Letters to the editor dated April 20, 2021

This refers to ‘Inoculating India’ (April 20). At last the government has taken the right step in allowing those aged 18 and above to get vaccinated, and giving much needed flexibility to vaccine manufacturers in terms of pricing as well as distribution.

Further, the Finance Ministry providing financial assistance to Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech to speed up vaccine production is welocome. Now, all efforts should be on ensuring maximum number of people get vaccinated so that we develop herd immunity as early as possible.

Noida

The huge gap in the supply of Covid vaccine is alarming. As suggested by the former Prime Minister, governments worldwide should declare this calamity as national emergency and address the shortcomings on account of patent-related issues thwarting the free flow of the vaccine to needy countries, by issuing compulsory licences to the entities which can augment the supplies of generic drugs for this purpose. On the financing front, extending tax concessions to CSR activities and crowd funding would be a pragmatic step.

Bengaluru

Apropos ‘Covid vaccine for all above 18 from May 1’ (April 20), it is indeed a timely move from the perspective of mitigating further spread of the mutating virus to the most crucial section of society, the youth.

However, the authorities must complete the vaccination process for the upper age group, especially the senior citizens, who have already obtained the first dose and await the second one. With vaccinations going up, there could be huge crowds at most centres, which must be handled well so that the vulnerable elders are not put at risk

Halekere Village, Karnataka

In the battle against the virus, people are beginning to wonder whether there’s an overemphasis on sanitisation and social distancing. Recent research reveals that 40 per cent of all transmissions happen from people who are asymptomatic, with no cough or cold. The pandemic has changed our lives to such an extent that we now heave a sigh of relief when they return home, as it is the only place where we can live without fear and can remove our masks.

Jalandar

This refers to ‘How to manage Covid 2.0’ (April 20), which brings to the fore the dire need to avoid reimposing lockdowns as these have already caused enough damage to the livelihoods of people and the economy, which is slowly limping back to recovery.

Saving human lives from the second wave must be the predominant objective. The pace of vaccination must be increased and continuous supply of the vaccine must be ensured even if means importing them.

Sivakasi

It is quite disheartening to note that over the past few years the percentage of frauds in banks and financial organisations have been on the rise. According to the RBI’s annual report, the total cases of fraud rose 28 per cent by volume and 159 per cent by value to ₹1.85 lakh crore in the 12 months period ending March 2020. The RBI’s guidelines on detection and reporting of fraud haven’t been follwed by banks and financial insti strictly.

The average lag in detecting fraudulent transactions was 24 months during 2019-20, and more disturbing is that in the case of frauds exceeding ₹100 crore, the average lag was 63 months, making the chances of recovering the money in most cases extremely difficult.

A robust mechanism that detects symptoms of fraud early and immediate reporting of the same to the RBI may help. The RBI should be given full liberty to deal with the fraudsters, be they bankers or borrowers. Any laxity on this front will threaten the country's financial stability.

Bhimavaram, AP

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