With reference to ‘For a better harvest’ by S Chandramohan (July 25), mechanisation, though welcome, adds a burden to the income generation capacity of farmers. Given their fragmented land holdings, Indian farmers cannot afford to own or maintain farm machinery. The interest on the mechanisation loans will be far higher than the gross income from agriculture. As a first step, government agencies and corporates should encourage farmers to pool their land holding and consolidate for viable farm activities.

In many of the agri expos, there are a myriad inputs and machines for farm activities but not a single window to buy what is produced at a pre-determined price. When the manufacturer of even a safety pin is able to decide the selling price, a farmer is unable to fix prices for his safety. In a country where car loans running to crores are granted without security and interest at marginal cost of fund rates, farmers have to offer their entire land holding as security and pay interest at least 3 per cent higher than car loans, let us not talk about farm mechanisation.

S Veeraraghavan

Coimbatore

Removing the road blocks

With reference to the editorial, ‘Hand in hand’ (July 25), archaic and inadequate laws for the recovery of bad debts constitute the major reasons for the present stalemate on NPAs. Corporates have taken advantage. Besides, the deep-rooted corruption in existing recovery mechanisms is a bane for lenders. It is in this context that the joint parliamentary committee must be lauded for making sensible suggestions for the amendment of recovery laws. Rahul J Gautam

Bengaluru

Basically, inefficient

The recent move by SBI to sell NPAs to Reliance ARC an instance of operational inefficiency, given that the bank has branches across the country. A slight change in the roles of individuals would have resulted in putting in a good recovery mechanism as opposed to selling the loans at half the cost. Banks should consider expanding their operations electronically; this will cut down infrastructure costs. 

Vikram Sundaramurthy 

Chennai

Where’s the balance?

The writer has brought sanity into the abject Rajni-mania fuelled by the media over the release of Kabali (‘So, a film’s been released’ by Sandhya Rao, July 23). It is one thing to wait with anticipation for the movie of an idol and another to get obsessed with it to the exclusion of all pressing issues. One wonders whether the fate of the superstar’s earlier two movies has taught any lessons? A film should be celebrated based on performance and not pre-release razzmatazz. The unseemly haste with which even MLAs and IT companies vied with each other to book tickets is absurd.

CV Krishna Manoj

Hyderabad

No substitute

Aarati Krishnan has underlined many reasons for the lacklustre performance of the gold bond scheme (‘The name’s Bond. Gold Bond’ July 23), and is right in her analysis that marketing efforts need to be stepped up. Physical gold is sought after as investment for many reasons: future investment to meet big expenses and to raise loans when needed, for example. Gold bonds cannot substitute physical gold.

K George Varghese

Kochi

Good moos

With reference to ‘Moo’s the word. IVF for desi cows’ (July 21), JK Trust’s decision to breed desi cows is good because their Category 2 milk has health benefits. Research indicates that Beta Casein A1 found in the milk of foreign cows causes illnesses and there is demand for Category A2 milk.

Aravinda Prasad B

Mysuru

Plain illegal

Is Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana compulsory? If no, than how come some ationalised banks are debiting ₹12 every year from their accounts without written consent from the account holders? This is illegal and not only must they get back the money debited last year (2015) and this year (2016)  by reversing both entries, they must also get back the interest. Mahesh Kumar

New Delhi

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