WeLL artIcULateD

Sir, Pankaj Vohra’s Smog is not Delhi’s problem alone (12 November) is a very well articulated article. It touched several aspects, especially about the perception people have of Delhi, which, for most, is not their home. Society Tax (12 November), one can hope that social and political pressure will push the government to keep rationalising GST. However, its fundamental flaw beyond irrational rates on segments is that it assumes that we are a developed economy that already has enough businesses and they now all need to be rationalised. The economic future of India is dependent on the ability to employ not merely the literate, but more importantly those who the organised sector refers to as unemployable. Skill development will make a small impact in terms of improving employability. The future is to exploit the entrepreneurial gene in Indians. We need annually a million small businesses to start so as to accommodate the very high rate of attrition, with more than 60% failing. These startups must not be confused with the generic assumption that a startup means a computer-related IT project. Trading is the core of every economy and it is trading that establishes the economics for manufacturing and its expansion. Manufacturing does not come first. GST by design assumes that every business knows exactly what products it will sell and the geography of those sales. The average time taken for the successful trading startup to reach Rs 100 lakh is three years. Their main contribution is not taxes, but the employment generated. responsibility of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat elections outcomes to be pinned on him. If the party loses in the states after he being appointed as the Congress president, all hope will be lost for him with regard to his political career.