Career Opportunities and Salaries in Post Liberalization Era in India!

India had been a country which followed the socialistic pattern of economy ever since it got independence way back in 1947 till its economy got partially Americanized some time in the Nineteen Nineties. The period before 1990's is called the pre-liberalization era and that afterwards till date could be called the confused era of liberalization.

In the pre-liberalization era of administered socialism, the salaries of all employed people in India were governed by certain limits mandated by governmental directives. No person in India was allowed to draw a salary more than what the President of India got in those days. Rs.10,000/- per month was that sacrosanct figure. In those days it was also mandatory for the government and the private sector companies to publicly announce the details of salaries that they paid to their respective employees.

All employment advertisements from the government and the private organizations routinely announced salient details of the salaries. It was easy for any one to actually know how much an employed person legitimately made as salary. What was not known to the general public was the legal income of businessmen and the illegal income of salaried people especially those employed by the governments.

One of the remarkable achievement of the government of India in the post liberalization period was the removal of the sacrosanct limit of salary for the private sector. I consider this event remarkable because this was done by the bureaucrats of India without raising much protest as their own salary remained lower and limited.

The liberalized government also allowed even loss making private company boards to fix limitless salaries for some of the key members of their own boards, a much liberal rule that allowed many small companies getting drained of their initial and working capitals too soon to become non-existential. 

Post the so-called Y2K digital confusion of year 2000, the software and IT enabled companies of India got enormous opportunities to get dollar remuneration from the USA due to the high IT-outsourcing trend that this country adopted. This enabled many Indian companies who earned their incomes from the dollar economies to pay higher salaries to their Indian employees. 

Then developed the age of private industry opportunism and favoritism in the guise of market forces. As the government did not enforce any thing with regard to the salaries of private sector employees, the initial euphoria of high salaries in private sector soon died out with the majority of private sector employees earning much less while a few of their top favorite managers earned incomes disproportionate to their real contributions. The Indian private sector has degraded as an organized system of exploited managers as many of the white collar private employees are designated as officers or managers without any collective bargaining power. Besides, the private sector pay have been becoming more and more secretive as the employees seldom realized the pay and perks of their colleagues and seniors. 

As such a few of the Indian private sector began to mimic the elite corporations of the USA and such other developed nations where salaries are determined by the educational elitism or educational branding of their managers rather than their actual worth and contribution to the company. Some board level and below board level managers got the opportunity to draw salaries unimaginable by many in the world while the majority of their employees slogged for their respective companies to keep them going without getting even a minor fraction of such high salaries. However, a good majority of Indian private sector in the manufacturing and production fields struggled hard to make income and to pay even some comfortable salaries to their employees and managers as they were all required to play in an uneven ground.

In the mean while, the government officers and those in the government got the opportunity to compare themselves with their elitist private sector companies. The consecutive pay commissions began to take some cue from the private sector average remunerations and began to fix the government officer's salaries. Since this was mostly on the basis of some average, the top government officials could not earn exorbitant salaries. However they have done many other things to compensate their so-called low salaries. Now many of them fly quite often to foreign lands, travel in chauffeur driven luxury cars, have government paid servants at home and office and have many comforts and facilities that their counterparts in private industry do not have. As they are the administrators, executors and interpreters of rules and policies, private industry big wigs often Que up to meet them which indirectly provide many benefits. 

Governments-both central and states- own many public sector companies. Some of them are large and key economic drivers and contribute significantly for the economic well being of the country. A few of such companies had been privatized in the past with the government selling of the majority stake. However, a large number still remains with government as the majority stake holder. Such companies have government nominated boards but are actually run by company officials and managers who are generally recruited by the concerned company. They are called the PSU officers and managers. The PSU officers are deemed public servants with all the responsibilities of public servants, but with hardly any defined authority. They have been a disadvantageous group with regard to their salaries and perks for the past many decades. Only in the recent past, their salary scales have become comparable to that of their counter parts in the government. However, excepting a few, the majority of them are never given any opportunity to prove their skills and professional competence. As their career advances, most of them degrade as 'frogs in the well' due to various reasons which could be a topic of research for any one interested to find the truths. However, the public sector had been the poaching ground for experienced professionals for the growing private sector initially.

As the governments could not take any decisions regarding the future of the public sector companies with regard to the question of they be privatized or not, the public sector companies of India suffered much with regard to their succession planning . As a result, there have been practically no recruitment of officers and workmen in the PSUs for the last several years. Many PSUs now have very senior officials drawing secretary level salaries waiting for their retirement in a couple of years and working too independently. They have no subordinates whatsoever under them. PSUs of yester years which used to simmer with many fold economic activities in the past with thousands of employees have closed down many of their activity centers and losing their collective experience and expertise. Many of them are just waiting to be closed down as their experienced people are getting reduced in numbers with time. When all around the world governments are trying hard to generate employment to their citizens, India with its highest unemployment levels, is undetermined about the future course of actions with regard to the huge industrial infrastructure it had created in the past in the public sector.

Now coming back to the salaries of officers and managers of India. It is difficult now to get clear idea about this. But with some research I am giving some idea about the salary and perks of officers and managers working in India in private sector, public sector and government (The salaries given are approx gross p.a) :

Category                Indian Private Sector     Indian Public Sector   Indian Central Govt 

                    

Entry Level Officer          Rs.0.2-0.6 Million      Rs.0.4-0.5 M         Rs.0.3-0.4 M    

(1-7 yrs)

Entry Level Mgt              Rs.0.5-1.5 Million          -Do-                         -Do-

(1-7 yrs)

Middle/Sr Mgt                         -Do-                 Rs.0.8-1.0 M        Rs.0.8-1.0 M

(7-12 yrs)

General Mgt                    Rs.1-5 Million            Rs.1.5-2.5 M        Rs.1.5-2.0 M

(12-25 yrs)

Top Mgt                        Rs.2.0-20 Million        Rs.2.5-3.5 M         Rs. 2.5-3.0 M

(15-35 Yrs)

The career growth in central government is smooth and steady with seniority playing the major factor. For top postings political patronage is essential. 

In the PSU's both seniority, luck and mentoring by seniors do the magic of career growth up to general management levels. Bureaucratic and political mentoring are important for CEO levels and board level postings. Salaries are a bit better for the officers and managers of large central PSUs. However, they have comparatively not much opportunities for proving their abilities. Their public image and status is also not very charming except for some top management positions.

The pay, perks and facilities of private sector officer and  management career depend on the type and size of industry coupled with the mindset of its management board or promoters. The variations are too high. While some get extremely high salaries and perks, a good majority are underpaid when compared to their work loads. The private sector job is secure only when it is doing well financially. The internal politics in some private companies are too high that people with a straight forward mind might find it too difficult to survive. Hence, most private companies have a high attrition rate. Since the government has not yet openly allowed the hire-and-fire policy, many companies resort to retrenchments in a clandestine manner. Indian private companies are yet to learn the benefits of retaining their managers! While a few managers of Indian private companies are able to get pay and perks many times more than their counter parts in the PSUs and government, there are also millions of them without ever enjoying such benefits. It is also common that the promoters appoint themselves to key positions with extremely high salaries which professional managers cannot even dream of.

Except for the civil services of the government, there is no regular intake of officers either for the Indian PSU and private sector. The recruitment in both private industry and the Indian PSUs are done with no long term vision or planning. At entry level, either they recruit in large numbers or refrain from it for years together. As a result, the career growth and experience opportunities in many private and PSU companies are not so motivating for many of their managers.

In the government, there is a periodic system called the Pay Commission to revise the salaries of the central government officers. In the Central PSU's such an arrangement may or may not be adopted. In the private sector such a thing is practically absent. Unlike the private sector, reservations play and important role for the selection and promotions in the government and PSU jobs.

Government and PSU jobs may not give much satisfaction to one's job due to many factors. High individual performance and competency may sometimes cause career shocks. However, in the private sector, individual performance and competency are mostly recognized and rewarded. 

In the overall analysis, as things stand now, private companies of good track record provide the best career options and job satisfaction. The least of it as of now could be in the PSUs.  

The Tragic Tale of a Retired PSU Officer of India !

This following is a brief account of what a Retired Chief Engineer of a top public sector engineering construction company narrated to the author. He is now in his late seventies, living with his old wife in a small rented room in the suburbs of a steel city in central India. I am putting the narration in his words:

I was born in a family of well educated people during the pre-independent India and our family was well off as per the standards of that time. My father was a top ranking officer of the British government in India.

All of us five brothers and sisters had good education. Myself and a brother of mine became engineers.

When we passed out as graduate engineers in Mechanical engineering from one of the top engineering colleges of India at that time, India's first prime minister  Jawahar Lal Nehruji's dream of making India self reliant in industry had taken shape in a few locations in North India in the form of large integrated steel plants. These were the steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela and Durgapur. Three leading industrialized nations, namely, the USSR, West Germany and UK helped the just independent India in these three steel projects.

It was a dream for me to join the steel plant at Bhilai as a fresh engineer way back in the 1950's when the said steel plant had just commenced its production being set up in a green field site in the undeveloped Chhattisgarh region of the Central Province (later Madhya Pradesh) of India.

We all learned the skills from the skilled workmen and engineers from erstwhile USSR who worked with us and taught us the skills that we needed to manage the huge steel plant. Manny of us were trained in the steel plants of USSR too.

We did not have the facilities and the conveniences that the present day steel city of Bhilai has as the place was just getting its basic infrastructure for migrating people from the rest of India who were coming in large numbers to Bhilai due to the huge employment opportunities the new steel plant offered.

None of us, neither the engineers nor the workers had high salaries as it used to be the case with the developed capitalist worlds. But we had a salary good enough for a decent living with minimum luxuries. For example, I drew a monthly salary of less than Rs.500 equivalent to say about $ 50 at that time.

Being an officer of this company was indeed a coveted position having lots of prestige, except the fact that the salary was too meager and not attracting any prestige if disclosed outside. The prestige attached was because there was a hierarchy of about ten cadres of people numbering about three hundred in all for whom I was the boss.

In the Nineteen Sixties, the government of India formed a new steel company called the Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL) with its HQ at Ranchi. The government also made plans for making another integrated steel plant at Bokaro.

For making the heavy steel plant equipments, a company called the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) was set up with its establishments in Ranchi. This was a major step towards indigenization of technology and was a vision of Nehru ji. For the specialized works of construction of steel plants and such heavy industrial construction the Hindustan Steel Construction Limited (HSCL) was also formed by the government of India. HSL started its design and engineering wing called the Central Engineering and Design Bureau (CEDB) which was later converted to a separated central public sector undertaking called the Metallurgical and Engineering Consultants Limited, now called MECON with its HQ at Ranchi.

I remember the vision of the government in appointing Mr K T Chandy, a highly learned bureaucrat hailing from Kerala as the first Director Chairman of the largest PSU steel company which was to manage all the integrated steel plants in the public domain, namely the HSL. Incidentally this eminent man was made the founder Director of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kolkata.

 Later, in the Seventies, the government set up the holding company called the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) with HQ at New Delhi as the holding company for the Bokaro Steel Limited (BSL) and HSL.

Thus me and my colleagues had become senior level officers of the largest industrial entity in India at that time called SAIL. But our salaries did not rise much commensurate with our experience or expertise. It was during this time that I took up an assignment with HSCL and moved to Bokaro as a senior construction engineer of that company carrying out the large scale steel plant project construction at Bokaro.

Nearly for another two decades I was with HSCL and I rose to the position of a Chief Engineer, a post with tremendous responsibilities at that time. Later I became the Project head for a large thermal power plant under construction in Uttar Pradesh for which HSCL was entrusted with the task of construction and commissioning. Nearly three thousand people were working under my charge at that time.

Even at that time, apart from my position and high responsibility I had made pretty nothing in my life as my savings for me and my wife. I had a couple of more years to my retirement by the end of the Eighties and my salary was still not much. It was still less than Rs.10,000/- per month.

We had no children to look after us after my retirement, a solace a good majority of my colleagues were having. They had educated their children in the steel city schools in Bhilai or in other steel cities and many of them had migrated to foreign countries like the Gulf or the USA. They realized the folly of their parents working in India for peanuts. They did not want to repeat that mistake !

Any way such children were the hope for their parents who were to retire from the Indian PSU after toiling for a life time. The government coolly cheated them by making the PSU service a non-pensionable service. Instead we were offered contributory provident fund (CPF) where in about 8.33% of our monthly basic salary and dearness allowance went to the provident fund which would be given to us in lump sum when we retire. The company also contributed an equivalent sum.

But with all these, when I would retire in another few years, I would be getting just about Rs.800,000/- or so. Even with my cash savings in hand the total money that I would be having will not go more than Rs.1000,000. I had not made any house for me to live yet because; in my busy work schedule it was not possible to undertake such a thing. Moreover, I did not have enough income to get a decent house purchased or made. Building a house at that time meant an expenditure of at least Rs.500,000/-

The salary was going to come to naught in another couple of years. All I have to do is to deposit all my retirement benefits in some fixed deposits and get the steady interest income for my living. At that time many banks and the government post offices offered an interest of about 12 % per annum. Perhaps all my investments together would get me a monthly interest more or less equivalent to the monthly salary that I was drawing at that time.

So as things stood at that time I should not have worried much ! But there was indeed a worry. By being in the employment my house was owned by the company and I paid just Rs.120 as its rent per month. But the moment I retire, I have to find a rented private accommodation costing nearly twenty times that. And the rents would increase every year while my interest income would not increase.

There were reasons for panic!

It was time to think of alternatives.

Let me clarify one thing here. In those days a good majority of us in influential positions of job never thought of making any money by unfair means, especially those in the senior positions. We had plenty of opportunities for that. But we never thought in those lines. We believed in ethics and integrity, the lessons that we learnt from our parents. We believed in doing our responsibilities honestly.

But the ground realities of life was staring at me. I needed more money if me and my wife had to live decently for another ten or twenty years after my retirement from the PSU service till our death. If I am gone earlier what my wife would do ?

There appeared no chances in the near future that the government of India would thing of hiking the salaries of the PSU people like us. Already there are talks and rumors going on where in the public and the media are maligning the PSUs as inefficient white elephants draining the public exchequer. The politicians of the day are talking of privatization and closing down of the PSUs that had now become spent horses.

While my colleagues who joined the government services are going to lead a good retired life with decent monthly pensions which would rise with rising costs, we are to retire with some lumpsum money, manage it properly till our deaths for a living. Would it be possible for me ?

The public perception about the  PSU officers were that they were making a good fortune.

At least that was also the feeling of those at the helm of affairs in India in those days, because it was the salary of the President of India which used to be the bench mark for all public servants. The rule that prevailed in those days was that no one in India can have a salary more than the President of India ! In those days the salary of  the first citizen of India was fixed at Rs.10,000/- per month. The President lived in a palatial landmark in the national capital and the expenses of his living were all outside the salary and such other things were things that no one preferred to talk in public !

So every salaried person in India whether working for the government or for any private employer had to be satisfied with a salary equal or less than the President of India.

While those in top posts lamented about their poor pay packets, those down in the rungs, especially those who are not classified as executives or officers were quite happy and well off. Many of them had gross pays much more than many of their younger bosses. If a person of this category worked an hour extra than their normal daily working hours, the employer was required to pay an overtime allowance that was equal to twice their normal hourly rate of pay. But those in the officer category could not get this even when some of them are required to work for more than 16 hours a day on many days.

India of those days worked on the principles of socialism. Elitism and aristocracy, though ruled the roost among the rich and the powerful, the government and its political leaders always showed a public face just the opposite. So, common electronic items like the TV, telephone and the tape recorder, which had become ordinary gadgets in the rest of the world, were undesirable and sinful luxury items in India which the leaders consistently advised the common man not to desire.

While many patriotic and helpless Indians within India toiled for peanuts, working hard for the progress of their 'just-got- independent-nation' a good number of their fellows found out ways to enhance their personal wealths by other means.

While within India direct benefits of employment were limited with regard to salary and perks, that was not the case in some other countries. In these countries the salaries were so lucrative and unimaginable in India. The leaders in the Indian government kept on blaming the centuries of slavery and the loot the nation had suffered under the foreigners for the sad state of poverty in India. Whenever other nations with similar backgrounds made fantastic improvements, Indians kept on dreaming helplessly.

While Indian leaders were fully satisfied with their president getting a monthly salary of just Rs.10000/- and projecting it as a great humility, those workers who could not even think of making Rs.500/- per month in India earned at par with their president by taking the challenge of leaving their country and working for the those foreign nations.

The money they send back to India soon was to become the life sustaining economic strength for India, lovingly called the foreign exchange.

Simultaneously another group was emerging in India. They were the people who did not go abroad for earning a livelihood, but remained within India, employed in government departments for providing governmental services. What they earned from their salaries was indeed peanuts. But soon they were to learn their huge potential of earning incomes much more than their non-resident fellows who sent the foreign exchange. This potential came from the statutory power their government job provided. The effect was going to have detrimental effects in the Indian administrative system. The government jobs were to be divided based on reservations in accordance with the democratic number power and not on the basis of merit and competency.

Though the public sector undertakings belonged to the government, the jobs in public sector was slowly becoming non lucrative as the fellows who worked in these PSU's were slowly losing out their statutory powers and status to their counter parts who worked directly in the government departments. The PSU salary scales were the same but they were just impotent working class who were destined to produce in their government run factories according to the rules and regulations made by their real owners-their counterparts who worked in direct government service.

Thus India of the 1980's had its people divided economically as the following:

1. The public servants who earned a salary (peanuts in paper) and also unaccounted income through their power and position (huge unaccounted black money earned through corruption)

2. The political functionaries who extracted a portion of the huge unaccounted income from their serving public servants or external beneficiaries.

3. The business people who made huge money if in league with the first two.

4. The key employees of the private business firms who shared substantial income other than their salary by other means.

5. Salaried class whose income is only what is given as salary (less than the President of India)

7. People who inherited huge property

8. Labor class, small farmers and petty business men who labored for a living with no guarantee of income.

9. People who lived from charity and religious donations or worked for charity or religious organizations

10.  People who brought foreign exchange

I had only few years left before I became too old to work. Then came what appeared as a golden opportunity for me. The government for the first time introduced the 'Golden Handshake Scheme' for the senior employees of the PSUs. Apparently the government thought the problems of the PSUs were due to the huge work force which needed to be reduced. They were offering almost full salary in advance to those who have left only few years for retirement if such an employee opted to voluntarily retire from the company.

Frankly we did not get the logic behind it. What the government was going to get if they kick off people with full salaries of their remaining months of service in their respective PSUs? No work no pay of yester years was logical, but this no- work- full- pay was not understandable!

Any way that is none of our problem. They were giving the money and I was going to take it. I decided that I would take the money and quit. There were opportunities for us outside because we were experts in construction management. We could even venture to do things our own. We could bag some construction contracts and with our expertise would be in a position to make good money. That was my thinking.

I got a colleague also to align with my thinking. So we took the so called benefits of the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) of our PSU Company and left it in the early 1990's. 

We registered a partnership firm and managed to bag a good engineering construction contract from the PSU power company, the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC). With our money and with borrowed money we completed the project successfully. The work was erection and commissioning of an Ash Handling Piping system at one of the power station sites of NTPC. The payments that would be released by NTPC for the said contract, was enough for us to get back our investments with reasonable profits. We thought that would soon happen.

But our fate went the other way. We being top executives of another reputed PSU earlier and never been tasted the kick of bribes unwittingly underestimated such an eventuality in our new employer. We were determined to pay no bribes to the small time functionaries of NTPC as we were confident of the work that we had been doing, though we were getting small hints here and there.

That was the serious mistake that we did. The company did not release the payments due to us. Our liabilities began to rise.

In contracts disputes are settled through the process of arbitration. In the earlier days I my self had worked in arbitration cases in various roles. I opted for the arbitration route and won my case. But the company was not to agree with the ruling of the arbitrator. It went on appeal in the court.

I fought the case in the court too and spent a good part of my remaining life running after the case and even got favorable rulings from all the courts. But I was fighting with a big establishment whose employees who were holding posts similar to the ones I held earlier were not to show any such regards to me. My partner died during this time as a dejected and defeated man in life.

I worked for small time business men who paid occasionally for keeping me and my wife alive. I had even sold of the ancestral property my father had given me to keep us living.

Almost after fifteen years later, for the first time I watch my juniors get decent salaries in those PSUs which are still continuing to exist, though many of those others have just vanished. 

I am still living and I do not know how and do not know even how far! 

Many of my colleagues had been fortunate that they had gone from the face of this earth already. 

On the whole my life was sweet which went too sour at the end. 

Dear friends, the narrator above is not a lone case in India. There are many such veterans of yester years who are now leading miserable and helpless lives. There is no one to take care of them or plead for them. Can we just ignore them? I am not sure. Do you have any suggestions? 

Air India : Sad Story of A Great Legacy of India !

It was the Indian business group of the Tatas who brought India to the aviation map of the world by starting the Tata Airlines way back in 1932 during the pre-independence era of the British Raj. Though this was started as a air mail service initially, it got transformed in to a full fledged public limited company named Air India way back in 1946.

Post independence, the political leaders with the socialistic mindset propagating the mixed economy culture went on with their agenda of nationalising large private enterprises such as aviation, banking etc. Thus the national carriers known as the Air India and the Indian Airlines came into existence some time in 1953 with the Government of India gradually taking control of the Tata owned Air India and bifurcating its international and domestic air services. These two carriers remained as the leading air service operators in the Indian sub continent ever since for nearly half a century thereafter as a government owned monopoly.

This long period made tremendous changes in the attitudes of the thousands of employees of the company. They had all the privileges and authority and they never considered themselves as service providers to the millions of travelling customers. Most of them acted as bull dozing government representatives enjoying too many perks and privileges. They considered their job as a kind of favor that they are doing for the underprivileged citizens rather  than courteously treating the latter as their bread providers !

This government owned aviation group  in the recent years has undergone cosmetic name changes and changes in their logos due to managerial compulsions on account of competition and cuts in budgetary supports.  They are no more the market leaders. Private airlines who are capable of offering better customer service at much lower costs have become a reality in India. For these private airline companies, the threat was only the unpredictable government policies. But they had the advantage of flexible internal management which offered dynamic and faster decision making in a fluctuating economy as compared to their government owned aviation company.

The government of India, in the past few years, seems to be confused. It is not clear whether they actually want their own airline company to operate efficiently together with the new private airlines or they want to use one against the other for short term settlement of whimsical agendas ! 

In the Nineties, the Indian government under Dr Manmohan Singh as the Finance Minister accepted the economic liberalisation policies of WTO and decided to forgo the socialistic frame work of policies that determined governmental actions previously. However, unlike in the earlier years, the Indian government no longer enjoyed absolute majority to push through major policy decisions the way they liked.

The effect was a half hearted approach which caused India to proceed as if rudderless creating confusions and complexities in the minds of all.

The present day India is in that situation.

This confusion is making India appear as a nation of corrupt people and leaders. The law enforcing agencies , the bureaucrats, the courts, the media and the public  are all confused.

No one seems to know what is right or what is wrong.

Some thing that is thought as the rightful thing is turning out to be the most sinful thing. Allegations of graft, favoritism and ill gotten wealth are causing the present day India stink !

Public sector undertaking are now manned by people with no proper briefing or policy directions. Are they there to destroy their organizations cunningly or manage them properly for the benefit of the common citizen ? They are not sure ! There are no clear cut laws, guidelines or policies.

One administrative order contradicts scores of other such orders.

What way the government companies are different from the private companies ?

How to know ? Who is there to guide ?

In this kind of a situation, those in India are bound to experience harsh experiences some time or the other. If they ever land into such problems due to their bad luck, it may not be easy for them to get out of the mess so easily. It can happen to both Indians or foreigners in the Indian soil !

Like what has happened yesterday (19th October 2012) with the Air India Express passengers travelling from Abu Dhabi to Thiruvananthapuram ! Expressing their anger over the extremely poor service the government owned air service company provided caused some of them to be branded as hijacking terrorists ! If a case is ever registered in the Indian courts, those who find their names included in the FIR are going face what is known as the ' Indian music ' for the rest of their lives ! It is the music with no composers !

Let me narrate some of my personal experiences with this airline company [I do not know which name I should use to refer to this company!] some time ago.

Once me and my family reached Delhi from Raipur for our onward travel by the same airline. At Delhi, we were in the long Q in front of the check in counters of this airline. A lady in her late forties with a grave face was managing the counter. She took my ticket and like an ever suspicious police officer quickly found out a spelling mistake in the ticket and my ID card. It was a harmless spelling error their own office made. She made it an issue and declared that we cannot travel. I showed our boarding pass counterfoils that they issued for our travel in the previous segment of our travel with the same silly typographical error. But she was not budging ! The travellers behind us were becoming impatient and the line length was increasing ! Imagine our situation by taking tickets in this airline by paying through our noses! The growing crowd caused some senior fellow from the company to the counter. He declared that there was no problem with that spelling error and she should issue the boarding passes. But the lady did not obey his decision. She kept on arguing and finally her superior himself issued the boarding passes. Imagine the commotion this one lower level employee created !

Yet on another occasion I was on a flight from Delhi to Raipur via Nagpur. At Nagpur, the pilot refused to fly us to Raipur citing some silly technical reasons. A well known politician and an ex Chief Minister of the Madhya Pradesh state too was a passenger who got stranded at Nagpur. After 5 long hours of arguments and counter arguments the airline finally arranged a shabby bus for taking the stranded passengers to Raipur by road.

This kind of experiences from this airline have been a very normal thing for this airline. The ground staff of this company many times behave like ruffian police officers in white uniform. At times I have observed them too liberal to entertain the passengers in some hotels of their choice incurring huge expenditure.

When some of the private airline companies adopted the flexible airfare policy which made air travel an affordable one for the average Indian, it was this government airline's top management with due support from their political bosses that played such nasty games which forced such customer friendly companies to wind up their operations ! 

Through out its history, this government airline company have been charging the highest price for its air tickets. Since the majority of the air travellers who travel by this air line are doing so only because they have no other choice are paying such high prices. They keep cursing this  company , its employees and its management every time they have to shell out huge sums for such hopeless service ! The government many time forces its officers and staff to travel by this airline by paying high charges. Effectively this amounts to transfer of government money from one department to the other ! 

What they (the Indian public) fail to understand is the millions of loss this company keep on making even after they charge the highest prices in the world ! Coupled with it the public hear the news about the pilots of this government airline taking the highest and unimaginable salaries and that too some of the privileged ones without doing any flying at all !

Here the government has to be decisive. They should clear their mind on the future course firmly without dilly dallying on the issue. If they cannot manage it well, then decide to privatise it as early as possible. It should be remembered that the government had done such privatising earlier. If the huge number of employees are what prevents privatisation, close it down permanently and re-appoint those who are useful with new terms and conditions !

But the moot question is the not privatisation or nationalisation ! It is the question of having proper policies and laws. Only the law makers can do it !

But if the law makers themselves do not have the competency to do the work they are entrusted with then no one can save India. Only the public can do it. For that the public have to think in unison. They should learn the fundamentals of choosing their representatives who can do good for them !

If they cannot do it, then perhaps democracy is a costly luxury for them.

That was what a general of a neighboring country of Indian root declared some years ago !

Whatever be it, the story of Air India alias Indian alias Air India Express alias Indian Airlines is a sad story for all in India !

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Why Indian Employers Fail to Get the Best From Their Employees ?

More than three decades ago, while I was still in the campus, I had great aspirations for the future that I would be having as a responsible employee of the organization where I would be joining later. At that time, I was not much sure which would be the organization that I would be joining. There was not much opportunity to understand the work cultures of the various organizations who were hiring young engineers like me for their work. 

From hearsay, we were knowing about a few large PSU companies and a few public limited companies in the private sector in our country who had been considered as good choices for the best students. Besides, the central government also hired fresh engineers from the conventional engineering disciplines for serving the civilian or military services.

The main information source for us to know about the organization was the advertisements that they used to publish for various purposes including those for selection of their fresh management trainees either in technical or non-technical streams. The advertisements used to be really attractive.

So the company where I joined was a very reputed one which used to take fresh engineers almost every year in batches through a recruitment process that was pretty impressive.

They also had an elaborate training programme for the freshers which included regular class room studies, examinations and the like held in dedicated training institutes. A few other companies also followed this methodology. The idea was to give the young recruits an overall idea about the company's activities and to give a familiarisation about its various departments and their functions.

All during this time there was nothing that gave the realities of the company's working to the freshers. The realities the fresh employees actually faced after they were posted to the actual area of posting.

The rest of the story is more or less universal in India as far as big companies are concerned.

In big companies, posting of employees, both in the executive and non-executive category, is done on a casual manner. In a majority of cases, the posting of persons are done arbitrarily without any planning. No real study is ever conducted to assess the actual need based requirements of various skills both at the staff / workmen levels or at the managerial levels.

The departments and the people to whom they are directed to report for work are pretty unaware most of the cases about such postings. It would be the task of the person to whom the people are directed to report to find and fetch essentials like table, chair, cabin, working tools, etc, etc and also the type of work he/she has to perform. Often it takes months for the organization to arrange these things for the newcomer. The newcomer also may have to fetch for the work he or she may have to carry out in the organisation.

Two kinds of orientation and attitude develop in the newcomer during this time.

If the person joined in a place where he or she was actually needed and where the department provided all the necessities for the persons further adaptation and work in the organization, the person grows with a positive attitude and a feeling of belongingness to the organization.

Otherwise the person soon learns various kinds of survival techniques to pull on in the organization. He or she becomes a part of what is known as departmental politics ! Survival in the organization becomes the main agenda of the person rather than contributing for the larger interests of the organization with a positive attitude. 

Let me elaborate these things with one or two real examples.

The first place where I got posted as a junior officer was a Captive Thermal Power Plant of our company whose business is production and marketing of saleable steel products. I was posted as the officer in charge of a section of the thermal power plant which was getting ready for commissioning. My section comprised of a water de-mineralization plant (DM plant in short) and a chemical laboratory for ensuring various chemical quality control that are required for the power plant.

The DM plant was being constructed by a company on turn-key basis under the consultancy of a reputed public sector engineering consultancy company.

When I was posted as the first line officer of this section, I was told to report to a person who is designated as the head of the department of the new power plant. He was a person with years of experience in boiler operation and maintenance. The first day of our meeting, he said point blank to me that he did not know any thing about DM plants or laboratories and it would be my responsibility to find out and organise the section the way it should be to carry out the functions of the power plant in the near future. In this case, I was required for the organization though the organization didnot know much about my job that I was supposed to do.

I had never seen a power plant before that !

I had never studied about these things during my engineering college days !

I did not know how many people would be required to do the various activities of my section and what would be their jobs.

It was a hard self learning. I had no one to ask for guidance. Yet, I was successful in organising my section, getting and training the people, getting the various kinds of tools, tackles, materials and the like, both for the plant and the laboratory and making my section perform well during the commissioning and post commissioning years of the power plant.

During those days, I found certain procedures of the company very ridiculous and illogical. It was easier for me to procure a atomic adsorption spectrometer costing millions which was not very essential for the work rather than procuring a shelf or typewriter essential for my work which costed only a few thousands. 

If I wanted a person having a chemistry background for doing my laboratory work, there was all likelihood of getting a person experienced in welding work posted for doing the work of the chemist !

It was easy to procure a truckload of caustic soda, but difficult to procure a bottle of ink !

It was easy to get people posted, but was difficult to get chairs or tables for them for working !

Later I find this kind of irrationality in all walks of life in all kinds of organisations in India.

I was interested to find the reasons for these.

For mundane things many organizations have set up centralized agencies. These centralized agencies are manned by people who are problem creators or unwanted elsewhere.

For example, many organizations  have a centralized procurement and distribution system for office furniture and consumables like paper, pen, etc. The person responsible for this work has to see that all others are getting these essential requirements in time and in required quantities. The idea is good. But imagine the situation when this responsibility is discharged by an irresponsible person ! What normally happens is that such persons would make all out efforts to make those in higher positions happy and satisfied by fulfilling their requirements, even unjustified sometimes and in that process gains such courage to discard the genuine demands of all others in the organization. The organization suffers in the long run !

One of my friends working for an American company told me that this kind of things are rare in that country. Perhaps that may the case in all good companies. But I can say that this is the case in most of the large Indian organizations which are generally perceived as not so good by the employees and other stake holders. For smaller organizations, the problem may be of a different type but similar.

The right man for the right job is often forgotten in Indian organizations.

All Indian organizations are composed of people of all sorts. Extremely bright ones are required to work with extremely lousy persons at times. The brighter ones have no option but to adapt to the speed and efficiency of the latter !

In India selections are done on the basis of both merit and reservations. I am not against reservations for jobs.

But Indian organizations need to learn more organizational dynamics and getting the best from the human resources.

Posting of persons to various organizational positions have to be done with care and proper planning. What the person is supposed to do for the organization and what the organization is giving the person to execute his responsibilities should be clear to both sides.

The leader of a work team should have a say in selecting the members of his or her team.

These are not very difficult things to achieve or implement.

But unfortunately in India it does not work in that manner.

That is the reason why Indian employers fail to get the best from their employees !

In my humble opinion, if Managements of Indian organizations give a little more attention to these kinds of things which apparently looks so simple or unimportant, then they would definitely add synergy to the organization to perform well.

Why do Indian Public Sector Undertakings Fail to Perform Now ?

When I joined an Indian Public Sector Undertaking (PSU for short designating business ventures owned and controlled by the government) as an officer way back in the 1980, the general feeling that we youngsters who opted for this service was a feeling of pride that we were a part of a nation building team. The poor salaries the PSUs offered did not deter the youngsters from joining the PSUs. Even while many had various other options including lucrative foreign opportunities, a good majority of people preferred to stick to the low paying PSU services for the pride they felt by being in a PSU which did such industrial activities that was essential for the nation to progress.

During my initial years, most of the central PSUs including the one where I joined worked well. There were certain constraints that we youngsters felt while executing our responsibilities on account of the lack of freedom to proceed in the most techno-commercially desirable manner. But then there was no pressure also to circumvent such restrictive rules to compete with non-governmental sector for earning more profits or for survival.

Even being a PSU the work complexities were much less. There were known principles of working under minimal rules and guidelines. No one ever attempted making things complicated for preventing an error that occurred or detected.

In other words, no one attempted burning the palace for smoking out the rat ! 

Most importantly, corruption was not felt in most of the areas of work, though I cannot say that it was absent. At least superior pressure for doing a thing which was not justified was almost non-existent.

There was a system by which we could get the required facilities for discharging our responsibilities in a reasonable time. This included manpower, budget for procurement of both capital items or consumable materials.

The career growth also proceeded more or less in a logical manner. Seniority and qualifications of the candidate were important factors together with the candidates general work performance as judged by his superiors. People who got promoted to higher positions were generally respected because they were candidates who deserved such promotions.

We had never heard of incidences where the minister of the government who was heading the administrative ministry responsible for the PSU interfering with the PSUs day to day work or influencing to get preferred candidates to key positions.

Most of the officers knew their work. If a junior officer faced any kind of difficulties, he had the senior who could resolve his difficulties.

Most of the PSUs discharged their functions profitably for most of the time. Even at times they faced difficulties, the government helped them out taking the responsibility of a parent. The government also intervened whenever the PSU made major failures. The existence of the administrative ministry was justifiable because they had the superintending functions like this.

Then came the Margarette Thatcher experiment in the United Kingdom. This famous PM of this aristocratic country on whom the rest of the world looked to for guidance declared the economic benefits in having the government free from doing businesses. One by one the UK effectively privatized its PSUs.

Leading economists of the world advocated for privatization of PSUs. Privatization encouraged competition which in turn boosted efficiency. They argued. It was good for all.

The wave made its effects in India too.

Many PSUs were sold in full and in part. While some were sold 100%, some were sold 51% just to enable the transfer of administrative control from government to private players.

The methodology adopted in selling of shares of the PSUs by the governments attracted various kinds of criticisms that made the government to become scared of making and implementing its privatisation policies in a logical manner.

This resulted in a kind of mixed economy the world has never seen before.

An economy where private sector and public sector compete in an unequal footing.

The PSUs cannot recruit people as it used to be in the past due to a recruitment embargo, because the government policy is for eventual privatization. While eventual privatization is projected as the underlying principle, the difficulty faced was in declaring the time frame for that. As government indecisiveness continues indefinitely in this one has to make the logical conclusion that the PSU is destined for natural death for want of people in the future.

The PSU cannot buy its materials and equipment that are most suited technically and commercially and in the right time just as its private competitor can do, due to the rules and regulations that govern public spending that is applicable in the case of the former. As corruption in public places got public attention, so many impractical rules and regulations were imposed on the PSUs on public procurements which made their working more difficult as a competitive business entity doing business in a competitive environment. 

The PSU cannot pay well for its CEOs and its officers and staff the way its private counterparts can do because of the government guidelines of pay and perks applying ceilings.

The PSU cannot do any thing to enhance its business in accordance with the market situation, because the government has yet to decide upon its policies and priorities. And time in years are running out !

If any one says that the ills of the PSUs are due to its management and officers, he is perhaps not making an observation by evaluating the ground realities.

Even with the kind of constraints and handicaps if a PSU is still performing it needs to be appreciated.

Managerial failures do happen in PSU companies and public limited companies in the private sector. But the chances for such failures and the odds are more for the PSU as things stand today.

It is worth noting here that none of the PSUs which got privatized in the past have declined in performing in the changed management scenario. Take for example, the IPCL, Maruti Udyog Limited, VSNL, Bharat Aluminium Company Limited, etc.

But where the government allowed a particular sector opened up for private competition, the cases are not so good for both the PSUs and the new private players. Examples are the telecom, airline, steel, banking, insurance, etc. Every now and then new policies are framed to help either the private or the PSU. The business scenario in these is with high degree of uncertainties.

The public in India are really concerned with ailing PSUs like the Air India, HEC, HMT, IOC, ONGC etc which used to be prides of the nation at some time in the past. Such ailing PSU list is getting enlarged every year.

The sectors in which PSUs are still doing well could be in those areas where they are functioning like monopolies.

The PSUs are now working under severe constraints of various sorts unlike the past.

Indecisive policies are causing the nation great damages which are difficult to measure over a short time.

It is time that the people of India take note of these !

Playing in uneven grounds is not a healthy practice.

It is bound to cause casualties on the ones that are unfavourably placed.

Just as some of the concerned media men put it, let me also sum it like this :

Is any one listening ?

Linked List of Blogs on Contemporary Issues

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78. What Prevents Most Indian Business Men to Excel Globally ?


77. Allopathic Medicine Labelling : Forcing the People Swallow the Wrong Pills !


76. Low Cost Pre-fabricated Houses: Something For Indian Entrepreneurs to Try Seriously !


75. This Could Be A Way How We Could Reduce Corruption In India !


74. Horse Racing, Cricketing, Betting and the Indian Mind !


73. Applying and Getting the Indian Voter ID Card Online


72. How Do We Make Collective Decisions Against Our Own Convictions ?


71. About Creating Hell or Heaven in India !


70. Unni and the Boys of Aranmula


69. Unscrupulous and Greedy Businessmen and Business Women


68. Institutionalized Christianity : Experiences that Sadden Me !


67. Why Corruption Cannot Be Eradicated in Democratic India Now ?


66. The Tragic Tale of a Retired PSU Officer of India !


65. Doing Business and Managing Wealth-This Is How It Should Be Done !


64. Would It Be Possible To Introduce A Practical and Workable Health Insurance System In India ?


63. Hypocrisy Is In My Indian Genes; I Can't Get Rid of It !


62. Inhuman Land Acquisition for POSCO STEEL in Odisha: Is There a Better Way ?


61. Enhance Your Awareness Before You Buy Flashy Homes and Flats from Indian Real Estate Developers !


60. Education Service through Societies: A Non Profit Service With Huge Potential Gains for Some !


59. Earning Money While Hobbying and Learning Using Internet !


58. Some Ridiculous Income Tax Provisions of India !


57. "Juvenile Justice Act Has Failed Miserably.....We Cannot Hold the Child Responsible For a Crime..." !


56. School Education System in India: Systematic Undermining of the Constitution !


55. More Than the Heinous Crime It is the Insensitive Leadership that Makes Us Worried !


54. India's Capital : Why is It Full of People With Malice Towards One and All ?


53. Do My Blogs Have Any Impact on My Readers ? An Analysis !


52. Do We Indians Have A Leg-Pulling Nature In Our Genes ?


51. Walking Dead Bodies of India : Should I Weep or Laugh ?


50. An Unsolicited Advice to all 'Aam Admi Parties' of India !


49. Finally Aadhaar ID is Downloadable-Here is How You Get It !


48. Penny Wise Pound Foolish Air Travel Business of India !


47. Gold and Land : the Two Great Detrimental Forces of Indian Economy !


46. Air India : Sad Story of A Great Legacy of India !


45. Treasures,Talents and the PPM Process !


44. The Emperor's New Clothes and the Neo-Indian Bourgeoisie !


43. Infrastructure in India : Talking Much and Doing Nothing !


42. Would it be Ever Possible for Ranchi to be in the Tourist Map of India ?


41. How Do They Cause Bloodshed in Democratic Protest Marches ? An Eye Witness Account From India !


40. My Love and Hate Relationships with Water !


39. My Experiences and Encounters with Modern Medicine !


38. India Goes Powerless Again: Can We Prevent these Disasters?


37. Saluting Aamir Khan and His Satyameva Jayate Program !


36. God's Particle Discovery : What Caused Our Scientists To Be So Jubilant ?


35. Rising Petrol Prices: What Should be Done ?


34. Why do Indian Public Sector Undertakings Fail to Perform Now ?


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


32. Who was the Real Villain in this Real Life Incident ?


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

30. Some Wishful Thoughts On Public Road Transport System of India !

29. Thinking of owning a home in India ? You may consider these too !

28. Unfair Business Practices of Indian Service Provider Companies !

27. Indian Budget: Killing the Goose that lays Golden Eggs !

26. Population Growth: Is there any need to worry ?

25. Indian Railways-Some Suggestions for Improvements from a Passenger !

24. Beware of Modern Era Frauds !

23. What is Money ?

22. Can We Prevent the Dead Sea from Dying ?

21. Pre-paid Mobile Phone Connection: This is how Airtel does it !

20. Cashew Fruit Toddy : Remembering a Recipe from Good Old Days !

19. Which One Came First - the Egg or the Hen ?

18. Why I prefer Blogging with Blogger ?

17. Tughlaqs of Modern India !

16. India's New Era Corporates: Pressurized Employees and Failing Customer Care !

15. Can You Love those who Hate You ?

14. Over Anxious Parents !

13. The True Message of Jesus Christ-What Christians Fail to Recognize !

12. Nursing Profession: Neutral Opinion from a Non Medico !

11. Best Way to Have a Freely Corrupt Society while Officially Fighting Corruption !

10. Some Odd Thoughts from an Odd Indian Mind !

9. The Unique Identity Crisis of India !

8. The Politics and Business of the Indian Education System !

7. Propagating Corruption Through ATM Machines and Preventing It Too !

6. Unique Identity to All: the Simple Thing to Do

5. Electoral Reforms for India- Some Wishful Thoughts !

4. A Corrupt Society Trying to Fight Corruption Brings More Corruption !

3. Just How Much Money I need for a Living ?

2. Why do I write blogs ?

1. Anna Hazare and the Rest of India !

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