The Perception, Reality and The Truth

Early 90’s was an exiting period for the state of Maharashtra. The state was called the most developed , forward looking , prosperous and richest in the country .The state also seemed to have a ‘very good and efficient administration’ and a ‘ visionary leadership’. Nothing it seems can go wrong for the state.

Come 2006 . The state and Vidarbha region is witnessing unprecedented number of suicides by farmers .Regional imbalances are raising tension and threaten to tore the state apart .The state is in a vicious debt trap . Naxal violence and terrorism are the latest new problems. The state administration seems to be complete slumber and people seem to be content and complacent.

Just what happened in a decade?

I come from Vidarbha region. A decade ago when Maharashtra was called a developed state I could not really relate the prosperity of the state .It was a kind of double whammy. You come from one of the poorest regions in the country and yet are looked upon as one from the most developed region! It was difficult to explain the issue to others. Not any longer though!

This is what happed with Maharastra in last decade .

The resources were spent on unproductive purposes like bailing out sugar mills and giving sops to sugar belt farmers.

The investments that were made by taking expensive debt then did not yield desired returns a prime example is Mumbai – Pune express highway or developing the sugar belt.

There was virtually no investment in power and Infrastructure where it was needed like Mumbai . Mumbai now has a marginal growth rate as a result.

No effort was made to remove backlog of various backward region . In fact the backlog only increased fuelling regional tension.

The state failed to come up with a theme for development like Bangalore for IT and Gujarat for Petroleum

The state now finds itself where it has too high a debt coupled with an increasing expenditure and an compelling need to make huge investements in underdeveloped regions.

This is what happens really with governments worldwide. Somebody makes mistakes and others have to bear the brunt. Likewise somebody makes a sincere effort and others reap the benefit.

The leadership that took Maharashtra to such a nadir level is now nowhere to be blamed and in fact still revered. The state seems fit case where people live in past glory rather than thinking about getting over present ruins.

The significance of a Diverse Workforce

I was going through an article about affirmative action policies adopted in US about half a century ago. One of the basic premise and foundation about the policy was the feedback from the US Industry that a diverse workforce tends to be more professional, effective and a better decision maker.

I think this is absolutely true .

I have worked through teams on both ends of the spectrum. With a diverse background comes richness of Ideas , culture , perspectives , behaviors which tends to foster a professional , tolerant culture which is open to fresh thinking and calculated risk taking .I have always loved to work in such an environment so will most ….

I am a firm believer in the policy of diversity and would go at length to maintain it. To put it simply , I would prefer a diverse and above average team to a homogeneous and most competent one.

Now consider the opposite side of the spectrum.

People from same background and culture will generally have same line of thinking and risk taking ability . The work culture is more of a family , a bit like mom and pop office with little room for accountability and professionalism. Only certain type of ideas will generally accepted and resistance to change will be a big hurdle.

Just look at Indian cities . Mumbai is a very cosmopolitan place with people from all possible diversity . On the other spectrum lie places like Delhi , Kolkata and Chennai in lower diversity order. Can you make the difference in the work culture ? I do…

India has so much diversity be it language , regional , racial , caste ( genetic diversity basically) and religion . I think sharpest cultural diversity in India is regional and then language , caste , racial and religion in downward order though language and region are very related in India and diversity based on religion is I think a debatable subject.

HR in most Indian companies have realized the importance of a diverse workforace and are working towards making diversity an important component of their HR policy .But with the experience that I have about Indian industry lot needs to be done to really foster and internalize diversity. I can see a typical problem here . People at the top know the importance and want to implement it and person(s) doing actual implementation has either no clue about it or simply unwilling to do it because it benefits him/her to keep it that way.

Humko to bhai Bus khana khana hai

I have observed this tendency of Indian society for ages but never seriously thought about it .Success of every social function be it marriage , party , get to gather , event depends on how tasty the food was. That is quite understandable given the importence that food has in every culture.

Hmm….

I recently went to a party organized to celebrate Silver Jubilee of my company .It was really a grand event with professional singers and employee performances organized.
The food to be served was starters and then dinner after an hour. So midway through the function it was announced that starters are being served , I predicted that soon the entire hall will get empty . And guess what it really did :) :) in 10 minutes flat!
Now everybody was interested to be in the long que for food than have a look at the performances .I could not really stop laughing and let me tell you it is not a rare scene at all. What was interesting was the fact that all the employees are very well paid and will count among the higher end of upper middle class in India. Phew!

I also remember a similar event. There is a branch of an MNC in India with strength of 1500. Stationary is distributed freely and guess what the monthly consumption of pens there is? 5000 +.

I worked for a private sector bank in India a few years ago .A grand sale was announced once by a city based retailer with almost 50% discount. There was almost a stampede at the event . What surprised me was the fact that a senior manager was purchasing all types for clothes and packing them in boxes. I soon realized that he wanted to purchase all that he can and sell these clothes outside!

I think we still live in that old mindset that everything including food is scarce and that you need to fight for it at every possible opportunity. Not surprising given the history of famines in our country just some half a century ago and a social culture built around that belief.

TATA CSN Corus

I’ve been curiously watching the developments on the proposed takeover of CORUS for quite sometime now. TATA and CSN now seem to have been locked in a lose- lose bidding war game of one upmanship for getting CORUS.

What are the options before TATAS apart from a outright acquisition?

I think it’s merger with Corus. So rather than spending resources for acquisition of CORUS just merge TATA Steel and Corus and avoid the debt burden.The proposed entity will then have the war chest to make another ( or more – the most obvious being CSN) mega acquisition.

On the flop TATA’s own share in the merged entity will be barely in double digits.This’ll make the new entity very vulnerable to takeover .Here I think TATA’s should enfuse capital of $5-6 Billion to up their stake to more than 50%.TATA sons has the wherewithal to raise so much capital. The financial muscle can then be used to acquire another 'major steelmaker'.

But CSN here also will try to justify it’s own case of merger. Then what?

I think TATA’s should just purchase 20-25% of CSN from open market. This’ll silence CSN. The merged entity can then comfortably takeover CSN if it wants.

What CSN is really afraid of is a takeover Bid from TATA’s.

There is another win –win option .A Triple merger of CSN , CORUS and TATA Steel.
But I think CSN and TATA are poles apart in terms of culture and this option although most feasible theoretically, it is most difficult operationally and hence highly unlikely.

An Afterthought :

What could have been done to smoothly purchase CORUS ?

I think TATA’s should have bought around 20% of Corus from open market before making the bid .This would have fend off any potential bidder.

Reservation - No Affirmative Action

I’ve been watching the debate in India about extension of Governments reservation policy to OBC’s for quite sometime now .

I must confess that I haven’t seen a single authoritative article from any Indian journalist which appears to be fair , holistic , rational and with scientific reason – Indian media has no representation for SC’s and ST’s and a very marginal representation for OBC’s . So more than two third of India’s population has a very marginal representation in Indian media .

Let me use a fair Problem solving method that is used in the Industry - DMAIC ( Define, Measure, Analyse, Implement, Control) to find a solution .

Problem Definition :

What is the problem that India faces ?
Some readily identifiable socially disadvantaged groups are underrepresented and relatively underdeveloped in India. These groups need to be brought to the national mainstream by giving them a fair socio, economic and political share .

Seems fine? If I’m unable to define the problem correctly then I’ll not be able to arrive at a correct solution.

The phrase Readily identifiable and socially disadvantaged is very important . Every country will have poor and disadvantaged people. The special problem with India is that they can be readily identified given India’s castist history and are socially disadvantaged because of past history.

Measure :

What are the ‘Readily identifiable and socially disadvantaged’ groups in India?

As per Government of India :

SC’s and ST’s are easy to identify given their ‘ untouchable status .SC’s constitute about 16% and ST’s about 8% of India’s population. Lowest in social hierarchy in India.

OBC’s ( Other Backward Classes) : These were above SC’s and ST’s in caste hierarchy but below Upper caste and are identified by Government of India. Constitute staggering 45-50% of India’s population. I think they are not readily identifiable as a group but they are socially disadvantaged as identified by Govt of India.

Muslims : Constitute about 14% of India’s population. Various reports suggest that they are equivalent or below OBC’s and even SC’s and ST’s in social parameters. But not all Muslims are socially disadvantaged . In that sense although they are readily identifiable all of them may not be socially disadvantaged.

This is all what we can measure! It is not known as to what their actual share is in private jobs or even current population percentage . Most of the population data is taken from 1931 census of India though Government carries out sampling often.

Analyse :

It is beyond doubt that the social groups that I have talked about do not have a fair representation in Education, Judiciary , Corporate world and Media .The same may not be true about legislative assemblies and the parliament.

How to bring all these groups in national mainstream by giving them fair social ,economic and political share?

The social groups that I have mentioned seem to have different socio economic profile.

Hmm….

I think the only way is to provide these people with right opportunities and skills to take on the world. But the fact remains that most of these communities do not have fair share in education. Education has to be the logical starting point for any social upliftment. Affirmative action seems to be the short term answer .What this will do is provide proportionate representation to youths from these communities to various educational institutes and in politics which can itself bring economic benefits. Yes , but that process is long drawn and furthermore in a country where educational opportunities are limited there is always a vast majority that does not get benefit of these affirmative actions anyway. But aren’t opportunities limited in India anyways? What about vast majority the youths who could not avail of these benefits?

Hmm…. .

seem to have stuck to a dead end now. Even if you do affirmative action it’ll not reach the vast majority to bring about the social transformation that we are talking about. So even if they get fair share look at the proportion of population that we are talking about.
But then this has to do with overall economic growth of the country which is a different issue.

What about vast rural India that’ll be untouched by the affirmative action policy?

Reminds me of a long forgotten story ….

Land Reforms …

The land reforms that were carried out in different states Independent India were only of a notional nature and the benefits never reached the needed although the degree with which these reforms were implemented varied across the states.

Kick starting fresh land reforms with proper practices and checks and balances in place ( so that the land is really transferred to the needy and not go back to the landlords again .This is what happed sadly with Indian land reforms) will really help restore the caste balance in rural India. In fact the caste wars in rural India and birth of Maoist and Naxalites is largely due to the failure of land reforms.

What about Primary education?


Yes. Good quality universal primary education is still not available in rural India . Providing primary education to all the sections of society ( and hence the weaker sections) will reduce the huge social difference that exists among various classes in India.
I would like to emphasize the point that without proper primary education even the benefits of reservation will not reach the needy as those selected through reservation will not be able to compete with general category.

To be continued….