Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

Manmohan@3-II Why Sermonize, Improve Government Administraion!

Posted : May 25, 2007 at 9:41 pm [IST]

Further to my earlier appeal to PM Manmohan Singh, I further expected that he would bring in systems in administration to expedite the projects of national importance fast. It was purely a task that he with his long administrative experience and personality could have easily effectively sold and integrated.

I was amazed to hear him sermonize the biggies of industries at the CII meet yesterday just like one of the gurus such Ramdeva or Asharam Bapu in India. Here are the sermons in his own words:

Ten-Point Social Charter

First, have a healthy respect for your workers and invest in their welfare. In their health and their children’s education, give them pension and provident fund benefits, and so on. Unless workers feel they are cared for at work, we can never evolve a national consensus in favour of much needed more flexible labour laws aimed at ensuring that our firms remain globally competitive.

Two, corporate social responsibility must not be defined by tax planning strategies alone. Rather, it should be defined within the framework of a corporate philosophy which factors the needs of the community and the regions in which a corporate entity functions. This is not an imported western management notion. It is a part of our cultural heritage. Shri Seshasayeeji quoted Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi called it trusteeship. It is based on the idea that the wealthy have an obligation to society and balance in nature. Responsibilities commensurate with their rights. I am aware that some of our companies are doing creditable work. I compliment them. But we need more such inspiring examples. I appeal through the CII to our industry to come forward in a much more substantial manner and engage extensively in activities which benefit society at large.

Three, industry must be pro-active in offering employment to the less privileged, at all levels of the job ladder. The representation companies give to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, other Backward Classes, Minorities and Women, in their workforce and staff must increase. I am, therefore, encouraged by CII’s Report on Affirmative Action. I commend your example. I hope it will be widely emulated. Its recommendations should be implemented by CII members in a time-bound manner. I look forward to credible results at an early date. You must show sensitivity to those who are physically less-abled, in providing a work?place conducive to their employment. You must employ retired members of our gallant Armed Forces who spend their youth defending our nation but retire at a relatively young age.

Four, resist excessive remuneration to promoters and senior executives and discourage conspicuous consumption. In a country with extreme poverty, industry needs to be moderate in the emoluments levels it adopts. Rising income and wealth inequalities, if not matched by a corresponding rise of incomes across the nation, can lead to social unrest. The electronic media carries the lifestyles of the rich and famous into every village and every slum. Media often highlights the vulgar display of their wealth. An area of great concern is the level of ostentatious expenditure on weddings and other family events. Such vulgarity insults the poverty of the less privileged, it is socially wasteful and it plants seeds of resentment in the minds of the have-nots.

Five, invest in people and in their skills. Offer scholarships to promising young people. Fill young people with hope in their future. High rates of growth mean nothing for those who are unable to find employment. We must invest in skill-building and education to make our youth employable. Here too, I appreciate the CII’s initiative CII in upgrading ITIs. This is a very good beginning, but there is more to be done. Indian Industry must allocate sufficient resources to skill development, either managing ITIs or setting up a network of Greenfield Skill Development Centres across the country. CII’s current efforts need to be multiplied a 1000 times and Indian companies need to allocate resources for this vital work of building the capabilities of India’s youth.

Six, desist from non-competitive behaviour. The operation of cartels by groups of companies to keep prices high must end. It is unacceptable to obstruct the forces of competition from having freer play. It is even more distressing in a country where the poor are severely affected by rising commodity prices. Cartels are a crime and go against the grain of an open economy. Even profit maximization should be within the bounds of decency and greed! If a liberalized economy has to succeed, we must give full play to competitive forces and the private sector should show some self-restraint in this regard.

Seven, invest in environment-friendly technologies. India’s growth must be enhanced and, yet, our environment and ecology must be protected and safeguarded for our future generations. Industry has an enormous role to play in this regard. Evidence shows that many of our companies are becoming increasingly environment friendly. Our track record in resource use is good, but must improve further. Conservation of natural resources is a national mission. Industry can and must provide leadership on this front. As a country of a billion plus people, with a scarcity of natural resources on a per capita basis, we cannot afford the wasteful lifestyles of the Western world. Conspicuous consumption must be reduced not just because it is socially undesirable at our level of development but also because it is environmentally unsustainable.

Eight, promote enterprise and innovation, within your firms and outside. If our industry has to make the leap to the next stage of development, it must be far more innovative and enterprising. The success story of the last two decades has been the emergence of a large number of first generation enterprise. As industry aims to master increasingly complex technologies and becomes organizationally more complex, it must try to maintain its competitive edge by investing in R&D and innovation and promotion of enterprise. While government can do its bit, the larger burden is on industry.

Nine, fight corruption at all levels. The cancer of corruption is eating into the vitals of our body politic. For every recipient of a bribe there is a benefactor and beneficiary. Corruption need not be the grease that oils the wheels of progress. There are many successful companies today that have refused to yield to this temptation. I commend them. Others must follow. Businessmen who enter politics should erect a Chinese wall between their political activities and their businesses. CII should develop Codes of Conduct for their members with respect to business practices and for control of corruption.

Ten, promote socially responsible media and finance socially responsible advertising. Through your advertisement budgets and your investments in media you can encourage socially responsible media to grow and to flourish. You can promote socially relevant messages and causes.

I am afraid that he is forgetting his basic lessons learnt at London School of Economics and in earlier days in his college. Before sermonizing the industrialists or CEOs, he must look back to his own life and the lives of many of his school, college or career friends with equal and better proficiency. Have they materially got equal remunerations from the life? He must do his own job as PM and let thee industrialists do their own. Sunil Mittal very rightly said that the salaries of the CEOs couldn’t be legislated. It will be prudent if our great PM stops sermonizing and get his ministers working to see the things moving fast to attain the targets. He should get all the chief ministers and see that they all agree to cut down the delays of projects such Posco or Tata or Mittal or those mega power projects without which FDI will be hesitatingly coming.

- Indra

Category: Government Policy/Administration |