Troubled waters

This refers to ‘How to avert these fishing wars’ by Udai Rao (April 16). The fact that the fishermen’s issue is a road block in the improvement of ties between India and Sri Lanka adds to the urgency. The improvement of relations between India and Sri Lanka is crucial for both countries since it involves theirthe livelihood; any snags preventing free fish flow needs to be looked into. The points raised in the article are important and deserve the government’s attention.

TR Anandan

Coimbatore

Access for all

Your editorial, ‘The price of freedom’ (April 16) was a dispassionate review of the obtaining problems in net neutrality. It is unfortunate that Trai needlessly published a consultation paper on net neutrality which contravened the established freedom of netizens.

In the name of revenue generation, the Centre cannot extend broadband only to certain people on monetary considerations as the upcoming generation will be forced to be intellectual slaves in terms of net utility. Let us afford all healthy systems, channels and unlimited usage to our Indian netizens to move in tandem with our economic development.

B Rajasekaran

Bengaluru

Do telcos have the right to force internet users to surf only sites of their (telcos’) choice at ‘zero’ data charge? Telcos should understand that services such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others are functioning at their mercy and even Telcos earn a substantial amount of revenue in the name of data charges. If such services are not there, Telcos are less likely to cater to data services and will most likely have to confine services to text and voice transmission. ISPs and OTTs providers should not see one another as rivals but as interdependent players working for mutual benefit. Any move to allow Telcos to design their own internet platform offering privileged services will completely go against the idea of Digital India.

S Lakshminarayanan

Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu

The decision by Flipkart to back away from the deal with Airtel is wrong. The agreement shows no preference to any website as it does not block or deny access to other websites. The service provider is entitled to provide his own tariff to the end user who is generally charged on data usage, which is not applicable in unlimited plans. This would help low end users on a basic plan to access their favourite website at free of cost. 

Vikram Sundaramurthy

Chennai

Hasten slowly

This refers to the report about the finance ministry’s inclination towards early introduction of full capital account convertibility. CAC has its advantages such as increased and speedy flow of foreign investment and risk spreading through diversification of portfolios; but it also runs the risk of destabilising the economy due to huge and unexpected capital flows in and out of the country, overseas credit risks and volatility of the system (caused by greater increase in short term FIIs than long term FDIs).

Moreover, as enumerated by the first Tarapore committee, it needs certain conditions of stability of the economy for effective results — appropriate fiscal deficit, inflation rate, non-performing assets , cash reserve ratio, foreign exchange rate along with interest rates. All this and the failure of Thailand and Indonesia’s economy in the late nineties due to poor handling of CAC shows that India should hasten slowly in this matter.

YG Chouksey

Pune

Worthwhile trip

India’s efforts to power its growth using clean energy has received a major boost with Canada agreeing to supply 3,000 metric tonnes of uranium over five years. The deal comes four decades after India-Canada ties went adrift  over India’s nuclear programme. With this Canada joins Russia and Kazakhstan to supply to India. The pact should promote bilateral ties and help build bridges of friendship again. Besides, with several agreements in areas like civil aviation, skill development and higher education been signed, Modi’s trip has been worth the time and money.

NJ Ravi Chander

Bengaluru

Net neutrality

It is encouraging that the widespread uproar generated by a consultation paper issued by Trai seemingly tilted in favour of ISPs and telecom companies and disrupting net neutrality has forced leading e-commerce firm Flipkart to backtrack from entering into a deal with the open marketing platform Airtel Zero. It is also encouraging that the Congress and the Left parties have urged the Centre to ensure net neutrality asking that the internet and telecom service providers and the government treat all data on the internet equally and not discriminate by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment or mode of communication. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan of extensive expansion of internet services up to the village level, the NDA government cannot afford to go for any plan that is against the interests of internet users.

MC Joshi

Lucknow

Running after Ambedkar

The fact that mainstream political parties are competing to appropriate BR Ambedkar is an acknowledgement of the rightness and growing relevance of the cause he represented and fought for — the liberation of Dalits. But merely attempting to appropriate the the great leader will make no significant difference on the ground unless these parties change their attitude towards Dalits and show the will to change their lives.

Not long ago, Arun Shourie denigrated Ambedkar as a “false god”. Then BJP did not object to the slur, but it now lays claim to his legacy with an eye on Dalit votes. To demonstrate its bona fides, the ruling party must clarify whether it accepts Babasaheb’s conception of social justice and whether it will repudiate the parts of religious texts that sanctify varnashrama dharma. For inexplicable reasons, the Modi government has allowed the ordinance for enforcing accountability on public servants for the protections of SCs and STs to lapse. The mask has fallen off the face.

According to the latest economic data from NSSO, the economic gap between the upper castes and the lower castes remains as wide as ever. This bolsters the theory that in the Indian context caste is synonymous with class.

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

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