This refers to the editorial One small step (IE,June 22). Banks are apprehensive of mobile banking because it will eat into the jobs of bank employees. With m-banking,banking,as a standalone service may cease. Of what use would bank employees be if everything is made possible at the consumers end directly from banks servers? That said,its understandable why banks feel apprehensive about telecom companies venturing beyond a point. Financial inclusion is clearly a benefit of m-banking. Ease of operations is another. Safety is next. Today,we find no bank branches in remote areas. With m-banking,well be able to bring people in these areas too into the banking fold. The infrastructure
already exists. That which is being used for a telecom connection is whats required for a credit or debit card or a smart card,ATMs and shops. Why not add one more service? Environment friendliness of m-banking cannot be overstated because it reduces paper consumption. In the UK,banks are planning to reduce printing chequebooks. But the flip side is also there. Consider,for example,BSNL offering banking solutions,apart from telecom service. Maybe,BSNL Bank Limited would weather the market storm better than BSNL Telecom!
Raghu Seshadri
Precious little
The editorial Not PESA alone (IE,June 23) is a sledgehammer knock right at the heart of the problem. Just having PESA on the statute book wouldnt empower tribals to have control over forest resources. What tribals need is education. They suffer from resource curse,as so many players are involved who want to dispossess them of the forest wealth. Theres only one aster key and thats education which unfetters the whole gamut of disempowered people. All the governments good intentions translated into acts prove in the end to be paper tigers.
John Alexander
Nagpur
Wrong way
I completely agree with D.L. Sheths contention that the brouhaha about the caste-based census is highly political (Caste in the right mould,IE,June 23). The Constitution has used the word caste only twice in Articles 15 and 16 to forbid the state from practising any discrimination on the basis of caste. To eliminate inequality of status and invidious treatment,we need a society that takes minimal account
of ascriptive ties. Changes in caste agglomerations,caste-occupation nexus and the mix of the sacred and the secular dimensions introduce ambiguities in the perception of caste. If population is enumerated with caste data,its sure to be vitiated by votebank politics and may lead to
distortion of vital information on other socio-economic figures. The Centralised census is not the appropriate method to study something
as complex as caste.
Francis Kuriakose
Puducherry
