Job creators v/s job seekers Look before you leap
This is with reference to the interview with Pramath Sinha. “Indian industry not sophisticated enough to absorb IITquality engineers” (July 15). Dedicated and great educationalists should head IITs and there should not be any compromise while selecting the directors of such institutes. N R Narayana Murthy made an observation that in 60 years, India had failed to make any earthshaking invention. This is mainly due to our faulty education system, which does not encourage research and invention. When even a small country like Estonia could invent Skype, India despite having so many IITs and IIMs has failed miserably to make an impact on innovative technology and research.
A way to make our IITs research and invention oriented is by making them autonomous with minimal or no government interference. Only people of repute with expertise and knowledge known for their academic flair should head IITs and IIMs. These should be hubs for invention and research and create more entrepreneurs who will create jobs.
India should learn from the Silicon Valley. Risk-taking is encouraged there and entrepreneurs are heroes. It is a pity that many entrepreneurs from there are of Indian origin, who migrated to the USA. We can draw lessons by providing good infrastructure, uninterrupted electricity and expertise to young entrepreneurs. The human resource development ministry should turn our premium institutes into hubs of invention/innovation.
Veena Shenoy Mumbai years when a cow or buffalo stops producing milk, the owner does not have any other option but to sell it to the slaughter house. And if he simply lets them lose, then also there is an issue of them falling into the wrong hands. And if farmers are forced to maintain unproductive cattle at their disposal, then sooner or later they will lose interest in dairy farming and ultimately the sector will face the brunt. So the government should really introspect and think what the apex court has suggested and lift the ban completely. The ruling party may be in a dilemma that if they do it, the Opposition will claim it as victory, but in larger scheme of things, when division is being created between states and beef lynching incidents are giving a bad name to the government, it is too low a price to pay. Bal Govind Noida With reference to “Can WLTF fill the void?” (July 14), the Wholesale and Long-Term Finance bank aims at funding long-term projects, especially in the infrastructure and manufacturing sectors. The authors’ conjecture on the success of WLTF bank mainly draws upon the issues of fund raising or capital acquisition and the nature and profile of promoter groups.
Two major issues can arise that could challenge WLTF banks’ existence. First, resource acquisition or fund-raising and nuances of credit rating for the debt instrument receive attention. Eligible promoters of WLTF banks should have a required net worth and maintain a minimum capital of ~1,000 crore and attract a deposit of ~10 crore in the current account. They can raise capital either through issuance of AA rated or an investment grade bond. As issued bonds have longer maturity compared to treasury or short-term bonds, banks need to pay higher risk premium on maturity. In other words, the WLTF bank should estimate risk-adjusted returns apriori on issued capital when lending to long-term projects.
Second, the lending protocol to eligible borrowers is important. With an entrybarrier, an “on-tap licencing” mechanism can be followed. Now the terms of lending including loan period, interest rates, loanto-value margin, and recovery mechanism determine WLTF banks’ competitive edge over universal banks.
Kushankur Dey Bhubaneswar