Letters to the editor dated March 16, 2021

This refers to ‘Covid impact on household budgets’ (March 16). Such is the enormity of this pandemic that it has changed the way people save and spend. Since buying a house is the biggest investment or expenditure for majority of the households, it is not surprising to see a drop in this segment of purchase.

But it has not been gloomy for all other segments, since people have realised that it is not very safe to travel in public transport so there was some decent pick-up in the sale of small cars. Also, the shortage of domestic help has led to a spike in purchase of white goods. So adversity does bring opportunities too.

Noida

Apropos ‘The complexities of dealing with Myanmar’ (March 16), the country has become a powder keg and by the day the situation is exacerbating. Even the world’s major powers are unable to contain the situation. Another glaring fact is that be it the pandemic or the situation in Hong Kong and Myanmar, China’s role stands out. The situation is reaching such a pass that it is China on one side and major Western nations on the other. Right now, India can only keep its fingers crossed and adopt a wait-and-watch policy .

Noida

India shares a lengthy border, good bilateral trade relations and road links with Myanmar. India cannot take a hasty decision of either supporting restoration of democracy in Myanmar or endorse the military rule. Since India has potential to develop trade and tourism with the eastern neighbour and considering how sensitive the border region is, any hasty move will hurt India’s interests. Moreover, Myanmar’s military coup has the tacit backing of China and Russia. Any adverse comments by India on the coup will spoil the existing good relationship we have with our landlocked neighbour.

Sivakasi

With reference to ‘Not a refined process’ (March 16), one would have got a better idea of the subject if fuel prices in other countries were compared with those in India. Assuming that all non-producing countries import the same basket of fuel (with similar composition of various distillates) at the same global prices, the retail prices would largely reflect refineries’ efficiency, cross-subsidies on end-products if any, and taxes. One such comparison, by globalpetrolprices.com , ranks South Korea, Japan, Germany, New Zealand, the UK, France and Singapore among others, as having prices that are higher than in India. If this is correct, and if there is no cross-subsidy in these countries and in India, it means that Indian refineries are more efficient, or Indian taxes are lower, or both.

Pune

Although the report ‘Sikkim, AP, Karnataka and Maharashtra lead in usage of drip irrigation’ (March 16) indicates the lack of awareness in the conservation of a precious resource like water, what is more unnerving is “very few States have shown enthusiasm to execute micro-irrigation systems.” Looking at the statistics, much more has to be done to make drip or micro-irrigation popular. Apart from financial subsidy, certain production-linked incentives will also help.

Halekere Village, Karnataka

According to media reports, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre and the Election Commission of India whether it would be legally permissible to reject all candidates in the fray if NOTA votes exceeded that of the candidate securing the highest number of votes?

In October 2013, the EC issued a circular stating that in the event of NOTA getting votes which exceed the number of votes polled by any candidate, then the one with the highest number of positive votes would be declared winner. NOTA needs more teeth befitting India’s status as the world’s largest democracy.

Bengaluru

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