This is with reference to the article “Rural India does not need loan waivers” by BS Suran and KU Viswanathan (July 31). Rural India means agriculture, the backbone of our economy. A suffering rural India will reflect on our economy in multiple ways. Even six decades after Independence, rural Indians largely lack adequate food, clothing and shelter. They need support in all respects such as roads, communication, hospitals, schools, college, banks, industries and loan waivers. The Government should also stipulate CSR spends should be only on rural development for at least 10 years.

Ravindranath Shetty

Mangalore

Why should the state government bear the cost of farm loans? The parties running the government have to pay from their coffers for having made this promise simply to to entice the voters from farming community.

Every year, per capita debt is on the rise. The Government should refrain from seeking more and more loans from the World Bank and IMF. Instead of doling out rice at Re1 a kilo and waiving loans, the Government should endeavour to liberate India from the debt trap. If debts are liquidated and the huge burden of interest payments is either avoided or reduced, the economy would look up.

KV Seetharamaiah

Hassan, Karnataka

Fuelling the fire

G Parthasarathy’s insightful piece, “When Russia is prodded and provoked” (July 9) highlights how the US and Nato countries are trying unethically to chastise Russia in Ukraine. While Russia may be faulted for providing excessive military support to the Russian minority there, the US is adding fuel to the fire instead of persuading the parties to arrive at a negotiated settlement. US intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan left a trail of blood in those countries. It is indifferent to Israel’s contempt for international opinion and in spite of Pakistan’s backing to terrorists it continues to fund that country.

YG Chouksey

Pune

New age consumerism

With investors boosting Flipkart’s worth, we have another parvenu entrant into the world of futuristic IT valuations (“A different kart race”, July 31). The other day we had Uber, the taxi service concept, being assessed at $18.2 billion. We are being reminded too frequently for comfort that innovative IT may stay futuristic.

The recent buy-out of Whatsapp takes the cake. It neither trades in goods nor services but only on visibility and reach. Perhaps we are yet to grasp the potential of social media that Whatsapp seems to have read in its crystal ball. Meanwhile it is the brick and mortar companies and services that provide jobs in billions, that enable a growing economy to fund innovation.

R Narayanan

Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

Be accountable

This refers to the article, “Hero or villain” by R Srinivasan (July 31). We need to introspect about our agriculture policy and the way we have designed food security. When the state monopolises the procurement of food and stores it in an inefficient way, the people are the losers. This distorted policy of procurement should be replaced by a system of direct cash transfers so that the needy can buy food that is of good quality, including vegetables and proteins.

WTO or not, we are accountable to the people of India. We should raise agricultural productivity and try to contain food inflation by using good technology and not mindlessly encourage GM crops. With 120 crore mouths to feed we don’t need WTO to tell us what is right.

CR Arun

Email

The time is ripe for countries like India to stand up firmly to this just cause. The ‘developed’ nations have been exploiting the weakness of the developing nations since several decades. There is no option for developed nations but to take note of the pressure from traditionally weaker nations and come to terms with reality. Agricultural prices have to be re-fixed to adhere to domestic requirements. The subsidies have to be independent of WTO norms.

S Dharmarajan

Mumbai

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