Another case of too many cooks ...

So....in next few days our parliament would discuss Food Security Bill. I read somewhere that GoI would spend more than Rs. 6 Lac Crores (INR 6000 Bn ~ USD 1.2Tn) in next few years ( I guess 3 years) under this scheme.

Does it mean that GoI, which wants to open up Indian Retail sector under the pretext that it would attract investment in Food / Agre SCM (I guess work a few thousand Crores) and ease inflation in India, has a surplus of of the above amount to support a free-bee scheme. However, it does not have a few thousand Cr. rupees to create the agri-infrastructure of its own, though that would still be the worst case scenario.

A few years back, GoI, of course under a more visionary leadership, proposed PPP framework to usher physical infrastructure creation in India. Alas, that vision is dead. Else, downstream agri-infrastructure including cold storage and warehouses along with much needed upstream infrastructure of irrigation channels, would have started by now. This was not to be.

Today's India would always be remembered in its history as the period when many economists were at helm of things but led India to nadir. Such a pity that a country having such a big domestic market and having achieved food self-sufficiency decades ago is facing a food-price led inflation. Here is a economy, where up to 40% fruit & vegetable produce is lost during its journey from farm to market, international conditions are blamed for food-price led inflation. Here is a economy, where govt. feels it is more prudent to spend borrowed amount in proving free-lunch to its electorate rather than creating infrastructure and policy frameworks to ensure low food prices. Here is a system, which believes that it is better to provide fish to its population rather than teaching them how to catch fishes. And, this economy and this system is headed by an economist with another economist as second-in command and another economist as head of planning. So many cooks and still all rotten foods. For today and for days, rather years, to come.

LOKPAL? ....so what?

Well...it seems Lokpal, in some form, would be a reality but I am not enthused. Given the efficacy of similar institutions, CVC or CBI, in Indian system, I won't be surprised to find it becoming another morbid white elephant and another mean to reward working / retired bureaucrats.

In my view, a more sensible approach would have been to make the existing institutions / provisions more efficient and accountable. Adding another layer of monitoring / control is certainly not going to help us as a progressive system. It would be rather surprising to expect PSUs, which are anyway working under 9 layers of monitoring / supervision to work better once the 10th one becomes effective.

Dunno, where we as a country, as an economy and as a society are heading? Certainly not in the right direction in the near future.

The Animal Farm

A couple of days back I finished reading a non-fiction "Red Sun". Irrespective of whatever feedbacks mentioned on the covers of the book or the writer has chosen to highlight on the front pages, the writer is not "unbiased". The author chooses to justify my initial fears, of what to expect from a bhadralok writing on the issue of Naxalism. If a protagonist is influenced enough to participate in an incident, the incident no longer remains the incident but a "point of view". This book is a point of view of a high society leftist, who is successful in a capitalist society. Anyways...
Now coming to the book, it has accounts of numerous leftist leaders, at grass root level as well as at the higher level, which the author has come across in his research period of a couple of months or years across the red belt. However, as expected of him, he could not meet a single govt. personal of any stature deserving an iota of respect. A few deserving ones had some common thoughts with Maoists. So much so for the "unbiased"€account!
By the way, all these great Maoist leaders are great strategists. They have been developing impeccable strategies to destroy. This leaves me wondering if they have ever created a single infrastructure. Do they realize how much effort, man months are consumed in a building a bridge or laying a Km of railway line or just, erecting a school shell as compared to destroy them? Do they realize their impotency that in their entire life they would not be able to create a single "thing" but destroy a lot, directly and indirectly, tangible and intangible? All this book does is to mention a couple of miniscule projects these people have taken up, mostly because of individual leadership in the region rather than from guidance of central leadership. Creating is strategy destruction is vandalism.
Across the book, the idea of "futility of Salwa Judum" runs through. Why? Theoretically, Maoists should be the people to think of morality of arming common man. If Maoists are justified, others are too. It should be immaterial how. If intellectuals, mostly of Maoist leaning, are crying foul, it is only because their brothers are on the receiving end now. In my view, this concept should be extended to all affected areas. Let's play blood buddy, if that is the solution.
The highlights the point how Maoists are using the lacuna of the present system, something they swear to fight, to their advantage. Inefficiencies leading to disgruntlement are fanned to propagate ideas of revolution. The lack of education in rural and tribal masses helps them in misleading naive population and getting them converted into "mercenaries". The situation seems to be the present day replica of "The Animal Farm". Pigs rule replacing men. Masses would realize sooner or later that the idea has failed everywhere, from China to Chile. Russia endorses Adam Smith and China has buried Mao in its currency notes, which is floating freely in Africa to support rouge statesmen of Sudan and other countries.
The book also highlights the unholy nexus between politically ambitious NGOs, ambitious activists, Maoists, LTTE, Assamese insurgents and Nepalese communists in the name of supporting oppressed. We should not be surprised to see them hand-in-hand with groups like LeT, HuM etc and ISI, after all they are supporting oppressed people of Kashmir! In fact, I would not be surprised with the discovery of some of their more interesting links. After all the book does really explains the source of their arms (AK 47, Rocket Launchers, propelled guns etc). Here is the crux of the "patriotism" of the Maoist movement!!

Well...that is my take on this..

I read somewhere that some economist of Indian origin employed by some European establishment has come down heavily on Dr. Singh’s government’s performance. I was a little surprised that this piece of article has come now. Where were these economists all these years? Anyway, I am a little happy that it is being noticed now. Dr. Singh would be, I have no doubt, a gentleman, an economist and academician par excellence and may be a good human being also. However, he seems to be a little more than this – either an astute politician with a very narrow mindset, who has preferred to compromise national interest for personal ones, tangible or intangible or he is an utter fool incapable of realizing that he has been used all the while as the public face of a puppet govt., whose ministers seems to have higher commitments towards their madam than the mask. Willy-nilly he compromised on the basic expectations from its roles and responsibilities entrusted to him as a constitutional authority.
In the process, he also seems to have forgotten his strongest, supposedly, personnel attribute, i.e. the economics. Nobody expected India to fare so poorly in the wake of the global recession and none ever dreamt that Indian response would be so reactive and abrupt. Talks of fiscal discipline, economic reforms, governance responsibilities etc seem to be forbidden in the corridors of present power house.
Foreign policy has been non-existent. Others like Taliban, US, Iran, even Iraq decide our policy. No surprise that India is again a hyphenated nation, with Pakistan. This perhaps is the most significant achievement of this cabinet.
Export of India's most effective bond – the IPL – by confidently accepting inability to provide security to players and spectators during the election time is the latest achievement of the internal security ministry. By the way, this ministry has already achieved something which none of the earlier govt. could achieve in the history of independent India, creation of a state within state of India. Today nobody dares to traverse the Indian heartlands without fear. Naxalism has spread to numerous states, while the team in Dr. Singh’s leadership was busy in finding how various steps taken by respective state govt.’s were at fault. This is perhaps the biggest achievement of this team.
Let’s talk infrastructure development. There is a dedicated minister for ports – he worked overtime to get this sea route opened with the acknowledged support of 20%-30% of population. As a result, the project has progressed within the conceptualization phase. It was a tragedy that he could not do any other work.
And, no body bothered to remind the rail ministry that they were not financial restructuring ministry. And, the minister was a little too busy travelling places to show his intellect.
The elections are going on and this person, with all respects wherever due, does not deserve to win. His team members deserve even less. We do not know whether Indian electorate would be able to understand that and show his proper place. He chooses not to discuss his performance in the last five years. He chooses to respond political challenges with personal accusations. However, one thing would happen for sure. His name would be mentioned in the history of Indian democracy as the one who led India to the past, as the ironical one who succeeded a visionary like ABV, who would be remembered for launching highways’ project, with vision to link rivers across the country and having the fearlessness of going nuclear against most of the globe. This PM would be the topics of various debates - his political intellect vis-à-vis his political honesty, a case study on how such a great academician could be so subservient to people with accidental political lineage but without an iota of intellect.

Turncoats

It's months since I have written anything on this blog. But this is something I could not resist writing on.

I remember the slogan of one of the teams in IT-BHU – Try beating us? Better join us. And, Indian politics is the best perpetrator of this slogan. It is often told - Politics throws up strange bed-fellows. Again, nothing exemplifies it better than politics in India and Indian parliamentary elections. What led to my realizing this now? Well…let me explain.
What is Shekhar Suman’s claim to fame? Political satire shows on various channels, especially copy cat act of Lallu. Right? What is he doing now? Contesting elections from Patna and that too on Congress ticket, i.e. from UPA, where Lallu is an integral part. So Shekharji is on the same side as Lallu is. However, he is not alone. In fact there is a more interesting example.
So, what is the claim to fame of Mr. Prakash Jha? Films Mrityudand and Gangajal right? And, was that about? Women empowerment in Bihar and somebody called Sadhu Yadav in Mrityudand, right. And, I hope no explanation would be required to understand to whom that Sadhu Yadav refers to. Anyway, this time Mr. Jha too is trying his luck in the elections and again from Bihar on LJP ticket, close partner of Mr. Lallu. So, here is another political convert. I wonder what could be so charming about Lallu that people turn head over heals. And, people like Mr. Jha turn from foe to friend. Or, there is more to this?
Shekhar Suman and Prakash Jha are perfect examples of what they say in hindi “thali ka baingan” (Brinjal in a plate) ya “bina pendi ka lota” (baseless tumblers). And, the irony is there would a few thousand electorate who would vote for them, either in their name or in their caste’s name and ensure that this breed of people/continue to grow.

The Jet Story

Well Mr. Goyal lived up to the image he is carrying in the minds of many employees, especially ones who are with the organization since the beginning. I have seen this image, his aura amongst these people. On personal level, as an individual, I would buy his story only with a spoon of salt.
It is impossible to believe that such a major decision would have been taken without his knowledge, as he claimed during the press conference; And, he has all the reason to do a rethink on the ways his business is being run. May be he would like to review the decision making process or the effectiveness of his so-called trusted management team. In my view, he should review a few more issues.

• What is his role in running the business? And, who all are there in other roles?
• What is the capability of the management team? Is it agile enough to meet growing challenges of the business environment? Does his team have all characteristics of an effective and capable team? Is it really professional?
• Where is the corporate strategy of this company? If it is there, how come it was caught unaware and landed in this messy situation? I’m sure the company did not take this decision based on just a few days’ developments.
• Is he aware of his organization structure? How does it look like in terms of nos.? Is it a pyramid or an inverted pyramid? What is his cost-wise organization structure? Does it compare with any other organization anywhere?
• If the decision was just to go about retrenching trainees and probationers, how come his organization has more than 15% employees are in that grade? Doesn’t it indicate that his firm, particularly his strategy dept., was either oblivious of the emerging business environment? What could be the case, incompetency or complacency or just laxity?
• He may like to review some of the statistics published in news papers:

1. App. 2000 employees, i.e. app. 17% of workforce, are paid more than Rs. 1 lac monthly. I assume, most of them would be pilots, engineers and experienced cabin crew members. If not, he may like to find out who they are?
2. More than 200 employees, i.e. app. 2% of the workforce, are paid more than Rs. 10 Lacs monthly or more than US$ 22000 per month. What level would they be working at? He may wish to look at this no. too.
3. He may like to look at the increase in the salary cost over the years and seek some justification in its variance.
4. Recruitment of fresh foreign pilots is still going on?
   Adverse business conditions, be it fuel price or infrastructure or anything else, would always be there. Challenges in different forms remain there in every business. A professional management is supposed to do precisely this function.

He was correct that he is no stranger to issues and he has handled all such issues decisively. I am sure Mr. Goyal knows what to do and how, in this scenario. And, also that he could do it in the best way.
His is, no doubt, a “rags to riches” story. It is to be seen if his too would end up as one who could not manage the growth and become example of why promoter should be different from manager case-study. One may argue that he is so but it needs to be adhered in strict sense. And, this lesson is required to be learnt by many in years to come.
Jet Airways has been the face of emerging and vibrant India. All wishes to it to keep flying high.

Cheers! The worst is yet to come..:)

It was like “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” or in more contemporary terms, it was Indian version of “A case of exploding Mangoes”.

I had known it the day Mamtadi got involved in it. It was just a matter of time. Unfortunately, it happened a little too late and at a little too high cost to Tatas. A little surprising for them to get into this mess. They have been around, doing business for almost a century now. They should have known it earlier than me. (Shall write more on her and Bengal in some subsequent note)

It is a good luck for us that our democracy is strong and guided that we have got leaders like Mamtas, Mayas, Lallooes, Mulayams, Karunanidhis, Devigowdas, Choutalas etc to choose from. And, there had been even bigger leaders like Jagannath Mishra, Bindeshwari Dubey, Devilal, etc in the past, who serve the icons of this breed.  

I am sure in a weak democracy and poorly designed systems, these people would have been filtered out before reaching up to this level and would not have been able to influence India’s course. Unfortunately, some visionary had identified their origin “People get the leader they deserve”. However, he was not able to identify or did not choose to spell the vicious cycle that goes behind this, especially for this breed of leaders. “Lead people to the place where only you can lead”. Bihar can be the greatest example. Fifteen years of un-interrupted rule and a loss only to the person, who played the same game more aptly. Now, these old-timers are annoyed that they have been denied their share in the annual flood lottery festival, especially when the prize is “n” times larger this year.

It is no surprise that wherever these leaders are strong, the region/state is doing wonders. Riding on self-servicing social causes, this breed is making case-studies in economic performance under their respective rules. But that is obvious for leaders with such great capabilities. Somebody should look at their credentials, educational, social, police history sheet, past life. There would not be any surprise. What is their fault if they do not understand economics when they were forced to move out of their educational life? They were sincere enough to complete respective courses even after 5-6 years of study but, alas, they were forced to vacate hostels, forced to appear in exams and forcefully awarded marks to pass and leave colleges. Some simply got bored that nobody cared for their education after a few more years and, hence, decided to move-on from college life. Not surprisingly, they are literate, they are farsighted, etc etc. They have all quality of great leadership. In fact, looking at them, National Literacy Mission should revise their curriculum. They may be breeding a nation of leaders.

In fact this breed has given a new classification of present generation of leaders. Today’s leaders either belong to this class or they do not belong to this class. There are common traits though. Traits, which are the basic characteristics of any leader such as

• ·         Ability to convince some people of anything under the sun
  
• ·         A few court cases (mostly named as politically motivated) with a few trips to jail/lock-ups
  
• ·         A family history (of leaders or of history-sheeters or of both)
  
• ·         Ability to charm the media, print/electronic/anything, especially anchors, who are mostly of opposite sex (Somebody should examine, who charms whom)
  

So, my dear friends don’t be surprised. Tata at Singur is just one case, whicn happens to be the most recent one. Remember stories of Charwaha Vidyalaya (Schools where you can take your cows and buffaloes and goats and sheep. They learn. You sleep and somebody gets legal ownership of the land), or the great Fodder tales (where buffaloes travelled 800Kms overnight on scooters to get quality fodder) or Taj corridor (Whie you see Taj Mahal somebody gets land around it) or Greater NOIDA airport or Meham (do you still remember this word). Anyway, all these leaders are alive & kicking. Many such stories would be made in time to come. Just don’t take pain now. Enjoy. Remember - Picture abhi baki hai mere dost….