MyVoice: Views of our readers 20th November 2020

Welcome Bizz Buzz!

Compliments to The Hyderabad Media House (HMHL) group for launching first evening financial e-paper and that too in tabloid form which is something unique. After having established yourself in mainstream print media and boldly entering even India's capital, as a regional entity from south India your group has made a mark in the highly competitive media world. I wish Bizz Buzz all the best.

N Nagarajan, Hyderabad

Neutrality of SEC under cloud

It appears, in the background of circumstances, which dramatically led to unilateral but unwise step to stop abruptly the local body election process in midway in AP ,on the pretext of wild allegations of rigging and Covid 19, there is deep mistrust and doubt in the minds of people, contesting candidates including the successful candidates, who won unanimously -on the splendid neutrality of the SEC, which is the highest election management body in the state. This is precisely the elephant in the room , and a perniciously dangerous and undesirable development that is deeply disturbing the six crore Telugu people in the state today. The honourable commission therefore may have to burn the midnight oil and do its homework first, in consultation with the Government of the day and all electoral stake holders and create confidence in the voters , before proceeding further ,in these perilous pandemic time.

P H Hema Sagar, Secunderabad

Declare Covid emergency

Increasing beds including in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), ventilators and all other medical facilities now planned by central and Delhi governments are simply eye-wash curative steps for treating corona-affected people of Delhi which will remain grossly insufficient till real preventive steps are taken to prevent corona-spread in Delhi. Even daily statistical data given by government-agencies regarding new corona cases and corona-related deaths may be far below than actual figures because these do not include those going under self-isolation in homes without informing concerned agencies.

Real cause is uncontrollable crowd all over the city in markets, roads and footpaths for which only and only cause is all-over encroachments in the city which make markets, roads, footpaths congested. Otherwise city has very wide roads with footpaths, but these encroachments make all these over-crowded. But political rulers avoid touching law-breaking encroachers because these are real vote-banks with law-abiding citizens being in minority. A 1975-emergency is urgently required to remove all types of encroachments all over Delhi. But unfortunate situation is that politicians even opposed Supreme Court order to remove encroachments on sides of rail-track.

Apart from strictly removing all encroachments, two-day complete weekend lockdown from 8 pm on Fridays till 8 am on Mondays may be implemented by making Sunday as uniform weekly off-day for all markets in Delhi and New Delhi like is system in Mumbai. System will neither affect business nor tax-collection because traders and people will have complete five days for trade and shopping.

Subhash Chandra Agrawal, Delhi

UK PM, a he-man

The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has just got the ball rolling to establish a fierce fight with the climate change crisis. Johnson has announced a string of action plans just well ahead of the upcoming 2021 UN Climate Change Conference to be held under the supervision of the UK government.

Strict plans to ban petrol vehicles, serious measures to cut the greenhouse gas emissions, innovative ideas to make homes greener and energy-efficient and bold steps to switch to traditional yet beautiful ways of travelling like walking, cycling have all been on the list prepared to fight the climate crisis.

Johnson has been the real he-man out there as many British English newspapers have been showing him as planting trees across the country - he was even captured posing in front of a tree he had planted during his London Mayor tenure.

P Senthil Saravana Durai, Mumbai

Wanted, strategic partnership with US

Apropos, news item, "Modi, Biden discuss Covid, climate change", (The Hans India, November 19). It's reassuring that prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi tweet about his phone conversation with US president-elect Mr Joe Biden immediately layout three areas with greatest potential for bilateral cooperation. The first is the Covid-19 pandemic. Much of this already exists at the commercial and scientific level but can be infused with governmental support. The second, and one with considerable long-term potential is climate. PM Modi is committed to move India to a green energy trajectory but needs International support in terms of finance and technology.

Mr Biden has to not only reverse Mr Trump's damage to the climate efforts but also move the US to the vanguard of the battle against carbon. On the multilateral track, there is a smorgasbord of climate policies that the two can work on, including looking beyond the Paris Accord and strengthening Indian intitiatives such as the international Solar Alliance.

Finally, India and the US need to share the notes on their versions of the Indo-pacific - shorthand for how to handle an openly aggressive China. It's in this policy area where Mr Biden's views are haziest. He and his advisers accept China is a strategic competetor. The devil, however, is in the tactical details and Mr Biden's seeming preference for non-military responses to China is questionable.

The flip side is that the areas of differences are almost certain to arise. Mr Biden's trade policy differs from Mr Trump's only in terms of tone rather than substance. Delhi is braced for lecturers on inclusivity and Kashmir from the other side. The best way to keep these problem areas on the margins of the relationship is for both governments to work hard to ensure the areas of cooperation generate tangible results. Strategic partnerships work best if they generate a return on investment in the policy space.

N Sadhasiva Reddy, Bengaluru