दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

Every one who watched the news channels during the time Laluji presented the Railway Budget 2008 in Lok Shabha yesterday must have observed three distinct happenings on the screen. I don’t understand why the budget presentation should be so long and boring. Who are supposed to listen that and for what purpose? Even with all the dramatic of gestures and dialogues, some very original ones and some PJs, Laluji at end had to rush through the reading of his papers. I reminded of a school student who has been participating in a speed reading competition. Why should Laluji read all the routes of the newly introduced or extended trains with names of the places? Was it to tell the members of the region in an easy-to-understand way?

And then the members created the din and bustle that they are famous for and it became very difficult to even understand what Laluji was saying. And I could see the Somnathji as a helpless class teacher of present era, appealing and requesting in vain. Why can’t the MPs behave a little more soberly for a change? Can the voters in general or a representative body of theirs can do something or warn them somehow?

But the most visible scenes on the screen were those of the dancing coolies (porters) at stations around the country. Lalu had announced that all, about 37,000 licensed porters would be absorbed as gang-men, regular employees of railways. What a daring decision! It can be only Lalu who can do that. The jubilation was justified. Who doesn’t want a secure job rather than a humiliating one right from the connotation ‘cooli’? I don’t understand if the porter system at the railway station has been abolished. Will there be sufficient number easy-to-handle airport type trolleys?

But there are some more aspects of the budget that requires adulation for Laluji.

· The turn around of railways with Rs 25,000 crore as cash surplus for 2007-08 is a great performance.

· Proposal for free passes for girl students up to graduate level, and 50% discount for women senior citizens have real humane face.

· Queue free ticket counters in next two years, Up-gradation of some railway stations to world class standard, and green toilets in all trains in four years are dreams that every Indian will like to take with certainty of executions even though delayed.

But I still wish the railway employees and managers must start working for a clean station and passenger friendly attitude without waiting for the complete overhaul in these big projects. I am sure late running of train is one that can be solved by the change in the mindsets of the employees.

Let him introduce a Rajdhani Express for his village. (As reported, work is in full swing to lay tracks connecting his Phulwaria village with Selar Kelan, wife Rabri devi’s native place three kilometers away) How does it matter? After all, he hasn’t built any international class airstrip that a CM of a poor state built in his village that he will never use?

Many things are happening in the country that assures of a great going in manufacturing sector. While the big manufacturing companies are trying to expand the wings, even SMEs are contributing in a major way. The opening of defence equipment for private sector, many SMEs are trying to get into it. As ‘India Today’ reported recently, M Kumar Udyog (MKU), a small Kanpur-based company produces some 25,000 ballistic helmets costing $200 (Rs 8,000) each in a month and exports to the armies of over 40 countries, including the police and homeland security forces of the US.

Neeraj Gupta, who heads the MKU’s foreign sales department, narrated an interesting aspect. Five years ago, foreign firms cited lower costs in China to counter his price. Recently, Gupta bagged a $15-million (Rs 60 crore) order to armour Turkish naval frigates despite his quote being 40 per cent higher than his nearest competitor’s. Gupta proudly says, “When I recently asked a foreign defence company if the Chinese were not competing any more, they said they were looking for armoured protection, not soft toys.”

5,000 SME companies in India are supplying 20-25% of the components such as helmets, electronic processors, nuclear fallout selters, simulators and unmanned aerial vehicles to state-owned defence firms. According to the Pune-based Defence Electronics Manufacturers Association (DEMA), an SME grouping, there are about 150 major SMEs, located around Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad, with a combined annual turnover of Rs 1,500 crore.

Even the big manufacturers such as Mahindra & Mahindra, and Tata Motors are getting into defence sector. The Tatas had teamed up with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), to make Pinaka rocket launchers. Pinaka was the first defence contract given to private companies in India. The strategic electronics division of Tata Power is manufacturing Pinaka launchers along with Larsen & Toubro. Recently, two Tata group companies–Tata Power and Tata Advanced Systems–had signed agreements with Rafael and Israel Aviation Industries to manufacture a wide range of defence products.

India has become an attractive destination for all the global manufacturers. Nissan Motor and Renault last week signed a MoU with Tamil Nadu government to set up a state-of-the-art automotive facility on 678 acres at Oragadam, near Chennai; and have envisaged an investment of Rs 4,500 crore ($1,140 million) over seven years through their 50:50 venture for creating a capacity to produce four lakh cars per annum.

Honda Siel Cars India has inaugurated a new manufacturing facility at Greater Noida increasing its capacity from 50,000 to 100,000 units per annum investing Rs 1,620 crore. Honda will launch Civic hybrid in a couple of months, and the company’s small car, a petrol version, will be launched in 2009. Honda’s Rajasthan plant will be operational in the last quarter of 2009 that will ramp up its total capacity to 200,000-240,000 units in India. Honda will initially invest Rs 1,000 crore in Rajasthan plant, which is likely to go up to Rs 3,000 crore.

Ashok Leyland, the flagship company of the Hinduja Group, has decided to double investment in Uttaranchal from Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 2,000 crore as a part of its expansion plan. The company would be manufacturing 40,000 annually, according to sources.

India has been doing pretty good in manufacturing of automotive sector. India is the second largest two-wheeler, the 11th largest passenger car and the fifth largest commercial vehicle producer in the world. The sector can create a ripple effect and generate huge number of employment. An additional car manufactured generates five jobs, a commercial vehicle 13. India can certainly become a manufacturing hub of small cars, and even compact cars. ‘Nano’ has laid the roadmap. The government’s Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016 (AMP) aims to make India a global automotive hub, accounting for 10 per cent of the GDP and creating 25 million additional jobs by 2016. The industry is investing over Rs 75,000 crore, nearly 50 per cent of the investments envisioned in the AMP.

As a welcome change, even the PSUs are getting into global game of excellence. PSUs can outsource and create or support a large number of small manufacturers creating a lot of employment. Potential is huge.

I am reading these days two books related to the emerging India: ‘Planet India’ by Mira Kamdar, a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute, and ‘Billions of Entrepreneurs‘ by Tarun Khanna, the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School in USA. Both in their books have talked about their experiences of the Indian Railways while on visit in India. Mira writes about her railway journey from Dadar to Nagpur. ‘But the moment I entered the carriage, all the romance of train travel in India, especially on an overnight train, came rushing back… Traveling by train in India is a nineteenth-century experience.’ Tarun writes, ‘Families stood, sat, or milled about, patiently waiting for a train that would leave at some future, indeterminate time’, in a section ‘Making the Trains Run on Time’.

Since my childhood I have been traveling on the Indian railway. Most of the times, it was a nightmarish suspense right from the beginning to the end. While I faced a burglary right on the Rajdhani at New Delhi station, I still can’t dare to take a train from an intermediate station for indeterminate delays. It is also difficult to locate the bogey you are booked in. No railway staff is present on platform to help the passengers who are booked even in AC classes. I have never asked for a car to receive me at disembarking station, because I never was certain about the delays.

Lalu Yadav, in last four years that he has been the boss of Indian railways, has sold his ministry well. Media have kept on singing the songs of his contributions to improve the performance of Indian railways from loss-making to a profiteering enterprise and even the IIM-A also placed him on a high pedestal. Some have even pronounced him as the best minister.

The profitability of railways might have improved, but during my travels in last one year, I didn’t find any significant difference. With one more budget on anvil on February 26, can Laluji present something really new and innovative? Railway is working on many dream projects. I have selected two of them: the conversion of New Delhi and Patna Railway station to world class level, and the rail link to Srinagar in Kashmir. With the present efficiency of project execution of railways, I don’t know if I shall be able to see the projects completed in my lifetime (now at 68 only). I know for sure that none of the big projects sanctioned for Bihar by Paswan, Nitish, and Lalu as railway ministers has got completed or get completed in next 2-4 years.

I would have liked if Laluji would have awarded a project to IIM-A or IIT- Delhi, if not to RITES, to suggest a low-cost and quickly implement-able roadmap to make the railway stations look decent and efficient.

Can’t Laluji find another Indian consultant or institution for finding ways and means to make possible the timely running of trains? Why should he presume or accept his babus’ excuses that it can’t be done?

Again, can’t railway ensure that a passenger gets a train ticket in five minutes so that huge wastage of man-days standing in queues at the hundreds if not thousands of ticket booking counters of the country is saved? If any one doubts it, he can visit the counter in Brahamputra complex, the only reservation counter in Noida.

Lastly, can Laluji ask the railway employees to be on platform at the railway stations and help the passengers instead of sleeping on their chairs in cabins? I wish he could remember how much troublesome it is to get any information on the railway station. Many improvements can come with just better work practices and without any investment and budgeting for it.

Unfortunately, the railway being a PSU, perhaps we can’t expect any significant improvement. It is surprising that railway has not an office or website that can give the best train route if I wish to see Ajanta & Ellora, Rameshwaram, and Hampi and return to Noida. Do any of the readers know about it? Please let me know so that I can correct my misgivings.

What is the use of the budget full of false promises with no accountability, if not completed?

PS: At least Laluji appreciated one of the issues I wished to be sorted out. He has promised ‘Termination of queues at ticket counters targeted in two years’ in the budget presented today.
Highlights of railway budget 2008
Lalu’s promise: No long queues from 2010.

Media organized many debates on its channels. People in general were critical of Raj Thackeray and also his cousin now. But many raised a question, why should the CMs of the states not create jobs for their men? With employment being acute in all states, the people of Bihar and UP will no more be welcome in the other states where they used to migrate for livelihood.

I myself tried to look back and think over on the subject and the efforts made by the political leaders of the states. Except for blaming the central government or opposition parties, the people in power did only amass wealth or did everything right or wrong to please their sycophants party men or the so-called vote bank. They completely neglected to work out a strategy for creating jobs for teeming millions of unemployed youths joining the workforce every year.

It is surprising that a bigger percentage of the young men and even girls from Bihar and UP are manning even the tech industry in South. Last year, three of the children-one girl and two boys, of my relatives (naturally from Bihar) graduated in engineering from three different private colleges from West Bengal have got jobs in South. Is it so difficult to create an environment and provide infrastructure to have the IT and ITeS set up units in Bihar? Did the CMs make an effort and failed to attract the industrialists? The ruling class in UP has totally neglected eastern region. With IITs at Kanpur, and Varanasi and other institutes, UP could have created an IT sector in around Kanpur, Lucknow and Varanasi. Thanks to the proximity with New Delhi and other national capital region townships, a number of IT companies are located in Noida. I don’t know if the CMs of the states, be it Kalyan, Mayawati or Mulayam in UP, Lalu, Rabari, and even Nitish have any knowledge and understanding about the sector and its potential to create an employment base for educated youths. Perhaps, they know only about the ‘sarkari’ jobs of police, teachers and clerks in government that can bulge their coffers. Many a time, I feel like they must learn about the IT’s role from their children (at least Mulayam, Nitish and Lalu), if they can.

Even with all the humiliations that the people of the state are facing in Assam, Maharashtra and may be soon everywhere in the country, they will hardly wake up. I wish the CMs of Bihar and UP could sit with some of the teachers of NIT, Patna and IIT, Kanpur or some state conscious intellectuals working in different states or abroad, however not the sycophants to find some solutions to the unemployment.

I appeal to the CMs of Bihar and UP to read the lead article- ‘The Bhaiyya Effect’ written by Vir Sanghvi in Hindustan Times Sunday, February 24. I quote few sentences for all who matter in the state of Bihar and if they can listen:

Once, Bihar was India’s best-administered state (do not laugh: an international study came to this conclusion in the 1950s); now, it is seen as a wasteland.
The net state domestic product of Bihar was Rs 51,194 crore in 2004-05. In contrast, the state domestic product of Maharashtra was Rs 3,28,451 crore, over six times the figure for Bihar. Even poor, backward Orissa did better than Bihar at Rs 52,240 crore.
The contrast is more striking when you look at per capita figures. In 1993-94, the per capita domestic product of Bihar was Rs 3,037. Eleven years later, in 2004-05, that figure had gone up to Rs 5,772 which, when you adjust for inflation, probably means that income hardly went up at all, and may even have gone down.
Now, look at the figures for other states. In 1993-94, Maharashtra’s per capita domestic product was Rs 12,183 – already four times the figure for Bihar. By 2004-05, it had gone up to Rs 32,170, nearly six times the figure for Bihar.
Uttar Pradesh has fared a little better. In 1993-94, its per capita income was Rs 5,066. In 2004-05, it went up to Rs 11,477 (largely on the basis of Noida, but that’s another story). This makes it better off than Bihar but still worse off than every other Indian state.
As far as the rest of India is concerned, Bihar has become a wasteland run by mafia dons who are pursued by Naxalites. The rule of law does not exist, and politics is largely a question of caste.

I request the CMs to work for providing skills to every young men and creating employment instead of putting forward the excuses. If Bihar could have a Dalmianagar (almost ghost town today), the second largest industrial township to Jamshedpur in 50s and 60s, why can’t it happen today? Hazipur, Barauni, Mokama, Barh, Jamalpur, all can get on the industrial map of Bihar. If Maharashtra can become a hub of sugar industry, why can’t Bihar be one? With co-generation, and ethanol, the sugar industry can easily transform a major part of Bihar as prosperous. If Jawahar Knowledge Centre in Andhra Pradesh can bring a revolution in rural area, why can’t Bihar emulate that? If Andhra can have 200 professional colleges, why can’t Bihar have it? Why can’t the engineer CM of Bihar initiate an action plan for irrigation in draught prone north Bihar instead of blaming his predecessors? It will be prudent for Nitish to cooperate with the central ministers to get NREG and Bharat Nirman executed that will provide employment to the people of Bihar.

It is a shame that the legislators wish to solve the problem in Maharashtra by embarrassing and humiliating Bihar’s Maharashtrian Governor Gavai. They thereby are only encouraging the mob for taking the law in their own hands and create what happened in Hazipur.

It is only the politicians of the state of UP and Bihar who have failed its people. Let the politicians of the state listen the warning in time and change themselves.

I found the main door of Shakti Mandir closed. Only after going through the newspaper on return from the walk, I could understand the reason of the closure of the temple. The temple was closed, as it was a period of lunar eclipse that is considered inauspicious. Yamuna says, “When the god (Moon) is under trouble, how can we take any food? She had put ‘Tulsi’ leaves in all the cooked food items in refrigerator. In this era when we know why the lunar eclipse is caused, it is difficult to blindly agree about the age-old belief. I asked Yamuna jokingly, ‘did my prayer to God reach the right place or not? I am sure there were not sleeping or had gone out.’ And I keep on saying, India lives simultaneously in different ages starting from stone era to perhaps 22nd century.

It was interesting to read a story about Columbus and how a similar eclipse saved him.

An eclipse is credited with saving the life of Christopher Columbus and his crew in 1504 in a most amazing manner.

Stranded on the coast of Jamaica, the explorers were running out of food and faced with increasingly hostile local inhabitants who were refusing to provide them with any more supplies. Columbus, looking at an astronomical almanac compiled by a German mathematician, realized that a total eclipse of the Moon would occur on February 29, 1504.

He called the native leaders and warned them if they did not cooperate, he would make the Moon disappear from the sky the following night.

The warning, of course, came true, prompting the terrified people to beg Columbus to restore the Moon – which he did, in return for as much food as his men needed. He and the crew were rescued on June 29, 1504.

With ‘Chadrayan’ in preparation to take a flight to moon, should we still keep on worshipping Moon God? Perhaps, the answer may be in affirmative. Someone will plead that it will please the God and He will make the journey safe!

It is not only the biggies of India Inc that are innovating new products such as ‘Nano’ of Tata Motors. Even at grass-root level, many unknown innovators are doing their best to inventing products and processes to bring a significant quality change of doing things in new ways. I knew about Prof Gupta of IIM-Ahmedabad pioneered the subject of grass-root innovation in India with National Innovation Foundation Dr. Abdul Kalam has been a great source of inspiration for innovation and knowledge dissipation right up to the bottom of the pyramid. I was delighted to know about Paul Basil and his Rural Innovations Network RIN. Nitya Varadarajan reports in ‘Business Today’ about these grass-root innovators and Paul.

· Anna Saheb Udgave, 75, is a farmer from Belgaum district in Karnataka created a rain gun that could simply harness groundwater and spray it across fields covering a particular distance in all directions. The rain gun uses 50 per cent less water than the regular irrigation mechanisms. Called the Varsha Rain Gun, the instrument has since become a huge hit with the receptive farmers in the region and made Udgave a household name.

· J. Meghanathan, 30, a resident of Pinayur, a small village 55 km from Chennai and a history graduate, has developed a semi-automatic brick-making machine. This would reduce labour drudgery while increasing production. This machine is awaiting technology transfer to an SME before it goes into full-scale production. His idea: to make a machine that increases productivity through some form of automation and yet keeps it simple, resulting in better efficiency and profits. Meghanathan’s brickmaking machine has found more buyers for technology transfer than he ever imagined.

· P. Kumar’s, a farmer in Dharmapuri district with a 50-acre holding has developed a self-driven, fuel-run Weeder. Developed at a cost of Rs 45,000, this gadget is a great substitute for the acute labour shortage in the area. It runs about 80 minutes on one litre of kerosene or petrol and is ideally suited for cultivable land of 5 acres and above. Kumar is busy fine-tuning the product with the help of IIT Madras to bring the cost down to a more affordable Rs 30,000.

· As reported, an innovator developed paralysis spraying chemical pesticides and this prompted him to develop an herbal pesticide, while another person has invented a stem injection route for banana plantation as an alternative to spraying medicines.

· K. Murugan of Tutikorin is planning big to scale up his banana synthion separator (that removes silky thread from the banana stem) to put up a factory costing several crore.

· At a small village near Madurai, a family that was once below poverty line, now sucessfully uses the rotary extraction machine to take out herbal extracts for hair oils, face packs and other cosmetics for direct selling to beauty parlours.

Rural Innovations Network (RIN), a non-profit NGO, and its Chief Executive Officer and Founder Paul Basil, himself a mechanical engineer has provided the necessary assistance required to make the modifications in the ideas to make them work effectively RIN turned the crude innovations into viable products. It is great that Paul Basil is focused “on areas relating to water, agriculture, dairy and energy, while other areas were looked on case-for-case basis.”

RIN has a tie up with IIT Madras. Many programmes such as Lemelson Recognition and Mentoring Programme (L-RAMP) http://www.lramp.org/ are trying to bring out the grass-root talents. Even companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) are trying to encourage the concept.

An SME entrepreneur Servals Automation have partnered with RIN to popularise the Vincent burner for kerosene stoves, which sells 25,000 units a month and the Varsha rain gun. This company is one of the contenders for Meghanathan’s semi-automated brick-making machine.

Similar grassroot innovations are reported from many parts of the country:

An Std VI pass-out who comes from a village in Uttar Pradesh has developed a stove, which uses polythene as a fuel. Four students from the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) have stepped in to market the product.

A farmer from Saurashtra improvised a cruiser bike to plough, sow and weed fields! Called ‘Bullet Santi’ (bullet plough). For farmers this is like the Nano car. It costs less than a mini tractor. The maintenance cost is lower than keeping a pair of bullocks.

I wish at least one from every institute of national institute work on the grassroot innovation to exploit and encourage the talent in vast rural and urban areas of the country. For every institute and teacher, the mission must be to explore the creativity of the students and direct it to a right cause to improve the living conditions of those who are still left behind.

Years ago, the children of my acquaintances used to ask my opinion about the preferred branch of engineering to be pursued. Though I graduated in mechanical engineering, I had dedicated myself for manufacturing. I enjoyed manufacturing, tried to learn it from all possible sources from working on the machine tools myself to learning through the literature of the equipment manufacturers, innovated ways to improve efficiency and did also contributed with many useful suggestions. Naturally, manufacturing engineering was my suggested option to those who queried. Perhaps, that was the reason I asked even Rakesh, my eldest son to pursue manufacturing science and technology in IIT, Kharagpur and Industrial Engineering in Purdue University, US. However, very soon I realized my mistake. I might have spent my whole life in and around manufacturing, but India had failed to take a lead in manufacturing sector. Manufacturing sector hardly gave good salary and recognition to its engineers. Interestingly though, in our course of mechanical engineering at IIT, Kharagpur, out of six specializations in final year, production engineering was considered the best and was reserved for the best fifteen or twenty students based on the performance of third year examination. I could get into machine design only.

Today, many engineering colleges including IITs provide options of graduating in manufacturing/production engineering/technology and have even post-graduate education facilities. But in reality, hardly any one on own, prefers to get into manufacturing engineering. Many a times it appears, for the present generation, the only branch of engineering of worth is computer related ones, hardware, software, networking, Information Technology, and many more with high sounding nomenclature. Tata Sons director Jamshed Irani notes, “We no longer have a surfeit of electronic, electrical, mechanical, metallurgical engineers.” Even those from other streams join IT sector, and the sector uses them effectively after certain training. Manufacturing sector that hardly appreciates the graduate degree in manufacturing engineering either employs mechanical or manufacturing engineers from the lot discarded by the top companies of other sectors, or select diploma holders from polytechnics, if engineers. As admitted by the chairman of NMCC, Krishnamurthy: “At the shopfloor level as well as at the entry levels in engineering departments relating to manufacturing, a vast number of positions are manned by diploma holders from polytechnics.”

While the industry reports rising growth of manufacturing sector, the education system has hardly created capacity to meet the demand at various levels. Further, those who come out of the undergraduate and graduate courses are hardly skilled enough to contribute effectively to the industry. Unfortunately, none of the engineering courses can provide students that can straight be put to work. Manufacturing demands skill that can be learnt only on shop floor. The problem requires a lot of discussions and decisions to bring about some basic changes in education system at all levels. It is unfortunate that the present education system just doesn’t churn out skilled manpower.

Unfortunately, only a meager percent (varying between 15 to 25%) of the 4,50,000 engineering graduates passing out every year are employable. “Most jobs require skills, the products of the education system have only knowledge. There’s a mismatch between what the system is producing and what the market needs.”

Even in diploma courses, the condition is equally grim. Interestingly, right in his first budget in 2004, the Finance Minister announced upgradation of all industrial training institutes under one key initiative of public-private plan to centres of excellence. The project had a hesitant start, and usual delays were expected particularly because of the state governments. CII was to play a major role, but it failed. However, of late, according to CII, its members have adopted 170 ITIs, and about a 100 companies are now working with ITIs. However, India requires at least thousands of the trade schools to meet the requirements of manufacturing sector if it grows by 12 to 15 % as expected. As per an estimate that was admitted by Union labour minister Oscar Fernandes, around 12.8 million join the labour force every year, but India has infrastructure to train only 2.5 million.

Today the traditionally conservative manufacturing sector is offering comparatively better compensation packages. As per Watson Wyatt Worldwide, “This year, the manufacturing and engineering industry is expected to offer salary increases of 16 per cent, when it’s expected to be 15 per cent from IT, ITeS and bpo, and 13.5 per cent from insurance.”

Beside the salary increases, some companies are fine-tuning their employment policies to make manufacturing jobs more attractive. Almost all large engineering companies prefer to employ the graduates from tier II engineering colleges, and train them in-house. Manufacturing sector has started recruiting in excess to build a talent pool as per its expansion plans.

However, a severe talent crunch is impacting the productivity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that can’t afford so high a salary, badly. According to Assocham, attrition rates as high as 40 per cent are hurting SMEs, forcing them to cut manufacturing output to Rs 12 lakh crore in 2006-07 from Rs 14 lakh crore the previous year. According to deputy director-general, CII. “Manufacturing needs 12 million people. What we have now is just one-tenth of that.”

Technical education requires a total overhaul. Every student coming out of school after 10-12 years of education must acquire skill at least in one trade beside the operating and using of computers.

Community must use its really skilled persons, though not formally qualified to train youngsters. Some certifying agencies must be allowed to issue licenses or certificates.

While a large number of trade schools must be established in private and/ or public sectors, the existing Industrial Training Institutes must be expanded many times and given a honourable status. All engineering colleges must have a tie up with manufacturing units. All students and teachers must understand the practical requirements of the shop floor, and change the curricula accordingly.

Internet and virtual training facilities available must be used extensively. Even the services of experienced retired persons from the manufacturing sector must be sought to meet the requirements.

India must not miss the bus this time.