Safety alone saves

This refers to ‘IMA advises citizens to avoid public gatherings, international travel amid fresh Covid scare’ (December 23). It was highly disturbing to gather that nearly 5.37 lakh new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours from countries such as the US, Japan, South Korea, France and Brazil. Little wonder the Indian Medical Association, soon after realising the gravity of the situation, has advised the citizens to meticulously follow Covid-appropriate behaviour so as to “overcome the impending Covid outbreak”.

Creditably, the IMA has also appealed to the government to upscale preparedness for any such situation as seen in 2021, by issuing necessary instructions to the ministries and departments concerned to make available emergency medicines, oxygen supply and ambulance services.

Kumar Gupt

Panchkula, Haryana

Sugar exports

Recent reports suggest that India has put in a robust performance with respect to sugar exports. While some are celebrating, it also needs some rethink. Sugarcane is a water-guzzling crop and is, therefore, leading to rapid fall in groundwater levels in regions where it is cultivated. Sugarcane, along with paddy and wheat, is among the most water intensive of crops. And we produce all three in great measure; more than what we need. Export of water-intensive crops has made our country a net exporter of virtual water while China is a net water importer by exporting low water intensive produce such as fruits and vegetables.

There is need to turn towards sustainable agriculture in a big way. Cultivation of pulses, millets, and oilseeds needs to be encouraged considering greater nutrition value, reduced import dependence, and preserving scarce water resources.

V Vijaykumar

Pune

Focus on public transport

Apropos the edit ‘Off course’ (December 23), while Maruti Chairman Bhargava’s appeal to the government to introduce measures which would further increase the sale of cars is understandable, as a nation we need less cars not more. Owning a car has been a dream of the Indian middle class.

Thanks to the easily available loans there has been a proliferation of cars on the roads, which have not kept pace with the increase in roads, resulting in bumper to bumper traffic in urban areas.

More attention must be paid to public transport instead of private cars. Many of those using cars would readily switch to using public transport if it were better organised and more comfortable.

Anthony Henriques

Mumbai

Up-skilling the workforce

This is with reference to ‘New tech can create more jobs’ (December 23). New technologies will lead to tens of millions of job vacancies by 2030. But that does little to erase the threat of unemployment spiking due to the automation of labour. Australia and the US found that job losses in the next 10 years will effectively be matched by even greater job creation.

Eliminating 10 million jobs and creating the same number of new jobs might appear to have a negligible impact.

There’s a need to aggressively up-skill and re-train the workforce to ensure that demand for talent is met in time.

Managing the workforce transition will require equipping those most at risk of job loss with the required skills to fill roles that are set to boom.

P Sundara Pandian

Virudhunagar, TN