EPFO Pension Fiasco: The Real Story !

If you are a concerned person with some background information, you may directly go to my earlier blog article titled: EPFO of India- How An Indian Statutory Welfare Organization Functions!

But there are millions in this country who are pretty well unaware of EPFO. The pity is that even the so-called contributing members of this organization are also not very well informed.

I have been requested by a few to write a simplified article about the struggle of thousands of people centered around this central government organisation, in the present times.

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is a statutory organisation of the Government of India which is under the control of the Labour Ministry.

One can know the official version of the functions and the details of this organisation by visiting the EPFO Official Website.

It's essential function is to provide post retirement income to the work force of  both private and public sector in India by a collaborative process of financial management.

The EPFO is set up under the statutory provisions of the EPFO Act enacted way back in 1952 and amended several times later, the latest being in 2017. The organisation is also called the Provident Fund Organisation.

By the provisions of this act, all employees coming under the purview of this act in India are required to make some monthly contributions towards their Provident Fund, a fund that would be returned back when the employee retires from active service life, together with the interests and incomes accrued.

Towards the fund, both the employee and the employer are required to contribute almost equally. How much they need to contribute was stipulated by the government by way of amendments of the EPFO Act or its Rules and Regulations from time to time.

The contributions to the fund thus varied from 8.33% to 12% of the basic salary and dearness allowance. Suppose an employee had a basic pay of Rs. 1000/- and a DA of Rs.500/- per month, approximately Rs.150/- was deducted from the employee's monthly salary and sent to his provident fund. An equal amount was required to be paid by the employer as well.

The money so collected went directly to the government account held by the EPFO. It was EPFO's responsibility to invest these funds wisely and gain a return well over the bank interest rates. Of course, the government of India ensured the growth of the fund by suitable direct or indirect interventions from time to time.

While the employees governed by the PF Act got their accumulated PF fund at the time of superannuation, direct government employees governed by the pension act got monthly pensions after retirement direct from the governments' budgetary provisions for salaries and pensions. Such employees too contributed towards PF fund. However, they did not have the employer's equal contribution.

Imagine the amount of contribution which went to the EPFO's account every year! How much it is a matter that is not disclosed easily to the contributing employees or the various employers. Besides, employers not making contributions in time are penalized according to the provisions of the PF law.

Since very large sums were to be invested by the EPFO, they exempted some large companies from remitting the monthly PF collections to the EPFO. Instead some companies were allowed to set up independent Provident Fund Trusts under the general superintendence of the EPFO which were allowed to do the investment management of the funds. Such companies were later called the so-called 'Exempted Organisations'. Consequently, those smaller companies who transmitted the funds directly to EPFO were known as 'Non-exempted Organizations'.

Exempted organisations did not have full autonomy in investment decisions as well as fund repayments. That had to be based on the government directives. Even the profit or interest payable on any year was determined by the government, directly or indirectly. 

Before the 1990's the bank interest rates were to the tune of 10-12% or even more. Thus a lump sum CPF retirement accumulation of Rs.25 lakhs, could easily fetch a monthly interest income of Rs.25000/- which was some thing better than the pension income of the pensionable employees. Thus there was not much grievance from the employees covered under the non-pensionable CPF scheme.

However, some individuals with very low financial management acumen often made big follies in handling the good retirement corpus they received as CPF accumulation. They were left with no survival income after a few years of their retirements. Since India joining the liberalization band wagon, the bank interest rates were on a declining trend.

This forced the government to make an amendment in the PF statutes which envisaged a small portion of the employer's contribution to be set aside separately for making monthly pensions, instead of lump sum payment. This amount was payable directly to the EPFO by both exempted and non-exempted organisations.

The amount to be transferred this way amounted to about 8.33-12% of the employees' basic pay and DA as contributed by the employers. However, the government arbitrarily fixed the maximum monthly salary deemed for any employee at Rs.5000/- way back in the 1990's which they periodically enhanced to Rs.15000/-  in the recent times.

Never during the time when the government introduced this change, it did not give any clarifications to the employees nor the employers about the manner in which the pension would be calculated nor the manner in which it would be paid.

Neither the government made any reasons for the arbitrary fixation of a ceiling to the individuals' actual salary for the purpose of pension contribution.

The government appeared to be not so serious in giving the employees' any real benefits. It appeared to every one that the government had actually tried to grab their hard earned savings in the PF.

Editorial in Malayala Manorama (14-12-2017)
News Paper Highlighting the Irresponsible Attitude of EPFO
(Click the image above to download it) 

I was a member to this scheme right from its inception way back in the 1995. Though my actual basic salary and dearness allowance was well above, Rs.5000/- during those days, about Rs. 450/- every month got deducted from my employer's contribution to be sent to the CPFO. My employer being a large central PSU, the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) was an exempted organization because it had been allowed to set up various trusts in various states to manage the CPF funds. To be frank, we have never heard this term Exempted or Non-exempted during our service period any time!

Most employees had no feed back on how this EPFO or the PF trusts functioned during those days. All felt it was some government function for the benefit of all.

My company routinely issued statements of CPF accumulations and also the mandatory deductions towards the so-called PF-pension. However, we never knew how much would be our pensions nor the formula for working out this pension.

Earlier to that there used to be a monthly salary deduction towards what is then known as the family pension scheme (FPS). It never got implemented even after decades of money deductions. This too was a government initiative.

To be very fair, the government of India had such schemes floated with no seriousness of actually implementing it. Indians, have learned from decades of experience that their governmental system is not for any real benefit to the people, but only provided lip service by inefficient democratic functionaries! They also knew that the bureaucrats had gained their legacy from their colonial masters and they were not very comfortable to provide any thing that really benefited the people. Both the bureaucracy and the politico-cracy were reluctant to work for the benefit of the people. They were great practitioners of self aggrandizement!

The so-called EPFO pension or PF-pension got to some serious pension payment only a couple of years ago. Regardless of the persons actual retirement age, EPFO considered retirement at the age of 58. This fallacy is due to the government attitude of amending various laws without proper home works!

The EPFO seemingly never maintained any proper records of the money they collected towards the PF pension from the individual organizations towards the concerned employees. Though they are a central organization, they maintained their accounts state-wise with responsibilities distributed to a government official called the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner. There is only one office in every major state which is normally located in some location in the state capital city. For those who are not staying in the state capitals, it is really a great punishment to locate this regional PF office and get their PF related problem fixed.

Efforts for computerized management of accounts with Universal Account Number (UAN) for every contributing employee member has been implemented only in the recent years. Even now the system is not very transparent! The system still is in its infancy state and it is not very easy to transact through their computer system or know any information that the members might require. The members also cannot put up their applications or file complaints through the website, though they claim it as possible.

Similar to many like me I got retired from my company in 2016. As my company had operating centers in several states, I had to work in a couple of such centers during my career. Though, my company deducted the statutory PF pension contribution for me to the EPFO, the amounts remained within the concerned state regional PF office account, never to be joined against my UAN. The EPFO never attempted to do it of their own. During my retirement time, I remember the pains I had taken to approach these offices and the company's PF coordinators for getting this done and to get my pension (though pea-nuts) paid. Though I had an actual retirement time basic plus DA salary of over Rs.150,000/- the PF-pension for me with the arbitrary government decided ceiling was coming only about Rs.2000/- per month. On the other hand, a direct pensionable government employee was able to draw his PF in lump sum plus a monthly pension of Rs. 75,000/- which was to grow every year till his remaining life time. And the lump sum contributory provident fund that we received was not going to yield any corresponding income when there is no guaranteed returns from any investments on a long period with interest incomes are on a declining trend. Unless you are a financial wizard or your family is financially sound, the employees retired from public sector and private sector are faced with great uncertainties of retired existence!

Here one point is to be made clear. There is absolutely no difference in payment of pension contribution to the EPFO by the organisation whether it is exempted or non-exempted. Exempted or non-exempted is a categorization done by the EPFO officials for their own convenience of accounting for the management of the entire PF funds.

But for the PF-pension contribution, the government asked all to transfer the money to EPFO even for the exempted organizations where authorized PF Trusts have been in service. This perhaps caused many in the exempted organizations to think that the PF pension contribution is a type of government tax and it was being used to augment the government's yearly budget!

A couple of years ago, some employees from some Kerala based organizations learnt the manner in which the EPFO calculated the pension due for each of the contributing employee member. The formula they presented showed a very high pension had there not been the ceiling arbitrarily fixed by the government for the salary!

For example, instead of the Rs.2000/- I would have got about Rs.40000/- per month. Though this is income generated from our own funds with administered returns, this amount would not have grown very high as compared to the conventional pensioners of the government. But surely it guaranteed a better tension free retired life at least for the present times. If we were to make a long term annuity of that level we have to invest over Rs. 50,00,000 ! And there is no provision for future inflation!

With this realization, some retired employees felt that the arbitrary ceiling of salary that the government fixed without the concurrence of the employees must be removed and a higher pension according to actual salary to be given. Several retired employees were ready to refund the lump sum CPF they were paid during retirement.

But to their utter dismay, the EPFO was not in their favor. This government organization which was created for providing and ensuring the retired employees, actually preferred to be non considerate! In my opinion, this unfriendly attitude of this organization is not because of any political directive, but due to bureaucratic attitudes, for which India is conventionally infamous! 

Besides, Indian bureaucrats apparently love people to be drawn to the courts even for such things were things are logical and simple to find solutions and decisions. They know the art of making simple things complicated. Many times, their attitudes and actions even cause their political masters too at the receiving end of higher courts!

Thus EPFO bureaucracy of that time forced the aggrieved retired employees of Kerala and some other states to approach the courts for the justice denied rectified. Initially the courts too were not very considerate due to the wide misrepresentation of various facts.

Finally, the Supreme court of India gave a verdict in favor of the retired employees. It asked the government to pay PF-pension to the members based on actual salary removing the arbitrary ceiling.

The employees and the retirees felt relieved, only to be betrayed by EPFO once again. This time EPFO bureaucrats issued a circular from their side, apparently without the approval of the EPFO board, restricting the Supreme Court judgement in favor of only the employees of the un-exempted organizations only. This was clearly a well calculated movement by the EPFO bureaucrats to make things complicated and get the sadistic pleasure from watching the plight of the helpless retirees.

Unfortunately for India, many bureaucrats are of this nature. They think Indian governance system is their own vested property. Democracy, peoples' right and the constitutional guidelines have no place in their minds. They do things so cleverly or too indifferently that their political masters are left to their mercy. Since they do not really aspire for any final results, they are not often bothered by the way the final decisions move!

This was the time, some people thought of approaching some politicians. Though the PF law is apparently their brain child, the good majority of politicians do not have any real understanding or the thrust to make an effort to understand the problems of the affected people. They normally act, when they feel that it is a good vote bank issue!

The matter was presented with full details and facts by a Member of the Parliament in the central legislative body compelling the government side to make some statements and course of actions. Normally the ruling class try to go against the demands made by any MP if he or she is from the other side. If they act by the genuineness of the matter, it is really something appreciable.

The present government, no doubt, is the one which made some remarkable initiatives with regard to the management of the EPFO.

The present PF-pension issue of removing the arbitrary ceiling of salary for all member employees in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Supreme Court judgement is some thing the government can easily do if they are genuinely interested in the well being of their senior citizens who worked in the factories owned by the government and the private groups in the past.

I hope the present government would act positively in the earliest time possible without falling prey to the bureaucratic objections or misguidance.

The issue is now concerned with all workforce of India because, governmental pensions no more exist now. The existing workforce in private sector, public sector and the government are all benefited by the EPFO working with genuine people concern.

There are agitations initiated by various associations of retired employees to make the issue known to the government and the public.

I earnestly hope the present government would make a difference and a marked action of effective governance in this issue.

A Minor Incident That Boosted My Happiness!

I would have remained an atheist or a suspicious theist had I not got the precious opportunity to find my favorite book of life guidance* and to know its revealed truths about the origin and purpose of the universe, earth and human life, in a manner never told in the known history of mankind so far.

It was almost a decade ago at the peak of my professional career when I started feeling the pains of human struggles of existence inadvertently making wounds more in my mind rather than on the body. 

Fortunately for me, my finding was so great and overwhelming that it healed up my pains so soon and I got transformed to one that achieved inner peace and tranquility. Alas, I knew the reasons for human life struggles even at the cost of their fellow beings!

Some time ago I too was like them, fighting for existence even at the cost of my fellow beings with mind full of anxiety, ambition, ego, clever calculations to succeed in every day competition to gain the mantles of power to control others and the grief of various kinds of failures periodically nullified by occasional successes.

The new earned knowledge made an end to all those. I realized the futility of life struggles the way it had been earlier. New definitions of life and the way of life had been told to me that was fully acceptable to my rational mind.

The wealth of knowledge that the book revealed to me has been tremendous, mind boggling and above all satisfying.

Like all animals, including humans, I too was suspicious in the beginning. Animals and humans that got cheated earlier cannot trust anyone or anything even when it is genuinely good.

I explored hard to eliminate the chances of getting cheated by this new source of information and knowledge and fortunately for me, I could find no reason to suspect any fraud or piece of information that was nonsensical, illogical or inconsistent.

But the information that I have now challenged many common ideas and belief systems of my fellow men and women. But since many of them are similar or much better to me in understanding and assimilating new information and knowledge, I thought I should not keep the treasure of knowledge to me alone, but share it with them so that they too could find the peace that I gained.

I was too enthusiastic to share my new found knowledge with my fellow beings.

I started talking to almost all of my friends and family members about the treasure of knowledge that I had with all genuine enthusiasm and expected them to show a similar enthusiasm to know more.

But I was proved wrong.

I never found any such enthusiasm in any one.

Some showed lukewarm eagerness to please me for the time, some indifferent, some even shown signs of animosity for reasons I could not understand initially.

These responses were enough to down me with desperation. But my new found revealed knowledge had answers to eliminate my desperation. My desperation got changed to curiosity- curiosity to know more about the things unknown!

It was that curiosity that compelled me to share my knowledge pieces with the world of unknown fellow beings through this blog site. The articles in this blog site while sharing my thoughts help me to understand the level of egoistic ignorance that prevent my fellow being from not becoming broadminded or generous. The prevalence of mind hardened humans keep surprising me.

How can a real human be happy when his fellow beings do not taste that happiness and peace for whatever reason it could be? Evil is that power that find happiness when fellow beings suffer in unhappiness. Evil infested humans too could become like that. But that is not what humans are intended to be. 

I would like my fellow beings to come out of evil infestations and be happy. I would like my fellow beings use their intelligence and wisdom for that purpose. But I can see the cleverness by which humans are entrapped in the game of untruths.

At my home, I keep my favorite book of life guidance at the bottom deck of a glass topped center-table. This big blue book is very well visible to any one that comes to visit us. The book has been there for more than a year ever since I shifted to this house. The idea of keeping this fabulous volume there was my curious intention of seeing any one getting any remotest curiosity in knowing about the book.

I knew that it will not happen because I have been forewarned about the level of human mind level in the current times from the knowledge that the book revealed to me.

Yet I was curious to find at least one such being who could be similarly placed like me in my immediate surrounding.

And at last it happened that immediately boosted my happiness.

A childhood friend of mine came visiting me quite unexpectedly with his wife. We have been meeting after nearly five decades!

While we were talking, I saw his wife glancing the blue book often. Then I found her grabbing it from the bottom deck and reading the titles and the sub titles. 

I could see the hidden curiosity on her face. So I asked her whether she would like to know more about it. To my surprise and satisfaction she said in the affirmative.

She wanted to know more and I was happy to tell her.

My briefing no doubt exceeded more than an hour and she was not getting bored. Yet I found my childhood friend and her husband getting bored and yawning. So it was better for me to curtail the briefing.

I asked whether she would like to have that book and she enthusiastically said yes. So I presented her the book and I could see the happiness in her face.

I too was happy. It was the first time in ten years that some one asked for the book enthusiastically and showed curiosity to know about it.

I do not know whether she would keep her enthusiasm to read the book and to gain its treasures of revealed knowledge.

If so, it would be really nice. 

* Explore this site to know more.

What Should be Done to Make My Country Good to Live?

When individuals start losing the fear and anxiety of living, they become more and more generous and considerate to their fellow beings. They become less and less greedy. Corruption in the society arising out of insecurity and greed begins to fade away. Real progress of individuals, society and the nation begins. That is what I have experienced as true.

Now the real issue here is the individuals getting out of the fear of living. Imagine a situation like this and think about it: 

Suppose that the government of your nation ensures the necessary income or money for all individuals to have a decent living, wouldn't your anxiety about the future reduced to a great extent? And when you have full confidence in your government's people oriented policies and their consistency, your anxiety of living would get further reduced.

Nevertheless, it is not possible for imperfect humans to overcome all their problems in a day or even in a couple of years. Human imperfections would take several generations to fade out significantly.

Yet it is possible for governmental systems to move towards overall societal benefit, provided these systems have good leaders with courage, character, competency and compassion. I have written about this earlier in this blog article. In this modern era, there is no dearth of good leaders in any society or nation. However, good people with leadership qualities are often sidelined by collective human cowardice augmented by unseen evil forces.

Do you consider your country good for a good living? If so, why? If not, why? If you are a person of reasonably developed mind, you should think of giving some thought about it and consider sharing your thoughts with others.

For example, I consider my country, India, good for a good living regardless of the many problems it has. No doubt, there are millions of people in this country who still prefer to migrate to other countries after gaining lot from it. The most interesting part of Indian migration to other nations is that it arises out of greed for some so-called better living! And the greed comes from fear of insecurity about the future!

The fear of insecurity in India is so great that almost all well-to-do Indians including those in power wants to secure a living place for their future generations in the so-called developed nations that encourage immigration. India presently has the best possible education facility comparable to that of the developed nations. Yet, well-to-do Indians want their children to study abroad and settle there!

Their greed for a perceived better living is arising out of fear of the future of their nation. They are not comfortable in India with their improvised brethren around them whom they fear to grab the comforts  of their future generations. But as they do not often do a self introspection, they may not have realized the reason for their insatiable greed for foreign pastures!

So, what should be done to remove this fear and the greed coupled with this fear of living and the uncertainty about the future?

Many people, I hear as saying: I do not trouble others, yet why this problem for me? Many of us think that being good means being impartial or indifferent or living independent of others. I have my space and I respect your space. This, many think, is good living. But humans just cannot live independent of each other. They are intrinsically social beings. That means, they have individual as well as collective or social responsibilities. Being indifferent to social causes is a grave error that could cause great harm to all.

Often we forget some of our essential responsibilities of collective living. In our attempt to live a comfortable peace loving life, often we tolerate injustices in the society. We are reluctant to voice our concerns about societal evil. We pretend to be helpless and we often take shelter in our cowardice.

This year, the world YMCA has chosen a theme for their weekly prayer fellowship titled: Stand up, Speak out and Be the voice of the voiceless! Obviously, it was a call to the so called good people to come out of their cocoons to raise voice against injustices happening around them!

It is not a call for any rebellion. Yet it is a reminder for every one to show some concern when societal injustices are observed. When we begin to compromise on errors consistently, sin and evil overcome us! When that happens, our good living gets doomed!

Because, sin and evil cannot ensure good for ever, though it might appear as advantageous to some for some time.

What makes a country good for living is not essentially its geographic advantage or geological wealth. I believe it is the nature of people that is of prime importance.

If material wealth and higher education makes one egoistic with a mindset to consider the not-so-privileged as slaves or the so-called 'cattle-class' he or she has a weak mind that is easily influenced by unseen evil forces. They become easy targets of evil.

Real human progress is characterized by more and more individuals in the society with a mind set to be in the humble service to fellow beings. They are essentially humble and hence oriented towards divinity.

If material progress results in the increase of more and more individuals with insatiable ambition to grab more and more to further their own selfish interests with least concern to fellow beings, then such a material progress is essentially evil. Such a progress will never make the nation good for living. More and more people, even after gaining much wealth and status might feel like migrating to other pastures because the gains have not provided them real peace or security. The rise of evil doers around them will hamper their happiness.

To defeat the growth of evil and to make a society or nation a better place to live, what is essential is to have more and more individuals who have the strength and courage to declare a spade a spade. In other words, people with essential traits to incline towards divinity should be careful not to allow those with evil inclination to come to predominance.

Good people should learn to develop their intrinsic character of knowing truths and to discern truth from untruths. They should learn the technique of suppressing hypocrisy.

Then, divine qualities in the society, such as humility, kindness, fellowship, courage and character begin to show in more and more individuals making the society a real good one to live without anxiety or greed.

It is very simple, only when you really want it to happen.

Else you might well think of migrating to better pastures in search of  some better place or keep lamenting over your fate!

Globalization- Was it a Good Concept Implemented at a Wrong Time and in the Wrong Manner?

Even the best cooks might  cook up a gastronomic disaster even with the best ingredients when they adopt wrong methods  for their cooking. Even the best cooks with the best cookery practices with the best ingredients may not be in a position to make food that is in good taste and liking to all when the food habits of the people are different.

This is something well known. You don't need to be a scientist to understand this.

I consider globalization that several of our nations too enthusiastically adopted,  something similar to unpalatable food.

The idea was no doubt good. But it was implemented at a wrong time with wrong procedures by too many enthusiastic political leaders knowingly or unknowingly  influenced by the ideas  of brilliant economists with the least understanding of human civilization and mind development.

It is now time to look back and analyze the effects of globalization in the world economy as a whole and on various nations.

What way it has affected the individuals, the small and large communities and the business environment?

Some experts try to tell us the advantages and disadvantages of globalization.

But what is your personal experience?

Are you in a position to gauge the effect of globalization on you or your country?

If you are a brilliant and highly skilled person who was fortunate to grab global opportunities, you might well be a proponent of globalization.

But what about the marginalized sections of the society?

What about those who are not so privileged?

How is the global economy getting perverted by the skillful manipulations of intelligent and privileged individuals who are too clever with the least concern for those who lack such qualities?

Globalization has caused the creation of new pockets of wealth concentration. A neo rich global society is getting created at the cost of a vast majority.

I am not against the concept of globalization.

But when globalization proceeds with the skillful manipulations of clever and intelligent people without human love and empathy, evil gets predominance in the world.

And that is not good for the world.

My personal opinion is that globalization should not be left without control or regulation till such time human society is equally developed every where.

Otherwise, inequality and problems of inequality would pull human civilization back at periodical intervals as it had happened in the past.

Overall human progress may not proceed in a proper pace!

Human achievements will be negated by periodical trials and tribulations!

Please share your opinions in case you have understood what I said.

Speak up. Share this idea if you agree. 

Indigo Airline Staff Manhandling Passenger: How to Avoid Such Shameful Acts?

Violence of all kinds, except for exceptional law enforcement, is deplorable and needs to be deplored by modern civilized society. And therefore such violence and violation of human dignity of similar kinds need to be taken seriously with an earnest objective for avoidance of such things in the future.

And my immediate provocation for writing this blog today is this  Youtube Video which is getting viral from yesterday onward in the social media.

The video shows a decently dressed man in his early late fifties or early sixties, apparently an airline passenger, visibly agitated by some thing, near an Indigo Airline Airport Transit Bus getting surrounded, isolated and mercilessly beaten in the most humiliating manner by some fellows in airline ground staff uniform.

I felt too bad and I felt as if my dignity getting violated by these young men who were otherwise supposed to be helping hands to people like me at the airports!

I couldn't believe such a thing, that too from the employees of an Indian airline I have all reasons to admire so far. Obviously I wanted to know more and got much from the following:

Times of India Online declared it as 'shocking'.

There were some coverage in other media as well.

The following is the gist of things I learnt:

The incident took place in New Delhi Airport apparently on 15th October 2017.

The manhandled passenger was travelling from Chennai to Delhi by Indigo flight.

The passenger was agitated by some kind of poor service (reason either not investigated fully and not yet made public!) The demanding passenger irked the wrath of some of the concerned airline ground staff who went berserk to teach the passenger a lesson! Obviously that was not something airline employees are supposed to be trained or briefed. No is taught to put a cockroach in the bread and butter they are supposed to eat! But here they preferred that way for reasons known to them.

Airline business is deemed  to be a polished and polite service to ladies and gentlemen. Their customers are generally not 'cattle class' though some may think otherwise sometimes.

Airlines which tolerate arrogance from the part of their employees are bound to get grounded very quickly. Airline business is indeed a delicate one with much issues affectin its survival and sustainability.

Indigo Airlines of India is one most Indians like me admired. They had a tremendous growth from inception. It has been a low cost carrier and even then, it proved to be a successful business model by appealing things like discipline, punctuality and the like.

It was employee indiscipline and arrogance coupled with corruption, incompetence and inefficiency that almost killed the national public sector airline. The management and staff of Indian airlines and Air India developed their self defeating culture from the days of airline monopoly.

But privatization paved the way for competition and opportunities for improvement.

Sustaining competence in management and leadership is a vital factor for sustaining competition and sustaining business success.

Often business success brings in complacency. And when that happens, both employees and management teams develop arrogance and a tendency to close eyes towards initial signs of future destruction.

In the news above, some things are obvious signs for Indigo for their future sustenance:

They can punish an employee or two for their unruly behavior or cover up the incident by some meaningless apologies in the public.

But if they are serious to sustain, they should honestly investigate to find out the reasons for the following:

1. What caused the passenger to lose his cool in the airport at his arrival?

2. What caused the ground staff to lose their cool when a passenger gets agitated?

3. Why did the higher supervisory management of the airline encouraged a cover up action initially by suspending their employee who took the viral video? In fact they should have encouraged free flow of information from within that exposed aberrations for self corrections!

4. Was it a minor issue or sign of something seriously fuming inside?  

There could be more.

I personally do not like any business to disintegrate for whatever reason. In the free trade capitalism, we may justify business ventures getting ruined due to overall incompetency. But any legally acceptable and successful business getting ruined is not a good thing for the country. It affects not only the shareholders, the employees the management, but others like the customers, the suppliers and all. And somewhere in the links me and you too exist.

And it pains.

Let us hope Indigo Airlines would not be a reason for that!