Welcome change

This refers to your editorial, ‘ Caveat venditor ’ (October 9). It is a welcome change for consumers to order and get the goods delivered at their residence, that too at competitive rates. At the same time, one expects that there should be checks and balances and fair play and consumers should not be taken for a ride with inferior and defective goods. This needs proper regulation of e-commerce and a mechanism for the redressal of grievances and return of goods.

S Kalyanasundaram

Email

Rules of business

With reference to the news item, “Centre to look into complaints against Flipkart sale” (October 9), it is strange to see how united and diligent the owners of brick and mortar stores are in their bid to find fault with the business model of e-commerce in India. The advent of cell phones threw operators of landline phones out of business, the advent of e-mail and digital signatures has affected the revenue of courier companies, the introduction of double-decker trains and low-cost airlines has hurt private bus operators, and so on.

The affected parties in many of these cases accepted the change and are heroically competing in the true spirit of private enterprise. Assuming that e-commerce companies are forced to pay additional taxes due to policy changes, their popularity will still continue because of their excellent inventory management practices, refund policies and doorstep delivery. This is something that brick and mortar stores will find hard to offer or complain about. The internet is a revolution and is bound to change the rules of business.

Aravind Narasipur

Chennai

Though online shopping is an easier option than driving to the crowded market and standing in long queues, the charm is missing. Also, the sedentary lifestyle would result in men and women expanding horizontally. But technology will definitely come out with a gadget to ensure that users run, jump and jog for miles sitting at home.

TS Karthik

Chennai

Encouraging signs

This is with reference to the article, ‘Ministries exploring option of mining coal along with coal bed methane’ by Richa Mishra and Debabrata Das (October 9). This has been the practice in the world’s leading underground coal mining industries such as Australia for decades. It is encouraging news that India has starting thinking along these lines, but it should have been implemented long ago.

In Australia, they not only extract coal but also methane gas which is naturally found underground and bring the tapped gas to the surface and generate electricity. This fuels the energy requirement of the neighbouring area and the excess electricity generated by the gas power plant at the mine site is diverted to the power grid, thereby ensuring optimum utilisation of natural resources and reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels.

Amar Bhasin

Cherrybrook, NSW, Australia

Take action

The Direct Taxes Code Bill which was introduced in 2009 and later modified in 2 010 has not yet been passed. Will the Finance Minister take action to pass it in the next session so that the benefits can reach the taxpayers?

Jagannathan B

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Legal age conundrum

The Madras Court has opined that the legal age for marriage for girls should be raised from 18 years to 21 years. The rationale may be good but is difficult observe in letter and spirit. Even with the minimum age of 18, there are cases of clandestine marriages of girls below 18 and boys below 21. Eloping may also increase.

Raising the age of girls to 21 may also warrant the age of boys to be raised at least by one year. The apprehension of the High Court that there is no guarantee that girls at 18 are more mature than boys should be answered by the medical fraternity. It is not the job of the courts to take a call on the marriageable age of boys and girls. Raising the age limit may lead to more cases of minors being married off, thus placing more burden on the police and courts.

KV Seetharamaiah

Hassan, Karnataka

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