Competency, Character , Courage and Compassion -the 4 C's that Ensure Long term Success of a Leader!

Some time ago, some one in a large organization asked me the essential traits that are required for any leader to lead an organization and ensure long term success. I explained the relevance of Competency, Character, Courage and Compassion the way I understood it, to answer his question. My friend was not so convinced. I know, a good majority of my fellow country men in India would not take my views.

But whether they accept it or not, it is a universal truth. Leaders who do not have these traits might seem to be successful for a while but the irony is that they would not be able to sustain their success for long.

The organization could be any thing. Political, business, governmental, administrative, religious, social, educational, military, law enforcement, judicial, etc, etc. It could be large or small. It could be autonomous or dependent. It could be a organizational conglomerate with multiple objectives or a simple one with a single objective. Whatever it is, leaders lacking the 4 Cs above could ruin it after some time.

Human civilization has seen many powerful political and national organizations such as many great empires of the past rising and thriving for some time, only to be disintegrated wholly after a while.

Even in the recent times we have been observing such phenomena.

While an individual human being with  a life span of say 70-80 years on an average is considered generally as a very good one with regard to age an organization sustaining it activities for a few generations is viewed with some admiration. We have very few organizations of that kind. Even political or national organizations that have survived a few generations are also rare, yet they do exist.

What makes an organization to sustain a life exceeding the average life of a human being? If you study such organizations, you would realize that the leaders of such organizations had the above said 4 C quality much more than their contemporaries. 

I think this phenomena is due to the existence of an invisible divine over control over human organizations.

When the majority of people desire their leaders to be some one with the above 4 C's there is a potential divine blessing over such peoples to have such leaders elevated as their leaders. When the majority of people do not give any importance to this aspect, the reverse happens and they are bound to suffer collectively.

Now let us examine what is meant by these four words.

Competency is the ability to perform a desirable task well. It comprises of knowledge, intelligence, wisdom and a desire to learn and update. It involves skills for language, communication and such other soft skills as well. Common sense is very important. Competency is a mixture of inherent qualities enhanced by proper education and training. A leader should be competent enough to know his organization, understand the work, differentiate between good and bad and should have the ability for reasoning and decision making. Different works might require different kinds of competency.

Competency of a person is polished by his or her character. Character is that innate quality of a person to select and opt good from bad. It involves such traits such as honesty, values, ethics and the like. A highly competent person can have a good character or may be ever characterless. A characterless leader with high competency is highly dangerous for the organization and the people. If we study history, we can see hundreds of examples of this kind.

Courage is the trait that makes a leader different. If a leader lacks courage to lead and take appropriate decisions at appropriate moments, such leader could bring failures and disasters for the organization that he leads even while he has enough competency and is a person of character. At the same time courage should not be such that it causes misadventure. In other words, courage should be reflected through wise decisions.

A leader must be compassionate to fellow human beings. His or her decisions should always be based on compassion to other humans. But compassion should not blind him or her from taking corrective actions. A compassionate leader is bound to be 'mild and soft as a dove, but clever and assertive as a serpent'. Love and mercy to all humans be his guiding force. But his competency should come to his aid in weeding out those inherently bad elements who do not deserve love and mercy. Perhaps this is one of the greatest problems many leaders face in their lives. They often commit great errors of judgement in realizing the real motives or natures of others. Often this causes, leaders to like and promote those around them who are good in the art of sycophancy. The fundamental principle to understand here is that people with competency and character are less likely to indulge in pampering others with good words and deeds with some hidden agenda of receiving favors. They are also not likely to fall preys to flattery.

If a nation has survived a few generations successfully, it is an indication that it has strong internal organizations led by people with the 4 C's at various levels. The moment, the national organizations get people who do not have these 4 Cs, the organizations begin to disintegrate. So, it is highly essential that organizations resort to proper leadership changes when leaders of any level is found to lack in the 4 Cs to some recognizable degree.

Though all the four Cs are important, my personal priority of arranging these four in the order of decreasing importance (higher to lower) is like this: Character-Competency-Compassion-Courage!

Often people have this doubt. Would it be possible for a person of character to withstand many others who are characterless in other organizations around?

I would say, yes. And my belief is that in the years to come, characterless people are bound to fail more often than in the past. When I say this, I have some strong intuitive reason for such a belief. That does not mean that we would not be seeing characterless people making successes. Characterless people are going to make short term successes in the future too, just as in the past. But their fall would be quicker.

So, no nation or business would sustain longer when they are infected with people lacking the 4 Cs that I mentioned. Organizations that give honest importance for these 4 Cs for their people are bound to succeed and win over those who do not, in the long run.

Our world is not going to face any global apocalypse or Armageddon . Such scenarios in minor levels could keep happening in the future, because of nations and organizations infected with people lacking the 4 Cs. But total destruction of this world is never going to happen, as feared by many, because of the over control exercised by divine powers. It is absurd to believe that God has created humanity for facing ultimate destruction because of the foolish deeds of some inferior humans or even some inferior angels as believed and taught by some religious leaders of the past or the present.

While the misdeeds of some inferior humans who lack competency, character, courage and compassion in them might bring some disasters now and then, here and there, with some of us facing the consequences, such things should not dishearten us or cause our minds to such levels as praising and admiring evil. In that case we are aligning to the evil that gets happening due to evil men and women who lack the 4 Cs. Instead, it would be better idea to look for instances and people who bring lasting success and the importance of the 4 Cs in those cases. That would help in us aligning towards good rather than evil.

Just think about these and make your own judgments.

Water Supply , Sanitation and Solid Waste Management : Why does India Fair Poorly ?

While I was an engineering student pursuing my chemical engineering, I was thinking that some day I would be doing my career in some chemical process industries which produced petroleum products, fertilizers, insecticides, bulk pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, etc. I had never imagined that I would spent a good deal of my career in water supply, sanitation, water treatment or waste water engineering. 

I began my professional career in a captive thermal power station of an integrated steel plant. My job was to manage the production of de-mineralized (DM) water for steam generation in the boilers. The steam is used for rotating the turbo-generator machines which produced electricity. Steam is also required for various other heating and process applications in the steel plant. After its thermal energy is used up, steam gets condensed to become condensate water which is recycled to the boilers again for generating super heated steam. The losses of steam and water in the boiler water system required addition of make up water in the form of DM water. Quality of water and steam is very critical for the smooth operation of high pressure boilers and high speed steam turbines. Hence, all aspects of water chemistry is given due regards and attention in a properly managed thermal power station. My first job helped me to understand the nature of water and water treatment in much detail, including the chemical quality management aspects. In reality my function was of dual nature, because I was required to look after both the production processes and the quality control aspects of the chemical testing laboratory.

My second innings in my professional career was as a water supply and sanitation design engineer, a job conventionally done by civil engineers. I considered this job a bit inferior to my status initially. But soon I realized that this field is essentially sanitation engineering which is a very important aspect of city and town management and also one of the most neglected engineering area in modern India. My senior was an en experienced civil engineer who spent almost whole of his life time in this field. It was not much difficult for me to master the conventions of practical designs of this field and there was opportunities for me to improve upon the conventions because of my chemical engineering background.

Later I had opportunities to function as lead design engineer and consulting engineer for many projects involving water supply, cooling water systems,  water treatment, water softening , gas cleaning, effluent treatment, bio chemical treatment, coal chemical processing, etc which gave me much opportunities to expand my experience and knowledge in interdisciplinary engineering. Most importantly, insights into the way of functioning of the Indian system with its complex ,contradictory and vague rules , statutes and influences have also been acquired concurrently.

All these helped me to understand and analyse the root causes of the systemic lethargy in India to a great extent, though no one ever required me to do such a thing !

I have seen some municipal corporations in India taking over three decades to implement even mundane water supply projects which could have been done in one or two years time. I also find many cities and towns with no water supply and sanitation services. Regrettably many cities and towns of India also do not have any plans for making such facilities in the near future. Even progressive cities like Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of the most literate state of India, have failed in implementing and managing good waste handling and disposal facilities.

Any developed and progressive country can perhaps call itself developed when the majority of its citizens are able to get good drinking water in sufficient quantities and also when they enjoy decent sanitation and waste disposal services.

Unfortunately, India stands at a pathetic low level of development when water supply and sanitation norms are concerned. [I suggest those interested to read this wikipedia article : Drinking water supply and sanitation in India ] Waste disposal facilities are virtually non existent. 

As a professional engineer with decades of experience in this area, I feel ashamed of such a pathetic situation in this country.

It is not very difficult to design and implement good water supply systems and sanitation systems linked to effective municipal effluent treatment plant systems for any cities or communities having a population of 5000 or more. So also is the case with solid waste management.  However, very few cities and communities in India have such systems.

What are the reasons for this kind of situation in India?

Why is it that the Indian leaders and administrators do not feel ashamed of such deplorable conditions of their country?

In my opinion, such a situation arise out of many things, all linked to each other in one way or the other.

The following are some of the main reasons as I see it:

1. Excepting a few large metropolitan cities, the city and municipal corporations have degraded to become play grounds of local politicians. As a result, the bureaucratic organizations that are required to assist the democratic city governments have become lethargic or non committal or ineffective to do any proper planning or city management.Often, the city administrations are headed by pliable or incompetent bureaucrats who are posted by the state administration as per political compulsions and priorities. Besides, the personnel and staff that get in to these administrative organizations of the municipalities and corporations are selected without any due consideration of their specialist experience or qualifications that they soon become vested interest groups. Specialist wings of the city administration such as the town planning, public health engineering, water supply and sewerage, public works, etc become side tracked to such an extent that their specialists and engineers no more are required to show any professional competence. It becomes all the more convenient for the incompetent political heads and bureaucratic chiefs to have such incompetent technical people as their subordinates that the former never feel the necessity to improve the competency of the latter. Soon, for any infrastructural development involving water supply, water treatment, sewage treatment, solid waste management etc the political heads and bureaucratic chiefs become the decision makers including those matters that are purely technical in nature. Such decisions eventually create nonviable or inferior schemes and projects which would either never get fully implemented or commissioned for the benefit of the people. Such technical incompetence soon creeps in to the operation and maintenance areas as well.

2. Lack of coordination among various governmental agencies and departments.

3. Lack of respect of contractual obligations. Indians are infamous for this kind of an attitude. Once contracts are placed, the Indian authorities at all levels seem to create undue problems for the contractors mostly for personal benefits. Delays of payments and works on account of such objections created by the officers and staff of the city governments often create a situation that good EPC contract firms with expertise and experience in the relevant fields avoid taking up such contracts.

4. Indian top authorities are keen to keep all major decisions to themselves even when they are not competent to take such decisions. Delegation of powers exist only in theory and not in practice. The root cause of this situation is the eagerness to get importance for unfair gains.

5. Incompetence of vigilance personnel and authorities to judge technical issues. Often such a situation makes the technical personnel from taking firm and sound decisions for the overall good of public projects. Again, this situation arises out of the lack of vision of the law makers who create such rules and regulations without due consideration of expert opinions. In my opinion, it is not a good practice to allow non technical authorities to find fault with technical decisions and file vigilance cases based on such findings. Even when there is a prima facie technical error, it has to be based on the recommendations of an expert technical committee.

6. In India, disciplines of engineers do not carry much value once an engineer gets posted. It makes the engineers who are trained in some discipline not getting the appropriate jobs and making the particular engineering discipline becoming a non preferable one for fresh students eventually creating a shortage of trained man power in certain areas. A typical example is the shortage of sanitation engineers or environmental engineers in the Indian city administrations.

7. Indian engineering institutions and technical universities plan their engineering curricula quite arbitrarily without due research on the requirements of the potential employers and their needs. The courses are planned based on the aspirations of the youngsters who are pretty unaware of the usefulness of the courses that they are going to study.

8. Experienced engineers have practically no say in the selection and deployment of fresh engineers within their organizations in India. This function is almost entirely decided by non technical people who have no idea about the work of engineers. This creates adverse imbalances in engineering expertise within even engineering organisations. Technical groups of city administrations are no exception.

9. Technical groups in India which are required to do collective engineering tasks are made up of technical personnel having incompatible capabilities and competence. The continued practice of reservations, favoritism, etc play an important role in this. The result is failure of the group to perform effectively even when there are exceptionally good individuals in the group.

10. Lack of consistent opportunities for EPC firms to maintain their expertise on a long term basis. There is no guarantee of work in areas such as water and waste water engineering, solid waste management, etc from the local authorities. The allocation of budgets and funds are erratic. This causes much uncertainties for EPC firms to maintain their expert engineers and technicians on a long term basis. Much bunching of work also happens making all work to suffer of time schedules and quality . EPC entrepreneurs try to maintain their technical organizations without enough numbers of permanent experts and managing the show somehow by outsourcing or entering into temporary understandings to form consortia or similar other gimmicks making a mess of things that eventually everything proceeds without any proper direction or planning.

11. India now has a number of so-called environmentalists who are text book experts and have no practical experience or expertise. They copy impractical norms and quality parameters and make big noises of not achieving certain values of quality parameters with regard to environmental quality norms on water, treated effluents, land fills, air , etc. These so called experts often make things complicated and often provide much fodder for the non technical media and the public. In the developed countries, often decisions on such things are taken on the basis of best achievable technology (BAT) and best practical technology (BPT) . In India, text book experts are least concerned about practical aspects and costs involved. This compels many organizations to spend huge sums of money for practically achieving no results, especially in the areas of water treatment, effluent treatment and air pollution control.

12. Indian organizations do not allow planned development of expertise in engineering and technology. Whatever experience the engineers gain happen randomly and in much unplanned manner. Hence it is not very easy to identify and evaluate the real experience and expertise of engineers. Again this evaluation is left to the whims and fancies of non technical personnel, making many experienced engineers wasting their times without actually contributing to works where they could do it well or important engineering assignments getting in to the hands of inexperienced engineers and non technical leaders bull dozing them to commit gross errors.

13. There is no political will in India to make these services privatized allowing  reasonable charges to be levied from even the affluent class of urban citizens. There is no reason to fear that the affluent urban citizens are so selfish and ignorant that they resist such facilities that would make their lives better. However, the present political atmosphere is such that every good move by one political party is opposed by the other parties who are not in power. This kind of attitude can change only when the mind set of the politicians change and they think collectively for the citizens and their country rather than for themselves.

14. Indian cities develop and grow in the most unscientific manner due to the absence of effective town planning. Very few cities have free spaces earmarked for development of infrastructural facilities for water treatment, waste water treatment, waste processing, laying of pipe lines, etc. Even after 60 years of independence and even after the whole world has progressed, the Indian authorities feel that these are important matters which require firm actions. Ministries handling urban development, housing, water, environment, etc all seem to work in different directions. Few Indian citizens are aware of the existence of such ministries or their objectives. Incidentally these ministries keep changing every now and then with different names and objectives making any sustained actions never taking place with regard to water supply, sanitation and waste disposal in urban or rural India.

15. No one India seems to be in control of planning and execution of infrastructural projects with regard to water supply, sanitation and solid waste management for the Indian cities. It could perhaps be a good idea to notify the names of the key drivers of such projects with their responsibilities and authorities known to the public.

16. India has an acute shortage of design and engineering personnel who can formulate and plan an infrastructural project on water supply and waste water management for the cities and to do the detailed engineering works involved. As of now, India may be good in developing computer software, but it is not good in works involving conventional and core engineering due to its  expertise and capacity continuously on the decline in this area for the last many years. Serious thinking and corrective steps at the highest levels only can save India from becoming a slave to other nations in the future. One of the reasons for this shortage is the reluctance of brilliant engineers to take up this career in India because in this country being in this field of work they earn little respect now and of the prospects of being at the receiving end to be bull dozed by their not-so-brilliant colleagues who chanced to climb up the career by taking up other easier routes. No wonder why the brilliant IITians of India prefer to become IIMees by doing an unlearning of their difficult engineering- a thing perhaps never happen in a developed nation !

As some one has recently written in the Economic Times, this situation can be rectified if the politicians of India think about their country for a moment. It is possible if the bureaucrats think of their country for a moment instead of spending time on wasteful tours and meetings and lamenting on the inefficiency of their political masters. In my opinion the latter are better placed to correct the situation if they want. They have a greater responsibility as per the Indian constitution. If they collectively decide to make India a better place, no politician can ruin that. That is the safeguard they have as per the constitution. If politicians are willing to support them, things could move much better. Again, there is much need to enhance the confidence of the engineers working in core areas in this country and their confidence levels. Without them, neither the politicians, nor the bureaucrats can hardly achieve anything!

That was what Singapore had done. That is what China has been doing. That is what the developed nations have been doing.

India needs to learn how to honor and motivate its engineers to perform. If not, much of those brains are all going to migrate to places where they can use their brains effectively and work with some prestige.

It is a big opportunity to prove India's capabilities first in Water Supply, Sanitation and Solid Waste Management and making India filth-less and hygienic before trying to make the missiles, bombs and the rockets using borrowed technologies. This field has enormous potential for job generation. It also has enormous potential to generate income for the government.

I know the stories of many young men from India who never got any worth while employment in India, getting good paying employment in small county water treatment and sewage treatment plants in the USA. If the US could pay over $ 5000 per month to an Indian born supervisor of a water treatment plant of a county of 5000 odd population, why can't India do it ? USA is rich, because the majority there think big. The moment the Americans think like the Indians they too are going to be doomed !

Think India, think! Think and act the way those progressive peoples are doing! Remove your narrow mindedness and your greed and your unjustified fears! You have immense potentials to come out of the pathetic conditions. Even those of you who like to exploit the nation from behind the curtains- it is better to change. You too would benefit a lot than you do at present!

Improving the health of the citizens is good for every one. Even for those who have made vast fortunes in India and thinking of staying in alien countries for breathing well.

And what I said above may be applicable to all other fields as well!

[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link that gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

Had I been the PM of India !

I would never be the PM (Prime Minister or Chief Executive ) of this country and that would be true for 99.9999% of the Indian citizens.

But one or two of the 1.2 billion would become its PM now and then.

So this is purely an imagination.

But my country India is a democracy and every citizen has a right to dream or to have an aspiration on how its PM ought to be.

While watching the present and past PMs at times such thoughts forcefully come into the minds of some citizens of this country.

I am no exception. Such thoughts do come to my mind as well.

I would like to share some of my present thoughts on how I would behave, had I been the PM of this country.

Had I been the PM of India, then :

- The first thing I would decide is that I would not become the PM for another term, because I hold the values of democracy high and would not use the power and position attained to cling on to it for ever. This way I make my self free to decide upon issues fearlessly and without bias.

- I would do all I can to see that I  push and pass such laws that make it impossible for immature, characterless and incompetent persons get a chance to be the PM after me.

- I would push and promote economic policies that would promote unemployment levels in the country to come to naught and the average incomes at the lowest levels to reach sufficiently high for the people to lead a decent life as a dignified citizen. I would encourage and honour all business entities who help the nation in this aspect.

- I would push and promote such laws and rules that honour the rights and privileges of each and every citizen of the country, honestly. I would ensure that the ministers discharge their responsibilities earnestly and are accountable for their actions.

- I would ensure that governments are doing only those activities which are for non-profit and welfare of the nation. All profit making businesses shall be controlled by companies set up in accordance with the companies act. Government owned companies shall be run on a no-profit no-loss basis and such companies or organizations shall be only in those areas where it is not desirable and feasible for non-government  entities to operate.

- I would push and promote laws that ensure education services a business as well as a governmental responsibility, depending upon the demographic situation. The laws and rules shall be such that no eligible citizen is denied education for want of money. All educational institutions that are making surplus funds shall be required to share 90% of their surplus for promoting education for the underprivileged.

- I would push and promote a differential corporate taxation system that ensure lower taxation for those companies that spend their substantial profits towards business expansion, research and welfare measures.

- I would establish a law that makes it the government's responsibility to ensure free and essential education, medical treatment and funeral for all wanting citizens whose incomes are below the national average.

- I would reduce bureaucratic controls on business to the lowest and push a law that prevents the states to pass laws that are detrimental to business growth.

- I would facilitate the rules that would make the distribution of national income between the centre and the states in accordance with an acceptable economic formula.

- I would give utmost priority to enhance infrastructure and other facilities to all government offices and establishments including the courts.

- I would ensure that the defence spending of the country is limited to a percentage of the GDP not exceeding that of the first 5 most populous countries of the world. I would also ensure that imports on defence technology , production and procurements is a minimum and on a declining trend.

- I would push and establish such laws that make it mandatory for all private and public establishments to publish their key performance information on their websites accurately and consistently.

- I would ensure that the laws regarding land are revised to enable all round progress in a reasonable time frame. Together with this rural and urban land ceiling would be implemented universally on a pan India basis adopting logical standards. I would also promote modernization of countries land records with modern technology which would eliminate litigations and enable smooth transactions. I would also make such laws that empower the government to take control of all excess and unutilized land and promulgate a development oriented land use policy.

- I would take up law reformation on top priority to simplify the Indian jurisprudence benchmarking it with the best in the world.

- I would ensure that me and my ministers are available in our respective offices for at least 75 % of the time and will not undertake tours and globe trotting unless it is extremely essential.

- I would ensure that all the MPs are made board members of national statutory organisations for better peoples participation in governance and would push to pass laws to this effect.

- I would make it a point of hearing the peoples voices on a regular basis by reading the news papers and the media and never ever depend on my advisers to screen what I should hear and read.


There are much more.

I am sure many of you from this country would also have such thoughts on how your PM or government should function or how your PM should prioritize his / her actions.

Would you like to share some ?


At least that might help a PM in the making !

[More Blogs Here !     and   Here ! ]

Indian Railways-Some Suggestions for Improvements from a Passenger !

Ever since I moved out of my home state Kerala some time in 1978, I have been a user of the long distance travel facility provided by the Indian Railways- the largest service facility directly run by the Government of India other than the defence services.

Though many monopolistic government run businesses and services  in the fields of air travel, telecommunication, courier services, mass communication, mining and manufacturing, etc got corporatized and privatized in the recent past, the railway system mostly remained directly in the hands of the government. Corporate entities like the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) etc  have been formed in the recent years by the Ministry of Railways which has allowed some functions to be carried out as corporate business. Even companies like the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro Rail doing the business of trail transport service in select sectors have come up as separate entities under the administrative control of the Railway Ministry, which shows the shift in the policy shift of the government in this context.

Beyond that, the government seems direction less with regard to the policy to be adopted with regard to this essential public service system. The result is that the railway system continues to be run as a government department with its inherent advantages and disadvantages. Again such directionless policies are bound to get evolved in a democratic country having a population of uneven development. So, there is no point in criticising the government and I am not doing that.

A user of the railways need not be worried about the ownership and the management control of this organization so far it continues to provide the services befitting to the time and the aspirations of the public.

If run efficiently like a business entity, the Indian railway system would perhaps be the largest business opportunity in India. The moot question is the big if.

How can you bring about quick business like decision making in a mammoth organization which is run on the basis rules and administrative systems essentially made for public accountability rather than public benefit and overall sustainability ?

As a user of the system for the last more than three decades, I can say this for sure. The railway system has become more and more centralized now. The railway officers in local areas seems powerless in resolving common problems of the passengers now, which was not the case some decades ago. Of course we need not be worried about how the railways do their management and administration, provided they do it well.

The Indian public uses the railways for both long distance travel involving monotonous sitting or sleeping having a time span of 3-60 hours and for short distance travel involving sitting or standing for time spans as short as10 Minutes to as long as 6 hours. The requirements of the passengers in the short distance and long distance cases are different.

For all travellers, what is most important is the comfort with respect of sitting, sleeping, cleanness, catering, safety, security, communication, smoothness, speed, booking convenience, costs and of course a comfortable cabin ambiance.

Indian railways are used by poor and rich people alike. There are thousands who can afford to pay reasonable costs for a comfortable travel. That is the great business opportunity for the Railways. 

The problem with the Indian Railways is that the decisions for starting rail services are more political than based on professional assessments. This results in uneven and unscientific distribution of the services which causes great losses to the organisation and discomfort to the public both at the same time.

One of the greatest weakness of the railway management system is its reluctance to use modern computerized ticket reservation systems which ensures highest occupancy of the available berths and seats. It is a common fact that no one can think of getting a reservation in any trains in most of the routes in a short span due to the inherent lacunae in the reservation system.

As a rail passenger I have come across many instances in my own personal experience when the railway reservation system showed non availability of berths and seats while the actual situation in the same train was with an occupancy rate of even less than 50% for more than 50% of the travel distance.

In reality most of the trains are running empty for most of the time in the year while thousands are waiting for reservations !

In this context, I remember a case of travel by a state road transport bus service in the state of Andhra Pradesh two decades ago, when computerisation was just in the initial stages. I went to reserve a ticket for a travel from Vijayawada to Ramagundam. The reservation clerk at the Vijayawada Bus Station showed me the seating system of the bus on his computer terminal with the seats that are available for my travel. I gave my choice and he issued me the reserved tickets for the travel by a particular state road transport bus later in the day.

I thought that bus would be starting from there. But to my surprise I saw the bus reaching the station from another town with lot of passengers. When the bus arrived, the seats reserved for me too were occupied and I was a bit worried. But to my relief, soon those passengers occupying my seats alighted there and I got the seats reserved for without any problem. Again the bus started from there with full occupancy !

All these years I was wondering, why our railways were not in a position to do such kind of a reservation system ?

To my simple logic it seems that they have just got satisfied with the computerization of the seat or berth quota system that used to be there before computerization ! If some one books a berth from Vijayawada to Ramagundam on a train in the route, then no one can perhaps reserve the berth or seat from Ramagundam to say Nagpur even when the seat would be physically vacant as the earlier passenger has alighted the train.

For those in the knowledge of computers, this is not at all a difficult thing to implement. Somehow, the railway mandarins seem not at all comfortable to implement such an easy modification which would benefit both the railways and the passengers.

If the huge extra earning potential of the Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTE) of the railways is the main concern, then of course no one can perhaps think of implementing such things. Rail users like me, are at a loss to understand the logic of the railway management in this !

Many trains with latest comforts are run between awkward stations and at awkward times that they mostly run as show pieces while thousands suffer incapable of using those trains. I do not want to name those trains. People know it. The only logic of running those trains seems ego satisfaction of some local politicians !

This was some random thoughts that just came into my mind on the day the railway budget of India was getting presented on the Lok Sabha by the Railway Minister belonging to one of the political parties of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

I haven't gone through the details of the budget which was presented and I do not want to do that. But something remarkable has just happened.

The Railway Minister's own party has disowned his budget. His party chief became so annoyed that the party has asked for his removal. The head of the coalition has to just fall in line, even when they all are in praise of the policies that are presented in the said budget by this minister.

It is no surprise ! That is the way this country is evolving !

You just cannot dream of having good management systems and governance in a country which is in its infancy state of development and initial stages of experimentation with democracy.
I know there could be thousands of learned and knowledgeable persons in this country of over a billion. But their views are minority voices.

Minority voices do not have the power to make changes, unless they occupy the 'trump-card' position by accidents of time !

So is the case with the Indian Railways.

There are thousand and one ways that this organization is moulded in to one of the best in the world.

There could be scores of good managers , administrators and professionals in the Indian railway organization who knows the ways and means of doing that.

But that is of no use in a democratically evolving set up like this for the time being.

To be a knowledgeable and competent person among a majority that has not reached that state of mind capacity indeed is a painful thing !

So why to give suggestions for improving the railways now ?

Should I reserve it for the opportunistic moment of the future, if at all it comes ?

Even so, let me write down some of those suggestions the railway authorities could keep in mind for implementing if they ever feel doing some thing for improving the great Indian railways :

1. Do some real surveys to find out those loss making train services and take actions not to put the best and brand new coaches for those services. Use the brand new coaches for the long distance trains only as a policy.

2. Lease out some railway space in all railway stations in major cities and towns where private players can set up decent traveller accommodations for genuine passengers who reserve their journey in advance for a comfortable stay for periods not exceeding one or two days. The rooms so provided shall be neat, clean and preferrably with air conditioning or fans and with clean toilets. Star rated luxuries are not what the passengers need, but reasonable neatness, comforts, safety and affordability. Their should be provisions for booking such accommodations in advance while the tickets are booked. Presently many stations have retiring rooms maintained directly by the railway employees. They keep the most ridiculous type of staff to look after these at present who have no manners or courtsey. More over in many crowded stations, such rooms are perennially not available for genuine passengers. If this facility is available, many long distant travellers could conveniently break their tiring train journey enroute to take a refreshing break in some other cities and towns and continue their journeys comfortably in other short distance trains. If the railway managers use their brains properly, they can very well do it in the most beneficial manner for both the railways and the passengers.

3. Raiway can think of implementing the system of 'registered baggage handling' facility for the long distance travel for main sectors of travel just as the airlines are doing. For example for those reserved a/c class passengers travelling between Delhi and Mumbai shall have their registered baggages handed over to the baggage handlers at Delhi and take them back at Mumbai from the baggage office. The railway may fix the type of baggage the passengers are required to carry for this purpose and the maximum number of pieces and their weights. They may also charge a fee for excess baggage. There should be one secured baggage coach in all long distance trains. This service could also be entrusted to private players ensuring proper quality. This would reduce the mad rush in the stations. The railways should also ensure availability of porters for carrying and loading luggage of the passengers and a facility to avail these services with advance booking.

4. Make all long distance trains with air conditioned class only. The system of allotment of seats berths shall be based on the distance travelled rather than the preferrence of the passengers. For example all passengers travelling day time for less than 8 hours shall be booked only on chair car. Those travelling 8-24 hours shall be on a/c 3-tier coaches. Those travelling more than 24 hours shall be on a/c 2-tier coaches. The air conditioned first class  services shall be totally eliminated and such coaches shall be available only on special tourist services or for official purposes. The number of each category of coaches shall be based on the passenger demand as analysed by past history.

5. Non-a/c coaches shall be limited short distance travel trains which run less than a day. If possible such trains shall be run only in those regions where the temperatures do not exceed 32 degrees celcius.

6. Make all long distance a/c coach trains with catering charges included in the cost of travel just as now being done for Rajdhani and Shadabdi type train services. This will eliminate passengers to travel with lighter luggage avoiding those filled with all kinds of eatables. This will also reduce the influx of all kinds of vendors in the coaches disturbing the passengers.

7. There should be announcements for the passengers regarding the approaching stations and the time of halt, delays etc in all the coaches. It is not a difficult thing to implement for the railways if the want to do this. It should be a mandatory service. Though this is available now in Rajdhani and Shadabdi trains, it is not strictly followed by those responsible for implementing this without fail.

8. The Indian railways is a mammoth organization. Centralization of authority for each and every thing would cause serious damage and the local railway officers showing their helplessness to deal with the genuine grievances of the passengers. Railways should provide adequate powers for their officers who are to face the public and notify those officers, their contact details and their powers for decision making. It is quite natural that the ministers, being public representatives, liking to grab all powers of decision making. But they should remember that unless they delegate their powers effectively they would become laughing stock in the eyes of the public whose position do not show any results of effective management !

There could be more such suggestions.

I request the learned readers who use the Indian railways to open up their feelings and suggestions  here using the blog comments tool.

How to Kill a Successful Organization ?

Don't ask me why I selected a title like this for this blog. Some of you are familiar with famous book titles like 'the games people play'. Knowingly or unknowingly people also play 'games' aiming at killing or destroying successful organizations.

Organizations are well knit networks of people for accomplishing some defined tasks or objectives in a defined framework of rules or bylaws. There are governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations, business organizations and non-business organizations, charity and non-charity organizations, professional and non-professional organizations, registered and non-registered organizations, etc., etc.

Our governments function through various kinds of organizations. Businesses are carried out through organizations called companies or firms. In short every individual now-a-days is associated with one or more kinds of organizations. Even your family is one kind of organization, perhaps a smaller version of it.

If you are an employed person you belong to an organization which employs you and you work within the organization to earn your livelihood.

So government departments, companies, societies, trusts, partnership firms, institutions, professional bodies, etc are all organizations.

Organizations are for the collective benefit of the individuals of the society or the nation. But unfortunately, organizations which do destructive, anti-social or illegal activities also exist. But for the purpose of this discussion I do not include the latter here.

I want to discuss only about those organizations which are set up for objectives which are legally approved , socially acceptable and for the common good of both the individuals within the organization and outside it.

I consider such an organization successful if it is fulfilling its objectives reasonably well for quite some time and has made a visible presence in the society by their collective efforts.

If the public and those members or individuals connected to the organization generally perceive the organization as good, then the organization can be deemed as successful.

Just as individuals, organizations also has a birth, a childhood, an adult hood, periods of sickness and old age and even death.

Unlike individuals whose life expectancy is determined by natural law and cannot exceed certain maximum, organizations can be kept alive and healthy for longer periods by some techniques known as 'good organizational management'.

If the head is the main organ of an individual, the head of the organization is perhaps the most important member of an organization. He or she is called the Chief Executive Officer (CXO) of the organization.

Just as a brain dead individual can be kept alive for some time, a headless organization also can be kept alive for some time without performing.

Just as individuals have parents, organizations also have parents, some one who takes initiatives in creating it. But once an organization gets created and gets a good CXO and survives its infancy period, it is normally capable of surviving provided its CXO functions well.

Unlike individuals, organizations are capable of replacing its heads by itself or by adopting self sustainable techniques devised for its survival.

However big or strong an organization, its strength and weakness both lies with its CXO. Interestingly, this CXO has to be an individual. Experiments to have a sub organization as a CXO have been found not so successful.

Just as successful individuals have other individuals as their envious enemies, successful organizations also can get such kind of enemies who try to destroy it or weaken it from time to time. This is the threat to any organization.

Even individuals who grudge an  enmity or envy can pose a threat to an organization. Even individual members of an organization sometimes become intellectually or mentally sick posing an internal threat to an organization's existence.

Though normally, such periodical threats and attacks are overcome by an organization which is run by an efficient  CXO. Organizations where good systems and practices are in place also can resist such attacks for quite some time.

But clever enemies who are determined to destroy an organization knows the trick to accomplish their task. They know that the CXO is their trump card. What they normally do is to get a characterless and incompetent person selected and installed as the CXO of the organization.

They know very well that an incompetent driver, pilot or captain can very easily drive the truck, plane or ship to destruction very easily.

And exactly that is how the enemies, both internal and external, of an organization try to destroy a successful organization.

First get a pliable, not so experienced or competent individual, project him as great and then install him as the CXO of that very successful organization as its CXO.

Occasionally some organization parents, out of sheer love and affection to some individuals, allow them to direct the organization, just as some wealthy kids are allowed to drive the expensive car by their parents before they get the driving license, to the eventuality of an accident later.

In either case, one thing is sure. If the CXO of the organization is an incompetent and characterless person, the organization will definitely suffer seriously. But the effects may not be visible immediately always !

Leadership by efficient, competent and honest individuals is the key to success for any organization.

ELECTORAL REFORMS FOR INDIA- SOME WISHFUL THOUGHTS!

Many of our learned political scientists, intelligentsia and leaders keep on debating over the possibilities of effecting electoral reforms in our country for achieving better governance.

Whether we like it or not, democracy is a luxury for countries like India where majority citizens are illiterate and poor. In such a scenario, when universal adult franchise is the governing principle, there is all likelihood of the ignorance of the majority deciding the fate of the country.

Democracy with universal adult franchise ensures majority rule. When the majority is illiterate, the leadership also cannot be different.

When fifty percent of the populace is illiterate or under educated and has the right to vote and elect their leaders, one cannot expect that they elect very good leaders as their representatives to form their government. In such a situation the educated and competent citizens become the minority with less and less role in governance as the years pass.

Under educated and immature citizens are more likely to have a higher ego. When food is no more a major concern, ego begins to play a major role in the psychology of such people. Their likes and dislikes are not likely to be based on logical thoughts. In such a case, there is all likelihood that they envy people with good qualities or from better backgrounds which will in turn make them to reject such persons to be elected to important positions of leadership.

People with vulgar eloquence and theatrics but with little competence to hold important positions of leadership will naturally become their heroes of choice.

In such a situation the country is destined to be doomed. You cannot expect an unskilled driver driving you safely always without making fatal accidents!

This is what has happened and happening to India after it blindly adopted universal adult franchise system of democracy, imitating developed western countries. Those leaders at the time of independence unfortunately did not foresee such a damaging consequence. They could not visualize the deterioration of the quality of leadership that would eventually take place in all walks of life in the country whose majority citizenry was yet to become fully literate and politically mature.

In this context, I would like to reproduce some suggestions from my favorite book (the Urantia Book)which describes about the type of universal suffrage that countries with similar situations could possibly adopt to safe guard the democratic system from collapse on account of important positions of leadership falling into the hands of immature and incompetent persons.

The following is what has been written about the type of universal voting system which could be adopted in a democratic state where the majority citizens are not yet fully educated and politically matured:

“Every man and woman of twenty years and over has one vote. Upon attaining this age, all citizens must accept membership in two voting groups: They will join the first in accordance with their economic function—industrial, professional, agricultural, or trade; they will enter the second group according to their political, philosophic, and social inclinations. All workers thus belong to some economic franchise group, and these guilds, like the noneconomic associations, are regulated much as is the national government with its threefold division of powers. Registration in these groups cannot be changed for twelve years.

“ Upon nomination by the state governors or by the regional executives and by the mandate of the regional supreme councils, individuals who have rendered great service to society, or who have demonstrated extraordinary wisdom in government service, may have additional votes conferred upon them not earlier than every five years and not to exceed nine such super franchises. The maximum suffrage of any multiple voter is ten. Scientists, inventors, teachers, philosophers, and spiritual leaders are also thus recognized and honored with augmented political power. These advanced civic privileges are conferred by the state and regional supreme councils much as degrees are granted by the special colleges, and the recipients are proud to attach the symbols of such civic recognition, along with their other degrees, to their lists of personal achievements.

All individuals sentenced to compulsory labor in the mines and all governmental servants supported by tax funds are, for the periods of such services, disenfranchised. This does not apply to aged persons who may be retired on pensions at sixty-five.

“There are five brackets of suffrage reflecting the average yearly taxes paid for each half-decade period. Heavy taxpayers are permitted extra votes up to five. This grant is independent of all other recognition, but in no case can any person cast over ten ballots.

“The electorate consists of solidified, unified, and intelligent groups who elect only their best members to positions of governmental trust and responsibility. There is one exception to this scheme of functional or group suffrage: The election of a federal chief executive every six years is by nation-wide ballot, and no citizen casts over one vote.

“Except in the election of the chief executive, suffrage is exercised by economic, professional, intellectual, and social groupings of the citizenry. The ideal state is organic, and every free and intelligent group of citizens represents a vital and functioning organ within the larger governmental organism.

“The schools of statesmanship have power to start proceedings in the state courts looking toward the disenfranchisement of any defective, idle, indifferent, or criminal individual.

“The above reforms are based on the recognition of the fact that, when fifty per cent of a nation is illiterate or not adequately educated and possesses the ballot, such a nation is doomed. This is to prevent the dominance of mediocrity in leadership which could result in the downfall of any nation.

“Voting is to be made either compulsory with fines for nonvoting or with motivational incentives for those exercising their franchise properly. This is required to prevent the educated citizens with lesser motivation towards social issues to become indifferent during elections due to lethargy or laziness inadvertently causing pseudo majority reflections.

I know that it is difficult to go in for a system like this in India now. The majority though not competent are but aware of their rights and privileges. Those who have tasted the big personal gains that the present system has been giving them for all these years would never want to have another system wherein competent persons are likely to occupy their seats of power.

So what I have written is just a wishful thinking !

[Reproduced from blogs of the author at siliconindia ]

Engineering Education in India: Some Suggestions from a 'Practising Engineer'

The Petronas Twin Towers of Malaysia:

An Engineering Masterpiece in Concrete and Stainless Steel!

I was born in Independent India. India happened to be one of the least developed countries in the world in those days, but with a civilization and culture that many countries did not have. The majority of Indians used to be illiterate, but there were a number of nations which were much backward than India as far as literacy was concerned. Indian population also used to be much less at about 30 % of what it is now. 

But the new democratic republic of India also inherited a rich legacy of infrastructure and systems from its predecessors as far as education is concerned. But over the years, while almost all the nations of the world had achieved a literacy rate above 90%, India failed miserably in that front. Education has become a matter of much controversy in India. Much experimentation has taken place in this front. In the special area of engineering of education, the Indian education experiments have resulted in unprecedented growths, surpassing all other areas, resulting in a situation of extreme imbalance. 

When I was a student of engineering way back in the Nineteen Seventies, there were only six  engineering colleges in my home state Kerala. Out of this three were owned by the Central/state governments and the rest three by religious societies- one Hindu, one Muslim and one Christian. Another technological university by the government was being planned.

The total intake of engineering students in to all these colleges should have been not more than one thousand. The total passouts of engineers from these at that time should have been of the order of 600-700 per annum.

The method of admission was based on the percentage marks obtained for Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics at the higher secondary school (at that time Pre-Degree Course which used to be held by the University level) examination. With a PCM percentage a bit above 85, I remember getting general quota admission call letters from all colleges and for all courses !

I remember writing the admission tests of the IITs and the Roorkee University (now IIT-R) but not succeeding. To be frank, we in the rural settings never imagined that there could be separate coaching classes for such tests! Ofcourse IIT test coachings had been in existence at that time also, but mostly in the cities!

So it was my dream to get into an IIT which later I did at my PG level.

While entering into engineering I had pretty high aspirations about my future engineering education. I was going to learn the secrets of modern development and progress. So was my thinking!

To be very honest, I found the engineering education for most part, devised in such a way that it suppresses all earnest creativity and eagerness for invention, research or even keenness for overall competency development.

The reason for this was mainly due to the incompetency of most of the faculty members to relate theory and practice. Most engineering college faculty members never had any actual industrial experience! They entered academic profession straight away from their institutes, doing a BTech, MTech or PhD and what they knew was mostly what was mugged up from the literature or text books!

There were exceptions. For example, the University of Roorkee at that time had a few faculty members who had some past industrial experience. Those professors and teachers were far more superior in their teaching methods and theirs were the lectures that really inspired and motivated us.

I always used to wonder why these engineering colleges and institutes have pretty low connection with the industry. Why cann't they induct more experienced engineers from the industry to the teaching side?

One of the first job I got after my studies was in teaching side. Though I had an inclination towards teaching, I declined that just not to become an inexperienced text book teacher of engineering to the youngsters! At that time I thought of getting into teaching after some years of industrial experience!

But, in India, this is not an easy thing. At least that is what I learnt later.

Academy and industry work in air tight compartments. The governments, universities and their rule makers have created such a scenario that it is difficult for engineering colleges to appoint experienced engineers from the industry as teaching staff. Movement of engineer academicians to the industry is also not very common, as the pure line engineering academicians lack real time engineering experience!

The reasons for such a scenario are many. But the prime reason is the absurd stipulation that the universities and the authorities have made with regard to the minimum qualifications for teaching. For a professor's post in engineering they stipulate a minimum PG or PhD level education in engineering regardless of the experience. Whereas it is common knowledge that most of the working engineers in the industry at any level have only a degree in engineering. They have gained years of actual practical knowledge in engineering whether it is in research, design, project implementation, operation, maintenance, technical management, etc after their degree level education. For the experienced engineers, a later day college education to get a PG or PhD does not add much value, unless it is for some specific purpose to gain more theoritical knowledge! 

Good technocrats and engineering managers who have only a degree in engineering, but years of practical experience have better pay and facilities that they normally should not bother to switch their career to teaching side. But even those who have an inclination and liking to teaching and those who have gained years of working experience, who think of sharing their industrial knowledge to the younger generations, are restrained to do so due to such illogical rules and stipulations.

The governments, for good or bad, have allowed mushrooming of engineering colleges in the past decade. There are hundreds of engineering colleges in every state now, mostly contolled by private societies and trusts. Since they are allowed to take a fee much larger than they actually need to run their institutions, most of them have fine infrastructure, much better than even the national level IITs. But what they really lack is experienced teachers. Since most of these colleges have students having academic skills not comparable to those students who get into the firstline institutes, they infact need teachers and guides who ought to be more matured and seasoned with more practical knowledge than textbook knowledge!

Most of these colleges have been managing with a few retired professors with PhDs at senior positions for quite some time now. The remaining majority comprises of graduates and post-graduates straight from the colleges, many of them later acquiring their research degrees under the so-called Quality Improvement Programmes (QIP). As it was in our times, the situation remains the same. The majority engineering college teachers are without any real engineering experience other than teaching ! So the legacy of Indian engineering education continues in the same manner as it used to be or even worse without any improvements as regard to industry-institute interactions!

There is not effort to bench mark the Indian engineering education with that of the developed nations. It should be worth recalling the fact that in the west, the most advanced scientific and engineering developments take place in the engineering and technological universities and institutes! What happens in India on the other hand at the best could be publication of research papers without any 'actual' or worthwhile research!  

I remember some management persons connected to some of the private engineering colleges admitting the sorry state of affairs in this context. Unfortunately there is no forum for them to raise their feelings and opinions. The policy makers in engineering education is the body called AICTE, the individual members of which are influential and 'well-connected' academicians who care little for others' views and voices ! Regrettably the politicians and the bureaucrats are novices in this front having no expertise to develop their own independent decisions without advice from such bodies!

Unfortunately, we Indians do not even try to make use of the experienced NRIs having excellent experience in many fields connected with engineering and technology in the developed nations. We find it to our own vested advantage to work or behave as 'frogs in the well'!

On the other hand the scenario in the industry is also not very encouraging.

The HR departments of most of the industries are filled with novices with no experience in the selection of appropriately experienced technical people. How can a non technical HR man guage the experience or expertise that  is most suited for a technical job? All they do is mechanical assessment, which keeps the real experts out of bay, making their business suffer pretty much if they happen to do business in technically oriented things! Here too the business leaders go by the advice of someone below, not necessarily someone who knows the things well.

Why India does not keep pace with the rest of the world is because of 'small' things like this.

It is high time that both government and industry think and device of ways by which movement of engineers from industry to academics and vice versa is facilitated without much hurdles. Requirements of PG/PhD should be waived off for experienced engineers who are otherwise suited for teaching. Similarly, industry leaders should think of inducting engineers with teaching and research experience to appropriate levels in the industry.

In short, there should be a situation facilitating easier movement of engineers from both sides!

Such things will greatly help industry-academy interactions in actuality and help the young aspiring engineering students to get more exposure to the realities of engineering profession while in the colleges itself to decide upon their future career planning wisely. Industry would benefit.

The country would also, no doubt benefit.

But who is there to listen to these ?

You may like to see the following blogs too in this context:

 

     The Politics and Business of the Indian Education System !

       Strategy They Adopted to Keep A Big Nation Humbled (Story)

      Chemical Engineering : A Launch that Failed to get Momentum after Take Off !

      EPC Services and Engineering Design Groups in India- Is there any HR crunch ?

     Professional Development of Engineers in India: Do We Need to Do Something ?

      Science, Research and Conclusions: It Can Happen Like this Too !

     School Education: An Open Suggestion to the Government !

      Treasures,Talents and the PPM Process !