Our Nano-meter

•Nano has made every Indian a bit taller. ‘Small is beautiful’ is no more a ‘Made in Japan’ slogan. India can do it even smaller and cheaper.

Nano’s successful launch is, therefore, much more than an engineering marvel. It is a huge psychological victory for Indian technology and expertise. Our country is rife with ironies, where we claim to be an emerging economic force, try to rival Shanghai, but still live with appalling infrastructure. Cities need wider roads, flyovers and underpasses, elevated highways, bypasses, metros, battery buses and cleaner fuels.

— Md Ziyaullah Khan Pune

Flaming outrage

•Even after four days, the Kolkata fire still raged on, which suggests that the lack of enough water cannot reasonably explain the failure of the firefighters. As many as 2500 shopkeepers were deprived of what could well be their lifetime savings, while the West Bengal government was busy at a political rally at Kolkata Maidan. West Bengal is probably one of the rare states with a fire services minister, Pratim Chatterjee, but how many times did he visit Burrabazar?

After such incidents the media, local authorities and state government harped on the necessity of fire safety. But I ask (based on personal experience), how many industries, shops or multistoreyed buildings have the mandatory certificate issued by the fire service department? A bribe certificate from the department is usually enough. Are National Building Code provisions followed in the construction of new structures? Unfortunately not. People should be taught fire safety and awareness procedures.

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