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Art of leadership

This refers to “Leadership today: The art that surpasses the science” (December 3). The article provides various behavioural attributes to aver that leadership is an art rather than science.

It is not possible for an individual to imbibe all attributes as they are not necessary in every leadership situation according to contingency theory. The type of industry, life stage of the organisation, external and internal business environment, decide the choice in applying the skill set.

The emphasis on the art promotes people-oriented leaders often at the cost of goal attainment.

Today we need dynamic leaders who use scientific methods along with the art of appropriate behaviour to achieve goals.

YG Chouksey

Pune

GST rate tweak

This refers to the news report ‘GoM may revise GST rate on 150 items, slabs for textiles’ (December 3). It is good to note that GoM is likely to revise the existing GST rate on 150 items and the tobacco and tobacco related products would face a high GST rate.

The GoM is also likely to cut GST on 20-litre water bottles. The GoM failed to consider the water bottles as an essential item for living. The GST rate needs to be removed instead of facing a cut on water bottles. Likewise, instead of lowering the rate on exercise books, the Panel has to eliminate the GST completely.

The argument that the average GST rate works out to 11.64 per cent only as claimed by the Finance Minister is fallacious.

The much debated item of bringing petrol and diesel under GST bracket still remains as a taboo. Neither State nor Centre is willing to take it forward. Perhaps, the Centre does not want to axe the hen laying golden eggs.

RV Baskaran

Chennai

Proactive CCI

With reference to the article “CCI ushers in new era of market vigilance” (December 3), after protracted delay in appointment of the head and endless delay in approving the amendments & digital competition policy guidelines, finally the institution brought out reforms in the form of ex-ante norms in determining the abuse of the domination by the entities in the market and the changes in respect of fair value based cap on threshold limits in M&A transactions, though on the flip side it may increase the compliance costs for small entities.

The commission’s bold initiatives in sternly addressing the dominance challenges posed by global giants Meta & Google and its pro-active approach in AI related issues on market competition are laudable.

Sitaram Popuri

Bengaluru

Leveraging prices

Apropos ‘Arabica breaches 20,000/50 kg bag’ (December 3). No doubt this is a boon for growers, albeit its ramifications cannot be overlooked.

Wages and input costs have escalated steeply owing to higher coffee prices and are unlikely to come down even if prices drop.

Therefore it is time growers make prudent use of this price advantage and clear their debts since the prices cannot remain high and Indian coffee trade is impacted by global factors, including weather, which is unpredictable.

Rajiv Magal

Halekere Village, (Karnataka)

Published on December 3, 2024