain duration out of their consulting hours a day to attend to the patients in their localities who fear they may be coronavirus positive.
Government hospitals must ensure the supply of thermal guns and other devices to all private doctors.
Perumal Renganathan
Kolkata
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