If an industrialist of Deepak Parekh’s standing is frustrated in his efforts to get clearances from the Narendra Modi government, we can imagine the plight of ordinary businesspersons. If ‘Make in India’ is to become a reality, there is urgent need to utilise the services of successful businessmen to design industrial plans and implement them expeditiously. Only that will help the manufacturing sector add to our GDP.

There is need to involve people with different talents to build a vibrant economy. Regular dialogue with entrepreneurs is a prerequisite. Foreign capital takes care of investments for new industries. But, there are no substitutes for Indian entrepreneurs. Modi came to power because Indians believed in his ability to make things happen through quick decision-making. People wanted him to act as a change agent to transform our economy. Procrastination will not be tolerated by the younger generation. They look to him for fast decisions.

MV Nagender Rao

Hyderabad

At a time when there is a strong buzz that funding for social welfare schemes to States is likely to be slashed by 25-30 per cent, the reported statement of HDFC chairman, Deepak Parekh, that nothing has changed on the ground is factually incorrect and can only be construed as an attempt to leverage extra sops, largesse and concessions to the corporate at the cost of exchequer. In a country where young kids are thrashed for stealing a piece of bread, the elite classes vanish with thousands of crores and the government remains a mute spectator fearing a backlash from private investors.

Ettirankandath Krishnadas

Palakkad, Kerala

Another bank strike

Once again bank employees will go on strike for five full days with effect from February 25, even though they are getting hefty salaries, bonuses and a number of other financial benefits. They will go on indefinite strike with effect from March 16 if there is no settlement between the IBA and the striking union. All these strikes are for reduced working hours, a five-day-week and immediate new recruitments.

Hansraj Bhat

Mumbai

Time for naya rupee

The present rupee is worth only a fraction of the value it had at the time the naya paisa was introduced in the early sixties of the last century. The time has come to introduce a naya rupee. The naya rupee would be the equivalent of the current ₹10, with the 5 and 10 denominations of the naya rupee the equivalent of the current ₹50 and ₹100. The advantages are obvious.

S Kesavan

Chennai

Right solutions

As rightly elucidated by Kavita Khanna in ‘Pharma needs the right prescription’ (February 19), the DCGI should be made the final authority for licensing process for obtaining product patents with single window clearance as the European Medicine Agencies and the FDA. However, the Centre should ensure that the DCGI has a team of experts in significant areas. The current three-tier process of approval is not only cumbersome but also time consuming.

VK Sridhar

Erode, Tamil Nadu

The need of the hour is top-to-bottom restructuring of the convoluted framework that regulates the introduction and manufacture of novel and generic drugs in India. The development of this sector is crucial to the effective and beneficial functioning of the public health sector which is affected by the high cost of drugs and advisory processes. There is also need for a should focus on researching and finding drugs for common ailments to make them cheaper and more effective.

TR Anandan

Coimbatore

Some Kejri magic

The result of the Srirangam by-election proves that Tamil Nadu voters use different yardsticks to judge politicians accused of commissions and omissions. While they are willing to be lenient in the case of the ruling AIADMK, they are unwilling to dilute their animosity against the DMK. Only a Kejriwal can set things right.

Tharcius S Fernando

Chennai

We don’t need subsidies

There is need to have a good tax structure in a country like India which comprises a large middle-class and lower-income population.. Tax concessions, subsidies and incentives are taking away a chunk of our allocations without serving the purpose.

The nation requires productivity and not subsidies which make people complacent, leading to making them unemployable. The nation’s prosperity lies in its people and any step that makes them inefficient and ineffective will lead to anarchy.

Some measures that will make India grow include: taxing the rich and others moderately, linking all commercial transactions through banking channels, empowering the tax authorities to verify the records of tax-evaders, theelimination of unwanted subsidies, the unification of all cards such as Aadhaar, voter id, ration card and so on, and the elimination of duplicate pan numbers.

Sureshbabu

Hyderabad

The court’s in order

The Supreme Court order to the Gujarat police not to arrest Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand has come as a triumph for justice. By defending her personal liberty and protecting her from ‘custodial interrogation’ and possible torture, the apex court has affirmed its independence and acted fairly by her.

It is a matter of relief for all-right thinking people that the attempts of the state to put her behind bars and take revenge on her for fighting bravely the cause of the Gujarat riot victims have been thwarted and the police have been shown their place by none other than the custodian of the Constitution. The powers-that-be must grasp the meaning of the court’s observation that “the value of freedom cannot even be compared to the stars of the sky”.

The loud and clear message from the Supreme Court is that the state cannot use its might against individuals or trample on their rights just because they defend the weak and powerless or seek justice for victims of state-sponsored violence.

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Price alert

With regard to some medicines, especially tablets, the regular (older higher) price is printed on the back of the strip along with the manufacturing and expiry dates. But as per the government's instruction a new revised lower price (in the case of some essential life-saving medicines) is also mentioned printed on the strips. This is sometimes missed by customers and the pharmacists’ themselves, and customers end up paying the higher price. Companies that manufacture these medicines must alert pharmacists to the revised, lower prices.

TS Karthik

Chennai

Pontificatory emissions

This refers to the article, ‘Food Security, a slippery slope’ by S Ramadorai (February 18). In 1948 the UN passed the basic covenant on the Right to ivelihood and there was no mention of the Right to Food”. India is a signatory to this basic covenant. Like the climate talks of the Conference of Parties, which pontificated on the urgent need to cap emission of green house gases so that ambient temperature increase is held at not more than 2 degree celsius, while big polluters like the US, China and the European Union keep polluting, the first and subsequent World Food Summits held in Rome also turned out to be more an exercise in pontification than action. The 1996 summit pledged to halve the malnourished in the world by 2015. Yet, we see more than 65 per cent of the Indian poor and marginal farmers groaning under debt, even as they spend more than 50 per cent of their meagre income on purchase of food. Why?

All that’s been mentioned in the article has been talked about endlessly. India today is a food insecure country. The writer says there is “no Malthusian problem” (where population increase outstrips food supply) now, while in reality, in India the Malthusian problem has been in operation for almost two decades, ever since the extractive agriculture, euphemistically called the “green revolution” fell on its face. Compare India's food production rate with China, which through a very strict and sensible “one child policy” has been able to provide enough food to all it citizens at cheap rates.

The National Food Security Ordinance (not Act) passed by the UPA-II government, where India will have to mop up 62 million tonnes of foodgrain, is more a political gimmick than a realistic approach. Like everything else in this country, India's food policy is steeped in corruption, political one upmanship and sloth. We are simply not producing enough and cheap foodgrain to equitably feed all its citizens. What have agricultural scientists done during the last more than three decades to ameliorate this pathetic situation?

KP Prabhakaran Nair

Email

The suit secret!

My nine year old grandson quipped on hearing that Modi had decided to auction his ₹10 lakh suit: “Maybe, Mr Modi never wears again a dress he has already worn once!

Yvonne Fernando

Chennai

comment COMMENT NOW