Being A Good Corporate Citizen Helped Accenture Win In India

"How accenture one-upped Bangalore" (Info Tech, Apr. 23) was enjoyable, but it overlooked a critical part of Accenture Ltd.'s (ACN

) success. As it rapidly expanded its employee base in India, it also invested in Indian nongovernmental organizations. This sent a strong signal to tens of thousands of potential employees that Accenture would be a good corporate citizen. The group I run, Room to Read, opened a large number of school libraries and computer labs in poor communities as a result of this investment.

As India's talent wars heat up, companies would do well to emulate this example to prove to potential employees that they are investing in India for the long term and looking out for the country's continued development.

John Wood

Room to Read

San Francisco The National Small Business Assn. is the nation's oldest nonpartisan small-business advocacy group and has been pushing for broad health-care reform since 2004. While we would echo some of the concerns of unfair or misappropriated fees on small businesses that could accompany certain reform proposals, small businesses are absolutely not "opposed to change," as "Stopping reform before it starts" (Health, Apr. 16) claims.

In 2004, two years before the landmark Massachusetts law was enacted, were leased a proposal outlining a system that would require all individuals to have health insurance, provide subsidies for low-income individuals, establish a basic benefits package, set limits on rating and underwriting, and redefine tax incentives to let individuals deduct health-care costs. A recent national survey shows that more than two-thirds of small-business owners would support such a system.

Since our failing health-care system is based on employer-provided insurance, and small businesses comprise 99% of all employers, small business not only supports reform, we demand it.

Todd O. McCracken

National Small Business Assn.

Washington "The new brain drain" (The Welch Way, Apr. 23) included several comments by Jack Welch about the media and the public despising or distrusting business.

As an investor, I personally lost nearly a million dollars in wages and stock investments involving company decisions that would warrant mistrust. Yet I do not despise business leaders or the CEOs who run those companies.

Still, if Welch had absorbed the devastating pension and investment losses that so many working Americans have experienced, he might better understand why transparency and oversight protection is required to balance the playing field.

Richard Teremi

Mattawan, Mich. I felt compelled to respond to the letter "At Starbucks, charisma??ut no mugs" (Readers Report, Apr. 30) regarding not being able to drink coffee out of a ceramic coffee cup ("Saving Starbucks' soul," Marketing, Apr. 9).

I visit my local Starbucks (SBUX

) frequently and always have a pastry and my morning coffee in a ceramic cup. A customer only has to request a ceramic cup when ordering. My son, a former barista, told me about the secret ceramic cups that are available for in-house use.

Ren?? A. Diaz

Redondo Beach, Calif. Your story Climate wars: Episode two" (Environment, Apr. 23) reports that "heavier coal burners...say treating utilities equally would give the lower emitters a windfall." That, of course, is the point. Utilities that have been socially conscious should get a windfall. Those that have avoided reducing emissions and, in many cases, fought dishonestly against the science of global warming deserve to pay a penalty for their poor judgment.

John Mitchem

San Jose, Calif.