Star(t)up performance

This refers to ‘Is Indian start-up space in a funding bubble?’. The optimism about the staying power of start-ups in India has been caused by some other factors too. With greater exposure to the world scenario at large through education and internet, risk avoidance is being replaced by risk taking among the youth.

The success of start-ups like Zomato, Flipkart, Nykaa and Paytm has served as an impetus for the young and ambitious.

The Prime Minister’s personal involvement in the success of start-ups has ensured better co-ordination among the budding entrepreneurs, financial institutions, government agencies and venture capitalists.

However, the number of women in start-up ownership is comparatively low and a separate scheme to motivate them might be worthwhile.

YG Chouksey

Pune

Making cities ‘livable’

Refers to ‘Promoting ease of living in cities’ (October 29). The incessant migration of people from the rural areas in search of jobs is creating scarcity and pressure on all kinds of infrastructure facilities in urban areas, while the economic contribution by agriculture and allied activities are getting affected by this enormous migration to cities. The uneven demographic pattern across the country is hurting the recovery from the Covid devastation.

While the government has executed several reforms and growth-boosting measures to sustain ease of doing business and to attract investments, however, human capital, which is key to push economic activities, is not being provided with ease of living. The lack of ease of living facilities across the country especially in the case of the labourers employed in the unorganised sector is not only affecting the productivity but the quality of life of those people as well.

To speed up recovery, the government must address the problems relating to the quality of living and improve infrastructure facilities to enable the people to live with ease of living.

VSK Pillai

Changanacherry (Kerala)

RBI Governor’s extension

Apropos ‘RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das gets three years extension’ (October 29), this was an expected move on the government’s part. As is well known, he had taken over the reins of the central bank on December 12, 2018 after the sudden resignation of then Governor Urjit Patel.

However, Das’s extension could also be due to the fact that he has been more amenable to the Centre’s “demands” unlike twin predecessors Raghuram R Rajan and Urjit Patel, who reportedly refused to “fall in line”. Hence it was not surprising to see them both make an early exit from the Mint Road Office of the RBI at Mumbai.

Kumar Gupt

Panchkula (Haryana)

Ornamental climate debate

There are three critical news reports pertinent to Climate change in Friday’s (October 29) edition of BusinessLine . First one “Red alert! The Earth is heating” with irrefutable statistical details; Second “India set to play a central role in COP26 climate summit” and the third most important from Indian point of view is the advice by ecologist Dr Madhav Gadgil who has categorically asserted that “River diversion projects are totally undesirable on many points”.

It is relevant to note here that both the reports on Western Ghats (WGEEP) submitted by Dr Gadgil and Dr Kasturirangan have been kept in cold storage for the last nine years without even a debate, which suggests that India too is doing very little except participating in global meets like COP26 scheduled in Glasgow, which have proved to be merely ornamental, adding to the fiscal burden of state exchequer.

Rajiv Magal

Halekere Village (Karnataka)

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