Don’t just do it

• With due respect to Nandan Nilekani (‘Retail FDI: Just do it’...

• With due respect to Nandan Nilekani (‘Retail FDI: Just do it’, IE, September 2), he talks more like a business development manager of Wal-Mart than the CEO of Infosys. That’s the reason, perhaps, why he has not commented upon the fate of small shopkeepers in our neighbourhoods once the Wal-Mart superstores open. Maybe he has not visited these neighbourhood shops in the recent past. All the advantages described in his article actually result in the market monopoly of a few giants and will eventually kill individual innovative trading that has been the hallmark of the Indian trading community for the last several centuries.

— Vijay Chauthaiwale Ahmedabad

Where’s truth?

• Saeed Naqvi, senior journalist and columnist with the Express, has
categorically stated in this paper that neither was Imrana raped by her father-in-law, nor any fatwa issued by Deoband. He adds that this has now been confirmed. This is an extremely serious matter. If it is true then certain sections of the media have obviously been playing a very dangerous game. It is incumbent on papers like yours to investigate thoroughly and state categorically the facts of the entire matter.

— Anil Patel Ahmedabad

The Family!

• The 115 or so year-old Congress party is looking at Rahul Gandhi now. It apparently fails to find any other suitable candidate with the character, charisma and credibility to lead the nation. Evidently, it has to be someone from Indira Gandhi’s family alone. Why is it so? If the sacrifice of Jawahar Lal Nehru in the freedom struggle was great, the Family has been adequately rewarded for it. The best job in the country was handed to three generations of the Family on a silver platter, besides naming millions of institutions, roads, clinics and nagars after them.

— Onkar Sharma On e-mail

No ideas, BJP?

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• The hue and cry over the appointment of Nalini Chidambaram as counsel to represent the CBDT is uncalled-for. She has been a leading advocate on tax matters for many years, regardless of whether P. Chidambaram was in government or out of it. The opposition obviously has exhausted the weapons in its arsenal and is bankrupt of new ideas. The demand for the resignation of the finance minister, implying an act of favouritism on his part, is most absurd. It is not something like the allotment of petrol pumps to near and dear ones made by the same opposition party, while in government. Instead of indulging in such frivolous issues, the BJP could utilise the precious time of Parliament in passing pending legislation.

— C.S. Pathak Pune

Leave it alone

• The recent high court verdict clearly shows V. Kurien in poor light. He should gracefully retire and behave like an elder statesman and allow IRMA to grow on its own without his presence and interference. He could take a leaf out of the life of V.K.R.V. Rao, doyen of Indian economists, who founded three big institutes and later quit to allow them to grow on their own without his overbearing presence.

— Harish H.V. Bangalore

‘Double bonanza for poor, middle class’: PM’s swadeshi pitch ahead of new GST roll out

India5 hr ago

PM Modi announced the rollout of new GST rates, calling it a "GST bachat utsav" and promising cheaper prices for medicines, insurance, and daily essentials. He emphasized that these reforms would ease doing business, attract investment, and benefit the poor, middle class, MSMEs, farmers, women, traders, and youth. He urged citizens to promote swadeshi goods.

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