Picking the Right Person for the Right Job: An Artistic Skill Possessed By Successful Leaders!

Some time ago, I had written a blog in this forum,  a case study highlighting  the differences in the working styles of two chief executive officers in the same company that impacted the company positively and negatively respectively. 

I had named these two CEO's as Mr.X and Mr.Y in my case study-Mr X being the one who made the positive impact and Mr Y who caused the negative impact. In the case study, the incidences that I had mentioned were personally involving me and known to me. I had written this as an example to remind the readers about the importance of the personality traits of leaders, both inherent and acquired, in ensuring organizational success.

Successful leaders do have the knack of identifying the potentials of people and taking advantage of the hidden potentials for the collective benefit of the organization and ensuring organizational success. It may be easier for some people to know about the qualities of individuals who are directly in touch with them. However, higher level interactions in most large organizations tend to become highly formal which result in people getting evaluated mechanically and statistically with total neglect of their human values. 

The so-called human resource management (HRM) in such organizations, where the top leaders become careless about HRM, becomes too routine and mechanical. Soon, people of such organizations become mere entities with employee numbers rather than human beings with warm hearts and responsive minds! The organization becomes too socialistic with all employees getting treated more or less in the same manner, disregarding their individual functions, experience and expertise! The Human Resource Department (HRD) takes over and determines all aspects of human resources routinely and mechanically instead of the CEO's or other functional leaders within the organization. The role of the latter in HRM becomes too insignificant in such organizations. At this point onward, the organization begins to slip down to its failure!  

The top leaders in such circumstances slip away from their fundamental leadership quality of picking, projecting and mentoring (what I prefer to call as the PPM process) the individuals who are the keys of sustainable success for their respective organizations.

Many of the successful start up companies have leaders who possess the leadership skill in PPM. Many failing organizations (companies, governments and the like) do turn around when they get a CEO or equivalent leader who is artistically skilled in PPM.

Mr.X about whom I mentioned above was one CEO who possessed the PPM skill. I would like to tell about two other instances, personally known to me, in which this skill in him made the difference.

Let me call him ERC instead of calling him Mr.X.  He was the CEO of a large public sector organization employing some 70000 people at that time. At that time I was a junior level chemical engineer  in this company engaged in metallurgical production in massive volumes. During this time, I was moved to the in-house design and engineering department of this company entrusted with the task of finding solutions to production problems arising out of inadequacies in water management systems in this huge metallurgical production facility. 

At that time one additional steel production facility got commissioned and the management was constantly trying to enhance production to its rated capacity. The new facility which was to produce steel slabs through its continuous casting machines was not able to produce quality steel slabs. The slabs the machine produced were with many surface cracks.

Foreign experts were called and there were several international experts working to solve the problem, but unfortunately none of them were able to find the root cause of the problem and to find a solution to the problem. As days and months passed, the CEO Mr ERC became a worried person. 

Then perhaps he remembered me as the young engineer who solved the chocking problem of the Gas Cleaning Plants that affected commissioning of the steel converters some months ago, by suggesting some unconventional ideas.

There was an apparent communication from the CEO's office to my head of the department (HoD) that forced the latter to call me personally to his room and asking me to study the problem independently and suggest ideas to resolve the problem just as I did earlier.

I knew nothing about steel making through the continuous casting method. Yet, I accepted the challenge and made my first visit to the new continuous casting department, interacted informally with many engineers and other technical persons. I also studied about all the aspects involved in the process of steel casting through the continuous casting machines. The slab cracking could be due to several reasons, such as machine speed variation, casting powder quality, steel chemical quality, cooling inadequacy and the like.

Just as the experts kept working on these issues, I too thought about all these through my fresh engineering mind which was totally unbiased as I was no expert in this area. Then it struck me. The problem was apparently due to a defective secondary cooling. I thought about it in detail. Then I got convinced and found the reasons of the problem. Inadequate secondary cooling zone water spray cooling was indeed causing the cracks due to partial chocking of a few spray nozzles here and there over a period of few days. The spray nozzle tips were irreversibly getting scaled with water impurities in a hot area affecting the spray distribution geometry.

I thought about the possible solution. The solution was to isolate the secondary cooling zone from the rest of other cooling water circuits and to use specially treated water for this purpose. It involved some technical issues and installing a new water treatment facility. 

I gave my findings and my suggestion to my HoD who in turn forwarded it to the CEO's office. Just in a day's time, the CEO studied the suggestion and gave his decision. His noting entrusted me to work out the detailed feasibility report (FR) in line with my suggestion so as to enable the company to take the necessary approvals to set up the new facility as suggested by me. I prepared the detailed FR in a month's time. 

I remember Mr ERC personally pursuing the FR and getting the approvals of the company Board in a week's time, some thing exceptional for the company. I was made the lead engineering consultant for the project. The project got commissioned two weeks before the scheduled date. And the problem of steel slab cracking got resolved for ever.

Later, a new government came in to power in India. Mr ERC was called for a meeting in Bangalore with the new minister concerned with our company. Mr ERC never returned back. He was unceremoniously removed from the post of the CEO for reasons still not known!

Being an eminent steel professional, Mr ERC was soon picked up by an emerging steel company in western India with huge ambitions in the Indian steel business. He was also in the director-boards in a few other private companies as well at that time when privatization trend took momentum in India.

I had seen Mr ERC from a distance only. Being a junior officer of the company, I never had an opportunity to interact with him directly, face-to-face.

After Mr ERC left our company some time in 1989, we were not knowing much about his whereabouts. During that period, the private steel company based in Western India, started recruiting professionals for various senior positions for their proposed integrated steel plant project in the west coast. There was one senior position that appeared as well suited to my experience and qualifications. So, I too applied and I was called for the interview.

The interview was scheduled at the company's steel project office quite away from a well known city. The company had arranged vehicles to take the candidates to the interview venue from their city office. 

I was quite surprised to find more than 50 people who had turned up to attend the interview for just one HoD level post. Most of the people had been from the private industry, for whom jumping from one post to the other was not a big issue as compared to the few people like me from the public sector and the government.

The interview began at around 11 a.m. For each candidate, they were taking about half an hour. They were also not allowing the people who got finished to meet the others who were waiting. I began to feel a bit irritated when my turn was not coming even after few hours. Then I decided to quit without attending the interview. But my problem was the transport to go back to my hotel in the city. Unless the company provided some vehicle, it was impossible for me to go back.

I decided to approach the concerned HR personnel. To my surprise, I was directed to a person whom I find was a senior officer  who superannuated some time ago from my own company. We knew each other to some extent. I told him my intention to go back without the interview and my disillusion with the whole process that they were adopting.

When I insisted, this old man suddenly asked me a question. He asked me whether Mr ERC was someway connected to me. I did not realize why he was asking that. I knew Mr ERC as our company's powerful ex-CEO. But we never interacted one-to-one and there was no chance that Mr ERC knowing me, just one among the thousands of engineers who were in his past organization. So, I replied in the negative.

Then this person produced a paper from his table drawer. He handed over that paper to me and I read what was written in it. Mr ERC had scribbled something on it which surprised me a lot. He had instructed the HR department to get me to be appointed for the post. He had written my name, my then place of working and other details quite unambiguously. 

My senior now sitting on the other side then told me their part of the story. He said that this instruction,  from Mr ERC who had become one of their directors, came after they took actions for advertising for the post. They were thinking of approaching me directly. But then they saw my own application among the people who had responded to the advertisement. Their job had thus become easier.

He then informed that I was their choice for the post. Now the interview that was being done was a formality and also an opportunity for some of them to assess my potentials. That was the reason why they had deliberately kept me as the last candidate for the interview.

My interview took place late in the evening. The interview board consisted of very senior and aged people. I was quite young and would have fumbled facing these stalwarts from the industry. But soon I realized the manner in which they interacted with me. They were treating me like an industry expert in my area of specialization. It was a true professional interaction.

Soon they announced about my selection to the post. I remember, the full bus load of candidates returning back to the city with all the rest congratulating me for my selection.

But I did not accept that offer due to some other reasons. That is another story.

I have wrote this to illustrate the special skill of Mr ERC in evaluating people under him even when he never directly interacted with them. He had his own channels of knowing the pulse of his organization. He had his own methods to know about the potentials of the individuals who worked in the organization even when he never had the necessity to meet any one of those individually. 

Knowing people and using the PPM process wisely were some aspects of his successful leadership.

Many of our leaders in the industry and in other areas unfortunately ignore this and make their respective organizations risk potential failure.

If successful companies become suddenly unsuccessful and if governments fail to keep up the expectations of the people, it is all because of the failure of the concerned leaders in recognizing the individuals that form the organization and their failure to make use of the people appropriately.

Would you respond with your views on this?

Does Advancement of Science Possibly Enhance Our Faith in God?

The More Advances in Science, the More Your Faith in God!

Being an engineering professional, I have been involved with the design and installation of large process plants especially in the metallurgical and chemical processing fields. I have got opportunities to witness ordinary folks viewing those plant installations with awe. There are even people who ask me how such things are made.

It is not always possible to make them understand, unless they themselves possess some essential knowledge in engineering and have some IQ level to grasp those. Even if I explained the ordinary folks all the details, they might not get any thing!

In a similar way, I too view with awe the engineering marvels that are created by engineers having advanced knowledge and IQ level than me. Even if they try to explain and teach me about the details of those creations, I may not understand much. Because, I do not possess the basic IQ level and knowledge level that are  essential to grasp those.

Engineering is practical science and there are scientists turned engineers and engineer turned scientists who keep using their brains and skills to make progress in science.

But engineers are also humans with limited mind capacities in varying degrees. The average human mind capacity is nowhere near to those of the highest types.

It is also not possible for an  individual human being to be a master of all trades with full knowledge in all things. Hence, pooling of knowledge and team work are essential for everyone including engineers and scientists to accomplish tasks.

So for all of us, who lack the knowledge and IQ levels to the desired degree, even humanly created things appear as magical marvels! It is also not possible for us to visualize how these things are made by those who created such marvels on our earth!

We use the personal computers, the android phones, the internet, travel in air, live in high rise buildings, read about the discoveries in science and listen to our scientists speak about their theories without really understanding much about the details of these. 

We might be contributing a bit to all these, but yet, we hardly understand the whole thing. It is true with even the Chief Executive of the company that manufacture the PCs or the android phones!

We do not understand it does not mean that others also do not understand. While we are ignorant, there are others who are not so ignorant. On the other hand, while we are knowledgeable, there are others who cannot know.

Some of our scientists try to understand about materials. They have found out that all materials are essentially made of the same kinds of particles. Yet, the elements and the molecules are all wonderfully different! Just as the buildings we make with bricks and steel, the materials too are very different, though made of just one fundamental particle (the god's particle or what is being told as the ultimaton!) 

I have been told by some superior beings that 100 ultimatons constitute the electron. Of course, this aspect is not yet clearly understood by our particle physicists! Perhaps, they are in the process of learning that.

Some of our scientists are now well versed in the electronic configuration of atoms of elements. I have been informed by some superior beings that only 100 natural elements are possible on earth. They wrote it in a book which got published in 1955 at a time when our scientific community was just in the process of realizing the basics of particle physics. Unfortunately, this book could not be labelled as a science research publication because the book contained information that was already known to some superior beings. 

Our scientists too work on the principles of democracy and democracy do form politics and science is not above politics. That is because we have varying degrees of mind capacities! Hence, in such matters, we cannot arrive at any majority supported conclusions. Yet, most of the world's renowned scientists had immense faith in the existence of God!

Let me quote a few statements from the book* I mentioned above that talks about ultimatons and the atoms of elements:

While the space charge of universal force is homogeneous and undifferentiated, the organization of evolved energy into matter entails the concentration of energy into discrete masses of definite dimensions and established weight—precise gravity reaction. 

Local or linear gravity becomes fully operative with the appearance of the atomic organization of matter. Preatomic matter becomes slightly gravity responsive when activated by X ray and other similar energies, but no measurable linear-gravity pull is exerted on free, unattached, and uncharged electronic-energy particles or on unassociated ultimatons. 

Ultimatons function by mutual attraction, responding only to the circular Paradise-gravity pull. Without linear-gravity response they are thus held in the universal space drift. Ultimatons are capable of accelerating revolutionary velocity to the point of partial antigravity behavior, but they cannot, independent of force organizers or power directors, attain the critical escape velocity of deindividuation, return to the puissant-energy stage.

In nature, ultimatons escape the status of physical existence only when participating in the terminal disruption of a cooled-off and dying sun. The ultimatons, unknown on your world, earth, slow down through many phases of physical activity before they attain the revolutionary-energy prerequisites to electronic organization. Ultimatons have three varieties of motion: mutual resistance to cosmic force, individual revolutions of antigravity potential, and the intra-electronic positions of the one hundred mutually inter-associated ultimatons. 

Mutual attraction holds one hundred ultimatons together in the constitution of the electron; and there are never more nor less than one hundred ultimatons in a typical electron. The loss of one or more ultimatons destroys typical electronic identity, thus bringing into existence one of the ten modified forms of the electron. Ultimatons do not describe orbits or whirl about in circuits within the electrons, but they do spread or cluster in accordance with their axial revolutionary velocities, thus determining the differential electronic dimensions.

This same ultimatonic velocity of axial revolution also determines the negative or positive reactions of the several types of electronic units. The entire segregation and grouping of electronic matter, together with the electric differentiation of negative and positive bodies of energy-matter, result from these various functions of the component ultimatonic interassociation. Each atom is a trifle over 1/100,000,000^th of an inch in diameter, while an electron weighs a little more than 1/2,000^th of the smallest atom, hydrogen. The positive proton, characteristic of the atomic nucleus, while it may be no larger than a negative electron, weighs almost two thousand times more.

If the mass of matter should be magnified until that of an electron equaled one tenth of an ounce, then were size to be proportionately magnified, the volume of such an electron would become as large as that of the earth. If the volume of a proton—eighteen hundred times as heavy as an electron—should be magnified to the size of the head of a pin, then, in comparison, a pin’s head would attain a diameter equal to that of the earth’s orbit around  the sun. 

The formation of all matter is on the order of the solar system. There is at the center of every minute universe of energy a relatively stable, comparatively stationary, nuclear portion of material existence. This central unit is endowed with a threefold possibility of manifestation. Surrounding this energy center there whirl, in endless profusion but in fluctuating circuits, the energy units which are faintly comparable to the planets encircling the sun of some starry group like your own solar system.

Within the atom the electrons revolve about the central proton with about the same comparative room the planets have as they revolve about the sun in the space of the solar system. There is the same relative distance, in comparison with actual size, between the atomic nucleus and the inner electronic circuit as exists between the inner planet, Mercury and your sun. 

The electronic axial revolutions and their orbital velocities about the atomic nucleus are both beyond the human imagination, not to mention the velocities of their component ultimatons. The positive particles of radium fly off into space at the rate of ten thousand miles a second, while the negative particles attain a velocity approximating that of light. The local universes are of decimal construction.

There are just one hundred distinguishable atomic materializations of space-energy in a dual universe; that is the maximum possible organization of matter in your universe region. These one hundred forms of matter consist of a regular series in which from one to one hundred electrons revolve around a central and relatively compact nucleus. It is this orderly and dependable association of various energies that constitutes matter. 

Not every world will show one hundred recognizable elements at the surface, but they are somewhere present, have been present, or are in process of evolution. Conditions surrounding the origin and subsequent evolution of a planet determine how many of the one hundred atomic types will be observable. The heavier atoms are not found on the surface of many worlds. Even on your world earth, the known heavier elements manifest a tendency to fly to pieces, as is illustrated by radium behavior.

If I say that the book from which the above is quoted is authored by superior beings, you would perhaps agree with me, on the assumption that they were superior humans. Because, you are aware of superior humans. But if I say, these authors are not human beings,but invisible divine beings, you would laugh at me. That is because, you do not have any experience with such beings. You may not be an atheist. Yet, you would laugh at the thought of the so called angels or devas  writing a book. That is not because such beings are an imagination of some people, but because of your lack of knowledge and experience in that area.

But then all aspects of science are not known to all people. All things theorized by the scientists cannot be verified. Yet, we consider science as infallible. We may have extreme faith in God. We may accept religious faith. But it is difficult for us to coordinate our spiritual thoughts and beliefs with our scientific thoughts and beliefs. Is this too one of our human mind limitation?

But I am an optimist. I have critically examined the knowledge revealed by the book I mentioned above. I have logically come to the conclusion that the book cannot be a fraudulent work of clever humans as in the case with several other books that exist for our scrutiny. And due to that, I know the revealed knowledge that are provided in the above mentioned book are indeed true. On the basis of that truth, I have to be an optimist only. I have enough reason to believe that our earth is heading towards more progress and advanced civilization and not to ultimate destruction!

Being privy (not a situation deliberately made for me; you too could be in that position!) to the advanced truths that the book provides me, I have got an opportunity to understand some essential information about the purpose for which the worlds in our universe and those who live in those are created. 

You would only cry out in desperation only if you are taken blindfolded to an unknown destination. In that case you would not enjoy the time of your trip and you would remain as anxious as possible!

On the other hand, if you know more about the trip and if you are not blind folded, you would perhaps enjoy your trip fully and would remain in anticipation of the great things ahead. 

So with the aid of the superior knowledge that I gained from the book, I am optimistic about the merger of science and religion in the future. When our scientific and spiritual knowledge advance, we are going to have much determined faith in God. A faith that is definitely not prejudiced or  immersed in superstitions!

* Click Here to Know More!

Let Me Share With You Some Great Realizations, Experienced Honestly as True!

1.Give advice only when it is asked for. Your advises or help to those who do not seek it are indeed wasteful!

2. Impatience is a mind poison and it damages both mind and body. You really do not possess the capacity to fasten the natural time sequence for most of the worldly activities and processes! 

3.Possessing power and not using it for satisfying selfish goals can be practiced only by superior humans. Immature humans seek power and wealth for selfish goals that might eventually turn them towards evil and become less civilized. Therefore, power and wealth in the command of inferior humans possibly cause retardation of human progress.

4.Superior humans honestly care for others than for themselves. Their presence and acts reduce the negative impacts caused by the inferior peoples.

5. Interfere to settle a dispute only when you have the real strength to do it. Otherwise, there is a possibility of the dispute getting worse and becoming a larger conflict. It is better not to get involved when you do not have the physical and mental strength to settle a dispute.

6.  Better to keep your mouth shut when ignorant men and women keep talking. Ignorant people seldom realize their ignorance and their own weaknesses but try always to project them as superiors due to their inferiority complexes. They might listen to you, if they are scared of your power (e.g. as the boss)!

7.  It is not possible to teach a human beyond his inherent biologic capacity to learn and understand. One of your child may have an IQ above 120, but that does not ensure the same to your other child. You may not succeed to send them both to Harvard even when they both have the same ancestry. Hence, people who are exposed to the same preaching and teaching might understand things differently and their responses and thoughts also might be different.

8.  Every human being has a unique personality, no two are the same, not even the identical twins. It is quite natural for your first child to become an eminent physician while the second one fails to become even a ward boy!

9. Men and women are totally different not only in bodies, but also in their minds. They are not equals but are meant to be complementary to each other. Therefore, a husband may not find his wife in tune with his ideas always and the wife too often find it the same manner leading to marital discords. Family disputes can reduce to a great extent when both men and women truly realize this fact.

10. Being a good person possessing more intelligence and wisdom than those around you might alienate them from you. If it is so, you are really going to be the odd man out. It would really be difficult for the good people of wisdom and intelligence to live among inferior people, unless they master some wise arts of living!

11. Genius, intelligence and abilities for extra ordinary accomplishments do not necessarily make one good. But such qualities would give extra opportunities for a person to become good than to adopt evil ways. On the other hand, an intelligent person willfully doing evil deeds is truly an evil being who would eventually face consequences of his or her evil deeds. 

12. A man or woman accomplish nothing great with all their high achievements if they are to perish totally after living a few years only on earth. But if their personalities survive material death and they happen to live even after death with full self awareness, it is indeed a great achievement! It is indeed difficult for evil men and women to accomplish this great achievement!

13. Animals, plants and many humans cease to exist after death, but some really fortunate humans live everlastingly with full awareness, undergoing progressive life re-incarnations in advanced forms till they become perfect personalities. Individuals who are good and those who willfully abandon evil to become good are the ones who are likely to achieve this.

14.It is important to nurture both body and mind, but it is also important to balance all our deeds.

15. Ambition is good, but over ambition is not. Over ambition is likely to cause a person to shift towards evil.

16. The more people argue about a topic, the less the chances that it is true. It is the ignorant fellows who argue a lot!

17. The more people try to appear as religious or spiritual, the more the chances that they are dishonest. For the truly spiritual person, there is always the internal spiritual communication and he or she does not need that to be outwardly displayed. The outward display of spirituality is truly a dishonest act and such persons really do not have any fear or love to God!

18. Money, power and other material prosperity of life are not necessarily blessings of God. Wealth and power on earth tend to accumulate in the hands of those who admire or tolerate evil because of certain peculiar circumstances that exist on earth.

19. Unwise charity is a foolish attempt of people to gain fame or to escape guilt and it does no good. Giving alms to those who do not deserve it might do more harm than good. Help those in need according to the call of your inner consciousness and not for enhancing your own importance and influence!

20. It is difficult for imperfect people to overcome selfishness because they will not try honestly to discard it.

21. No person can be changed to adopt good by sermons unless he or she has an inner urge for becoming good.

22. Immature persons has more of animal traits in them and hence they cannot be disciplined by sermons always; they might also need some fear inducements.

23. Living an innocent life is not a wise living in an immature society. In an immature society, a wise person should live like a lovable dove, but it is also wise to act like a venomous serpent cleverly for self defense at times when required.

24.The life on this earth in whatever form is not a purposeless one; it has some purpose. The most important purpose of this life is to earn experience of material living and to experience the power of good over evil.

25. Every person has some God spirit in him or her, but that does not make a human, God. Humans are no equals to God.

26. Atheism is an idea promoted by humans with good IQ but confused minds.

27. It is childish to think that God is like a human but having some higher magical capabilities. God is eternal, infinite and beyond the comprehensive capacities of humans. Worshiping God is a special inherent trait of humans unlike their animal cousins who lack it.

28. For many, prayer and worship are for pleasing a boss like god for getting some immediate benefits.

29. God never uses His power to punish any human for any misdeeds. 

30. Misfortunes do happen to people of earth due to mistakes done by them or others or due to their carelessness or due to natural events resulting out of universal laws and principles.

31.God is Love and His laws are unchanging. God is also not a respecter of persons.

32. God exists in Spirit form and all material energies are formed out of spiritual energies.

33. Spiritual energies and spiritual personalities are primordial (original) all other forms came later.

34.Life and personality of humans are gifts from God given for some universal purpose.

35. A human being's place of birth and time of birth have some role in shaping his personality and destiny; but stars and planets are not responsible for this phenomena and hence, astrology is a pseudoscience with erroneous basic assumptions. The predictive success of astrology is only fifty percent if it is to be evaluated statistically. 

36. The vast majority of miracles in this world are not really miracles in the real sense just as magic is no miracle for the magician.

37. There exist an enormously big group of invisible, intelligent and immortal spiritual beings in our universe and they all carry out various functions perfectly as per the will of God, excepting a few rebellious lower order groups here and there including on our earth who have willfully decided to embrace evil by going against God's will.

38. Human beings are inherently imperfect; but they are capable of achieving improvements and advancing towards perfection.

39. The rebellious invisible spiritual beings present on earth have been responsible for creating certain apparently miraculous situations now and then on earth to confuse gullible and immature human beings to comprehend the truths about God.

40. God does not allow perpetuation of evil by anyone; but the divine acts of corrections may appear as slow to those who do not have the ability to comprehend God and His ways.

41. All creative designs of living beings, non living things and organizations that we observe on earth reflect certain pattern replication which are of divine origin and creativity.

42. Creativity is a divine quality; humans have got it due to their ancestry that links them to God.

43. Though God is the Universal Father of all living beings, visible and invisible, mortals and immortals all throughout the universes, it does not mean that all  beings got into existence by the direct act of God. God acts through self distribution and delegation!

44. It must be the prime duty of all humans having non-defective minds to love God unconditionally and try to experience Him as much as they could. When a person loves God truly, unselfish affection to all others naturally radiates from him or her.

45. Modern day humans are fortunate than their forefathers because they live in an era of advanced knowledge which, if they so desire, could be of much advantage to them for nurturing both body and mind.

46. Insatiable greed and selfishness, desire to control others, desire to inflict pain to others, insatiable desire for pleasures at the cost of others, unwillingness to seek truth even while capable of doing it, unwillingness to seek improvements in life and blaming God or others for all problems of life are all potential evils which make a man or woman to move away from God.

47. Earth is presently evil dominated and good people naturally face much odds on earth. But that does not mean that it would remain that way for ever or it would go from worse to the worst.

48. The civilization of earth would keep on improving from generation to generation and would ultimately reach it peak some thousands of years later. During the course of its progress, it would also face various calamities caused by imperfect human acts. But humans would never be permitted to inflict total destruction of earth by God.

49. Humans of earth have limitations of body and mind. Hence they would never ever be able to go beyond their inherent capacities while they live on earth.

50. For human minds to advance, they need to forgo their perishable material bodies and acquire certain divinely gifted mind powers that enable them to transcend the limitations of their material minds.

NGO run Rural and Family Planning Centres: A Valueless Suggestion for Population Control and Rural Employment Generation for India!

India is the world's second most populous country .Any time in the recent future it could overtake the present number one, China. The population growth in India is happening at a tremendous rate of about 20% every decade.

Ever since the aggressive population control misadventure of the government of India during the emergency rule during the 1970's , the successive governments apparently lost their courage and interest to include population control under any serious governmental agenda. As a result there has been an explosive growth of population from about 890 million (1981 census) to 1210 million (2011 census). That is more than 300 million additional people in three decades! Thus, the present day India is a country of youngsters and youths with more than 50 percent under the age 40!

Well-to-do Indians are more and more adopting the one-child-per-couple norm while average and below average Indians still follow the many-children norm. Thus, in the near future, the population of below average Indians would keep rising. This situation is potentially dangerous and could trigger envious enmities gripping the minds of the less privileged people.

Rise of population should  not be something that could be a worry for India, had India knew how to manage its resources efficiently. India is one of the best lands in the world with regard to natural resources. Unfortunately, its resource management systems and resource administration have not been very good. Thus, unprecedented rise in absolute population under poor administrative systems would naturally enhance the problems of the Indian people. Some may directly feel the pinch while many others may not directly feel it for quite some time until they themselves face some problems. 

Rising population and shrinking job opportunities are the two main problems of India. These two problems cause other problems to rise as well.

Considering the above, the first priority of all right thinking leaders (political, administrative, social and religious) of India should have been the following:

• How to bring down the population growth?
• How to enhance the opportunities for employment and jobs?

In my humble opinion, when the above two things are addressed, many of the ills of India would automatically get reduced to a great extent.

I have some suggestions to all leaders to think and act. I do not know whether they ever hear the words of people like me or not! Chances for that are very remote as the Indian leaders of all kinds are known for their impatience, arrogance and I-know-it-all attitudes! Over and above, once a leader, there are enough mundane things that keep them permanently occupied that they would not get any time to think and act of their own!

Now, let me discuss about the suggestions that I have. 

First, about population control. In my opinion, the governments need not become proactive or aggressive in this regard. Rather they should not. They should not do any thing that make the people becoming antagonistic just as what had happened during the emergency days with Mr Sanjay Gandhi's compulsory sterilization program or what had recently happened in Chhattisgarh state in a government sponsored women sterilization program.

The government should only be an educator and facilitator in this context. The government should not directly get involved with any family planning or population control program. But the government should be a dedicated facilitator.

How do they do it? The following could be a possible approach:

Let the government announce a program and guidelines for social groups, companies and religious organizations to set up non-profit non-governmental organizations (NGO) that are responsible for the promotion of family planning, health and hygiene, sanitation, women welfare, child care and other related areas. 

Let these NGO's be allowed to create physical infrastructure and trained welfare staff organizations under them for the said purpose.

Let them be registered with the government (state or central). 

Let them be provided with grants and be allowed to accept donations from the public and also charge nominal service charges for their services from those who can pay.

Let these NGO managed Rural and Family Planning Centers (RFPC) be treated as quasi-government organizations which are autonomous, but responsible to the public with regard to their functions.

Let their accounts be fully transparent and in the public domain through their own websites.

Let them be free to plan their action plans and implement them using their staff and volunteers. Let them also be free to appoint their staff and fix their remunerations. 

Let this be first tried for the rural areas as that is the priority sector for population growth and employment generation. 72% of Indian people live in the villages. Let each of these NGO managed RFPC's be responsible for at least 1000 families and let them be allowed to register families for the management of all governmental welfare schemes. Let these RFPC's also be allowed to interact with the rural folks regularly and also build up demographic information and data.

Every RFPC should have a staff strength of one for every 100 family. Thus, an RFPC that caters to a rural population of about 6000 (approximately 1000 families) should have a staff strength of 10 people besides its voluntary director board. At least one staff member of an RFPC should be a medically trained person.

There are over 600,000 villages in India with an average population of over 1000. If an RFPC caters to about one thousand families or about 6000 people, there could be over 100,000 RFPCs. 

With every RFPC employing at least 10 people, the rural employment generation through this would be 1,000,000 or one million.

Now let us see how much money is required to establish and run one RFPC. 

Ideally, an RFPC should have about 1000 square meters of land and about 200 sq.m of building space of its own. For any rural area, this would cost on the average the following:

• Land cost :      1000000 @ Rs. 1000/- per sq.m
• Building cost:  2000000 @ Rs. 10,000/- per sq.m
• Other:              1000000 

That is about 40 lakh rupees ( 4 million rupees) for the essential infrastructure to be created for each of the RFPC. Remember, these are not to be managed by the government departments. If the government ever tries to do it directly, the costs would be much higher and they would make a mess out of it. These RFPCs are to be managed by private NGOs registered under the Societies Act or by any separate act that the government may enact appropriately. 

Now let us see what is the essential employment cost for each RFPC employing 10 staff members. As the staff would be rural based, let us assume that they be paid a monthly gross salary of average Rs.8000 per month in the range 5,000- 12,000. That is about one million rupees yearly. It might require another about 3 million to carry out the family planning and family welfare measures to the families it serves per year taking about 3000 rupees average per family per year.

So, a fully functional RFPC needs about 4 million rupees as its initial capital cost and another 4 million per year as the recurring cost. To make the scheme to run without any financial difficulties, let us for a moment assume that the 4 million recurring cost of an RFPC is coming from a suitable endowment fund constituted and deposited in the treasury or any banks as long term fixed deposits. To gain an interest of 4 million per year, the endowment fund to be deposited as FD would be about 46 million rupees. The endowment fund should only be allowed for generating regular income for meeting the cost of running the organization.

Thus, a workable rural RFPC set up and made functional this way would require about 50 Million rupees- four million for its infrastructure and 46 million to be created as an endowment fund to be kept in government treasuries or with banks. For full funding of all the 100,000 RFPCs a total of 5000,000 million rupees may be required in case the RFPCs are to be made self sustainable perpetually with major incomes generated from their endowment funds. The more this kind of NGO run RFPCs the more the governments could do away with their own field staffing and unyielding staff costs. The governments can divert those activities to these NGO run RFPCs.

The scope and extent of these RFPCs could be further extended to include other developmental activities as well.

Now from where this money would come? Some years ago, the government of India began the Local Area Development (LAD) Scheme for the members of the parliament (MP) called the MPLADS. As per this scheme, every MP has been given a budgetary allocation of Rs.50 million per year to be spent on any scheme of his or her choice in their respective localities or constituencies. There are 776 MPs in India. In an year, they could get 776 x 50 = Rs. 38800 million as MPLAD. 

The members of the state legislative assemblies (MLA) also has their own LAD which is about 20 million per year. There are about 4120 MLAs in India. Their total allocation potential is 4120 x 20 = Rs. 82400 million per year. 

Both MP and MLAs together have been provided with 38800+82400 = Rs.121200 million per year of fund to be spend for their area development. For total cost for a sustainable RFPC as mentioned earlier which will give permanent employment to 10 rural people would be 50 million. Thus, the MPs and MLAs can either fund 30000 RFPCs in an year with regard to their infrastructure and finance all the RFPCs in about three year' time. They can also part finance the initial recurring costs till they become capable of self sustainable with regard to their own generation of funds through various means. 

As I have mentioned, the funds to set up and run these RFPCs can also come from other sources, such as the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds of the companies, transfer from surplus funded educational societies, individuals, etc.

What is essential is the policy and the statutory guidance of the government. The policies and the guidelines should not be too stringent in which case those volunteering to make it would find it a headache. On the other hand, it should not be a platform for some people to pilferage public money without proper accountability. The government could also consider the NGOs as purely non-profit and exempt their incomes from income tax and service taxes.

Such an initiative not only creates more than one million rural jobs, but also helps substantially in making the rural masses the necessary guidance in a variety of much needed actions such as:

• Awareness for population control
• Extending family planning facilities 
• Awareness on public health and disease control
• Awareness creation for sanitation
• Program implementation for sanitation
• Program implementation for drinking water
• Program implementation for rural area pollution control
• Program implementation for non-conventional energy use
• Program implementation for composting and bio-gas production
• Rural self employment generation
• Rural road development
• Adult literacy enhancement and informal education
• Agricultural product sourcing and marketing, etc 

It is not that the state and the central governments of India are not doing these. They are doing, but incurring perhaps a higher cost and also without much visible effects. There are also many NGOs in the work but there is little public awareness and visibility. Family planning and employment generation are apparently not in their priorities. There is much duplication of work without much coordination and accountability.

The time has come for the governments to get away from direct departmental actions and to assume the role of facilitators rather than actual doers in areas like these. At the same time, it is the governments' responsibility to ensure that long term actions do not break and sink midway!

Let the MPLADS and MLALADS funds be utilized efficiently which ensure more and more permanent job creation rather than spending it for improperly planned construction works here and there. 

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has urged the MPs and MLAs to use their funds for Swacch Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Campaign). This too could be well managed if these funds are transferred to the NGOs for setting up and managing the RFPCs under proper policy guidance. 

The Rural and Family Planning Centers set up and managed by various NGOs could be monitored by the MPs and MLAs and also by national and state level bureaucratic coordination departments. However, such acts should not become over control acts by the government. Diversion of funds for private gains other than for the purpose of the NGO or the RFPC should be made a punishable act.

An NGO may be permitted to set up more than one RFPC under their management control. However, such an act should not cause a top heavy organization which eats away the funds for spending towards employing highly paid managers, some thing presently happens with many NGOs in India.

This is only a suggestion and as I have already stated, India does not work as per the ideas of ordinary citizens. It has several celebrity advisers who keep moving in the power corridors seeking to sell their advises for benefits!

You really need heavy and 'valuable' suggestions and advises for getting it implemented in India!