There were similar feelings on the issue of One Rank One Pension (OROP) and Ex Service chiefs had then written strongly to the government. But on the Agniveer scheme, even as the ministers appear reticent on a cabinet decision, serving defense chiefs are seen explaining the scheme in public fora.
Formulation, espousal and execution of policies is the job of an elected government and thus its senior ministers must spearhead this effort, not some of its juniors with cavalier ideas and dismissive tone that only inflame.
Effective communication rather than rigid fiats, carry weight in moulding public opinion. This scheme does have progressive overtones.
R Narayanan
Navi Mumbai
Cost of revival
With reference to ‘What's in store for the Indian economy’ (June 20), the spillover effects of the war between Ukraine and Russia, the untamed inflationary spiral and the steep hike in policy rates across the globe are creating hurdles to economic revival.
The increasing unemployment rate and low purchasing power are not only hitting consumption, demand and tax revenue but is also leading to growing anxiety, and unrest in the country.
The government's approach to creating jobs through hiking recruitment in the defence forces is resulting in massive losses to the exchequer.
Further policy rate hikes will curb credit availability for start-ups, small and micro-units, and the small vendors and service providers especially in the unorganised sectors.
A further rise in the lending rates for housing, personal and agricultural loans will adversely affect the debt servicing capacity of the borrowers and cause the birth of NPAs in the banking sector.
The government and the banking regulator must execute holistic policy actions in tandem to eliminate the roadblocks in the supply chain of commodities, goods and services, push exports to reduce international trade balances and refrain from hiking the cost of borrowing.
VSK Pillai
Changanacherry
Avoidable unrest
Apropos' No rollback of Agnipath ' all three services unveil recruitment plan (June 20), the concept of building Indianism amongst the youth of India seems to be the main factor in announcing the scheme of Agnipath by the Centre which is certainly right.
But on the other hand crores of unemployed will certainly expect that this scheme to be one of permanent employment with all its benefits.
Irrespective of the terminology such as Agnipath / Agniveers the unemployed youth will only see it as ‘Military employment’ and not ‘temporary employment’.
The Centre’s continuous tweaking of the scheme shows that it had not discussed all the related aspects beforehand.
The government must have given a detailed information in the media before announcing this scheme to the public which would have certainly prevented the protests to a great extent.
After all, serving in military is not a white collared job and the aspirants should be given long term certainty of their future after four years.
Katuru Durga Prasad Rao
Hyderabad
‘Insiders’ for bank CEOs
With reference to the article ‘Insider or outsider: Who should be the CEO of a bank’ (June 20), there can be no model that will suit all banks and much depends on the status of the bank, its strengths and weaknesses and the identified thrust areas.
According to that, a new CEO, who can deliver his best for the growth of the bank, has to be identified. The incumbent may be an insider or outsider but going by the complexities of the banking business only someone who has had experience in the sector or in allied segments in financial services should be made CEOs of banks.
Outsiders to the industry should be avoided and that is the reason behind the success of lateral selection of CEOs from other public sector banks.
When a banker is appointed as CEO of a bank, whether inside or outside the current employment, the success rate is high and such skill sets are very important for banks.
M Raghuraman
Mumbai