Letters to the editor dated December 13, 2021

US President Joe Biden’s first virtual ‘Summit for Democracy’ has ended with leaders of more 100 participant countries taking a vow to address challenges confronting democracy including corruption, inequality and limitations on press freedom while expressing their concern about the perils of misinformation and strengthening of autocracies.

Though touted as a summit to strengthen democracy, the conspicuous omission of countries like China and Russia from it and open denigration of them as autocracies with no respect for human rights had set the stage for further global confrontation between the US and China.

The rise of China on the strength of its robust economic growth and military supremacy is a reality and cannot be tackled by forging military alliances against it. Substantive engagement with China and Russia through dialogue and deliberations holds the key to ensure permanent peace and stability to the world order.

Sholavandan, TN

This refers to ‘Time to make in India., for India; (December 13). The likes of IIT gave us the impetus to build up an indigenous knowledge bank. Scientific ken promotes capacity to analyse and our prolific IT sector is the base level. The next group took to arbitrage of technical ability for value addition, and are now heading large commercial entities worldwide.

It is the next layer of scientific pursuit, that of abstraction, that is getting to be of key relevance to progressive modern survival and this comes out of research.

The US owes its pre-eminence in the techno-scientific sphere for copiously funding research, both federal and private. The EU and now China are fast catching up with more scientific papers and patents.

It is research that spawns major industries, and start-ups are mere micro-ancillaries, of which, 90 per cent fail. India needs regular and committed funds from both government and industry for major research.

Navi Mumbai

Apropos ‘UPI booster’ (December 13), India has witnessed a significant shift in its digital payments ecosystem in the last two years. And it is heartening to learn that RBI is planning to bridge the gulf between a smartphone user and basic phone user.

If that happens, it will further revolutionise digital transactions. Besides, the government should also work towards deeper internet penetration simultaneously as cash transactions are gradually reducing.

Noida

This refers to ‘Why India always misses the innovation bus’ (December 13). The biggest reason for failure to innovate has been the educational system. From the beginning students are told to do exactly what the teachers tell them. Innovation and creativity are not encouraged.

Thus by the time a child finishes school, creativity has been long buried. Instead on rote learning some attention must be given to students to come up with newer ideas.

Economic compulsions force the youth to take up jobs which provide them with security. How many research centres are up and running? Given the nature of a typical Indian business, where any unproductive expenditure is frowned upon, R&D is discouraged. Therefore, there has been little progress on that front and is likely to remain that way at least for some time to come.

Mumbai

This has reference to ‘PM sees depositors’ confidence in banks going up’ (December 13). This is big relief for the lakhs of depositors who were a worried lot, despite the increase in DICGC compensation. The investigating authorities probing bank frauds, including RBI officials, must be given more authority to quickly confiscate the assets of the fraudsters and bring them to book within a specific time-frame to check the misuse of public money.

Halekere Village, Karnataka

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