Undeserved beneficiaries

This refers to ‘Feasible fiscal strategies for India’ (September 20). While strategies have been executed to plug the misuse of subsidised food articles and direct benefit transfer to the deserving people, the benefits are still being made use of by many undeserving beneficiaries causing substantial expenditure to the government.

The system of identifying and distributing benefits to deserving sections needs more review and consolidation to eliminate the ineligible from such benefits. The substantial investment made for creating assets in the public sector, in many cases, is underutilised and it is negatively impacting the resources. The government is under pressure to borrow money. It is not only affecting the interest rates in the market but the interest payouts of the government are rising as well.

The asset monetisation programme of the government is a crucial step to raise funds from those assets which are seldom generating any revenues.

VSK Pillai

Changanacherry, Kerala

Monetising assets

This refers to ‘NMP — Unlocking the hidden fortune’ (September 20). The belief that private players are anxiously waiting to participate in the plans of the government to monetise assets needs a reality check. Hard-nosed investors will first calculate the risk-reward ratio, and only if this avenue offers better returns than other investments will they invest.

And where will their profits come from? The pockets of those who use the assets. And what of those who cannot afford them? Leave them out of the equation? This cannot and should not be the attitude of any government.

The argument for NMP looks good on paper, but somewhere in the implementation all good intentions are likely to be lost.

Anthony Henriques

Mumbai

Boosting competitiveness

The Deloitte CEO’s observation that ‘FDI is the key to India becoming a $5 trillion economy’ (September 20), is to state the obvious. India has several advantages, such as availability of a highly skilled, cheap workforce; youth who can communicate adequately in English; a working democracy, and State governments vying with one another to attract businesses.

Though India has progressed considerably on World Bank’s ‘ease of doing business’ index, there are still several areas of improvement, such as contract enforceability, making the graduates passing out of colleges employable by equipping them with soft skills, keeping in check the pernicious tendency of providing employment to ‘sons of the soil’, improvement of infrastructure, besides giving sufficient publicity to all the steps taken to make India business-friendly.

V Jayaraman

Chennai

Change of guard in Punjab

The unceremonious exit of Amarinder Singh from the post of chief minister of Punjab following his protracted unseemly turf war with Navjot Singh Sidhu who now holds the position of president of state unit of Congress does not spring any surprise. Despite having played a pivotal role in scripting the resurgence of Congress and ensuring victory for the party in the last two consecutive State assembly polls, Amarinder Singh’s failure to retain his hold over party's cadres including the legislators while letting bureaucrats emerge as a powerful force to reckon with in the corridors of power had precipitated his downfall.

M Jeyaram

Sholavandan, TN

Ford departure

This refers to ‘Cracking the Indian auto market: Why Ford lost and Hyundai won’ (September 20). Both Ford and Hyudai have chosen Chennai to set up their manufacturing facilities, Ford was a well known name but Hyundai was unheard of by most of us. Today, after 25 years, Hyundai has become the second largest automaker in India while Ford is exiting the country. Unlike in the US, Indian consumers prefer fuel efficiency, low pricing and attractive resale value, which Ford chose to ignore.

While Hyundai took on Maruti with a robust product to start with, Ford failed on this front.

Bal Govind

Noida