Letters to the Editor dated June 11, 2020

Apropos ‘Leadership collapse’ (June 11). It is commendable that New Zealand has eliminated Covid-19. However, to expect India to emulate the example of the island nation may be overly optimistic.

“Criticism”, said British jurist Lord Radcliffe, “is essentially a method of appreciation”. The purpose of criticism should be to help the recipient improve performance. This is sadly lacking among India’s legislators. The Congress, keeps finding fault with every decision of the government, without making constructive suggestions for solving the problems. To be fair, this was the case when the UPA was ruling India, as well.

Be it the slowing down of the economy pre-Covid, or the best way to handle the ongoing pandemic, no worthwhile ideas have come forth from the Opposition parties. The same is the case at the State level too. As long as we elect politicians with a crab mentality, there is no possibility of ‘political consensus’ in India.

Chennai

This is with reference to ‘”Privatisation is not a panacea for PSBs’ (June 10). There is speculation that public sector banks are going to be privatised sooner rather than later. But under the present circumstances, privatising PSBs in the guise of economic reforms is fraught with adverse consequences. That privatisation of PSBs will not be a panacea is true. Instead, what the writer has suggested can be looked into.

Privatise a couple of mid-sized banks and take government ownership to below 50 per cent in a few others. Reduce the number and weight of mandates for PSBs. Debt waiver, which eats away the repayment culture, should be avoided. Freedom should be given to banks in sanctioning the loans, especially to the corporate sector.

Bhimavaram, Anhdra Pradesh

This refers to ‘ Privatisation is not a panacea for PSBs’ (June 11). As the author rightly argues, the justification for privatising PSBs is baseless and untimely. It would have been advisable if private banks performed well vis-a-vis PSBs. However, the failure of private sector bankscasts a shadow on the governance mechanism(for example, Global Trust Bank, Times Bank and recently, YES Bank). Private banks also increased credit to expand their loan books without due diligence, while PSBs were busy trimming their balance sheet.

Moreover, the global financial crisis, as known to everyone, was brought on by a secular failure of private banks in advanced economies. Against this backdrop, the government should rethink the proposal to denationalise PSBs.

Thrissur, Kerala

Every crisis presents an opportunity to embrace change, innovate, create and experiment with new ideas. The Covid- 19 pandemicand the crisis of crippling proportions it brought in its wake has now been pushing countries and its people to adopt a new way of life. Tectonic shifts in the landscape of higher educational institutions are also very much on the anvil. Educational institutions will never be the same again, as the admission process, methods of evaluation, nature of governance and determination of merit will undergo change.

The new normal will witness several inversions in the education sector. The UGC mandate to shift 25 per cent of the classes online for the future cannot be faulted, but care needs to be taken to ensure that it does not exclude students from the poor and other vulnerable sections of the society. The flicker of recognition, quizzical articulations and several other unmediated communications within the conventional classroom environment between the teachers and students will be conspicuously absent in online learning platforms.

While current structures of education attempt to prepare students for a future that we cannot predict, there is an uncertainty surrounding what new skills msut be learnt for the jobs of tomorrow.Concrete measures towards enabling young learners to acquire mental and emotional skills to effectively deal with disruptions has assumed much significance than ever.

Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu

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