Hopes and reality

It is an excellent message from the Economic Survey, that reforms to be pro-poor, must be pro-growth 8216;Survey of India1...

It is an excellent message from the Economic Survey, that reforms to be pro-poor, must be pro-growth 8216;Survey of India8217;, July 7. It also recommends a growth rate of 8 per cent. This will transform India into a developed economy within two decades.
There is only one factor that comes in the way of this dream to make India a developed economy. The Survey does not have any plan to remove the biggest obstacle that is in the way of every Indian 8212; the political mafia. During the last few days, two very sad developments were reported. One was the death of 9,000 children in Maharastra six years of age due to malnutrition. The other, the deaths of 34 infants in a week 8212; twelve on one day 8212; in a Delhi hospital. Both these cases show the government is not doing its job.

8212; Arvind Amin On e-mail

Let8217;s make them

8226; Isn8217;t it time that we inquired why we have to import medium guns or for that matter any type of guns? Should we not talk of a massive number of locally produced guns 8212; which could then be provided to the army? The shortfall in capability of an individual gun8217;s performance, being more than made up by the numbers of Indian guns delivering a greater amount of metal.
Why is this not happening? There are two major reasons for snatching away bread from our workers. One, these are technical decisions that are outside the ken of normal civil or military officers. Two, the costing system of the ordnance factories 8212; cost plus 10 per cent profit 8212; has turned these behemoths into money guzzlers. They help to support the theory that 8220;it8217;s cheaper to import than manufacture8221;. A factory has over ten additional general managers. A binocular from Bharat Electronics used to cost Rs 3,400 compared to Rs 7,400 from the ordnance factories. The cost of ammunition from the factories is, in fact, four times that of those imported. This is a self defeating system which our economist PM can no doubt unravel. Our slogan should be: 8220;Strategic strength: don8217;t buy it, make it8221;. This is in consonance with the new government8217;s policy of creating jobs.

8212; Pratap Narain New Delhi

Right approach

8226; The article,8216;Tuning in to FM, his Budget8217; IE, July 8 on the basics of the budgetary terms, and the implications of each of those for the population is highly appreciated. Hopefully people will read it carefully and stop opposing things like subsidy cuts and labour reform, which India needs so direly.

8212; Amit Gupta On e-mail

Thinking of you

8226; Apropos the report, 8216;Pritam8217;s award finds way home8217; IE, July 7, the celebrated writer, Amrita Pritam, had written in her autobiography, Rasidi Ticket, as to how her 16th year came and passed. We hope the author will get to write how she survived her 85th year. May God bless her with long life to enable her to send her last messages to the world.

8212; Onkar Singh Riar On e-mail

8226; The news about Amrita receiving the second highest civil award at her home was touching and it moved me deep inside with emotions. Amrita, at 85, is not well and may be even oblivious to many things around her. I wish her speedy recovery and good health.

8212; Aijaz Ahmad Gul Islamabad