Letters to the editor of March 9, 2023

Faculty under stress

The article “The Real Crisis in Private Colleges” (9 March) eloquently portrayed the travails of faculty in private colleges. The faculties of these colleges are overworked, underpaid and under tremendous pressure from both management and students. Impossible goals in terms of results and research results are set. While privatization has increased access to education and job opportunities, it has also fostered the vile “control and command” system.

The true values ​​of education must be restored, and the system of institutions competing for rank to improve their “educational business” must be reformed and changed. The workload of the faculty needs to be reduced to a manageable level so that their research interests can be pursued with greater vigour, contributing to the advancement of knowledge. Intellectual capital must be respected and nurtured by edu-entrepreneurs. Students should not be pressured but taught with care, compassion and understanding.

Kosaraju Chandramouli

Hyderabad

agricultural machines

This relates to “Farmers Deserve Better Tools” (9 March). Although agriculture accounts for only 16 percent of GDP, the sector is the largest employer. The uptake of technologies for sustainable agriculture is facilitated by a broader participatory approach involving a range of stakeholders.

These stakeholders should include farmers, the food industry, consumer groups and non-governmental organizations with an interest in sustainable agriculture. Upstream and downstream sectors also influence technology adoption by farmers. Public support for agriculture should be initiated.

P Sundara Pandan

Virudhunagar, TN

smallholders excluded

Increasing mechanization on farms has made farm machinery a critical part of the ecosystem without which optimal productivity cannot be achieved.

Unfortunately, it is the small and marginalized farmers who are at the end. The fact that only 4.4 percent of farming households own a tractor reflects the sad situation. The government would do well to make funds available to small farmers. They also need to be educated on the benefits of using agricultural machinery.

Bal Govind

Noida

AT1 Bonds

It is worrying that the Supreme Court has extended the stay of a lower court order overturning the write-down of YES Bank’s 8,400 crore AT1 bonds, of which almost 60 per cent were retail customers and 55 per cent of which were seniors.

The irony is that SBI, which took over the administration of YES Bank and was involved in this write-down decision, has now raised another 3,700 crore through AT1 bonds. Aren’t they fooling the public by aggressively marketing a risky portfolio to raise capital to meet their Basel standards? Although the RBI does point out the caveat “let the buyer beware” as this is a high risk investment why do they even give a schemed/nationalised bank permission to set up such high risk schemes where the customer has to do the whole thing Take the risk?

Even now there are a few nationalized banks that encourage this system. Will the RBI make a similar decision and write off bank deposits over 5 lakh if ​​a bank goes into liquidation?

Roy Markose

Thiruvananthapuram