Nehruvian economics

This refers to ‘Nehru’s tryst with economics’ (January 20). The newer generation may not be expected to know our first Prime Minister other than through trolls bred in consumerism. Through the decades of the 1940s and 1950s, India, given the global politics of the Nehruvian era, chose a path of a nuanced neutrality. For two decades plus, we pursued a doctrine of welfare and the primacy of a public sector-led economy.

We ought to have then tapered it down to move over to the private sector-led economy. We might well have done so but for the 1962 war with China that put us on the defensive, politically and economically. We picked up the strands of growth in the 1990s through a liberalised economy to tame an unwieldy public sector and an unimaginative bureaucracy.

R Narayanan

Navi Mumbai

Farmers’ protest

Apropos ‘Centre agrees for talks with protesting farmers, next round likely on February 14’ (January 21). There is no point in dragging the issue, especially when the government is continuing negotiations and discussions with all those involved. Assuring a legally supported MSP permanently is crucial. But the debt waiver that the agitating farmers are demanding runs into several lakh crore rupees, which the country cannot afford in the current circumstances.

Katuru Durga Prasad Rao

Hyderabad

90-hour work-week

Apropos ‘Corporate leaders, and their ‘hard work’ spiel’ (January 20), L&T Chairman SN Subrahmanyan would not have anticipated this much of flak from various quarters for his prescription of a 90-hour work-week. Any work demands concentration of human mind, which tends to relax every now and then. A 90-hour work-week is humanly impossible. Besides monetary compensation, every worker needs rest or relaxation for reasonable time, which is incalculable in money terms. Corporate leaders should not miss the wood for the trees.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Chennai

Rethink farm credit

Apropos ‘Taking banking to farm gate’ (January 20), although the proposal deserves to be studied from the angle of fiscal benefits to farmers, another auxiliary issue that needs attention is agricultural credit to ensure that farmers do not live in an atmosphere of eternal fear of default in view of uncertainties they face both during pre- and post-harvest time.

NITI Aayog must devise a lending pattern (term farm-loan may not suit the community) to farmers that makes them comfortable and with a focus on repayment — not waiver.

Rajiv Magal

Halekere Village, Karnataka