Apropos the editorial "Monsoon woes" (June 24), it is rightly stressed that antiquated drainage cannot meet our changing circumstances. The main factors involved in this misery are change in weather conditions and topography due to the enhancement of construction activities and the involvement of multiple agencies. The storm flow depends on topography, soil, land use and the climatic characteristics of the area. Surface drains are designed to handle the flow from storm frequencies of past few years. These drains were constructed on the basis of old storm run-off, which has adapted to the climatic changes, resulting in a new pattern of rainfall. Looking at all these factors, there is an urgent need to redesign the drainage system. This is essential since the existing facilities are not good enough.In addition to this, the drainage system can work efficiently if there is regular maintenance, which would entail periodic checking and immediate clearance of choked drains. Moreover, natural

Letters: When it rains, it pours

Business Standard

Apropos Indrajit Gupta's column "Why it pays to be a flexible employer" (Strategic Intent, June 23), the first industrial revolution took work from home to the hearth and created the world of factories. Now, the new industrial revolution is taking work back from the workplace to home. But this flexibility in the choice of workplace has its limitations too. Working from home fosters inconvenience for other members of the family when they are required to keep quiet while a long discussion takes place on phone with the boss or not play music because it disturbs the concentration and so on. Work-generated stress is immediately transferred to the family. The employee is now too much at home to feel worksick and go back to colleagues to talk about organisational politics and things mundane.While flexible work hours are a boon and flexibility in doing one's job a bonus, a flexible location is like a curate's egg.Y G Chouksey PuneLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business

Letters: Flexibility has limitations

This refers to the editorial "Banking on thin ice" (June 24). Only a dozen entrepreneurs, who are experts in the game of permutation and combination to form new companies, have been occupying the lion's share of bank loan funds. Quite a few of these companies have been successfully dodging repayment of loans, and have also been getting them restructured.There are certain things that need to be done urgently. First, as assured repeatedly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, political or bureaucratic interference in the decision-making process in banks should be outlawed completely. Second, while banks hereafter will be at liberty to acquire the promoters' equity pledged with the banks, the scope of doing this should be widened to ensure that no bank would do so by offering any price higher than what is ruling in the market. The sordid story of Kingfisher Airlines of how the State Bank of India and other lenders paid substantially higher prices when they acquired shares of this "dead as a do

Letters: Bank for the buck

The sweeping changes that the Internet of Things can bring to companies, consumers and cities have thrown up myriad possibilities

The 'Net' effect

Sebi has kept out retail investors for the time being, which may be too heavy-handed a regulation

Regulations for start-ups need to be more relaxed

For long, US has ducked the hard questions about race and power

Finally US might be restarting conversation on racism

Last week, after the judgment in a Sahara case was pronounced, senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan tried to make the case for a parole for Sahara chief Subrata Roy. He started by saying, "My lord seems to be in a good mood today." Judge T S Thakur quickly shot back, "Our mood is directly related to your mood." He added, "If you lose your temper, we also tend to." Dhawan, one of the senior-most members of the bar, has had several interesting exchanges with judges. He went off the case for a few months after one such exchange but has since returned.

Relative good mood

At a recent event to mark the launch of an insurance pool, the closing remarks with the vote of thanks went on for much longer than usual. Apart from thanking the speakers and guests, the gentleman giving the vote of thanks also mentioned that he had got a bigger and better-than-expected appraisal at his workplace this year and that was one of the reasons he was particularly happy to be part of the launch. See if you can connect the dots.

Praising an appraisal

The International Yoga Day has passed but the posturing over asanas continues. A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in performing yoga, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani announced the government's plan to introduce yoga as part of the curriculum in central schools for classes VI to X. The next day, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad trashed the Union government's plan and said once that happens, schools, which were supposed to be places for studying, would turn into yogashrams.

Twists and turns of yoga

This refers to Ajai Shukla's column "Filling in Mr Parrikar's silence" (Broadsword, June 23). The matter of defence procurement cannot be an easy task to master, and one ventures to think that an IIT or IIM degree is not really of much help here.The previous defence minister did a good job of masking his unwillingness to decide by making the procurement process trip up all purchases. The current incumbent is going for quick results if just to prove that he can do in five years what the other side couldn't do in 10 or 15. He has to deal with a deluge of contradictory advice and the Prime Minister's inclination to be intuitively decisive to the point of forgetting to keep his defence minister in the loop at least. Above all, there is the armed forces' desire to have the latest and the best, something that the ever-nascent local defence industry can never hope to match. Hence, even if one discounts the pull of kickbacks for the decision-makers, it will be a long march before "Make in Indi

Letters: A tale of two ministers

The report "How government created yoga day euphoria" (June 23) shows how the Indian government machinery can perform if there is intention. Displaying the same commitment in tackling open defecation, child malnutrition, maternal mortality and illiteracy - to pick up just a few of the chronic problems that India lives with - would cause the world to have much greater respect for India.Udaya Bose  BengaluruLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: Positives from Yoga Day

Apropos the report "CPI-M left with not enough strength to fight TMC: Goutam Deb" (June 20), the prospective plan of an alliance between the Left parties and the Congress - broached publicly by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) central committee member Goutam Deb - indicates a new political equation in West Bengal. There is no doubt that both the Left Front and the Congress are going through a hard time in state and national politics. The Left Front has suffered several electoral setbacks, starting with the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. Its vote share went down from 39.5 per cent in the last Assembly elections (2011) to 29.61 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress has also been cornered in Murshidabad and two other north Bengal districts. On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party's rise in the last Lok Sabha elections has become a matter of concern for both the Left Front and the Congress. The bulk of the minority voters have shifted to the Trinamool C

Letters: Tricky test for the TMC

Reasons for recurring rain-related problems are many apart from the apathy and inefficiency of the civic bodies

Monsoon woes: Antiquated drainage can't handle new pressures

It is far more efficient to give more capital to each of a few relatively healthy banks than to spread it thin over all of them

Recapitalisation of PSU banks must be based on performance

The latest edition of Panchjanya, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-inspired Hindi weekly, has a write-up on how the original inhabitants of the Australian continent were from Bharat. To buttress the claim, the article pointed to recent studies on the subject in Germany. The studies, the article stated, had found evidence of "gene flow" from India to Australasia and similarities in Indian languages with those of the original inhabitants of Australia. "They are our own people," the writer, Moreshwar Joshi, exulted before concluding, rather predictably, how it was so unfortunate that none of the governments in India in the last 68 years decided to conduct research on the subject. Joshi bemoaned the fact that India should have played the part of an elder brother for the people of the region but was only an inferior younger brother because of "1,000 years of thraldom".

Our own people, down under

Sangh Parivar affiliates seem to have effectively replicated a strategy honed by the Left parties and the ruling Congress during the early years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-I regime at the Centre. The Left parties, who were then supporting the Congress-led UPA from outside, would criticise the government's economic policies vehemently, both inside and outside Parliament, leaving little space for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to get a word in and leaving many wondering whether that party had abdicated its responsibilities as the main Opposition party. Sangh Parivar affiliates - the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and others - have opposed and been openly critical of some of the Narendra Modi government's economic policies such as labour reforms and amendments to the land Bill. This, at times, has helped in drowning out voices from the Opposition while also keeping their support base happy. On Monday, these affiliates opposed

Methods of old

Cattle thieves are rampant across the Hindi heartland but the ones that had the audacity to steal Uttar Pradesh (UP) minister and Samajwadi Party senior leader Azam Khan's seven buffaloes in January last year, have run out of luck. While five of the gang members were nabbed some time back and the buffaloes were traced in an overnight raid involving dog squads, crime branch sleuths and UP police personnel, the main accused managed to flee. But the buffalo thief was finally nabbed on Tuesday when the Moradabad police were cracking a case of dacoity and the accused confessed to stealing the bovines from the minister's barn.

Cattle call

This refers to the report "Army's new battle tank proposal sets stage for MoD tussle" (June 22). The Indian Army's inability to define its requirements of the Future Main Battle Tank (FMBT) and Future Infantry Combat Vehicle stems from the fact that unlike the Indian Navy, it has ignored formulating a doctrine of its design and operational needs. The Indian Army is not able to decide whether its needs are for 60- or 50-tonne class battle tanks. It must not abdicate its responsibility of formulating the qualitative requirements for its needs based on its threat perception and terrain requirements. The army's opposition to the MBT Arjun, too, is based upon its inability to work its needs. Notwithstanding this, the Arjun has clearly demonstrated its superiority over the T-90 Russian Tanks.In view of the size of what it requires and the financial outlays involved, the Indian Army should call for a brain-storming session in consultation with all the people concerned and make up its mind soo

Letters: Making up their mind

This refers to the report "More public sector bank reforms soon" (June 23). Out of the seven areas that banks' boards have to deliberate, three (business strategy, financial reports and their integrity and human resources) of them are quite interesting.So far, all public sector banks (PSBs), irrespective of their strength, have adopted the same business strategy. They shifted their focus from corporate banking to retail banking and vice versa, depending on the business growth and the pitfalls they experienced. They did not have any unique business strategy, which would enable them to compete with their peers.How come "financial reports and their integrity" finds a place among important areas to be deliberated by boards? The Reserve Bank of India would have proposed the verification of integrity, following the practice of almost all PSBs to window-dress their financial statements. The top managements resort to massive window-dressing to please their CEOs either by making huge provisions

Letters: Reforms in public banks

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) imbroglio is going from bad to worse and the one per cent additional cascading tax is like a kiss of death. Once it is accepted, knowing our politicians, it will never be repealed, messing up the system forever. One pragmatic solution could be to increase the GST Council approved GST rate by 0.5 per cent and let the central government agree to compensate all states 100 per cent for any loss of revenue for five years. But there should be no one per cent additional tax.At one stage, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had stated that "the ideal is often the enemy of the good". That is true. But it is equally true that "bad is always the enemy of the good." The one per cent additional tax has no redeeming features. It has to go.Dorab R Sopariwala  MumbaiLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address a

Letters: The GST imbroglio

Insurers had a tough business period in the 2014-15 financial year owing to macroeconomic conditions and slowdown in automobile sales. Overall, both the life and general insurance sectors have seen a slower rate of growth in premiums

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