Work in progress

• Mani Shankar Aiyar is right to some extent (‘Growth, but it’s jobless’, IE,...

• Mani Shankar Aiyar is right to some extent (‘Growth, but it’s jobless’, IE, December 23). The new jobs coming into India certainly bring the promise of development and advancement of technology. Consequentially there will be development in allied fields and creation of more jobs.

However, we have to keep in mind the impact on the common man. We cannot let go of our other talents. We don’t want all Indians to be IT specialists or management gurus. We are known to be proficient in many other fields. We need to keep in mind the bigger picture and think globally.

We need to consider the concerns of the common man and provide him with the basic amenities. Otherwise, there could be major social problems. We have had enough of these in the past.

—Lakshmi On e-mail

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• The writer has taken great pains to pick holes in statements made by the prime minister and the finance minister to substantiate his frivolous accusations. One can understand his frustration at having to watch from the sidelines the economic transformation of the country.

The moral high ground that Mani Shankar Aiyar and his Congress party are preparing to claim from a resurgent BJP might be a slippery one.

—V.P. Damodar Pune

• Mani Shankar Aiyar should suggest some practical ways to deal with this problem of jobless growth. Can he write another article giving ten ideas for increasing employment opportunities in villages so that the people do not feel compelled to move to urban clusters?

— I.R. Sharma On e-mail

John’s right

• It has been a commendable and tough effort on the part of coach John Wright to turn around the fortunes of our national cricket team. He has inculcated in this team a new self-belief and pride.

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Although it is the players who usually walk away with all the laurels, it is high time that our cricket board and this country accorded him due recognition for his perseverance.

— C. Devulapalli On e-mail

Slippery slope

• The ink is barely dry and Pakistan is already backtracking on President Pervez Musharraf’s promise to forget about United Nations resolutions on Kashmir (‘Jamali differs with Gen on UN resolutions’, IE, December 22). This makes one wonder, how durable can a peace process be if it is based on such temporary promises?

Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it and India will be no exception. The cycle of negotiations, declarations, treaties and renewed terrorism down the road will continue unless India demands as part of any peace treaty that Pakistan introduce a new resolution in the UN declaring Kashmir to be an integral part of India.

—Suresh Sheth On e-mail

Barbed wires

• Thomas Friedman has hit a home run here after a few strikes in his earlier columns (‘Where birds don’t fly’, IE, December 22). Heavy-handed security measures and a constant fear of the unknown, fed by both the news media and government, will destroy the social fabric of multicultural American society and create a paranoid state.

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We need a united world, not a unipolar one!

—Kirit Desai On e-mail

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‘I don’t know what awaits me in the US’: The lives upended by Trump’s H-1B proclamation

India10 hr ago

The recent imposition of a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas by Trump has caused chaos and uncertainty for Indian families in Dubai, leading many to rush back to the US. This has particularly affected Telugu-speaking Indians, with the Telangana IT Minister seeking intervention from the Centre.

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