Why Is It Difficult To Follow the Good Way of Living on Earth Now ?

Before trying to answer this question, I would like to refresh your thoughts on the well known definitions of good and bad.

A good way of living, in my opinion, more or less proceeds  with the acknowledgement of the following:

1. Recognizing the fact that there is a God, the Supreme Creator of the Universe, who is to be revered and remembered always because our life and existence depend on God. The life and the personality which make us what we are, could not have been possible without God, the Supreme Source of all kinds of energy, mind and matter in this universe. Since, the all powerful God has  created such lowly creations like we  human beings , there is all possibility that He has created or caused the creation of various other orders of  intelligent beings of varying powers and capacities for various functions concerned with the vast administration of the vast universe that we have either known or not known yet.

2. Recognizing the fact that our fellow beings on earth being creations of God are our own blood relations or brothers and sisters connected to us through God. Hence we need to love God and our love to God should reflect through our love to our fellow beings, fully acknowledging the fact that our brothers and sisters may not reciprocate our love and concern in the same manner and that is due to the prevalence of ignorance.

3. Recognizing the fact that while we all have varying abilities, activities and responsibilities to perform from time to time, these do not make us superior or inferior to any one and hence we should always be considerate to our fellow beings and never ever try to deprive others of their rights. Each and every one of us is a servant to every other in some way or the other.

4. Recognizing the fact that we have God given abilities and intelligence, in varying degrees. Our intelligence and ability must be utilized to make continuous improvements not only to our physical needs but also to the needs of our minds for living a harmonious life in this world including enjoyment of all reasonable joys and pleasures that God has provided us on this earth.

5. Recognizing the fact that while wealth and power to accomplish many things may be be acquired  in this life, these special privileges should be utilized with care and responsibility.

6. Recognizing the fact that the life in this world is not an end to itself and may proceed uninterrupted in much more advanced and intelligent manner with our individual personality retained intact, provided we are humble enough to listen , recognize and proceed as per the feeble directions that come from God as received in our minds that we have deliberately made receptive to tune in to such directions.

7. Recognizing the fact that harsh realities and problems that bring much pain to body and mind are unavoidable in an imperfect world like ours and such unpleasant realities of life are not necessarily inflicted as a result of any wrath from God, but due to certain violations of universe rules by individuals who chose to follow a life not according to the will of God. Though God has the power to eliminate such problems, in His wisdom He has not so far decided to act against it and we are not to question the wisdom of God in such matters.

8. Recognizing the fact that we have to nurture our  God given qualities of curiosity, innovation, wisdom, doing good and seeking God to higher levels than what were inherently with us.

On the other hand a bad way of living proceeds in the following manner :

1. Not really believing in the existence of a Supreme God or not really concerned with the existence of such a Supreme Being while considering any one who is capable of fulfilling any kind of desires to give some degree of satisfaction to be revered , respected or even worshipped as god, which means a kind of refusal of acceptance of the invisible First Cause and Centre of Everything in the Universe.

2. Behaving as if power and wealth are for fulfilment of self satisfaction with no concern for fellow beings.

3. Believing that those who do not have power and wealth exist for the purpose of doing slavery for those who have it.

4. Believing that might is right or letting a greedy nature to overpower all acts making one too selfish.

5. Enjoying sadism or have a desire to see others suffer or feel happy when others suffer.

6. Enjoying life while cunningly trouble others or feeling unconcerned with the problems of others; believing that life is short and enjoying it as much as possible at whatever cost is okay.

7. Be passive and not inclined to resist bad or support good and live a life of fulfilling self interests only.

8. Having an innate desire to control others and be like a worshipful god.

Now coming to the pertinent question: why is it difficult to follow a good way of living on earth now ?

The answer that I have found for this question is some thing as below:

As a creative head of the universe, God has created both living and non living beings and materials of innumerable kinds and types. The living beings so created are with varying degrees of intelligence which include perfect beings, imperfect beings and beings which are created imperfect but are capable of progressing towards perfection. 

God has also created material abodes or worlds such as earth for the living beings to live and do their activities. There are worlds which are made perfect in the beginning itself and there are worlds which are made through a long process of evolutionary development and all worlds are made up of some kind of materials, not necessarily the materials that our earth is made of. 

All living beings have some kind of bodies and the type of bodies differ in different orders of living beings. Imperfect and progressive living beings have imperfect bodies made of lower level materials. But advanced kinds and perfect living beings have bodies made of super materials or materials which are beyond the normal materials that we in earth know about. Super material bodies do not elicit any response in the sensory mechanisms of our materials bodies and hence we are unable to feel their form or existence under normal circumstances. Similarly, the worlds where other living beings live exist at far distances of hundreds and thousands of light years from our earth that we are unable to know much about them using our present day scientific exploration techniques.

Why did God made all these things like this is a matter of the supreme wisdom of God. But God has some purpose and plans for everything which may not be comprehensible to every one of us due to our limitations of mind capacity to know and understand.

However, God has given us the capacity to make our world towards more and more perfection. God has also given us the fullest liberty for using our creativity and the freedom to take all decisions of life. We are at full liberty to believe in God or not to believe in Him. All necessary intelligence is given for this purpose, though in varying degrees.

To chose good or bad is within our control and God has determined not to interfere with that, though He might occasionally give us some clues or guidance if only we are willing to take note and act on it.

Just as there are many human beings who prefer a bad way of life for its immediate or apparent benefits, there also exists invisible beings who are imperfect but are superior to human beings in certain abilities and mind capacities. But some of these superior but imperfect non material beings could be similar to some human beings who find pleasure in doing evil or bad things. These invisible and intelligent living beings also exist in this universe here and there including our earth. However their superhuman abilities in no way make them equivalent to God. They are simply superior cousins of human beings and could use their free will choices to follow evil just as similar minded human beings. However certain invisible acts of these imperfect superhuman beings could sometimes cause some human beings to get their wisdom and logic corrupted and to believe untruths as truths or doing evil acts assuming those as right.

For example, people who are bad or doing evil things might become materially prosperous and appear as successful to others making the latter to believe that such acts of evil or people who do such things are blessed by God.

But God never permits evil nor favors evil. It is simply our delusion that we understand it that way!

It becomes very difficult for persons who are not so careful to miss the hidden dangers of following bad.

Such observations could also cause many of us in believing in the non-existence of God. Many are forced to accept a logic that is clearly atheistic because their logical deductions and conclusions from limited observations and experiences of this world in a way give them ample opportunities to think that they are right.

But if you observe closely for a longer period, you might also observe some pathetic downfalls some of them have faced on account of their own acts. It is not wise to consider those downfalls as wrath of God, but it could be considered as a result of the violations of the universal laws of God.

The apparent delay that we perceive in getting the evil doers punished by God may also cause one not to believe in the existence of God. This happens because we tend to consider the Supreme God as similar to us in thoughts and actions and we cannot possibly comprehend an infinite God and His wisdom with our finite minds.

Because of the limitations of the finite logic of some human beings, they cannot perceive the assurance of God about the possibility of an everlasting life even after material death for all human beings who follow and do good under given circumstances honestly. This too may result in many human beings choosing evil ways of life and departing away from things which are inherently good and godly. Thus they may forfeit their once-in-a-life-time opportunity to enter into a continuing process of progress and adventure which involves cycles of life and life translations in many other worlds without losing their individuality and the opportunity to transform to a perfected being having a never ending life and a high degree of life experiences. 

So, more than the temporal downfall or cessation of material life that those bad guys faced, it would be another application of the universal law of God that could make them earn the sympathies of the good ones. These bad guys would be no more living while their not-so-materially-prosperous counter parts who chose to live a humble life in accordance with the will of God would survive death with their personality intact. Those surviving earthly deaths would realize about the fate of their earthly fellows who were too prosperous for some short years of their living on earth but failed in retaining their precious lives intact! 

Being good and surviving death, the good ones would feel sorry for the bad ones. The bad and evil ones could not ensure perpetuation of their evil happiness for ever! It was too short lived an affair on earth.

How could they ?

They kept rejecting the possibility of the universal rule of a sovereign God whose laws are perfect and unchanging and they could never use their brains to find those clear evidences that have been all around them !

Just consider this :

Hundreds of people keep visiting this site every day but very few of them try to read blogs like this even when the majority of my blogs are on similar topics.

But only a minuscule of my readers are attracted to such topics ! Their inherent curiosity and anxieties are directed towards matters which are not too important, in my opinion.

When people go after silly things leaving precious things, when people go to chose evil things rejecting good and when people are more concerned about this short earthly life than the possibility of a wonderful everlasting life, I feel sorry for them.

When I find more and more of the so-called spiritual gurus and high priests also of that kind, I feel all the more sorry for the current generation. 

How sad !

[*Based on the revelatory celestial guidance given in the Urantia Book]

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

Understanding Project Life Cycle in Engineering Projects !

Buying a engineering project is different from buying an equipment or machinery. Generally, an engineering project is a fixed infrastructure having various kinds of interdisciplinary systems and works integrated in to one well defined system engineered and built at a specified location different from a pre-existing manufacturing facility. Engineering projects may or may not contain assemblies of various kinds of pre-fabricated equipment and manufactured machinery integrated with various kinds of constructions and erections in situ (on site). On the other hand, an equipment or machinery may be entirely manufactured by the supplier at his own manufacturing facility and supplied at the specified location of the purchaser either as a fully working and tested item or in parts to be assembled and tested at the purchaser's specified location.

Equipment and machinery involving complex engineering and  projects involving engineering may both cost millions of rupees and may take a few months to a couple of years for completion after placement of order or signing of contract.

In the case of high cost manufactured machinery, such as airplanes, locomotives, ships, switch gears, hospital equipment, etc the purchaser has to take decisions based on the design features and cost data as available from the manufacturers. In this case, the manufacturers are presumed to be more knowledgeable in the design and other technological details of the equipment and the purchasers are to take the decisions of procuring based on the usefulness, serviceability, initial cost and recurring costs, etc.In this case, the purchaser also has the options to know about the performance of similar machines elsewhere and also about the reputation of the manufacturer in meeting with the commitments.

However, in the case of engineering projects, this scenario is entirely different. For implementation of a project the following stages, called the Project Life Cycle (PLC), are involved:

1. Formulation of the Project which is Feasible:  This has to be undertaken by the investor either by himself or by a team of engineers on his behalf, generally called the Client's Consultants. The job involves the feasibility studies and putting the relevant information in the form of a report called the Techno-Economic Feasibility Report (TEFR). This phase is one of the most vital stages of any engineering project. A project proceeded without carrying out a proper feasibility study is likely to meet with failure during the course of implementation. Here, project failure means project not getting implemented in the pre-specified time or within the pre-determined cost or when the project does not yield the pre-determined benefits in totality. It is better to go a bit slow during the project formulation stage because hurries to get the project report made by the formulation engineers or to put pressure on them to get the report made quickly would make the feasibility report with many assumptions, some widely differing from actual realities. A well experienced team of experts could study the feasibility of a project and prepare the report in about 3-6 months provided they have access and facilities to gather all the relevant information in time. For certain kind of projects, the project formulation time period could be even longer. If a project is found techno-economically feasible, the facts have to be spelled out in the report in detail so that the project could be audited for success or failure later. THe TEFR forms the bench mark for project audit when money is spend for the project implementation. The role of the purchaser's engineering consultants is very vital at this stage. Any inexperience or lack of expertise on their part would pave a way for possible project failure.

2. Decisions for Making Investment in the Project : This has to be done by the investor or his authorized representative who is empowered to make capital investment decisions. It is presumed that the purchaser has made all efforts to understand the TEFR and all the salient points made by the project formulation engineers as reported in the TEFR. The TEFR also gives the purchaser the inputs to assess the confidence of the formulation engineers in the success of the project. Hence, it would be a good idea to have a detailed interaction with the formulation team before the project is proceeded with.

3. Preparation of the Tender Specifications for the Project: It is a good idea to specify the number of contract packages for a project in the TEFR with their assessed costs. It is also a good idea to discuss the overall scheme of the project with a few experts in responsible positions in a few such companies who have the requisite expertise in undertaking similar kind of projects with more or less similar engineering or technology. These interactions should positively be commanded by the engineering group leader from the purchaser's side who is well versed with all aspects of the purchaser's requirements and limitations. These interactions should provide the purchaser's side the key inputs with regard to the present market situation with regard to availability of key equipment, project mobilization issues, cost issues, logistics, lead time for manufacture of materials and equipment, etc. This would also help the purchaser's side to frame up the best contract packages so that the purchaser gets the best competitive prices and the best execution strategies. A time period of three to four months would be needed to complete this for a medium scale project involving a few hundred million rupees. The tender documents should preferably contain the eligibility criteria (EC) for the bidders who are desirous to participate in the tender for doing the work as the contractor for any specified package. This is required when the purchaser is a public authority responsible for public funds in any way. EC has to be made after a thorough preliminary evaluation of the available vendors and should be made in such a way that the best ones are qualified and those without the essential capabilities to organize, manage and execute the contract are not qualified. How to get the good EPC contractor and how to weed out the bad ones depends much on the manner in which EC is defined by the purchaser.

4. Tendering and Tender Evaluation: In project contracts involving multidisciplinary engineering and technology, it would not be possible to evaluate the techno-commercial aspects of the bids made by the bidders easily. If the technical specifications are made perfectly with enough technical guidance to the bidders and with little chances of much deviations after award of the work, there is not much necessity for having detailed interactions with the bidder at this stage. The bidders have to confirm the techno-commercial conditions of the purchaser as defined in the tender documents to be deemed as at par, provided the qualify the EC. In such a scenario, the tender can be finalized on the lowest price bid. However, in many cases, this does not happen this way. Most often, the tender documents as made by the purchaser give a chance for the bidders to rake up techno-commercial issues for much debate. If this happens, the finalization of the bids could become a lengthy process involving many months. It can also make substantial changes in the scope of the tender and the costs. Hence, this should be avoided by seeing that the tender documents and specifications are prepared with confidence and without gross technical errors or scope for better alternatives. A project tender after tendering should be finalized and contract awarded within the shortest period not exceeding about three months. If this cannot be done, there is all likelihood that the project may linger during execution proceeding towards failure.

5. Award of Contract : Normally, signing of the contract for the packages of a project in reality enforces the real commitment from the sides of the investor and the contractor both towards the implementation of the project as planned. The date of signing of the project contract is to be reckoned as the the zero date for actual implementation of a project. Once the contract agreement is legally signed, one can presume the project to commence activities towards completion. However, for poorly planned projects, this may not be so. In India, project completion as per contract agreement rarely happens in the public domain due to poor planning and formulation making ample opportunities for litigation and arbitration at a later stage. Bagging of contracts by bidders who are not actually eligible to undertake the work also makes things complicated as far as the project progress and quality are concerned.

6. Design and Engineering Stage: The details of the project actually getting implemented are reflected in the design and engineering drawings and documents prepared by the contractors tailored for the the specific project after the award of contract. The contractors could have their own concepts about the scope of the works involved because that was what helped them in negotiating the case during the tender stage. However, normally no work could actually be implemented at site unless the contractors get their design and engineering drawings of the project checked and approved by the purchaser or his engineering experts ( generally the purchaser's engineering consultants). At this stage, two engineering groups, one from the contractors' side and another from the purchaser's side are fully involved. While the contractor's side tries to create the project designs and its minutest details according to the overall goal of the project as per the contract agreement, the purchaser's side checks them for engineering soundness, conformity to scope as agreed, conformity to engineering standards and safety, etc. This stage is the real test of skills and expertize of  engineers from both sides. When both sides are skillful and competent there is all likelihood that the project as built would be sound and fit and would give satisfaction to both the the purchaser, the users and the contractors. Unfortunately, in India the importance of the engineering groups at the side of the EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contractor and the purchaser (purchaser's engineering consultants) is not well understood by the decision makers at the top levels at both sides. Many so called EPC contractors do not have any competent engineering groups at their side and they try to manage the design and engineering by outsourcing the work to free lancers and other such groups who are ill prepared or incompetent do undertake such works. This in turn makes the work of the purchaser's consultants difficult and thankless making the latter blamed for the delays in getting the contractor's drawings approved. Incompetent engineers doing this work for the purchaser also makes things much complicated. While an  EPC contractor with a competent design engineering group could get his drawings approved at the initial submission itself, one depending on outsourcing the same to splinter groups could cause inordinate delays and also incur unnecessary costs due to excessive factors of engineering safety due to ignorance. The process of design and engineering is so complex that even many top technocrats do not understand it well unless they had previous experience in this line of engineering work. Incidentally, the best technocrats would be those who had a chance to get some years of experience in this kind of engineering work involving project formulation and project design and engineering ! Unfortunately, this breed of engineers are on a declining trend in India and migration from this field to other fields of engineering seldom takes place due to the ignorance of human resource planners in this field. Design and engineering can take as much as 25-40 % time of a project's overall time schedule. Almost all decisions involving the project features and quality aspects take place during design and engineering stage.

7. Civil Engineering : Most engineering projects involve many works of civil engineering. These are site surveys, site preparations, earth works, Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) works, piping and sewer works, construction of buildings, equipment foundations, roads, tanks, etc. These works are to be as per the approved civil engineering drawings of the project. Civil engineering also involves debris clearance, painting, and many other such works. Services of experienced civil construction engineers, supervisors and workmen are all required in making the civil works proceed in a sound manner. In India, now-a-days, there is acute shortage of well trained man power in this area in many regions causing uneven quality of civil works from place to place.

8. Procurement of Equipment and Machinery: Many engineering projects involve procurement of tailor-made equipment and machinery from various manufacturers. These could be process machinery such as pumps, valves, fans, compressors, blowers, motors, conveyors, crushers, filters, dust catchers, etc or equipment such as tanks, vessels, bins, pipelines, boilers, etc or electrical equipment such as switch gears, motor controls, cables, etc or instrumentation and automation equipment or any other such specialized equipment or machinery. These are to be procured to suit the specific purpose of the project scheme from specialized industrial equipment suppliers based on detailed specifications finalized during the design and engineering stage. Experienced engineers well versed in inspection, testing, erection and commissioning of these specialized equipment would determine the success of these machinery. Many times it would be necessary to organize training of the purchaser's personnel who are required to operate and maintain these equipment and machinery after the project is commissioned.

9. Erection of Equipment : Many activities at site go concurrently. Erection of equipment may go concurrently with the construction of the building or electrical cabling works or piping works. However, these have to be micro planned in such a way that no one activity is counter productive to another. Modern project management tools help the project managers and the site engineers in this regard. Now-a-days many software tools that make the Project Engineering Review Techniques (PERT) and Critical Path Methods (CPM) easier are available for those involved in engineering project implementation. However, in India, due to various reasons such professional tools are not fully utilized for taking real benefits in projects  in the public domain.

10. Testing and Commissioning : A well planned project would not be difficult to be tested and commissioned smoothly. However, most often much complications do take place at this stage which include  fatal accidents too. This reflects  poor project management with regard to quality of work. Often many equipment get to damaged conditions due to poor handling at site calling for emergency repairs even before the equipment gets into action. Proper sequencing of work is very important to ensure a trouble free testing and commissioning. Experienced testing and commissioning engineers also make much difference in this.

11. Performance Guarantee Tests and Handing Over : This is the stage at which the project is inspected finally for its overall fulfilment of agreed objectives and performances. The purchaser and contractor make documents recording the formal handing over and taking over of the new assets as created in the project. In a well managed project this is a happy occasion while those mismanaged projects it may not happen and lead to future litigation between the two sides.

12. Post Completion Audits : This exercise is not normally done by many. However, it is a good practice to do it and observe the projects performance, quality and such other objectives with what was speculated initially during the formulation stage. If the project is observed as fulfilling the feasibility stage objectives with regard to its functions, costs, quality, time of completion, etc then the engineering project could be considered as a success. This stage is the last of the Project Life Cycle.  The purchaser should also ensure archiving all records relating to the project from formulation stage to completion audit stage for the future references.

The above is the general activity sequence of any engineering project from concept to commissioning. However, depending on the actual scope and technical content this could have some differences. Again, each project life cycle stages would involve much more detailed activities involving several groups and individuals making a large scale engineering project much complex.

Engineering projects involve large scale transactions of money and have much bigger stakes for both the purchasers and the contractors. Engineering projects involve multidisciplinary skills and expertise. Project execution sites are like war zones which might cause fatalities if proceeded without ensuring proper care and safety norms. But in today's world, no development is possible without successful implementation of various kinds of projects involving multidisciplinary engineering.

Countries like India with high population and population growth, demand for more and more infrastructural facilities including production facilities keep growing and therefore there would be great demand for people who are well versed in all aspects of project formulation and implementation. It may not be in the interest of India to depend on foreign know-how and skills always in this context. [You may see this blog also in this context]

No Democratic Country Can Progress So Long As Its Administrative Services Are Resistive To Change: Something For India To Take Note of !

Modern democratic systems have evolved in such a way that they have two main types of people occupying the administrative organizations:

1. The elected Representatives of the people, called the politicians, who become organizational heads of various governmental organizations or ministries for some time as long as they have the people's mandate.

2. The permanent appointees occupying the service posts called the bureaucrats who are heads or in charges of various offices or functions, subordinate to the political bosses.

So the governmental administrations are carried out by organizations of people with varying degrees of power and authority. The power and authority of the people in these administrative organizations are generally supposed to be  increasing as one goes higher in the organizational set up. But the higher levels of governmental organizations are composed of individuals who do not occupy those posts for a relatively shorter period which could be anything between a few days to a maximum of five years.  

This is true for the republic of India, which has been in existence for the last over six decades as a democratic nation. However, peoples' aspirations seem to be neglected fully in  democratic India and such neglect seem to be on the rise as years pass.

Take for example the following:

1. India has not added much to its railway infrastructure. The progress is pathetically low as compared to other nations such as China. Same is the case with roads, sea ports and airports. Moreover, the quality of the existing infrastructure has not improved much in comparison to modern development in other countries and the development has not at all kept pace with the growth in population.

2. Nothing much has happened in the literacy rate. One third of Indians even in this modern era do not know reading and writing. While most of the countries in the world have made remarkable achievements in this field, India still maintains the poorest pace with regard to general literacy growth.

3. Nearly half of the population, a whopping 600,000,000 Indians, are pathetically poor as per world standards. The performance of Indian rulers who ruled for six decades is extremely poor if one compares this period with a similar period before independence when India was under the foreign bosses !

4. India has not achieved much in health care and social security systems. Neither its performance in environmental aspects anything worth mentioning.

5. The law and order system and the judicial systems are degraded versions of the systems originally made by the foreigners. No one can safely say that these systems are any  better in independent India !

7.  There are not any noteworthy contributions from the 1200,000,000 Indians in the field of science, sports or any other field in the last six decades as compared to other nations, commensurate with the population.

What could be the reason for this kind of a situation for this nation which is other wise blessed with one of the most fertile and hospitable terrains in the world ?

Is it the over population ? I don't agree. The high population should be the most advantageous situation for any country to develop at a much faster rate, provided there is a proper management system in place !

Is India inherently poor ? No, never. India is potentially rich. Only thing is that the Indians who are at the helm of affairs are people who either do not have the talents to tap the potential or are not placed properly to accomplish it. How can a driver drive a car, when his owner does not allow him to drive ? How can a scientist do some meaningful research when his boss does not understand the ABCD's of research ? How can an IAS secretary with basic education in History understand the nitty gritty of the Aviation sector and make his minister boss with basic education in say, Law, take appropriate decisions for the Aviation sector of the country ?

The problem with India is that it is having many administrative systems manned by people who are not competent with relevant knowledge and training to understand the problems and take appropriate decisions in their respective areas.

A government secretary who is meant to advice political boss who is not an expert is himself or herself a non expert. Same is the case with his or her subordinates who come from the same  administrative services. Someone who was handling Child and Women Development yesterday could be handling Science and Technology the next day ! The political portfolios of ministers and their offices keep changing according to political compulsions every now and then ! How can the country have any consistency of rules and systems in such a situation ? Where is the time for any one to think for the people and the country ?

Then there is the lower rung administration with a permanent sort of set up. They are the same always irrespective of their political or bureaucratic bosses changing every now and then. They keep seeing many type of bosses and their whims and fancies to such an extent that after some years they lose all their respect to their bosses and take things for granted. They know that the top bosses are totally helpless without them. It is the latter who keep the files and who know the procedures. The minister or his secretaries can perhaps do any thing in such a situation other than touring and attending seminars or such other functions through out the country and also in other countries. A great deal of time is also spend in planning their tours and travels and public speeches. Where is the time for these so called heads to calmly think if at all they have such a faculty still working ?

Most often the top bosses act as post offices and parrots ! They mark the papers and files to down below functionaries and get reports made by the down below ones to read out elsewhere. The top, both bureaucrats and political bosses, in such a scenario degrade themselves to be led by others instead of they giving the directions. They degrade as spoon-fed babies and parrots in a very short time ! The only major decisions they seem to take interest would be the posting of people and allotment of work to those of their choice. Again, how they are making this choice to know the people in their vast administrative organizations is another interesting thing to ponder ! Of course, their interests in touring both within the country and outside remain mostly intact. Any files that they happen to take special interest would be those where their special interests are some how motivated by some one and it is well imaginable what such interests would be !

It would also be very interesting indeed to find out how the decision making files move in the administrative organizations of democratic India and who writes what in these files and how the ultimate decisions evolve !

Again, the administrative system of India is comprising of people of various degrees of calibre and character. While about half of the central administrative service officers get in to the service through the all India civil services examinations, another half get into it through departmental promotions from lower cadres. There is no harm in this kind of a system, except that it makes up a system with varying kinds of weaknesses and strengths in the organizational set up.

A senior IAS officer publicly stated the kind of officers that comprise the Indian system in the following manner:

1. Officers who are competent and honest !
2. Officers who are incompetent, but honest !
3. Officers who are competent and dishonest !
4. Officers who are both incompetent and dishonest !

I would like to add a fifth kind in the above : Officers who are competent, dishonest and destructive !

Unlike the system in the USA and some other progressive countries, the existing individuals in the service class decide how they should function or organized. They would not allow the existing system to be changed in any way that they construe as a possible threat to their own authority. Moreover, it is not wrong to say that the Indian administrative service officers have systematically captured most of the administrative authorities to themselves that it is not easy for their political masters with lower knowledge in such things to change the system even when they have a desire to do it !

In effect the politicians and the administrative bureaucrats naturally became complimentary to each other for keeping all the authority of actions to themselves, without knowing how and when to act for achieving results that are for the betterment of their nation and its peoples.

They are scared of losing their authorities and hence they would never ever ask any one outside their own fraternity for any possible advices even when they do not know what to do next or how to proceed next for the better. Being designated as the highest authorities of the land, it is not at all befitting for them to take expert guidance outside their fraternity. Even when they do such a thing at times, they never agree to any expert advice in-toto. If previous experiences are any indications, in India hardly any such things have happened which went totally as per the learned advice of the external experts !

Democracy and the incompetency of the political leadership in a way have proved a boon for administrative officers of the third, fourth and the fifth categories as mentioned above to twist the system the way they liked without any one hardly noticing. This way the bureaucracy, the guardians of the system, has practically fallen prey to self interest and greed rather than working as checks and balances for ensuring a proper democratic system.

Now-a-days a number of fresh high calibre graduates from reputed engineering, management and other such educational institutions are also taking up the civil services examinations of India seriously and getting into it because they have realized that no other service in India enjoy such vast powers. They work hard to crack the tough civil service exam, as if to capture power to enjoy an aristocratic life for the rest of their career, even when the salaries the civil services offer are comparatively much less to what they could have probably got in the multinational corporations !

I know that there are honest young men and ladies among them who are desirous of doing some thing better for the country, soon to get disheartened by the system which would not so easily allow them to perform the way they wanted. Soon their engineering and management learnings get diluted and forgotten as they hardly gain any thing in that front to augment their experiences. Their experiences would now be provided by the lower bureaucracy who knows how to mould their fresh and young masters ! Coupled with that and together with the pragmatic approach of their seniors under the physically active political system would now make these young and intelligent officers to enjoy the powers rather than use the powers for the benefit of the society at large, in a few years time if not happened earlier !

Can any one imagine any IAS officer, belonging to both genders, who had got in to the cadre due to their so-called high calibre, knowledge and determination to crack tough competitive examinations, would turn out to be so corrupt and greedy later in their career that they can amass hundreds of crores of rupees by illegal and corrupt practices using their authority ? Perhaps it is difficult for the common man to think that it is possible for these wise men and women to do like that. But it is happening in India ! It proves that the possession of any high genius or cleverness is not  a substitute for true character.

India needs people of high calibre and character at all levels if it has to compete with other nations in development. Otherwise, its 1.2 billion odd people would never be able to achieve anything worthy because they are administered and managed poorly by a faulty governmental system composed of a mixture of people of all sorts without any efforts any where for getting the best management and leadership !

Indian system does not show any dynamism and is so reluctant to changes. The key decision makers in the system would not allow any novel ideas to be adopted if they have their way. They will be the last ones to support or do some mentoring for any one who has novel ideas for the country. But if any one authority does that by some accident, they are the ones to do the lip service and pampering to that high degree that the person concerned would slip and fall without achieving anything !

I always wonder this ! Why most in my country clamour for high posts and positions without ever having any agenda to do any thing good for the rest of the society using their positions of power and clout ! Why are they so to cling to power positions when they know for sure that they could not use their power in any manner because of their possible ignorance and incompetence ? Is moving in beaconed cars accompanied by some uniformed men with arms, such a big attraction ? The Indian public has long adored the powerful policemen and the uniformed security personnel. So getting in to a position where some of those kinds show obedience is indeed a great reward for many Indians that they can go to any extent of getting into such positions ! Hardly ever they realize that these spoiled and hard worked uniformed men are cursing them throughout and are waiting for an opportunity to pounce on their harassers if ever an opportunity comes !

The breakdown of the Indian law and order situation  is due to this aspect whether the so called administrative experts admit or not ! The bosses, have neither the time and the free brains to think of this eventuality and to make a system of dedicated and duty-bound security personnel ! The more they try mechanically, the more these men become ragged with a burning malice towards all in the society.

Our bureaucrats do not realize this saying : Never harass the cook who cooks the food for you ! But they keep doing it and keep eating the food the harassed ones keep making for them ! Should I say how it is made ?

I am not making this lengthy. The Indians need to learn to behave as human beings of a modern society. Especially the Indian bosses- whether they belong to the governmental administrative systems or any other kind. It is indeed the bosses who can shape the fate of a society and hence the bosses need to have these two  C's  in their hearts and brains : Competence and Character !

If they have those, they would not be scared of making any changes and trying out new systems and practices and using their brains. They would then learn to be generous, broadminded and with a determination to do good for the society they lead ! They would not like to cling to their seats of power and position when they cannot possibly act to do good for the society and the nation. They would gladly allow others who can do it better.

And that is the essence of democracy !


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