Letters: World class or India class?

This refers to Devesh Kapur's article "What regulation, when man is vile?" (February 17). The quality of governance or the quality of services in sectors such as railways and airlines, which the citizens depend on, is never up to the standard, contrary to all the claims about them being "world class".

The Indian regulators woke up only after US Food and Drug Administration authorities were critical of the medicines made in India for the US markets, and restricted supplies from one of the biggest producers of generic drugs. It is certain that these units are supplying medicines to gullible Indians and also compromising their health and safety. Shockingly, the drugs controller states that if India were to follow international standards, then many facilities should be shut down. Our claims of being "world class" should be redefined as "India class". The New York Times in a recent article has drawn attention to this serious loss of credibility for Indian generic drugs, which account for a significant share in the US and other world markets. Our reputation is also at stake because India supplies the much-needed generic drugs at competitive prices to Africa, Asia and South America as well.

H N Ramakrishna Bangalore

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