Private sector bank milk customers through various unethical service charges without informing them. The amounts are quietly debited without intimation (not even an SMS) and the customer detects this only if he or she keeps track of the transactions in the account. Many banks levy service charges in the name of third party transactions. The accounts are opened only to facilitate financial transactions and restricting third party transaction itself is against the spirit of banking.

If someone pays cash into a customer’s account, immediately the bank deducts ₹112.36 from the account. Even if only ₹5 is paid in cash, the bank will immediately deduct ₹112.36. If someone wants to take revenge, they can pay ₹5 several times and the account holder will lose ₹112.36 each time!

I wonder if the so-called regulators are aware of this trick played especially by private sector banks. Customers are not allowed to contact the branches directly by phone or email. The only option is to go through the call centre which always tests one’s patience and is time-consuming. It is high time the RBI took a look at the way private sector banks loot customers.

M Sadashiva Rao

Mangaluru

Quid pro quo

Rasheeda Bhagat’s ‘A more mature response please’ (November 25) brought to mind the phrase ‘Speech is silver but silence is golden’. As rightly observed, India is undoubtedly a notch above Pakistan in many respects. Blowing our own trumpet is unwarranted when others are ready and willing to do it for us.

Admittedly, President Barack Obama coming as chief guest on Republic Day is a diplomatic success. Whether he visits Pakistan or any other country prior to or after his visit to India is immaterial. If the US is the most powerful democracy in the world, let it not be forgotten that India is the largest. The US needs India as much as we need them. In today’s materialistic world, there is a price for every deal or gesture.

CG Kuriakose

Kothamangalam, Kerala

The idea of India as a communion of individuals is still a work in progress. We have to evolve some more, that evolution will transform the way India behaves and the way individual Indians behave. We must allow greater interaction between Indians and Pakistanis, both commercially and socially, albeit taking care to ensure that we do not get infected by the maladies of Pakistan.

Jacob J Mappilacherry

Kochi

The Bhopal tragedy

This is with reference to ‘Bhopal: 30 years later’ by Prince Mathews Thomas (November 25). The effects of the tragedy have left a scar on our hearts. Would corporates henceforth try to glorify themselves by preserving the environment rather than taking care of their balance sheets?

M Vignesh

Madurai

Investors are happy

With the indices on a roll, investors in the stock market are laughing all the way to the bank. Buoyed by positive sentiments both the Sensex and the Nifty have managed to scale new highs. Small cap stocks have been the stars of the show in this bull rally outperforming the mid and large cap stocks by miles and those who gambled on them have managed to reap windfall gains. Market sentiments are showing no signs of easing in the near term and with steady foreign flows and domestic players too entering in droves, the signs are promising. Though the markets have headed north, new investors with a long-term perspective can look at investing in equities if they are to get more bang for their buck.

NJ Ravi Chander

Bengaluru

Rising to the occasion

Kudos to Keralites around for mobilising funds to the tune of ₹75 lakh in record time for baby Sneha Paul through innovative crowd-funding. It shows their concern for fellow beings in times of difficulties and the power of the human spirit to unite for a common cause. Crowdfunding which is going viral around the globe will definitely make a difference to the lives of people.

TS Karthik

Chennai

Looking for an omen

This is with reference to the editorial, ‘Losing fizz’ (November 25).The state of the economy is best summed up by the huge discounts on cars, offered month after month. Fuel is cheaper and winter keeps vegetables both green and affordable. And yet consumerism remains dormant. The common man is perhaps looking for some vague omen to animate him. This seems to be eluding both brave and timid economists.

The government is perennially in election mode and its single spokesman, the Prime Minister,is engaged in making external friends. As the Budget manages to keep the Finance Minister fully tied up, there is none to inject fresh energy into the domestic economy. The insipid global economic scenario keeps our exports down. The US economy re-railing itself after six years of struggle is forecast to grow 3 per cent in 2014, and Japan, after two full decades, 1.8 per cent. China will touch around 7 per cent in 2014-15, Italy, France and Spain will remain very weak at around 0.5 per cent.

Exports may well remain stagnant for a while. Any financial effervescence that we see remains endemic to stock markets, but in no way ceding capacity addition. If the battery of the economy went into gradual discharge under UPA-II, there is not much evidence of it being put on charge six months down the line. Even a token attempt at reducing key rates as a modest sparkler is being lost to excessive musing.

R Narayanan

Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

Laudable verdict

The Supreme Court, in the IPL scam case, has echoed the feelings of the people in general and the cricket-loving public in particular: the game is more important than an individual. It must be remembered that power or position is given to individuals, be it monitoring a game or managing an organisation, in the expectation that they will be responsible and accountable and not plead ignorance of things happening around them.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Ranipet, Tamil Nadu

Uphill task

The Saarc summit in Kathmandu faces some daunting tasks. The nations must come forward to chart out strong strategies to tackle terror threats. These countries should strengthen their economic agendas and look into cooperative ways of creating more jobs. Besides this, the Saarc countries must pledge to help out one another during times of crisis.

P Senthil Saravana Durai

Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu

Railways must smarten up

This is with reference to your well-written editorial, ‘Rebooting Indian Railways’ (November 24). Senior Railway officials need to be deputed to other departments to gain more experience. Presently, officials remain in the Railways till superannuation and fail to gain expertise. Similarly, the Centremay think about sending senior experienced bureaucrats to key posts in the Railways to assist with chalking out a strong strategy regarding day to day operations.

Strict rules in the matter of postings and promotion of officers must be followed, and they should be based on merit and exposure and not recommendation. Unnecessary paper work needs to be abolished; total computerisation will be a great advantage.

While travelling by Poorva Express from Patna to Howrah in a sleeper coach last month, I and other passengers were greatly inconvenienced as there was no water in the taps and the bathroom was too dirty to enter. The train also ran late. We look for massive changes from the Railway Minister. The Centre has set up a committee under Bibek Debroy to explore avenues for making the Railways more growth oriented. The move is definitely good but what about the Rakesh Mohan and Kakodkar committees’ suggestions for track renewal and other safety measures? The recommendations have not yet been implemented in totality The signalling system also needs to be strengthened.

Again, the government plans to run bullet trains but will the tracks bear the additional load ? Resources can be augmented with the introduction of FDI and the PPP model. Efforts must be made to end corruption. Old coaches need to be replaced by new coaches. E-ticketing needs to be given top priority and the reservation system must be wound up in a phased manner. However, it is observed that if an e-ticket is not confirmed the passenger is not allwed to undertake the journey. That is wrong because the ticket has been paid for. Jayant Mukherjee

Kolkata

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