Truce needed
The Israel-Hamas war will impact the global economy.
Fifty years after the last Arab Israel war (1973), Hamas has struck, resulting in a widening trail of disruption and destruction. This latest Arab-Israeli conflict poses a significant threat to regional stability and global peace, which is bound to impact the global economy (Page 1, “U.S. Navy sinks three Houthi vessels”, January 2). There is a bigger threat to the global economy now as a result of the attacks by Iranian-backed Yemen’s Houthi militants on the Red Sea route. The Israel-Hamas conflict desperately calls for world powers to work out a truce at the earliest. An oil shock is the last thing the world needs.
Ramesh G. Jethwani,
Bengaluru
Aadhaar and NREGA
Although the integration of Aadhaar with many schemes has filled the gaps in various welfare programmes, it is important to exercise caution when making Aadhaar seeding mandatory for schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which has been instrumental in preventing poverty for many. The potential for errors and the lack of reliability of Aadhaar-enabled payment systems as a result of issues such as biometric mismatch, bank system failures, unstable Internet, and the threat of cyber attacks necessitate the exercise of due diligence. While aiming to eliminate fraudulent beneficiaries, genuine workers must not be made to suffer.
Michael Jom,
Thiruvananthapuram
Everyone is aware that the NDA government has been dismissive, right from the outset, about MGNREGA, which has proved its utility and, in fact, saved people in the rural areas from abject poverty and deprivation. Instead of plugging the loopholes, the government is appearing to be deftly eliminating crores of beneficiaries by making compulsory a system whose success rate has been patchy to say the least. With most of the beneficiaries hailing from rural areas, it is all the more difficult for them to comply with the rigorous requirements. One is at a loss to understand the government’s real motives. If exclusion is the agenda, rural distress will only rise.
J. Anantha Padmanabhan,
Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu
