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.  

Corruption in Private Organizations in India: Something People Do Not Seem to Bother Much !

When it comes to defining corruption, people in India often seem to be concerned with corruption that takes place with government controlled organizations such as the law enforcement organizations, the railways, the revenue and land record offices, the registration and tax offices, etc. Common people in India has accepted corruption by staff of some government departments as a standard practice and an unavoidable evil of the society. Bribe giving and bribe taking in small affordable amounts no more pinch any one so long as they get the work done either out of turn or a bit faster. This kind of corruption may be called the direct bribe tax of India. To make things easy for the bribe tax payer and the taker, now there are even agents who are known faces to both sides. Agents facilitate breaking the ice easier and make things much easier.

It is also in the common knowledge that this kind of direct bribe tax collection system is blessed by the supervising authorities and the top controlling authorities and there are even foolproof systems to evaluate the quantum of bribe tax collected so that the collections are distributed properly to all concerned without much internal disputes. 

Then there is the indirect bribe tax system where policy decisions are kept under an environment of whimsical dynamism by what is known as commissions. In this case the common people are not directly affected but only indirectly by way of price rises, inflation, etc. Common people perhaps know about it only through the exposures made by the forth estate called the media. The manner in which these exposures taking place often compel the common people to doubt on the involvement of the media business in these indirect bribe tax system.

Fortunately for every one, the majority people of India are not so worried about corruption so long as it does not affect them directly. They are also not much concerned with corruption that take place in the private domains of commercial activities whether it is education, communication, transport, real estate, health, insurance and the like.

Why is it so ? To understand that it is necessary to understand the general mindset of the people.

There are three kinds of people. 

The first kind and perhaps the minority kind are the people who are innately honest. They are tuned to their inner voice in such a way that they would not do an act of dishonesty because if they do it, it pinches and troubles them. Such people when employed in any organization would not try to cheat or cause any harm to any one. They follow the rules and the laws not because they fear any consequences, but because their own consciousness would not allow them to do it. They are satisfied with the remuneration or salary what they get as allowed by the rules and would not seek adopt corrupt practices to enhance their incomes by illegitimate means or corrupt practices. The society would benefit much if this kind of people are in a majority. In India, it is generally believed that this kind of people are a minority. Their numbers would be around 10 % or even less.

The second kind of people are the majority and these are the people who do not normally adopt any corrupt practices for their own benefits not because they are inherently honest, but because they do not have the opportunities or are scared of getting caught or punished. The fear of consequences and the lack of opportunity prevent them from adopting corrupt practices. Since they are not innately honest, the removal of fear of consequences or availability of favorable situations may change them completely. A person of this kind who used to appear as honest and has been preaching honesty or fighting corruption could one day become a fully corrupt personality. India which is rated as a nation of high corruption is believed to have a high percentage of this kind of people. Their numbers could be as high as 80%. They are inherently opportunists because they are inherently cowards. They tend to adopt the majority stand and they like to be with the majority. They support the majority voice. They would not like to expose their true nature to any one. What they talk in public may not be the same when they talk in private! They are the fence sitters.

The third type is again a minority and are the dare devils. They are openly and inherently evil and corrupt. They are not honest and they do not believe in such good character attributes of people. They would try to justify their acts of corruption by giving examples of those of the second type who are in majority. They believe everything is right in war, love, politics and business. Fear of punishments do not deter them and they think that they are too clever to over come such silly eventualities. If there are no opportunities, they would try and create opportunities for accomplishing their missions. Since they are not inherently honest, they may also know the art of buttering and talking pleasantly so that others would fall prey to their cunning acts. They are usually a minority and their percentages would be to the tune of only about 10%. But  they are the ones who try to perpetuate evil in a society and their acts influence the second category of people in such a way that more and more of the latter are taken to their fold.

So the people in any society could be divided in three classes as the good ones, the fence sitters and the evil ones. In a country like India which is generally perceived as corrupt their proportion would be 10:80:10. As such the good and the evil ones would balance each other generally. But the majority, the fence sitters make all the difference to the society at any given time. It is the perceptions of the fence sitters which decide the fate of a country or a society at any given time period. As the fence sitters are opportunists, they keep swinging from right to left or from evil to good or good to evil  from time to time.

But when people of inherent good and honesty increases, things would change positively. Otherwise, evil spreads and every one suffers. Ratio of inherently good or bad ones changes considerably only with generation changes. In general, percentage of good people increase (though marginally) with every generation. But so long as the fence sitters are a big majority, this change would not be much perceivable for many generations.

In India, corruption is not limited to public organizations. Private business organizations and religious organizations, non-governmental social service organizations, charity organizations are all affected by it because they all draw their peoples from the general fraternity of people.

In reality, the corruption in the education sector affects more people in India much more severely than any other form of corruption. And education sector in India is now predominantly in the hands of non-governmental trusts and societies, many of them declaring their objectives as religious, charitable or educational or social or all of these. The non social and non charitable corrupt practices they adopt affect the children and their parents severely and they do it as if permitted under the prevailing laws! It is a now common practice now that the managing boards of these private institutions mint money for themselves in the name of charity or educational social work in the guise of their honorary or voluntary works. They also bribe the personnel of the statutory bodies who are supposed to monitor their functions for compliance as per the laws for facilitating them to violate the rules with impunity.   

While it is easy to blame the people associated with the government sector as mostly corrupt, it is not true to assume that the private non-governmental sectors are corruption free in India. It all depends on the type of people they are comprised of. 

Private businessmen in many cases deal with public money. It could be the money of the general shareholders from the public or it could be money lent by the banks. These are public money and hence the business men have to use this money with care. They cannot spend this money for making money for them in any clandestine manner. If they do, it is corruption just the way it is dealt had it been in the governmental organizations or governmental business. 

Unfortunately for the country, and fortunately for those indulging in corrupt practices, India presently does not have suitable anti corruption laws that could give some deterrence in preventing corruption in the non governmental sectors. This has led to the proliferation of non-governmental organizations in India parading for doing social works and actually perpetuating corruption.

People associated with such organizations are fearing the rise of political parties such as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) because they fear the latter to clip whimsical powers that they have been enjoying  for personal gains.

And it would also be not so easy for AAP to have their organization built up using only the first kind of people!   

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 !

[View the linked list of all Blogs of the Author Here ! ]

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 ?

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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 !

[GO TO MALAYALAM BLOG LIST]

Consequences of Haphazard Management Systems !

Modern terminologies of management are invented by management academicians who work in management schools located mostly in the United States of America.  They routinely invent new terms and terminologies which are fed to the rest of the world through their research papers and books published year after year. Business media further try their part to popularize these.

Taking cue from these leaders of management from the leading country of the world, other modifications and adaptations of management theories keep flooding the information circuits of the world.

In the days when computers began making an impact in the world, those of us who chanced to interact with those gigantic electronic machines using the human understandable machine codes such as FORTRAN and COBOL, soon learnt a fundamental aspect of modern technology with special regard to computers. In those days we used to refer that as ' rubbish-in-and-rubbish-out' syndrome.

In a similar way rubbish-in-and-rubbish-out situation exists in all facets of information including management.

I am not telling that all that is researched and published in the field of management are rubbish.

A good number of Indian brains have contributed to the development of management 'science'. The popularity of the term 'management guru' to denote an expert academician or writer in management is a living example of the Indian influence in modern management.

The management principles and research discoveries that have been introduced to the world under various nomenclature, idioms and personified theories that got evolved from case studies from big money making businesses gave modern management the aura of a super science or philosophy. Management Gurus in the recent past have become so influential in politics and business that they could sell their theories so effectively to the decision makers of most of the countries.

The most remarkable one being their success in  removing the ceilings on individual service remunerations or simply salaries that existed a couple of decades ago. Now those occupy top slot positions in any organization are deemed as the top management personnel and very high remunerations to them are fully justified. This was not the case in the pre-globalization era !

In the past a public company could not have paid very high salaries to the top management personnel the way they liked. There existed some statutory guidelines limiting the pay and perks.

In India, the post liberalization scene greatly benefited the top management people working in the private sector companies. All of a sudden the promoters appointed themselves to the top management slots and began to draw such high salaries never ever imaginable by the common citizens.

Some top management persons of privatised PSUs also benefitted immensely.

Some PSU managers who migrated to the private sector also benefitted as far as their salaries are concerned.

In no time, the ratio between the lowest paid and the highest paid jumped to the order of thousands from the order of tens that existed before.

The best part of the new policy was that the top management could draw enormous amounts as salaries or 'management fees' to a couple of individuals of the company even when the company made no profits !


This logic perhaps came from the interesting philosophy of management which postulated that there is 'nothing absolutely right or nothing absolutely wrong' which in simple terms meant the non-existence management failure or success !

That meant that companies can go ruined or bankrupt under the able leadership of management experts holding positions like the CXO or CEO and the good fortunes that they had siphoned out as management fees cannot be taken back from them for their management failures. Because in management there is no real failure. The situations are all various facets of management !

With this logic, a company could be set up using a small percentage of promoters' money and a larger portion of public money either as bank loans or equity from mutual funds and in a couple of years time a good part of it could be siphoned out to a few individuals holding the top management posts as their salaries. If the company's business became successful by any chance, very good. If it does not, then also it is very good !

The Management of the company has nothing to lose, either way. The losers are the public. They could be the ordinary employees of the company or the ordinary share holders or the mutual fund investors or even the simple account holders of the banks.

The consequences of such a ridiculous management system without proper checks and balances on management accountability are for every one to see.

All at the same time the policy makers allowed the existence of other sectors with administered restrictions of pay and perks.

Is it not an insane policy where a lesser experienced person holding a top management post in a smaller private company drawing a monthly salary equivalent to the yearly salary of a more experienced person holding a similar post and performing a management task at a much more complex environment only because the latter is in a company bound by certain statutory clauses which prevents the latter to draw a salary equivalent or better than the former ?

Had it been a transitional thing which existed only for a shorter period of time, we could have perhaps ignored it as a systemic fault which is unavoidable. But if such an illogical situation is prolonged for decades then the whole society would have to bear the brunt in one way or the other.

For example in India even after two decades, the economy is still in mixed mode. Earlier India had a mixed economy where private and public enterprises co-existed more or less on a levelled playing field. Certain sectors were reserved for the government and there was no competition in those.

But now again it is a mixed economy where both private and public enterprises co-exist and compete each other, but in an unbalanced playing field. The situation is neither favourable to the private sector  nor to the public sector.

It is such a situation that all management principles and theories that got evolved in the west can be either proved or disproved at any one's choice and convenience.

A situation has now come in India where honest and competent public sector managers do not find it rewarding to aspire for the top management posts. Managing the company well is not the task which need to be accomplished in this sector now. A different kind of expertize is needed for this management which is yet to be defined by the management gurus !

At least in one aspect both private sector and public sector companies are on an equal footing. Failure of the company is no more the failure of the top management team- it is either the fault of the employees or the policies.

Because some how the modern management gurus have not yet defined management failure !

Then what is haphazard management ?

Or why should we bother of the consequences ?