Gyaan Guru

Agenda for city governance

2010-04-28T01:11:00.000-07:00

1) Adopt the Kasturirangan Committee report, and therewith the Metropolitan Planning Committee concept for city governance. In addition, adopt the 'upper house' concept suggested by Mr Manivannan, with http://praja.in as the medium for citizen engagement - check http://praja.in/en/~bangalore/blog/murali772/2009/04/07/upper-houses-cities

2) Convert all parastatals such as BWSSB, BESCOM, BMTC, etc into expert 'cells' (or, call it by some other more appropriate name) under BBMP, with the operational functions outsourced to reputed private contractors, like JUSCO for water supply, TATA's/ Reliance for power supply, TVS for bus services.

3) Incentivise usage of public transport services, and disincentivise usage of individualised forms of transport. Phase out auto's with NANO's from within the city limits over a 2-year period.

4) Pedestrianise business districts like M G road/ Brigade road/ Commercial St areas; Jayanagar 4th block; Koramangala 7th/8th blocks, etc, with provision for passage of only public transport vehicles (including taxies) between 8 AM and 8 PM.

5) Design a total water management system, including rain-water and ground water, whereby dependence on external sources like Arkavathy, Cauvery etc reduces to the bare minimum.

6) Build de-centralised Sewage Treatment Plants, perhaps one for every Ward, across the city.

7) Build more Nirmala type of tiolets across the city, and tie up with local eateries for their operation (24 hr) and maintenance, by offering them suitable property tax concessions.

8) Re-establish Bangalore as a green city, particularly by nurturing the right species of avenue trees.

9) Establish a net-based complaint redressal mechanism - PRAJA can help here.

These are what I can readily think of, though it certainly is not quite comprehensive.

Agenda for state governance (May,'08)

2010-04-28T00:47:00.000-07:00

This was drafted in May '08, when the BSY government took charge.

Urban Governance - Implementation of the Kasturi Rangan Committee recommendations in order to empower the citizens in line with the spirit of the 74th amendment.

Police Reforms - Implementation of the Soli Sorabjee Committee report.
http://praja.in/kn/~bangalore/blog/murali772/2008/10/30/police-accountability-authority

Judicial Reforms - Provision of the necessary support to the Judiciary to speed up their work, particularly in lower courts, by modernization.
http://praja.in/blog/murali772/2008/01/24/mediation-required

Adequate Representation for Civil Society members on Regulatory bodies like KSPCB, LDA, BMLTA, KERC, etc.
http://www.praja.in/en/blog/murali772/2008/07/30/just-how-regulate-wisely-remains-question-today

Government size - With a sizable chunk of the revenues going to meet just the salary burden, the Government size is unsustainable even as of now. With the latest Pay Commission recommendations, it is going to become even more so. And, the fact of the matter is that, with increased computerization and out-sourcing, the size can in fact be reduced to less than a third of what it is at present. This needs to happen immediately.
http://www.praja.in/blog/murali772/2007/12/29/less-government

Water Supply - Urban water bodies have failed miserably in supplying adequate water to citizens, even with the governments having spent over Rs1105 billion on drinking water up to the 10th plan. On account of this, it's largely the poor who land up spending around Rs 6,700 cr annually on treatment of water-borne diseases, in addition to the colossal cost they pay for its availability. It is therefore high time new and credible PPP models for take over of the function by reputed private sector players are set up, after constituting a Regulatory Authority to oversee the job, as well as to control the resources.
http://www.praja.in/en/blog/murali772/2008/08/13/water-supply-ppp

Power - Facilitation of take over of power distribution in cities by reputed private sector players (atleast two per city) as already envisaged in the reforms agenda, and in the rural areas by co-operatives.
http://www.praja.in/en/blog/murali772/2008/05/28/imperatives-privatisation-power-distribution

Bus services - Capt Gopinath has given the common man 'wings'. But, unfortunately, he doesn't have the more basic wheels. Physical connectivity, both in cities as well as in the rural areas, is a very serious problem today, which can be solved almost overnight by facilitating the entry of organized, private sector players onto the scene, after addressing artificialities like the Contract Carriages Act, etc. Urgent reforms of Public Bus Transport Services sector, along the above lines, is called for.
http://www.praja.in/en/blog/murali772/2007/12/12/better-bussing-green-bangalore

Healthcare - It will be more apt to call the present scenario 'health-care-less'. Here again, the government has failed totally. The conditions in the government hospitals keep deteriorating from deplorable to pathetic, to even worse, day after day. The only way out is for their operations to be made over totally to any of the many reputed institutions existing in the field, like St John's, St Martha's, St Philomena's, Chinmaya Mission, Mata Amrutanandamayi trust, etc, etc, all monitored by a Healthcare services and Education Regulatory Authority, set up replacing the state Health Ministry.
http://health-careless.blogspot.com/
http://praja.in/en/blog/murali772/2009/07/15/jeevan-se-mukti
http://www.praja.in/blog/murali772/2009/06/26/is-it-worthwhile-visit-a-government-hospital-all

Education Reforms - Whereas India could easily become the knowledge capital of the world if the initiatives by the private sector in this field, particularly Higher Education, are harnessed properly, we are today faced with an unfortunate situation where we are not even in a position to meet our own demands for skilled man-power. The bigger irony is the growing levels of unemployment amongst the so-called 'graduates'. The cause of this tragic mis-match has clearly been identified by the 'Knowledge Commission' as resulting from the stranglehold of the sector by organizations like UGC, AICTE, Medical Council, etc, which has recommended their replacement by a more liberal regime under the overall purview of a Regulatory Authority. This needs to move on a war footing.
http://praja.in/en/blog/murali772/2008/06/07/private-colleges

PDS - With even the likes of Medha Patkar critical of the system, it's a crying shame that the country continues to allow as massive a loot as an annual Rs 10,000 crores through this grand-mother of all scams. The "food stamps" model advocated by many eminent economists needs to be implemented immediately.
http://praja.in/en/blog/murali772/2007/12/15/robbing-hungry-racket-called-pds#comment-5866
http://praja.in/kn/blog/murali772/2009/03/27/great-grand-mother-all-scams?page=1

This is what I could readily think about, but it is not necessarily comprehensive.

a further case for privatisation/ outsourcing

2010-03-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

When the Bangalore Metropolitan Planning Committee eventually takes charge, in furtherance of the 74th amendment bill, it will have to take on city water supply, power supply, public bus transport services ( presently being handled by the para-statals), and possibly even functions like traffic policing, in addition to the 31 obligatory and 21 discretionary functions the BBMP is currently handling (check http://www.praja.in/en/projects/2907/announcement/bbmp-elections-faq).

It's plainly inconceivable (besides being inadvisable) that the government will be able to mobilise the capacity to handle all these functions directly. As such, outsourcing of most of the functions is plainly inevitable as we go forward. And, while doing so, if you go by the traditional 'lowest tender' route, you will land up with the kind of problems we have been facing all these years - poor quality, delays, etc, eventually leading to the costs to the city going up in very many ways - both tangible and intangible. Therefore, there has necessarily to be processes of proper assessment and approval of vendors in order to qualify them for bidding to take up the jobs. Apparently, this is where the problems have been all these years. And, the solution lies plainly in instituting proper regulatory mechanisms - check http://www.praja.in/en/blog/murali772/2008/07/30/just-how-regulate-wisely-remains-question-today

While helping to apply for a UK family visitor visa for my m-i-l, I notice that a large part of the preliminary work has been outsourced to a commercial company - VFS Global (check http://www.vfs-uk-in.com/), who go about the job in a most professional way. A friend whose daughter took up a job in the UK recently tells me that as a part of the process of checking her credentials, the agency sent its people to physically verify all particulars with some three neighbors. That's the thoroughness with which they undertake the job. Compared to that, I suppose I don't need to elaborate on how the police goes about the job here.

There needn't be a debate any more - outsourcing is very clearly the way forward - check http://www.praja.in/en/blog/murali772/2008/01/23/bangaloreing-voters-list-review also.

An overwhelming case for Privatisation

2010-03-09T04:58:00.000-08:00

The following are a compilation of my posts on the subject on praja.in - check http://praja.in/en/blog/murali772

* The per capita energy consumption of a country is generally considered a good indicator of its state of development, leaving aside for the moment arguments questioning this idea of development itself. For India, the figure stands currently @ 682 (in Kwhr per annum), while for Brazil it is @ 1422; UK @ 5218; USA @ 10,381.

Now, if India has to improve this by even a 100 units, it has to add generation capacity to the extent of 12,016 MW (assuming 95% efficiency & capacity utilisation), meaning an investment of Rs 54,072 cr at Rs 4.5 cr per MW (for thermal; for hydel and nuclear, it's much higher).

This is the kind of capital required by just one sector, for a marginal capacity addition, taking the macro view into consideration. Imagine then the kind of capital required collectively by all the infrastructure sectors put together that you want the government to handle - water supply, roads, sewage systems, drainage systems, bus services, AIR-INDIA, railways, sea-ports, air-ports, banking, insurance, hotels, etc, etc, and of course, defence.

Well, that was exactly what the Soviet Union was doing, and look where they have landed.

* Everything that is in the domain of private India is getting cheaper - from mobile phones to cars to anything that is manufactured. Everything with a government interface is costlier by the day. This apathetic state of affairs is best symbolised by the raging prices of essential commodities.

* A section of the public has an opinion that public bus services can never be profitable, or rather, it should not be profit-making, which in essence means the government retaining its monopoly over such functions. Like-wise, this section, comprising largely of people with a Socialistic bent of mind, also believes that the same should apply to roti, kapda, makaan, bijli, sadak, paani, healthcare, education, etc, etc, besides of course railways, defence. If they could have their way, they would also like the the government to push out the private sector from hospitality, telecom, banking, insurance, civil aviation, etc, even though the freeing of these has largely been responsible for the faster growth of the economy of recent leading to most of them becoming gainfully employed.

The important question is how much can the government do? And, how much more public is the public sector, where the decisions are taken by a coterie comprising largely the minister-in-charge, a few bureaucrats, the employees (largely controlled by politician-led unions), compared to say a Reliance, which is answerable to a million share-holders (who rate their performance on a daily basis through stock valuations), apart from having to compete against the equally powerful TATAs, all under the oversight of a duly constitued regulator? And, answerability of the public sector to the Parliament is the most celebrated joke, as we all know.

And, then there's the case of the USSR, where everything our Socialist friends wanted was tried out. Only, it doesn't exist any more.

* It's nobody's case that privatisation is the panacea to all of the country's problems. There will continue to be problems. But, like the late Sri C Subramaniam had once stated, atleast these will be new problems, and not the same old ones for which we have not been able to find solutions for over half a century.

There never was and there never can be bigger Socialists (in its true spirit) than Dr Ambedkar, Nehru, etc, the founding fathers of the Indian constitution. However, they themselves opted out of listing the word 'Socialism' under the 'directive principles' of the Constitution. It was not an oversight, it was deliberate; since they had very clearly foreseen how it could be misused.

And, the irony of it all is that Nehru's own daughter, using emergency powers, brought about the amendment to the Constitution to include the S-word in the directive principles, in order to pursue her own nefarious agenda, justifying it with her infamous quote 'corruption is a global phenomenon'. This is the legacy we are now having difficulty living down.

* The most important question today is how urgent is the need for efficient public transport services. In my opinion, we can't wait even a day longer. If you accept that, can we then afford to wait in eternity for the BMTC to get its act together, with or without the help of a Prof Ashwin Mahesh? No - we have to bring in the TVS's and TATA's today. And, when approached that way, the route becomes very clear.

Because of the prevailing 'license-permit raaj', so far, it's been only the Blue-line (of Delhi) kind of operators that have generally been in the picture, in turn earning the private sector a bad name. For that to change, the raaj has to be dismantled and the entry of reputed players like TVS facilitated, all under the oversight of a duly constituted and empowered regulatory body.

And, the TATA's and TVS's are also equally desperately looking for avenues for growth, particularly with the conventional ones based largely on exports, becoming less and less attractive or even closed.

So, it's a win-win for everyone involved, particularly the aam aadmi.

This is also the case with our other infrastructure service sectors (power distribution, water supply, railway operations).

* If there's been a lowering of the quality of life, it's largely because of the state's and its agencies' failures, more specifically in its key role as the regulator, instead of concentrating on which, it has been messing around with the services and manufacturing sectors.

When Socialism rules, you have to content with the mafia's; when Capitalism rules, you have to content with lobbies. Mafia's don't play by rules. Lobbies generally play by rules, but after using their clout to re-write them to suit their designs. I would like to believe that the Indian democracy is sufficiently deep-rooted to manage lobbies better than mafia's.

And, what I am rooting for is not hard-core Capitalism of the US Conservative party kind, but a version more in line with the Democrats and British Labour party (I am actually not too sure of my grounds here), where the government's role as the facilitator and regulator is paramount. But, when it becomes a player, in addition, its key role as the regulator gets compromised, as we have been seeing time and again.

And, for this still rooting for Socialism, would perhaps also like to subscribe to what I have put at http://praja.in/en/blog/murali772/2008/03/03/those-were-days-my-friend

let's move on

2008-07-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Note posted by me on the CAF googlegroup:

Governments and their various departments may be obliged to do many things. But, they have all failed uniformly, and there's no hope ever of getting them to organise themselves to deliver. Governments themselves have realised this (including the ones in West Bengal & Kerala), and are seeking to withdraw themselves from where they don't need to be. There is also a move towards removing the word 'socialism'(not included by the original form, but introduced later by Mm Indira Gandhi as an amendment) from the Constitution itself.

Further, as far as public bus transport services is concerned, the BMLTA has now been in existence from over 6 months. Admittedly, it has not been structured properly, stuffed as it is with government babu's and some select experts, quite as pointed out by the IIM professor at the ABIDE. These are early days, and I expect things will evolve as we go along for which we need to engage ourselves closely with them. Towards this, I have been saying from long that we need to get our representatives on these bodies, which has only received lip sympathy so far. Now, if you are saying that they should first have a perfect structure, and then only we will participate, it like saying 'after you learn to swim, you may enter the water'. In the process of introducing competition, the need for which I trust there's not going to be a debate any more, admittedly, a few things will go wrong. But, that doesn't mean we go on researching indefinitely to find the best route. Take the plunge with the inputs available, and correct the wrongs, if any, as we go along.

In the case of power distribution, things are even more straight-forward. The government itself has decided that it needs to get out of distribution, which has been spelt out in no uncertain terms in the reforms agenda, and nobody has offically opposed it even. But, it is repeatedly getting sidelined by various vested interest groups, including possibly from the genset manufacturers. Also, the regulatory body, the KERC, has existed from over a decade to have gained sufficient maturity. If the government has to gain a control over its finances, this is one area that it has to tackle immediately, the subsidy component here being the highest.

So, let's get a move on, Sir. Ours is supposed to be an ACTION forum.

Privatisation phobia

2008-06-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

The common man generally has the picture of a businessman as a fly-by-night operator, unworthy of his trust. Admittedly, there have been enough reasons for that. And, that's why he wants the government to do everything for him.

But, what has happened over the years is that not only is the government not in a position to build its capacity to cater to these varied needs, but also it is progressively beginning to get hijacked by various lobbies to serve their vested interests, most often in collusion with the babu-neta combo.

Simultaneously, the businessman has evolved into a corporate entity with a certain brand identity, which he will do everything to safeguard lest his standing in the market drop below comfortable levels. This market mechanism is certainly not quite perfect, but has atleast helped throw up enough business houses who can today be relied upon to take on the erstwhile government roles. I would even go to the extent of saying that services such as public bus transport, power supply are too vital infrastructure services not to have the benefit of their management skills and technical expertise.

Corporate bashing - a past-time for a few

2008-06-21T03:25:00.000-07:00

The following are my responses to various attempts at Corporate bashing by some ignorant, and some typically pseudo-socialist fellow members of some Yahoogroups:

1) Why are you coyly exempting the HU-member employees of software companies (could be about half the strength, I guess) from blame? By taking up employment with these alleged environment degraders, aren't they party to the companies' deeds, too?

The fact of the matter is that, had it not been the Infosys, TATA's, etc, most of these would instead have become members of some Naxal groups. It is easy to pontificate from a self-righteous platform. The important thing is to make the right contribution.

As I have stated before, a certain amount of damage to environment is inevitable with development. And, if we are to provide a decent standard of living to the multitudes in our country, who are currently below the poverty line and impatient to move ahead, we need a fairly fast-paced development. The important thing is to channelise the development along the right lines so that the damage to the environment is minimal. Most Indian corporates, including Infosys and TATA's, are quite conscious of this and are doing their best in this regard. If their deeds have had adverse multiplier effects, it is the poor planning of the government and its agencies that is largely to blame. Perhaps, that's where our focus needs to be.

2) Hi M

It is indeed heartening to note the more measured and balanced approach you are adopting these days as compared to the earlier times (I hope you will not mind this tone coming as it is from somebody much older to you). The hazard involved, however, is that you could land up getting clubbed together with me to be issued fatwa's against by the neo-Ayatollah's of this world.

These Ayatollah's while enjoying a modern life-style themselves, complete with computers, cell phones, 'Pulsar', digicam, indeed the works, would however condemn the urban poor to making a living out of fishing in polluted lakes, to suffer through mosquito-ridden nights without power supply, then to get up early in the morning to line up in queue's to collect a few pots of drinking water, later to wait inordinately for the BMTC buses that never come, and finally to land up in some government hospital to die a horrific death.

The Ayatollah's will then write some insipid poetry about it all and expect the HU members to appreciate it!

3) Indeed D!

Any development will be accompanied by a certain amount of dislocations unless it is planned and managed properly. It is not a phenomenon peculiar to the IT sector alone.

In Kerala, for instance, the Gulf boom, and later the tourism boom, brought about 'development', and with the government unable to handle its effects properly, the lives of the local population got dislocated.

The Bangalore IT boom pace was much faster, and with the government approaching it in the same way as it did the growth of village panchayats ages back, things naturally went wrong. How can you hold the IT industry responsible for that?

When the IT industry provides decent employment for the youth of the country, you applaud it. When, because of the ineptness of the government machinery, it causes some dislocations to your lives, you curse it. Is that fair?

The IT (and ITES) industry is the only industry that has helped generate employment opportunities for the educated youth in the country in such a big way. If not for them, the youth would all have possibly strayed into some Naxal groups or the other. Their current prosperity has in turn fuelled the growth of the other industries leading to creation of employment opportunities, both for the educated as well those less fortunate, in the other sectors also.

India has phenomenal strengths in these fields. There is a vast potential for growth, and the entire country could benefit immensely from it. Instead of celebrating this, it is a pity that the likes of Mr C N R Rao choose to remain stuck in a time warp.

If we are to provide a decent standard of living to the multitudes in our country, who are currently below the poverty line and impatient to move ahead, we need a fairly fast-paced development. Yes, it has to be channelised properly. That's what the whole debate is about. But, anyone who thinks that growth and development are not needed at all, should then also be prepared to hold their parents responsible for adding to the burden on this earth.

road to prosperity

2008-05-14T06:06:00.000-07:00

text of letter sent to the press:

The UP government ad (in all leading dailies today) caption 'road to prosperity' says it all. They have decided to allow private sector to operate passenger buses (stage carriages) on all routes, including notified/ nationalised routes.

This is exactly what is required in as key an infrastructure area as public bus transport services. The resulting prosperity in the rural areas, and the de-congestion in the urban areas, are going to be the new drivers of the state economy.

What ever is Karnataka waiting for???

PS: For more, read my blog on traffic/ transport solutions.

subversion of democratic process

2008-05-04T10:38:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

A few days back, the ARO of our ward gave us a schedule of EPID issual programme, spread over some 8 days at 4 different sites, at 2 days per site. As an office bearer of the association in the complex where I stay, I broadcast this information to the residents, after successfully checking out the process personally on the first day. The experience of the people who heeded my advice, including my own family members, was disappointing, to say the least. There was total chaos and disorder at the designated centres, and they were all turned away on some pretext or the other.

Most of them are now planning to make do with any of the 15 other documents which have been notified as serving the purpose. However, given the whimsical ways of the SEC/ NIC/ BBMP combo, they will have to wait till the polling day to see what new problems they get to be faced with.

The above apart, when I say 'successfully checking out', I must also mention that the totally unprofessional way the entire job is being handled by the contractor and his people, leaves a lot to be desired. One can't imagine how as important a task as this can be gone about in such cavalier fashion, whereby any body who chooses to can very easily register any number of Bangladeshi's as voters.

All in all, the SEC/ NIC/ BBMP combo, entrusted with the job of preparation and maintenance of the electoral rolls and issual of the EPID cards, has once again proved itself unequal to the task. The resulting inaccuracy levels of the order of over 50% across the state (as admitted by their own selves), is causing serious subversion of the democratic process even at the very first stage itself, apart from posing a serious threat to national security. Correction of this anomalous situation has to be the first priority of the country if it wants to call itself a democracy.

manifesto points

2008-04-14T04:29:00.000-07:00

List of points sent to RWA's and the Civil Society, in general, for demanding of candidates for inclusion in their election manifesto's

Urban Governance

Implementation of the Kasturi Rangan Committee recommendations in order to empower the citizens in line with the spirit of the 74th amendment.

Police Reforms

Implementation of the Soli Sorabjee Committee report.

Judicial Reforms

Provision of the necessary support to the Judiciary to speed up their work, particularly in lower courts, by modernization.

Adequate Representation for Civil Society members on Regulatory bodies like KSPCB, LDA, BMLTA, KERC, etc.

Government size

With a sizable chunk of the revenues going to meet just the salary burden, the Government size is unsustainable even as of now. With the latest Pay Commission recommendations, it is going to become even more so. And, the fact of the matter is that, with increased computerization and out-sourcing, the size can in fact be reduced to less than a third of what it is at present. This needs to happen immediately.

Water Supply

Urban water bodies have failed miserably in supplying adequate water to citizens, even with the governments having spent over Rs1105 billion on drinking water up to the 10th plan. On account of this, it's largely the poor who land up spending around Rs 6,700 cr annually on treatment of water-borne diseases, in addition to the colossal cost they pay for its availability. It is therefore high time new and credible PPP models for take over of the function by reputed private sector players are set up, after constituting a Regulatory Authority to control the resources.

Power

Facilitation of take over of power distribution in cities by reputed private sector players (atleast two per city) as already envisaged in the reforms agenda, and in the rural areas by co-operatives.

Bus services

Capt Gopinath has given the common man 'wings'. But, unfortunately, he doesn't have the more basic wheels. Physical connectivity, both in cities as well as in the rural areas, is a very serious problem today, which can be solved almost overnight by facilitating the entry of organized, private sector players onto the scene, after addressing artificialities like the Contract Carriages Act, etc. Urgent reforms of Public Bus Transport Services sector, along the above lines, is called for.

Healthcare

It will be more apt to call it 'health-care-less'. Here again, the government has failed totally. The conditions in the government hospitals keep deteriorating from deplorable to pathetic, to even worse, day after day. The only way out is for their operations to be made over totally to any of the many reputed institutions existing in the field, like St John's, St Martha's, St Philomena's, Chinmaya Mission, Mata Amrutanandamayi trust, etc, etc, possibly monitored by a Healthcare services and Education Regulatory Authority, set up replacing the state Health Ministry.

Education Reforms

Whereas India could easily become the knowledge capital of the world if the initiatives by the private sector in this field, particularly Higher Education, are harnessed properly, we are today faced with an unfortunate situation where we are not even in a position to meet our own demands for skilled man-power. The bigger irony is the growing levels of unemployment amongst the so-called 'graduates'. The cause of this tragic mis-match has clearly been identified by the 'Knowledge Commission' as resulting from the stranglehold of the sector by organizations like UGC, AICTE, Medical Council, etc, which has recommended their replacement by a more liberal regime under the overall purview of a Regulatory Authority. This needs to move on a war footing.

a critique on BRTS

2008-03-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

The following is the full text of the comments under 'guest column' on page 2 of TOI today.

Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) when operated with high capacity buses gets to be called High Capacity Bus System (HCBS).

Curitiba in Brazil supposedly pioneered this model, following the 'success' of which quite a few other cities across the world have adopted it. In India, a team of technocrats from IIT, Delhi have been advocating this model from long, and as a result, the city of New Delhi has just about launched this scheme along one route, with a few more set to follow soon. The Delhi experiment has been receiving a lot of flak in the local media, which the supporters of the model would like to label as the propaganda by METRO/ MONO - rail, and automobile lobbies.

Now, whether BRTS or HCBS, both call for dedicated lanes in the centre of a given road. Allowing for 20 + 20 ft for the dedicated lanes on either side of a 10 ft wide median to accommodate the bus stops, it will leave just 50 ft for everything else on a 100 ft (between the outer edges of the drains on either side) road, like the one in Indiranagar. Thus, after providing for 20 ft lanes on either side for the general traffic, which by themselves are going to be terribly crammed, you will be left with a balance of 5 ft on either edges for drains, foot-paths, utility lines, etc. Plainly, that will mean the end of the majestic trees along this road.

The question further is how many roads do you have of this width in Bangalore?

Now, going by plain logic, supposing in any given route direction, BMTC is operating at a frequency of a bus every 3 minutes, and the buses are moving at an average speed of 10 kmph, there will be a gap of 500 M between any two buses. As such, if a lane is dedicated exclusively for the buses, it will then push out 100 other vehicles from this 500 M stretch (making for 200 vehicles per km), assuming an average vehicle length of 5M, and near bumper-to-bumper traffic conditions. This is total under utilisation of high demand city road space. If the cost of this much of land is factored into the project costing, particularly in cities like Bangalore, then the differential between the METRO-rail and the HCBS will narrow considerably.

The above apart, the access structures to the bus stops on the central median, can be fairly complicated and costly, particularly if you are following the Curitiba model. Also, while getting the traffic to move smoothly along straight road stretches is generally not a serious issue, the challenge is in getting them to negotiate the junctions smoothly. In this, the BRTS, for all its engineering, fails to provide satisfactory solutions.

There is a telling picture of a stretch of road in some city, which has adopted the model, showing an empty stretch of over 100M behind a bus on a dedicated lane, even as the adjoining lane (in the same direction) is totally cluttered with vehicles of all kinds, particularly two-wheelers. Very clearly, even with having introduced the HCBS on dedicated lanes, it has not caused citizens to switch from the use of their two-wheelers, leading to the problems aggravating even further.

Thus, while dedicated lanes may be OK on stretches leading to and from bus depots, or on stretches where the frequency is higher than say a bus every 15 seconds, on regular roads, they are totally ill-advised. Rather than dedicated lanes, total ban on private vehicles (meaning - vehicles other than buses, taxi's and auto's) on select stretches, during peak hours, would any day be preferable.

All these apart, BRT schemes are invariably envisaged as operations by Companies promoted by Municipalities, with 'artificial monopoly' (as different from natural monopoly situations, like in the case of power distribution) franchises being tendered out for different districts/ routes. In the case of the Indore city set up, for example (a presentation on which was made in Bangalore recently), the Company takes all decisions with regard to routes, fares, types of buses, schedules, etc, with hardly any discretion being left to the service providers. While the revenue generation out of cash sales comes straight into the hands of the individual operators, out of the earnings from sale of monthly passes (which are managed by the Company), a fixed sum of the order of Rs 22,000/- per bus per month is made over to them. If the targets are not achieved, which could very well happen considering the various kinds of forces at play, it will eventually lead to a subsidy regime.

Also, with far too many controls and restrictions still in place, I expect, TATA's, TVS's would still want to keep a safe distance, leaving the field to the local mafia chieftains to play ball with the Company authorities, more or less like the PWD operations in most states.

All in all, BRTS is not exactly a satisfactory model. In the case of Bangalore, the Bangalore Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) has been instituted. There is a proposal to strengthen and broad-base it. Once that is in done, what Bangalore needs to do is to facilitate the entry of players of the stature of TATA's and TVS's to provide the services in open competition with the BMTC, on a level playing field, with the minimum of restrictions. Public bus transport services today is too vital an infrastructure area not to have the competent services of such players.

customer-care-less

2008-03-20T04:03:00.000-07:00

The World Customers' Day was observed by BESCOM in its usual ritualistic style on Saturday, the 15th March by holding a workshop on 'Customer Care', in association with Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Swabhimana, Consumer Advocacy, and Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC). Of the audience of a 100 odd people, only some 30 were members of Civil Society groups (RWA's, etc), the rest comprising mostly of BESCOM officials. Seeing this, the chief guest, Dr Samuel Paul, Chairman, PAC, remarked that the poor turn out was perhaps an indication of the high level of satisfaction with BESCOM services.

I wish to submit here that such statements by people of the stature of Dr Paul tend to convey a totally wrong picture compared to the actual position obtaining on the ground. Granted that the services may have improved compared to what it was a few years ago. But, Bangalore today produces goods and provides services of the highest quality to its clientele right across the globe. For such a city, the interruption-ridden service of BESCOM is nowhere near good enough. And, it is not as if better level of service is not possible in the Indian context, or anything like that. Cities such as Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Kolkata, Greater Noida, enjoy far better quality of power supply. This is evidenced by the fact that, while Bangalore is currently a Rs 1500 cr market for gensets, inverters, converters, batteries, emergency lamps, candles, match-sticks, and what have you, these products have a marginal presence, if at all, in the cities listed. And, now, New Delhi is all set to join them. The reason for the same is also not too far to seek - while Bangalore is served by the government-owned BESCOM, all the other cities are served by companies in the private sector. Need one elaborate further?

The apologists would immediately go on to talk about BESCOM's social responsibility of having to cater to the needs of the rural sector. But, then is it doing any better than its counterparts in the other states in this aspect? The records do not show anything like that, either. In effect, whereas in Karnataka, the people in both the cities as well as in the rural areas have to suffer the incapacity of the government agency, people in cities like Mumbai get the benefit of quality power supplied by private sector companies even as their rural brethren may not be in such a privileged position. Perhaps that is the idea of social justice of Karnataka politicos! But, in today's competitive world, can a city afford this?

Ironically, however, in Karnataka itself, there has existed from long an excellent model for sustainable rural power distribution in the form of the Hukeri Co-op Society in Belgaum district. The Society buys power in bulk at high voltage from the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation (KPTCL), arranges its distribution, collects money, and remits it to KPTCL on time, thus ensuring quality power supply from them, and, in the process, keeping everyone including the many farmer members totally happy. Where this model may not be feasible, particularly in geographically isolated communities, stand alone solar systems are a far more sensible option, than running kilometers of transmission lines. Very clearly, therefore, the rural sector load has been pooled in by BESCOM only to provide a convenient scapegoat to mask its poor planning and management.

Coming back to the workshop - now, if people do not turn up in sufficient numbers at such meetings, it is not because they are satisfied with the services, it is plainly because of the futility of complaining to a government agency. Those who can afford have made alternate arrangements, and those that can't are any way voiceless. One would have thought organizations like PAC, Swabhimana, Consumer Advocacy, and even the KERC would bother to speak up for the voiceless.

Business of Governance

2008-03-14T23:58:00.000-07:00

With concepts like Autonomy, Sustainable growth, Forward Planning, HRD, etc becoming buzz-words in management circles, government babu’s couldn’t quite stomach the idea of being left out. So, they managed sponsorships for themselves to attend various seminars, workshops, and even full-time MBA courses, and worse still started introducing these concepts into their respective domains/ departments, irrespective of whether they fitted in with the overall government policy or not. Now, very clearly, at least in the earlier times, much of the content in an MBA course, for instance, was tailored to Corporates, with very little of it being applicable to government administration (Later, of course, IIMs, particularly Ahmedabad and Bangalore, started specific courses tailored to government administration). But, with the babu’s pursuing with them all the same, the damage slowly started getting done.

Time was when the Electricity Board (the predecessor of the BESCOM), and the BWSSB would give their respective connections only after the Occupancy Certificate was issued by the local Municipal authority, thereby ensuring compliance with the building by-laws to a much greater extent than today. Down the years, with the babu’s turning into management experts, the Boards started looking at themselves as ‘profit centres’, and the checks and balances of the earlier regime just crumbled, bringing in in its wake the chaos of the present day.

The sad part however is that controls continue in many other areas, pushing these organizations to the receiving end on very many fronts. The KPTCL and the ESCOMS (successors to the Electricity Board), for instance, do not have the power to charge remunerative rates to the farming sector, this leading to a subsidy regime whereby they have become totally dependent on the government. Similar is the case with water supplies to EWS colonies/ areas.

And, this is not confined just to power and water supply sectors. The Transport Department, for instance, draws up its annual budget based on the growth plan for its staff, the revenue shortfall being made up by release of fresh licenses for autorickshaws, unmindful of the additional chaos that it wreaks on the already dismal city traffic scenario. The Pollution Control Board charges its so-called ‘consent fees’ in far higher proportion compared to the actual work it is required to do, and blows up the revenue generated in putting up fancy office complexes in prime commercial locations. And, so on.

The imperative need of the day is for the government to redefine its role to being a facilitator, and thereafter as the regulator, for which it necessarily has to give up its role as a player. Simultaneously, it needs to become far leaner in its operations, down-sizing itself drastically wherever required, as also evolving a cost plus approach compared to the present revenue oriented approach.

Those were the days, my friend

2008-03-02T22:07:00.000-08:00

1) Owning a telephone connection was considered a luxury. You had to apply to the monopoly Telephone department, and wait for years together for your number to come up. And finally, when it did come up, the lineman will pose a problem saying that spare ‘cable pairs’ were unavailable, and that you will have to wait till a new cable is laid. If you take the hint, and pull out a Rs 100/- note, the cable pair will suddenly make its appearance. But, it will be at least another three days and a few more Rs 100/- notes before you get the connection proper. And, with the first rain (actually, even a breeze would do), it will go dead. As a result, you needed to ‘cultivate’ your lineman if you wanted a semblance of connectivity maintained.

As compared to that, in this ‘kali kaala’, you have the AIRTELs and VODAFONEs offering you connections within hours - and, attending to complaints, also within hours. Against a complaint I had once lodged at around 7 PM, I was shocked to find an AIRTEL technician at my door at 8 PM, attending to the job most professionally, and leaving without even waiting for a thank you from me. It was in a way insulting to think that, unlike in the days of yore, he didn’t care a damn for your bakshish. These companies are re-writing the equations between the workers and the sahibs.

2) Well, of course, in the good old days, there was no internet, and you had to find some newspaper or magazine editor to publish your whines, and consequently, the world was spared of them to that extent.

In this ‘kali kaala’, you are burdened with all the whines from various quarters, on top of all the info, all because of the net.

3) It was the age of the Ambassador and Fiat (later called Premier/ Padmini) cars. Every morning, you had to open the bonnet of the car and check the radiator and battery water levels, apart from the air pressure levels in the tyres – brought about a sense of discipline in you, and generally did not allow you to take your car for granted. Even with all that, breakdowns were frequent, and consequently, women rarely ventured to drive around by themselves.

As compared to that, in this ‘kali kaala’, we find even pint-sized women driving around confidently in battle tank sized SUV’s, competing with BMTC buses in pushing the scooterists out of the road. That was essentially a male domain! It hurts my manly ego! What a tragedy!

4) And, of course, the BAJAJ scooters – the favourite dowry item for a government babu bride-groom. One morning, I remember seeing the over mile-long queue in front of Khivraj motors on Kasturba road. I initially thought it was for booking tickets for some cricket match at the adjoining Chinnaswamy stadium. It turned out that it was for booking the latest model of BAJAJ scooter, the process for which was to begin that day – delivery to be made about a year later.

Likewise, you had to know an insider to get a JAWA motorbike released to you out of turn. The only other bike available was the ROYAL ENFILD - BULLET, which most mortals found to be too heavy.

As against that, you just walk into any of the many showrooms, and pick up a bike of your choice, from amongst an array of models available, in just hours. The contribution of this factor to making today’s ‘kali kaala’ has perhaps been the biggest.

5) In the days of yore, if you wanted to go to Bombay (tears well up in my eyes over nostalgia over that name, sigh!!!) in a hurry, you needed to have ‘cultivated’ the Indian Airlines (the monopoly, government-owned, service provider) clerk at the check in counter to push you through, out of turn. And, anyway, it was only the well-heeled who could afford the cost of air travel.

Today, you just sit at home, select from a bargain of offers available on the net, make the payment through your card, print out the ticket, and in a few hours, you are on board the aircraft. So much so, you now have every Amar, Akbar, Antony flying all over, even just for the fun of it, without a care in the world for the contribution they are making to global warming. Indeed, how terrible!!!

6) The traditional Hibiscus flower was in just one deep red colour. Likewise, Bougenvillae was a reddish pink, and many other flowers had their standard colours.

The kali world of today, playing around with plant genetics, has produced these plants flowering in a riot of colours, trampling on age-old traditions without a care - blasphemous indeed!!! That apart, I keep getting nightmares over what fate awaits us all for tinkering around with what God had originally ordained.

7) Drawing your money from the bank was easily a half-day exercise – waiting around in long queues, particularly on Mondays. It provided a great opportunity to mingle amongst the local community.

Today, you just go to the ATM, round the block, and in a matter of minutes, you are loaded. So much so, every one, particularly the youth, is just blowing away money, like there’s no tomorrow, leading to an overall cultural change – all for the worse, of course! God help us!!!

8) Oh yes – the idiot box! No, it has become that only now. Those days the monopoly Doordarshan showed you only virtuous programmes like Ramayana, Mahabharata, etc, apart from ‘Krishi Darshan’ for the valiant ‘kisaan’s’. So, you had no chance of getting corrupted.

Now, with so many channels, particularly the most vulgar American ones like FRIENDS, BAY WATCH, etc, our youth are getting totally corrupted.

9) Also, time was when mornings started off with ‘Venkateswara Suprabhatam’ on the radio, going on to ‘desh bhakti’ songs rendered soulfully by the likes of Lata Mangeshkar (which moved the late Jawaharlal Nehru to tears), and ending the day with aesthetically romantic (usually on failed romances - sob, sob!) numbers by the likes of Madhubala. The culture and traditions were truly protected as long as things were in the hands of the venerated All India Radio.

Now, particularly with the advent of the FM, we are bombarded day-in and day-out with plain noise in the name of music. And, the lyrics, if at all they can be called that, particularly of the imports from that den of vulgarity, the US, are plain blasphemy. On top of it all, the ‘foreign hand’ is inexorably pushing for entry of the FM lot into news broadcast area, which is certain to cause havoc to the country’s unity and integrity.

In the midst of all these, what is noticeable is that there are the following few areas, which have remained unchanged, or changed just marginally.

1) Power supply
2) Water supply
3) Sewage management, & Sanitation
4) Roads & related infrastructure
5) Public bus transport services

And, what is common about all of them is the fact that they are all handled by the government.

Moral of the story then clearly is that if you want things as in the golden days of yore, leave them be in the hands of the government – that is, subscribe to ‘Socialism’.

One may further argue as to why complicate life even to the extent it was during the golden era – why not go back to the caves? Yes, indeed, how romantic an idea!

unleashing the genie

2008-03-01T03:09:00.001-08:00

The auctioning of cricketers by the BCCI to the IPL teams, has led to all kinds of reactions from the public, particularly the ones who do not understand the language of the market. Excerpts from a posting in a ‘Greens’Yahoo-Group read as below:

Should the big barons of India even pay a fraction of the monies being given to cricket, to the forest guards, they would be a happy lot and be motivated to protect our forest treasures. Instead we see some humans being treated as treasures.

It will be argued that all these monies will be taxed and more money will be in the government coffers, and that can be used to nurture and protect the forests. But a gesture from Corporates (towards protecting our forests) would make such a dramatic and powerful statement of concern about the environment.

Though I speak about cricketing issues, I want to highlight the extent of money that seems to lie in corporate India, and their utter lack of involvement in environment issues.

I responded as below:

Until some five years back, the wind energy sector in the country was hardly known even to exist. Somewhere along, some Finance Minister provided the necessary incentives, and with that, the sector has today gone on to become a significant player in the economy of the country, with Mr Tanti of SUZLON even getting listed amongst the richest men in the country.

Likewise, there was talk some time back of incentives to be provided for Arid land forestry development. It created quite a buzz in the industry circles, and was all set to catch on. Companies like ITC (which prides itself as the only company of its size in the world to be Carbon positive, Water positive, and having close to zero solid waste discharge) had lined up major action. But, apparently, the government goofed up somewhere, and all the plans fell apart.

If the industry has to make a contribution, the government needs to facilitate that through proper policy initiatives. That is its role. Instead, when it takes on the role of providing services and producing goods on itself, it just messes up every thing, besides becoming the dog in the manger.

Bangaloreing voters' list review

2008-01-22T22:25:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to TOI:

I was quite excited to read the caption 'Voters' list review Bangalored' in your columns this morning (23rd Jan). However, on going through the text, I was disappointed to find that what was proposed hardly amounted to 'Bangaloreing', going by the general understanding of the term. What is proposed is a review by another set of babu's, but from different states, which can have a limited impact, at best.

Indeed, what needs to be done is the proper Bangaloreing of not just the review, but the preparation and maintenance of the voters' list itself. Now, supposing the likes of say an Infosys, Wipro or TCS is entrusted with the job, within a matter of a few months, they will work to ensure an accuracy of even upto 99%, from the less than 50% as existing (as admitted by the State Election Commision itself), contributing greatly to the strengthening of our democratic process.

Organised private sector companies are today being entrusted with far more sensitive jobs, and one fails to see how much more sensitive these kinds of jobs are. Besides, the general public today has far greater faith and confidence in the abilities and integrity of these kinds of companies than they have in most of the government organisations.

In fact, I expect it will not be far off in the future before the equivalents of Election Commissions in the UK and US actually start Bangaloreing these jobs.

missing the point

2008-01-21T03:31:00.000-08:00

Last evening, I happened to watch the ‘Devil’s Advocate’ programme on CNN-IBN, where Karan Thapar was interviewing Sunita Narayan (of CSE). The subject of discussion was TATA motor’s NANO. And, contrary to the norm, both were generally agreed on many of the points that came up.

An important point that they both stressed on was the need for the likes of TATA to be making world-class buses, even as they have begun making world-class cars. But, the even more important aspect that they, and everyone else, seem to miss out on is the need for the likes of TATA’s to get into providing public bus transport services. These services are too vital for the nation to be left in the hands of government-run monopoly organizations. The present regime does not allow for their entry. If facilitated, their entry will change the entire dimensions of the problem, and solutions to many of the current ones will become automatic, contributing significantly to improved quality of life, both of the poor as well as the rich.

Besides, this does not require a single paisa investment from the government side. Perhaps, that’s where the problem lies, since it will mean the drying up of another source of making money underhand.

the problem lies within us

2007-12-27T03:06:00.000-08:00

The greens group 'Hasiru Usiru' had organised a public meeting last week to convey its protest against the BBMP's road widening programme and the resulting destruction of the city's tree wealth. I made a presentation captioned "Better bussing for a green Bangalore" towards offering alternate solutions. My experience, detailed in the following posting I made in the HU y-group, will show where the problem largely lies.

That improved bus services is the most cost-effective answer to the exponentially increasing traffic, and attendant problems, in the city has been known for ages. But, neither the government nor the people want to look beyond BMTC to provide it - some because of vested interests, some because of dogma, some due to a lack of awareness, and some because of a combination of all these factors.

Yes, there are the lot, who in their fascination with the ‘growth’ of the economy, seem oblivious of the stress we are subjecting mother earth to. In that respect, Mr D’s presentation has considerable relevance, and, with his permission, I am proposing to pass it on to various groups, more particularly ones involving school children.

When I originally proposed to make my presentation at the public meeting, there was every effort to dissuade me. At the meeting, every effort was made to hurry me through, so much so, I was quite distracted and missed out on many aspects that I wanted to bring out before the gathering. The press release, as well as the display material at the venue, didn’t seem to carry any of the points that I was making. The specific mention of ‘facilitating entry of private players into bus services’ in the Urban Transport Policy was deliberately omitted. I was asked specifically to state that the views expressed were my own.

Now, the question that arises is where do the people responsible for all these fit into in the list that I have made out at the end of the first para? I must admit I am a little perplexed. In their desperation to see that the TVS’s and TATA’s don’t get into the picture, aren’t they subverting the interests of the HU? Isn’t TVS already amongst the biggest beneficiaries under the existing scenario, recording as it is perhaps the highest sales in the world for its two-wheelers in the city of Bangalore? And, aren’t TATA’s set to follow suit with their Rs1-lakh car?

Nobody can deny that the private sector players have shown us the way in the other sectors which have been liberalized, with everyone concerned including the poorest of the poor benefiting considerably. Admittedly, there are corrections required. But, that doesn’t mean we should continue to suffer and pay for the burdens imposed by the public sector monopolies.

Muralidhar Rao

Comparatively benign IT sector

2007-12-25T04:08:00.000-08:00

When I took to the defence of the IT sector in response to some of the self-righteous lot amongst the members of the greens group (Hasiru Usiru) going on a tirade against them, sometime back, a member (S) sent me a personal note as below. I responded as further below, but through the Yahoo group. In view of the continued tirades from newer quarters, I thought I’ll include this exchange in my blogs.

S’s response to my original posting:

My company [700 employees] recently did a waste audit, we generate about 125 kgs of waste [mostly paper cups, plastics [spoons, forks, bowls, stirrers], tissues etc., and all this gets wrapped up big plastic bags which is dumped in the out skirts of Bangalore and this is the case with about a close to 70 companies on our campus.

IT companies contribute to a huge amount of unmanaged waste [mostly dumped in dumping grounds outside Bangalore bought by the builders of these IT parks]. Apart from of course the 24-hour AC, lighting [all over the place, mostly not necessary].

My reply

The very fact that your company did a waste audit is a very positive indicator. Perhaps, as a member of HU, if you try to sensitise the management on the need for adopting more eco-friendly practices, I expect they will respond. There will still be some amount of solid waste, which needs to be disposed off. That problem however is common even to every household. For instance, in our apartment complex, we practice near total segregation, and consequently, the KCDC plant authorities, on Hosur road, are happy to accept our wet waste when taken there by the contractor, who aggregates similarly segregated wet waste from a few other complexes nearby. Another contractor who claims to sell it to re-cyclers collects the dry waste. Now, we are not exactly keeping a close track of what these contractors are exactly doing, and if they are instead dumping the waste on the outskirts of the city, as you allege your employers’ contractors are possibly doing, we can also be equally guilty. Now, this part is for the BMP or the local municipality to take care of. Of course, as concerned citizens, we need to bring on pressures to make them do their job. There have been talks of new compost plants, and landfill sites. But, these are happening too slowly, partly also due to the NIMBY factor.

On the question of air-conditioning and lighting, the argument in support is that it improves worker efficiency. While in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi (during summer), it could definitely count, whether it is an unnecessary luxury in Bangalore is something that can be endlessly debated about. Another major factor in support of air-conditioning is that it helps considerably to keep dust out.

Now, all of the above, pales into insignificance when you look at the kind of polluting activities that go on all around you, about which the KSPCB does nothing at all, or rather uses to pile up ‘mamools’ (which are no longer small, as the word should imply). Planned letting out of raw sewage into Kaggadaspura lake by the numerous builders in the locality is just a small example. Something most terrible, I personally came across, in 2001, was the unconscionable pollution of the River Kali by the West Coast Paper Mills Ltd in Dandeli. I wrote to the KSPCB, and with their remaining silent, I took it up with the Lok Ayukta. Thereafter, ESG came on the scene and fought a pitched battle, and, with all that, I am told the scenario has improved marginally, if at all. Yes, there are the marauders all around, both in the private sector as well as the public sector. Eternal vigilance, education, sensitization – we all owe it to our mother Earth.

Muralidhar Rao

SEC's muddle

2007-12-12T05:25:00.000-08:00

In response to a news item in the press that the updated voters’ list was on display at the nearest polling booth (a local private school in our case), a few months back, I went over personally to make a check. I was pleased to note that even my daughter’s name, the process of enrolling of which I had got started only a few months earlier when she turned eighteen, had also been included, though placed a few pages away from where the rest of the family’s was.

Being the President of the housing complex association consisting of 128 dwelling units, where I stay, I looked for other known names from the complex. I found quite a few of them, surprisingly though scattered over some ten pages, interspersed with those of other residents living in independent houses in the locality.

Further, with the inclusion of my daughter’s name, my name now figured four times on the list - in my individual capacity, as h/o my wife, and as f/o my two children. Strangely, however, against each of the entries, as simple a name as ‘Muralidhar’ had been spelt in a different way. And, not just mine! Out of some 200 odd names from the complex, in the list, it would be a surprise if even ten had been spelt correctly.

One reason appears to be the maintenance of the master list in Kannada. People like me generally fill out the form in English. The State Election Commission (SEC) staff convert it into Kannada, and make the entries. Thus, when converted back into English, I land up as ‘Muralidhara’ instead of ‘Muralidhar’. As a South Indian, this may be OK. But, when an ‘Anil Chugh’ is turned into an ‘Anila Chugha’, I suppose, he is not going to be too amused. Whatever, all that still doesn’t quite explain the entry ‘Murulidhar’ as my name in one of the entries.

When I brought all these to the notice of an NGO that has been interacting with the SEC supposedly to help improve it’s functioning, it was suggested to me to have the appropriate correction ‘form’ filed. But, with the inherent problems remaining un-addressed, I wonder if it will help at all.

Incidentally, when I checked out the voters’ list through a web-link provided by this NGO, to my utter shock, I found that my name did not figure in it at all. But, about a month back, when our jurisdictional ARO came by to hand over a list to our complex manager, to my great relief, I found all the names listed there, though, being in Kannada, the names figured as Muralidhara, Anila, Chugha, etc. When this was pointed out to the ARO, he has offered to get the photo ID card issuing team to set up camp in our complex over a week-end, and have the cards made out with the correct spellings then and there. So, I expect, that should solve the problems for us.

Apart from the Kannada translation problem, the bigger one plainly appears to be the lack of competency amongst the SEC personnel, typical of any government organisation. Where else would you find the recording of the age of a person, a varying parameter, on the ID card, when the obvious thing to do would be to record the constant ‘d/o/b’ instead? Also, when it is mainly government school teachers who are kind of forced to take up the enumeration work, outside their duty hours and for a pittance of a compensation, is it any surprise that the product is of such poor quality?

The question that arises then is isn’t it time that as important a task as preparation and maintenance of the electoral roles, on which the success of the entire governance system rests, is out-sourced to professional agencies? No one can argue that the additional costs that may be involved would not be worth the value that would result. As things stand today, anyone can get any number of Bangladeshi's onto the rolls if one wants to. And, that indeed appears to be actually happening also, with the country paying dearly for it.

Further, very recently, it had been reported in the press that the government had decided to outsource a major chunk of the passport operations. Now, when as sensitive an activity as issuing of passports can be outsourced, is there a rationale any more in allowing the SEC to continue to muddle around as they have been, and only can.

pliability of Railways officialdom

2007-12-10T22:16:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

The candid admission by Sri Laloo Prasad Yadav that the private bus operator lobby had been holding up the progress of the Bangalore-Mangalore train services all these years, is most intriguing. It has raised far many more questions than have been answered as of now.

Very obviously the Railways officialdom had known this from years ago. Why is it then that they failed to act on it until now? How much has been the revenue loss to the Railways on account of the neglect of this lucrative route, over so many years? Can anyone be held accountable for it? If not, isn't it also quite clear that the Railways have not been, and are not, quite equipped to go by compelling commercial considerations?

Simultaneously, though, neither have they been going by social considerations, subjecting as they have been such large sections of the lower middle class population belonging to this region, who form the core of the railway passengers, to hardships and financial loss, while pandering to the whims of the various influential lobbies.

Further, it requires no expert study by a Harvard MBA (on which programme, the honourable minister appears to have become an honorary faculty member) to unearth similar cases of neglect of other equally or even more lucrative sectors, Bangalore-Thiruvananthapuram perhaps topping the list.

Also, when government-run operations can be so easily hijacked by influential private sector lobbies, isn't the best way to counter it, privatisation of the train services itself (Railways retaining the network and infrastructure), in order to allow for market forces to come into play on a level playing field? May be a beginning could be made with the superfast expresses.

The irrationality of dedicated lanes

2007-12-06T05:22:00.000-08:00

text of letter sent to the New Indian Express:

I refer to the report captioned 'auto lanes may be allotted to BMTC' published in your columns on the 5th instant.

The idea of 'dedicated lanes' for BMTC buses seems to have caught the fancy of every self-appointed traffic expert. And, there seem to be plenty of them in the city today, apart from the author.

Now, going by plain logic, supposing in any given route direction, BMTC is operating at a frequency of a bus every 3 minutes, and the buses are moving at an average speed of 10 kmph, there will be a gap of 500 M between any two buses. As such, if a lane is dedicated exclusively for the buses, it will then push out 100 other vehicles from this 500 M stretch (making for 200 vehicles per km), assuming an average vehicle length of 5M, and near bumper-to-bumper traffic conditions. This is total under utilisation of high demand city road space.

There is a telling picture of a stretch of road in some city, showing an empty stretch of over 100M behind a bus on a dedicated lane, even as the adjoining lane (in the same direction) is totally cluttered with vehicles of all kinds, particularly two-wheelers. Very clearly, even with having introduced high capacity mass transport bus services on dedicated lanes, the citizens still prefer to use their two-wheelers, leading to the problems remaining unresolved.

The above is just one factor. The chaos the dedicated lanes cause at road junctions is another major factor. Further, with the dedicated lanes generally located on either side of the central median, providing access to commuters becomes complicated and expensive. Dedicated lanes on the edges are a new concept, but suffer from similar infirmities.

Thus, while dedicated lanes may be OK on stretches leading to and from bus depots, or on stretches where the frequency is higher than say a bus every 15 seconds, on regular roads, they are totally ill-advised.

Rather than dedicated lanes, total ban on private vehicles (meaning - vehicles other than buses, taxi's and auto's) on select stretches, during peak hours, would any day be preferable.

The idea of the auto lanes on arterial roads was, in the first place, to segregate slow moving traffic. The purpose will be better achieved by banning slow moving traffic altogether on these roads, and confining them to the non-arterial roads. Eventually, however, it would be best if auto's are gradually phased out of the city roads over a couple of years, and replaced by four-wheeler taxi's, by incentivising the process.

Simplenomics

2007-12-04T02:17:00.000-08:00

In response to my posting the link to Swaminathan Iyer's 'Swaminomics' column in TOI dt 2nd Dec, '07 on "Gujarat's SEZ - a blessing" in a greens' Y-group, Mr L, responded as below:

Swaminathan is a master of simplenomics. In this article he arrays all the reason why the kind of SEZ policy we have adopted can only work in Gujarat.

That salt pans and mudflats aren't necessarily "waste lands" may be an ecological question and one does not expect a limited view economist such as Swaminathan is, to explore the long term consequences.

Point is, the rest of the country does not have a draconian Chief Minister (barring recently Buddhabed, perhaps a trait of the Right and the Left), and also does not 'have such expanses of "wastelands". So should not all the countries SEZ be in Gujarat then? Not only can it be a Special Economic Zone, it can surely be a Special Exploitation Zone and without doubt is soon to be India's Special Eco-disaster Zone. In short, India's China is gujarat!

To which, I responded as below:

Narendra Modi has certainly committed a lot of wrongs - there's no denying that. But, that does not mean that everything he does is wrong. Besides, like the article has stated, there was hardly any resistance from the owners to part with their land. So, there was no need for Mr Modi to resort to any 'draconian' measures, in the first place.

There have been enough reports in the past about exploitation in the salt farms, apart from the totally hazardous conditions that the workers were exposed to. With the advent of TATA's into salt farming/ industry, perhaps things have changed - may be somebody would like to do a study on that? Whatever, even as contract labour in Mundra Port (where large numbers of displaced have been absorbed), I am sure, the workers are far better off than they were when working on the erstwhile salt farms. And, if the labour laws are reformed, they will be employed directly by the likes of Mundra Port, and will hopefully begin to enjoy the same quality of life as the steel workers in Jamshedpur.

'Simplenomics' perhaps is when you can only see every industry and industrialist, including a Narayana Murthy, as an exploiter.

Nobel cause

2007-11-22T03:28:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the Chairman of the Nobel Laureate, IPCC, when asked to comment on the TATA '1- lakh car' project, in the context of the adverse remarks made by the famed economist, Thomas Friedman, expressed his wish that TATA's would simultaneously get into public bus transport services. And, TATA's being TATA's would be happy to do so, provided the government facilitated their entry. Also, so would the house of TVS, who anyway started off as public bus service providers in the city of Madurai, but had to give it up because of nationalisation during emergency. The liberalisation thereafter has been token at best, leading to a situation where the organised sector would rather keep away totally, leaving it all in the hands of the 'blue-line' kind of operators, apart from the only slightly better government agencies, with disastrous consequences.

The sad irony however is that whereas it is in vital infrastructure sectors such as public bus transport services that the country so desperately needs the efficiencies of the organised sector players like TATA's and TVS's, in order to contain the ever increasing damage to the environment apart from the cluttering of the cities, they have willy-nilly landed up doing exactly the opposite, by producing more and more cars and motor-bikes.

The Nobel prize bestows a responsibility upon Dr Pachauri to correct this anomaly.

Veerappan government

2007-11-22T01:32:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

Veerappan was just an ordinary tribal living of forest produces until the government turned him into a criminal (sandal-wood smuggler), and later to a monster, using some archaic law, the need for which nobody quite understood fully. Somewhere along one had read that the law was being amended making dealings in sandal-wood a lot more liberal. Apparently, that is not quite so, going by the reports about Natesan Antiquarts, who by all appearances were doing a fairly good job of promoting age-old Indian traditions in handicrafts by creating a lucrative market for them in wealthier homes in India and abroad, landing up at the receiving end of the law.

The fact of the matter is that there are so many laws in this country that even by the mere act of breathing fresh air, you may be violating one, and the numerous babu's who have nothing better to do, can use it against you to extract their pound of flesh. It is a true testimony to the spirit of Indian entrepreneurship that it is flourishing inspite of all these.

winning proposition

2007-11-20T20:27:00.000-08:00

text of letter sent to press:

An absolute winning proposition for any candidate in any future election in Karnataka would be to file a declaration on a Rs 10/- stamp paper with, say the State Election Commission, that, if elected, he/ she will never have anything to do with the Deve Gowda family.

There have been very many incidents in the past which have caused the people to revile against politicians. But, the recent doings of this family surpasses them all.

a total embarrassment

2007-11-20T09:37:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the Times of India on Oct 3rd:

I refer to the article by Joseph Hoover published in your columns today under the caption "Maverick or Maniac?".

Quite as stated, Sreesanth is becoming a total embarrassment to the country. That the Aussies indulge in hedging does not mean we need to outdo them. However much he may be accomplished, which again is a question mark, if he is going to continue in his present style, it is time the BCCI packed him off.

When my own children, who are in their early twenties, also join me in condemning his attitude, I know very well that Sreesanth's kind of temperament does not quite reflect that of today's younger generation, and I am glad for it.

high handed petty officialdom

2007-11-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

I refer to the report captioned "BBMP shuts down McDonald's" published in your columns on the 27th Sept.

There are not going to be many takers for the averment of the BBMP CHO (Chief Health Officer), Ms Gayatri, that 'she and her team had gone to the restaurant to inspect it based on a complaint by a customer', even as she can't be bothered any about the many road-side eateries that flourish all over the city amidst total filth and squalor. Very obviously, she and her team had tried to get some free eats by throwing their weight around, and when the staff resisted, they came up with the inspection ploy. It is to the credit of McDonalds that they chose to shut down temporarily, till such time as they could get the higher officials to intervene, rather than submit to the imperious ways of the likes of Ms Gayatri.

If India has to climb down from the present level of 72 in the world 'corruption index', the ways of the petty officialdom needs to be curbed equally as much as those of our politicos.

development and greenery can co-exist

2007-11-20T02:50:00.000-08:00

Posting made on the local RWA yahoo-group in response to a mail denouncing protests against indiscriminate road-widening:

I am a member of the tree-lover group "Hasiru Usiru", the term literally meaning 'green alone is life'. While admittedly there are a number of youngsters in the group who are idealistic and hold extreme views, I have been trying to lend a voice of moderation to the on-going debates amongst them.

In fact, even as the 80 ft road was being widened, I had myself interacted with the BMP officials to identify a number of trees which needed to be removed (though, some of them still remain, for reasons not too clear) even while trying to prevent removal and chopping of trees in the indiscriminate fashion that the contractor was going about.

Development and greenery can co-exist, atleast to a great extent, is what I would like to believe.

In that respect, I totally agree with Maj Kapur when he says that there's no point widening a road at one end when you have no clue as to how to tackle the problem at the other end of the very same road. Also, years after widening, you can't bother to have the electric poles shifted out to the edges. Even in the case of the majestic Banyan tree that once stood at the Aishwarya junction, over the chopping of which Zafar Futehally (the famed naturalist in whose exalted company we Koramangalites are fortunate to live) shed quite a few tears, the entire stump remained in place for over two years, making a total mockery of the stated purpose of road widening.

As such, we need to say no to the 'bits & pieces' efforts of the BMP lot so that they are forced to come up with more comprehensive solutions, if not for the city as a whole, atleast for the same stretch of road.

Ultimately, again, as I have been repeatedly stating, the solution lies not just in widening roads, but in bringing about a check in the usage of personalised forms of transport. For this, people have to learn to start using public transport services, and the government has to facilitate that.

PPP in preference to 'mai-baap sarkar'

2007-10-22T05:52:00.000-07:00

letter posted to a google-group in response to reservations expressed by a member over PPP's:

Dear Mr M

It's reassuring to know that you would not subscribe to government's maai-baap role. Then I don't see where the problem lies.

Let us take a company like L&T. They are a part of the infra-structure industry lobby in the country, and would definitely be trying to influence the BBMP/ BDA into going on building more and more fly-overs, by means both fair and foul. They probably also have their men in ADB, and such other funding agencies, to push for such development models. That's where we, the citizens, need to counter their lobbying power with our own lobbying power for what is in the overall interest of the citizens, rather than what is in the interest of the industry. And, mind you, what is in the interest of the citizens is what is in the actual interest of the economy. This fact is being appreciated more and more by the enlightened Corporates, and many of them are beginning to re-orient their outlook along these lines, rather than pursuing short-term gains.

Instead, if we choose to keep them all out of the picture, labeling them all as evil, and entrust the jobs only to the PWD, it will be the recipe for total disaster. The PWD's will in turn hand over the jobs to the many small time contractors, and you will land up with the likes of the EWS quarters in Egipura. And, there are many more such examples.

The Corporates are very much bothered about their public image, and consequently far more sensitive to criticism. Recent examples of their positive responses to citizen interventions are

1) Oberoi's more or less accepting all the terms and conditions, in the matter of the development of the Hebbal lake, put forth by the Bangalore Environment Trust (It's another matter that even this has not been found acceptable by some other groups). In contrast is the mess-up of the Nagavara lake (Lumbini Gardens) by a small-time contractor, very likely a front for some politician.

2) Levi's proactively responding to the Koramangala Initiative's request to plant and nurture fresh saplings in front of their newly opened show-room in place of grown up trees illegally felled by the land-lady without their knowledge. (They have also come forward to team up with Koramangala Initiative for further greening efforts).

Coming to basic infrastructure sectors, particularly public bus transport services and power distribution, like I have repeatedly been saying, there already exist enough examples of private operators doing far better jobs than the government agencies, and it's high time they are facilitated to play much bigger roles.

blue-line tragedy

2007-10-13T01:06:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to Times of India:

I refer to the editorial, specifically the following excerpts, published in your columns on the 9th instant under the caption 'Get Moving'.

"It (the Delhi government) invited big companies to run the city’s buses, but no one seems keen. It is not hard to understand why.

Entities used to abiding by a framework of rules will rather not deal with a regime where transport authorities, policemen and politicians call the shots and make a quick rupee. For their rent-seeking behaviour, the city incurs a huge cost.

The government’s role as facilitator and regulator will have to change for bona fide players to show interest. It should allow private players operational freedom while ensuring that they observe traffic and every other norm. In cities that have a decent transport system anywhere in the world, commuters, government and transporters all understand the economic benefits of public order. In India, they don’t."

Yes, Sir, very clearly therein lies the problem. Rather than the blueline operators, it is the governments, whose policies perpetuate such situations, that have blood all over their hands.

The situation in Bangalore is different only to the extent that the speeds get automatically restricted due to the severe congestion. Not surprisingly, a survey by a leading T V channel has picked out Bangalore as the worst city to drive in.

emancipation from frauds

2007-09-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the Times of India:

I refer to the report captioned "fraud-hit KSRTC decides to outsource accident claims" reported in your columns on Saturday, the 15th Sept.

What has been discovered is just one scam in one accident-claims wing. In a monopoly government organisation, like the KSRTC, it is inevitable that there will be many such scams flourishing simultaneously in many of its wings. The only lasting solution lies in having effective competition from reputed private corporates, which will then push the KSRTC into professionalising in order to survive. And, if they can meet the challenge, they too will flourish, like we have seen in the case of Indian Airlines, and if they can't, the world would be better off without them.

the power circus

2007-09-11T03:33:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the Times of India:

I refer to the news item captioned 'KPTCL starts new power company' - Power Company of Karnataka Ltd (PCKL), if you please - reported in your columns on the 8th Sept.

It is supposedly being promoted by KPTCL to set up three new 1000 MW mega power plants in the state. Now, when there already exists the fairly competent KPCL in the state for precisely the same purpose, one wonders what exactly the KPTCL and the government are upto.

Even stranger is the suggestion supposedly made to the ESCOMS to invest Rs 1 crore each in the new company to help it establish itself, even as they are collectively due from the government subsidy arrears of the order of Rs 2,400 crores.

All in all, the government, along with its agencies, has converted the power sector in the state into some kind of a circus. And, all that the KERC is interested in is playing the role of a consumer forum.

super-slow trains

2007-09-05T03:24:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the Times of India:

I refer to the editorial captioned 'slow train coming' published in your columns on the 3rd Sept.

Leave aside comparing our Rajdhani's (averaging 90 kmph speeds) with the Japanese/ European bullet trains (averaging 200 kmph), we have, in this modern day and age, the so-called Bangalore - Kanyakumari "Express", linking the two southern capital cities of Bangalore and Trivandrum, recording a dismal 49.45 kmph on an average. And, in response to repeat appeals from the public for atleast one regular overnight fast train of the like of a Rajdhani, all that the Indian Railways, can come up with is a set of so-called 'specials' on odd days and at odd timings, serving very little purpose. And, as if to add to the injury caused to the regular travellers in this segment by this step-motherly treatment, they go on label some of them that barely manage to average 55 kmph as "superfast" and levy a surcharge in addition.

Not surprising at all that there are some four flights a day now between Bangalore and Kochi, and the number is growing. That much for the business acumen of the Railways minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, and his recently acquired 'management guru' status.

management wizardry

2007-08-30T00:47:00.000-07:00

text of letter sent to New Indian Express:

I refer to the report in you columns today (August 28th,’07) under the caption 'pending subsidy release in phases', alluding to a statement made by the CM that pending subsidy amounts of the orders of Rs 2400 crores will be released to the ESCOMS ‘without affecting their working’.

Now, Rs 2400 crores is a lot of money. In quite a few cases, the respective allocations are higher than even the annual revenue earnings of some of the ESCOMS. If their release has to await the benevolence of the CM, then it will require far greater expertise than available at even our IIM’s to manage them ‘without affecting their working’. Besides, this whole arrangement cannot be defined as a business any longer. So, why the pretense of running them as businesses when, by classifying as ‘social services’, the government can earn the goodwill of the ‘aam aadmi’, as also become eligible for exemption from the various central levies?

And, as for industry, business, trade and the upper classes, anyway they are hardly dependent on the ESCOMS for their needs.

an exchange with Dr S

2007-08-30T00:27:00.000-07:00

Dr S: Your suggestion of privatization of distribution is a sound one provided it is done in the right spirit and to the honest and competent company. There are any number of companies which would be happy to take over. They will strip all the assets and bankrupt the company and walk a way. That is a worst case scenario. Unfortunately we just do not have many good companies. Still I am all for privatization.

MR: I am surprised at your observations, Sir! Tata’s certainly cannot be termed as fly-by-night operators. They have been in the field from long and doing a good job, particularly in Mumbai, and lately in Delhi. So, have the RPG group in Kolkata and Greater Noida, and Reliance in Mumbai, and now in Delhi. Then you have the Ahmedabad Electricity Supply Co Ltd (possibly belonging to the Torrent group), Surat Electricity Supply Co Ltd, etc, etc, all of whom have been doing a far better job than the Electricity Boards, or their new incarnations - the ESCOMS.

Dr S: But you did not suggest an alternative to nimby excepting to produce power at the mines. Is this a good strategy to have all your eggs in one basket? Should not we have power in different places.

MR: Even London depends on a nuclear power plant across the channel in Graveline in France for a large share of its power requirements. So, what are we talking about? Besides, the chance of disruption of power supply across the grid is far lower than disruption of coal supplies across oceans or across the entire stretch of the sub-continent (all the way from the coal belts in Orissa, Jharkhand, etc). Ideally, the entire Karnataka base load could be on the imported NTPC/ PGCIL power, as well as on locally generated (Raichur & Bellary) thermal power, and the peaking load can be on the local hydel (Sharavati & Kali) power. We have enough capacity for that. All future requirements can be met through imports from NTPC/ PGCIL. Alternatively, KPCL can set up generation capacity in Orissa/ Jharkhand on a power sharing arrangement, and transmit the state’s share through PGCIL’s lines.

Dr S: I have not taken a stand against Chamalapur for that reason. I am against coal. But I am for gas. Gas will not have most of the problems of coal. We are importing coal and we might as well import gas. Of course gas costs far more than coal. But we pay more for externalities in the case of coal. This is some thing we as a society should decide. Do we want "cheap" power over environment or are we prepared to pay for environmental protection.

MR: You have raised valid questions, as also answered a few of them yourselves. I have focused largely on the merits of generating power at pit-head stations and transmitting it to user points, even if far flung, as compared to transporting coal there and burning it. Coal, whether burnt in Talcher or in Chamalapura, will contribute equally to global warming. And, if it has not gone through the benefication process, which invariably is the case in India, half the quantity you are transporting is anyway just muck. In Talcher, you atleast have the possibility of pumping the fly-ash into the used pits and attempting re-afforestation on the surface, neutralizing the harmful effects, even if partially. As compared to that, in Chamalapura, you will land up dispersing the fly-ash over the local land-scape, in the process degrading the air and soil quality considerably, for miles on end.

Even with all the attempts at conservation, when the economy is growing at close to10%, we still need sizable fresh generation capacity addition. Given the overall scenario, India doesn’t appear to have too many options other than exploiting its enormous coal reserves, at least in the immediate future. Yes, it will mean adding to global warming, and gas is perhaps a better option from that perception. But, its prohibitive costs have led to the Bidadi and Dhabol projects, which were supposedly based on it, not even taking off.

There are no easy answers. But there are definitely simpler answers compared to what the government is considering.

an exchange with Mr R

2007-08-29T05:35:00.000-07:00

On 8/28/07, in response to my posting titled 'no thermal plant in my backyard, please!', Mr R wrote:

Can we not have the law applied to collect monies due. We are seeing it applied to the rich and famous!

R

My response

Lack of political will to enforce the law, Sir! When Anil Ambani's Reliance Power raises a bill, even Dawwod Ibrahim's henchman in Dharawi (Mumbai) pays up on time, fearing disconnection in case of delays. As compared to that, all it requires here is for a call from the local Corporator's PA to carry on merrily without a sanction or a bill. In fact, a KERC member admitted recently in an open public forum that the non-payers in Karnataka form a far more powerful lobby than the payers. And, quite the height of it all was when a Delhi state cabinet minister was running a full-scale battery charging unit on an unauthorised connection for years together under the erstwhile DESU regime. Of course, things have now changed in Delhi after the take-over by Tata's and Reliance.

Muralidhar Rao

an exchange with Ms K

2007-08-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

Hi Ms K

I am not asking BMTC to be privatised. I am asking for BMTC's monopoly regime to be dismantled by facilitating entry of reputed Corporate players into public bus transport services sector, in competition with BMTC, even if on a field slightly sloped favouring BMTC, all duly regulated (not controlled) by a properly constituted agency.

As the co-Chairman of BMTC's Commuter Comfort Task Force, I had also made numerous suggestions. They are interested only to the extent of the publicity that it gets them, and after that, it's business as usual.

Competition and competition alone can change things. And, Madame, the cost of its inefficiency and incapacity is huge on the city, and particularly on the urban poor whose cause you otherwise so admirably represent.

Regards, Muralidhar Rao

On 8/23/07, Ms K wrote:

Hi Murali

Recently BMTC announced that it would give all its employees a share in the holdings and allow ordinary people also to buy BMTC shares. I think this is a better move than privatisation - a move towards public-people-partnership rather than public-private-partnership.

You were on BMTC's task-force. You must have heard of Mr. Parameswaran's ideas about feeder and trunk route systems to make BMTC buses quick and reliable. According to his plan one could get a bus from any point every five minutes. With this plan, buses would not come empty one behind the other or not come at all for hours together as is happening now. What's wrong with this idea? Why not support it?

Regards, K

On 8/23/07, Muralidhar Rao wrote:

Hi Ms K

I read the 'urban transport policy' document through and through. It substantiates the points I have been repeatedly making, particularly at para's 23, 24, 53, & 54.

More pertinently, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India, had long before displayed a report on 'Bus Transport Systems' on its website (www.petroleum.nic.in/ch_15.pdf), salient excerpts from which are re-produced below:

1) Promoting public bus transport should be viewed as a priority in any strategy to improve urban road traffic and in controlling air pollution from automobiles. The country can ill afford the luxury of unchecked growth of private vehicle population. The costs to the country's economy in terms of higher fuel consumption and to the society in terms of health are significant enough to warrant urgent action.
2) Clearly, there is a strong case for promoting private enterprise in meeting transport needs in urban areas.
3) An aspect of public policy that impacts on provision and expansion of public transport either by state owned utilities or by private entrepreneurs, relates to the unviable fare structures imposed by the authority.
4) With improved efficiency, the fare structure can continue to remain low while still providing for overall viability of the operations.

You want a good public bus transport system, and you want the government monopoly BMTC to provide it. For any monopoly to do a good job is like asking for the moon, and for a govt monopoly to do it is like asking for the entire galaxy. Also, no point bringing in the private sector and imposing all kinds of restrictions on it - the result will be Delhi's notorious BLUE-LINE. Unless we change our mind-set over such issues, we will remain stuck for viable solutions, and the Revanna's will rule the roost.

Perhaps you should facilitate Oberoi's getting into providing efficient, non-polluting and cost-effective public bus services before venturing into cleaning up our lakes.

Muralidhar Rao

no thermal plant in my backyard, please!

2007-08-27T04:44:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

From Nandikur to Tadadi to Chamalapur, nobody wants a thermal power plant in his backyard, particularly when a major part of the power generated is going to be feeding consumers not in the immediate neighborhood, but in distant Bangalore.

Now, there doesn't appear to be much of an appreciation, amongst the powers that be, that in order to meet the state's demand for power, it doesn't require coal to be transported from afar and burnt here. There is a far more efficient and cost-effective option as has already been amply demonstrated by the NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd) - PGCIL (Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd) - KPTCL (Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd) arrangement, whereby Karnataka is able to tap at Whitefield (in Bangalore) 750MW of power generated at Talcher in Orissa. And, NTPC/ PGCIL will be happy to augment that capacity and supply as much power as is needed by Karnataka, provided KPTCL gets itself into a position to pay for the power on time. To know where that situation stands as of now, all you need to do is to visit the KERC (Karnataka Energy Regulatory Commission) site which will tell you that for purchases of the order of Rs 24,830 million, KPTCL owes KPCL (Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd) Rs 21,046 million any given day, ie a debtors-days figure of an incredulous 309. If I understand the Company Law guidelines correctly, this entire amount will have to be shown under 'doubtful debtors' in the KPCL balance sheet. Given such a scenario, it is surprising that NTPC/ PGCIL even maintains a relationship with KPTCL, fearing as it should be of similar treatment should a maverick politician came on to the scene and issued orders that way.

And, that exactly is the problem. With the interference in the running of the ESCOMS by the politicians, they are not able to collect their monies on time to pay up KPTCL, which in turn is not able to pay KPCL on time, and the vicious cycle perpetuates.

And, the truth of the matter is that this problem can be solved only through privatization of distribution, perhaps on the lines of the model adopted by New Delhi, in the cities. And, as for the rural areas, there is the excellent Hukeri Co-op Society model, which at worst may require a bit of tweaking.

unshackling the bus transport services sector

2007-08-23T00:33:00.000-07:00

letter sent to the press:

Finally, one government, that of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, has realised that as important an infrastructure sector service as 'public bus transport' cannot continue to remain in the hands of the un-organised sector, and has instead to be served by the organised sector. Towards this, the government has now sent out notices inviting EOP (expression of interest) from companies, co-op societies, etc for operating stage-carriage services. And, one of the stipulations is that they should come in with a minimum fleet size of 100 buses.

The NCT transport department needs to be complimented for taking this bold step. But, this is only the first step, and a few more need to be taken if the intended results are to be achieved. They are freedom to choose the routes, and freedom to fix fares. Though, initially, this may lead to a bit of a confusion, within months, things will sort themselves out, and a large part of the traffic problems as well as many of the other problems will also get sorted out. And, very likely you will also have a fare regime lower than that of the DTC, even.

Simultaneously, the government could also think of introducing the congestion tax in the CBDs, maybe in phases.

paleolithic socialistic rhetoric

2007-07-25T05:49:00.000-07:00

The following was my response to a write-up posted by a member on "privatising the rain - the big sell out - documentary film by Florian Opitz" in a Google group, of which, I am a member:

Just plain Paleolithic socialistic rhetoric - not even Ram Manohar Lohia would have backed it if he were alive today.

These people seem to suggest that electricity is a basic necessity, and so should be supplied free. At a workshop that I had attended sometime back, a person from Delhi went on to suggest that, with it getting very hot out there in summer, the government should provide free electricity for air-conditioning also. They were worried that, with the private sector coming in, things were going to be different. So, they were clamoring to get their good old DESU back, so that they could go back to fixing all kinds of deals with the meter readers and engineers, and pass on the burden to the honest tax payers through the subsidy mechanism. All the while, just a few Kms outside Delhi, the rural folk sweat out the summer months with hardly 4 hrs of supply a day, thanks to the inefficiencies and incapacities of UP, Haryana, Punjab electricity boards.

The time for debate over whether the private sector should be running businesses, services, manufacturing operations, etc, or whether the public sector should continue to be involved in any or all of these, was over long long ago. Today, there can be only two sectors - one, the efficient sector, and the other - the social sector. And, when classified that way, there is hardly any room remaining for the public sector (I must admit there are the rare exceptions - BEL in Bangalore, being amongst the few; but, they are still quite the exception, and far and few). Even in the social sector, we cannot any longer afford the slothful, inefficient, corrupt ways of governmental agencies like the Food & Civil Supplies Corpn, and the likes of them, and many of their jobs are best entrusted to the NGO's, regulated (not controlled) by the government, whose size can simultaneously be scaled down to a tenth of the present level.

The good Colonel keeps talking about some services having to remain in the public sector (or as government departmental organizations) for some "obvious reasons". Now, I can't think of any reason why that should be, leave alone its being obvious. On the other hand, I can think of a hundred reasons why services other than perhaps policing, judiciary, basic health and basic education, should switch totally to the private sector. Possibly on the lines of Colonel's 'obvious' reasons, and using some archaic laws handed down from the Britishers' times, private radio services remain banned even today from broadcasting news services, even as private TV channels have been belting out at the governments for over a decade now. There is very healthy debate on the TV channels today, slowly making the governments more and more accountable. Even bigger could have been the impact of the radio in a similar role, particularly in the rural areas. However, since the rural folk do not carry as much clout as their city brethren, and the politicians are interested only in whipping up emotional issues in pursuit of their narrow interests, the power and the reach of the media has remained denied to the rural folk.

The government would have very much liked to gag the city-based media also. They do make some attempts now and then. But, post emergency, media has become extremely powerful, and together with the civil society, they today form a most effective and necessary pillar of democracy.

In all these, it's the rural people and the poorer sections of society who are at the losing end of these kinds of governmental policies - be it radio news services, bus services, power supply etc etc. The richer classes can find ready alternatives.

Nobody can deny that privatisation has worked well in India in the telecom, civil aviation, banking, insurance, TV programming, and such sectors, and that each and every one has benefited from it all, whether directly or indirectly.

If the benefit of the reforms haven't reached the poorer sections of society and the rural folk, it is largely because the right kind of reforms haven't happened in the key infrastructure areas affecting them. It wouldn't be out of place to say that our socialists are also to blame for this sad state of affairs.

dark days

2007-06-19T22:24:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the Times of India:

I refer to the report captioned "City has 3.5 dark days a year" in your columns yesterday (June 18th).

As compared to 86 hrs listed against Bangalore by you, the genset records maintained by our housing society indicates an aggregate of 243 hrs (equivalent of over 10 days) during the calender year 2006. In the first 4 months of the current year, it has already recorded 142 hrs, with April alone accounting for 61 hrs. With the monsoons playing truant, in addition to the incapacity of BESCOM to manage the job, over which it however still wants to cling on to its monopoly status, things can only get darker as the days progress.

The figure of 50 hrs listed by you against Mumbai possibly reflects the period when power was deliberately shut down due to the floods the city experienced last year. Otherwise, Mumbaikars are generally well placed on this count, reflected in the fact that the city is not much of a market, compared to Bangalore, for gensets, inverters, converters, batteries, emergency lamps, candles, match-sticks, and what have you. Similar is the situation with Ahmedabad, Surat, Kolkata, Greater Noida, etc. The essential difference between these cities and Bangalore is that whereas we have the government-owned BESCOM supplying us power, they are all served by companies in the private sector.

Need one elaborate more?

party to the loot

2007-06-16T05:37:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the Indian Express:

I refer to the report captioned "Metro rail: Officials face the music" in your columns today.

Upto as recently as just some ten years back, we were totally at the mercy of monopoly government service providers like BSNL, Indian Airlines, Posts & Telegraph, Doordarshan, the cartelised banks and insurance companies. With the facilitation of entry of private players into these sectors, the scenarios transformed in real quick time benefiting everyone concerned, except a handful of racketeers.

In very much the same way, the public bus transport services can also get transformed, in a matter of months, if the state governments facilitate entry of organised sector players like TVS into the sector to compete with the present-day government monopoly players, viz BMTC and the SRTC's. What is required is a Praful Patel like approach on the part of the state transport minister. Such a development, alongwith a few policy measures disincentivising usage of personalised forms of transport, can mitigate the city traffic problems to a large extent. And, thereafter, if necessary, one can look at the METRO, this being a very costly option.

The politicians will naturally go for the costliest of options, since the mega projects involved mean mega kick-backs. But, when the NGO's, who so vociferously voice their opposition to the METRO, simultaneously refuse to support the entry of the private sector into the field, aren't they willy-nilly playing into the hands of the politicians, and thereby guilty of acquiescing in the loot?

value for money

2007-05-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the Times of India:

I refer to your editorial captioned 'Lesson in Languor' of the 24th.

While the salary increases recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission cannot quite be faulted with, the answer to the very important question raised by you as to 'whether it will result in improved services', is a definite 'no'. One very important recommendation that all earlier pay commissions have uniformly made, but that has been sadly ignored by the present one, is on the question of 'down-sizing'. It is another matter that this part of the recommendations made by the earlier commissions has never ever even been attempted to be implemented.

Now, as long as the government retains its gargantuan size, playing the role of an employer rather than as a facilitator for generating employment, the term 'government' will continue to be equated with sloth, inefficiency, corruption, in fact, everything negative.

The tax paying public can no longer afford this. It is time they started demanding better value for their money.

continued darkness at noon

2007-05-25T00:54:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to Times of India:

I refer to the string of letters from your readers, offering various solutions, in response to the article titled 'Darkness at Noon', authored by Sri S L Rao (former Chairman, CERC), published in your columns on the 21st instant.

Yes, there are plenty of workable solutions. But, for all that, first and foremost, the distribution has to be privatised. And, until that happens, the darkness will continue.

If the citizens of Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Surat, Greater NOIDA, etc can enjoy the privileges of far better quality power supply provided by the private players, why should the citizens of Bangalore continue to suffer the incapacity of BESCOM? That is the question that citzens should now be raising collectively.

improving voter list accuracy

2007-05-21T05:38:00.000-07:00

Text of the message posted to the CAF googlegroup:

A certain report that I had read a few months back had stated that the electoral list, on an average across the country, is only some 35% accurate. Whereas, the slum lords ensure that all the people, who are perceived as their constituents, are definitely on the list, the educated lot in general are not all that persuasive in this regard. Making available polling booth/ ward/ constituency - wise voter lists on the net, something that can help ensure higher accuracy, has still not been undertaken by the EC. It is largely because of such a scenario that even people held in highest esteem by the public at large ( A P Venkateswaran to name just one) come a cropper at the hustings.

As things stand today, the EC goes about enlisting the services of government school teachers for updating its lists, paying a pittance to them for the job. No surprise then that the accuracy is only at such an abysmal level. Further, when a person re-locating to a new address wants the change recorded with the EC, the procedure today is totally unfriendly, making for further inaccuracy of the lists. Isn't it time we, the citizens, pressed for the job to be re-assigned to some professional agency? And, shouldn't this be accorded the highest ptriority?

for more responsible judiciary

2007-05-10T01:03:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the Indian Express:

I refer to the report in your columns (on the 9th instant) about a case against Mr N R Narayana Murthy, over the national anthem issue, being admitted in a Mysore court.

Now, very obviously, what Mr Murthy intended was to save the foreigners present the 'embarrassment' of having to remain mute listeners, even as the majority joined in, if the national anthem was sung. As compared to that, if just the tune is played, generally everyone stands to attention silently, and that was what Mr Murthy preferred. Nobody can fault him for that. What he didn't quite bargain for that specific day, however, was Sri Abdul Kalam taking off on the song, and the countrymen joining in. Whatever, no problems there either! The problem arose only when a pesky reporter thrust a mike in Mr Murthy's face and got him to blurt out a response with the word 'embarrassed' slightly juxtaposed, and thereafter, went to town over it - plainly a case of headline-seeking, irresponsible journalism.

The response of the status quoist politicians like Mr H N Nanje Gowda, who have over the years been unseated from the public mind by progressive leaders like Mr Murthy, in understandable, though pathetic. What is more shocking, however, is the way the courts have been admitting such frivolous cases, even as they are themselves seen as guilty of delaying justice ( and thereby denying it) against the huge pile of cases they already have on hand.

not by 'raagi mudde' alone

2007-05-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to Indian Express on 12th April:

Mr U R Ananthamurthy is apparently very concerned with "the mushrooming of call-centres, which lure the youth with high salaries thereby destroying their capacity to think and also draining out their energy before they reach their early forties", as reported in your City Express columns on the 9th April, under the caption 'Ananthamurthy's Rujuvathu released'.

But then, what is Mr Ananthamurthy's prescription for employment of so many of the educated youth of the country? Will pursuits like Yakshagaana, Dollu Kunitha, writing poetry, or whatever, that he may like to classify as intellectual activity, be able to privide even for one square 'raagi mudde' meal a day for the people? And, he should know by now that the youth, with their exposure to the outside world, do not want to live any longer by 'raagi mudde' alone.

misplaced anxieties

2007-05-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to Indian Express on 12th April:

Mr U R Ananthamurthy has reportedly expressed great anxiety over healthcare and education sectors getting privatised, vide the report in your City Express columns on the 9th April, under the caption 'Ananthamurthy's Rujuvathu released'. But, how come this same Mr Ananthamurthy does not express similar anxiety when newspapers, including yours, repeatedly come up with reports about the deplorable conditions in both the government hospitals, as well as schools.

The conditions in the hospitals are so bad that it is only the real desperate lot who ever go there, to come out far worse of, if they come out alive at all. So much so, even the poorest of the poor choose to go to a St John's or a Manipal, somehow finding the means to pay off the bills and without complaining much, or availing the various beneficiary schemes that the hospitals organise for the real needy.

And, it will shock anyone to know that the BBMP run schools have been spending on an average, per annum, per child, far higher than what a parent spends to send his child to say, a Bishop Cotton's, to eventually report pass percentages barely in double digits. And even this, sequel to a recent intervention by an NGO. As to the conditions prevailing before the intervention, particularly of the toiletary facilities (rather lack of it), the less said the better.

Would Mr Ananthamurthy like to attempt to redeem the situation on the ground, instead of pontificating from his ivory tower? If not, would he let the ones who are doing a good job, and are prepared to do more, just do it, please?

BMIC - IT - economy linkage

2007-04-12T03:53:00.000-07:00

text of the posting made on a Yahoogroup in response to usual Socialisic rhetoric:

Hi L

That we differ on a lot of issues is quite an under-statement. Whether public governance as a whole can be entrusted to the private sector or not is debatable. What is certain however is that people would be far better off if a lot many of the services is entrusted to them, with the government just playing the role of the facilitator/ regulator.

We are already seeing this happening all around us and enjoying the fruits of it. This I will term as the 'efficient sector'. And, to take care of the needs of the disadvantaged lot, you need to have the 'social sector'. Beyond that, there is no place in the future world for the 'laggard sector', which is what the government services have generally turned out to be, with of course the rare exceptions, but which also cannot last long if they continue in their present styles.

I admit I haven't studied law as closely as you may have. But, like most lay people, I rely largely on the principles of natural justice, and I am sure the Indian constitution cannot be too much at variance with that. Now, if things are as plain as you make them out to be, how come the courts have repeatedly ruled in favour of NICE, except, if I understand correctly, in the Gottigere case, which is on an environmental issue, but again, the result of a muddling by the government. May be you would like to say that the courts are also a stupid lot.

You have stated that the "the Advocate General has argued that the Government is not against the project at all". But, that's where there is a serious difference between your stance and the government's. You are opposed to everything about the project, which most are not, including me, even if it is a car-based development. And, I don't think the land-owners, or even the evacuees, have a serious problem, either. As for the educated lot, particularly the youth, a new world itself was to open out to them, may be after their being imparted a bit of training. And, as for the uneducated lot, they would have been happy to take up the many new kinds of jobs resulting out of these developments, including as caddies in golf courses. It's another matter that there may be the few here, who would like to continue to sentence them to hard farm labour, and on top of it all, romanticize about it, even as they enjoy all the goodies of the modern world.

Mr Ashok Kheny envisioned the project some ten years back, struck a deal with the then government, raised the resources to put in the risk capital, and has been pursuing with each of the ministries, that followed, to keep up their part of the deal. With the project becoming a real money spinner with the economic boom that ensued, the various ministries that came along, negotiated and settled on 'what was in it for them', and moved along. The present lot are apparently a lot greedier, and that's where the problem lies.

Nobody seems to ask what if the Central Government had decided not to open up, and the economy continued to languish at the earlier 'Hindu rate of growth'. There wouldn't have existed an IT sector in the country, and Mr Ashok Kheny would have had to declare himself bankrupt. May be that's what you would have liked. But, I doubt if many from even the this group would support that viewpoint.

Granted, the government should have the powers to evict people only in very exceptional cases, and against payment of handsome compensation in such cases, and that land for projects should be purchased directly at market prices. These are now evolving resulting out of the Nandigram/ Singur fiascos. Perhaps, these fiascos could have been avoided had the wise people concentrated their efforts where required.

cheaper commuting

2007-04-12T03:25:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to Times of India:

I refer to the report in your columns yesterday (9th April) under the caption 'BMTC cheapest mode of transport', supposedly based on study conducted by our city traffic police. That the bus is the cheapest mode of public transport has been established from long, and all relevant information in this regard has also been available from long on the web-site of the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, www.pteroleum.nic.in/ch_15.pdf.

Now, what is even more significant is the strong recommendation made by the Ministry for promotion of competition from private sector in order to keep the fares low and improve services. If the city traffic police is really keen on getting a grip on the traffic scenario, clearly, that is what they need to pursue.

unwarranted IT bashing

2007-04-10T03:46:00.000-07:00

Text of the letter sent to the Times of India:

Before Sri Sujan Sengupta blames the IT industry for spreading the 'dangerous virus of capitalism' in Bangalore, vide his letter in your 'my times, my voice' columns today, he should first ask why, in his home state, the comrades are beginning to do exactly the same. Very clearly, the comrades are also now realising that the fig leaf of Socialism does not provide enough of a cover any more.

Capitalism may not quite be the answer. But, certainly the country has had enough of Socialism, and it is high time we moved on.

Now, the IT industry is the only industry that has helped generate employment opportunities for the educated youth in the country in such a big way. Their prosperity has in turn fuelled the growth of the other industries leading to creation of employment opportunities, both for the educated as well those less fortunate, in the other sectors also. India has phenomenal strengths in the IT field, there is a vast potential for growth, and the entire country could benefit immensely from it. Instead of celebrating this, it is a pity that the likes of Mr Sengupta choose to remain stuck in a time warp.

towards more objective policing

2007-04-08T21:10:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the Indian Express:

I refer to the front page report in your columns today under the caption 'violence after youth runover'. The report further goes on to state that the youth was riding his two-wheeler on the wrong side of the road.

Now, this is the kind of menace that every law-abiding road user is faced with day-in and day-out, and is quite the biggest nightmare for him. And, one expected that the traffic cops were given those fancy bikes essentially to chase such offenders, and bring them to book sufficiently heavily so that they don't ever dare to repeat them. Instead, what we see is the 'speed cops' literally ambushing two-wheeler riders here and there, and booking them largely for minor offences, apparently with just the 'revenue' targets in mind.

Do we need repeats of such incidents before our cops learn to become more objective in their approaches?

BMIC, stupid people and wise guys

2007-04-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

In response to my posting the write-ups captioned 'my good friend Ratan' and 'unpardonable chaos creation' (see below) in a yahoogroup, Mr L responded with his usual rhetoric, the substance of which can be guaged from my subsequent response as below:

May be the BMIC project deviated from the original alignments. But, as of now, the roads exist on the ground. As such, why not allow them to be used for the benefit of everyone concerned, even if NICE – the company, benefits the most, instead of pursuing other more disastrous projects?

Also, if wise guys (as different from stupid people) had concentrated their efforts, right from the beginning itself, on ensuring compliance by NICE on matters like alignments, as well as the other terms and conditions, instead of opposing the entire project itself, tooth and nail, perhaps the environmental damages could have been minimised. And that, perhaps, is the lesson here, if one chooses to wisen up a bit.

Just this past Sunday, at the initiative of Mr Zafar Futehally, who in his 80’s finds enough energy to pursue environmental causes that will put a teenager to shame, some 100 residents from the immediate neighborhood, as well as beyond, assembled at the Agara lake (adjoining HSR layout) at around 8AM, and went about clearing the area around the lake off plastics and other waste material. The lake had recently been restored, and the area fenced off, by the Lake Development Authority (LDA). Mr Futehally has observed that a number of bird species, which had kept away from the lake for long, have started making their re-appearance, of recent. Mr B K Singh, the LDA MD, alongwith a few officials including from the PWD, Mr Yellappa Reddy, etc, were also present. Mr Singh went on to inform that the LDA has contracted out the maintenance of the lake to a Hyderabad party, following an open tender process. When I intervened to state that we do not wish to have an amusement park here like the one in Nagavara, he readily agreed to arrange a three-way meeting between the resident representatives, the LDA, and the contractors to review the terms and conditions, as also to have some 5 of us on the monitoring panel. Well, it would have been better if we had been involved in the pre-tendering to stage itself, not just for Agara lake but for the entire lot of them in and around Bangalore, which is what I had been advocating to our ‘wise’ lake protectors all these years, alas, in vain. Now, we will have to see to what extent the damage whatever can be contained in Agara.

Coming back to the BMIC, not just the 35,000 IT professionals, Mohandas Pai, Nandan Nilekani, and Narayan Murthy, but even the likes of Subroto Bagchi (of Mindtree) have been openly supporting the project. If the petition link is made available to me, may be I would like to sign up too. The IT companies have been accused of crowding around Bangalore. And, when they support a project that will help de-clutter Bangalore, that is also found fault with!

The IT industry is easily the most benign of the entire lot from the environmental angle. Its growth has helped generate huge employment opportunities for the educated youth in the country, whose prosperity has in turn fuelled the growth of the other industries leading to creation of employment opportunities, both for the educated as well those less fortunate, in the other sectors also. If not for the IT sector growth, like I have said before, perhaps half the members of HU would have been part of some naxal groups. India has phenomenal strengths in the IT field, there is a vast potential for growth, and the entire country could benefit immensely from it. For growth, however, they need land. Again, like I have stated before, the laws of the land, as they stand today, do not generally allow for purchase of land for industry. If it had been otherwise, the Infosys’s would have purchased land in the open market at prices and terms equitable to all concerned. They have indeed been looking at building whole townships themselves, including for housing, recreation, etc for their staff. Perhaps even some of the land-owners who entered into some such cushy deals with them could have taken to golf, if they so chose and made it a part of the deal. But, the government comes up with all kinds of unnecessary controls and you have a situation, that benefits neither the industry nor the land-owner.

The wise guys perhaps need to pursue correction of this situation. Instead, if they choose to remain rabidly anti-industry, it is natural that anything and everything that the industry does, appears wrong. There’s no easy remedy for that.

It’s nobody’s case that the industry is full of knights in shining armour. But, when you heap criticisms on them for all the wrong reasons, the criticisms for the proper reasons also tend to get blunted.

My good friend Ratan

2007-04-03T04:02:00.000-07:00

A letter supposedly addressed to the West Bengal CM, Sri Buddadeb Bhattacharya, by Sri Ravindra Kumar, Editor, The Statesman, was posted in a Yahoogroup, by Mr L, alongwith the comments 'In case there are still some Ratan Tata fans left, here's some interesting reading'. I responded as below:

Hi L

I am sure that was targeted at me. Let me not disappoint you. Indeed, I am a greater fan of Ratan Tata today, after reading what you had forwarded.

After some three decades of continuous rule, brainwashing people on the virtues of a spartan existence, the Marxists (so-called) in West Bengal suddenly realised that they could not carry on the bluff any longer, particularly with the onset of the information revolution, leading to increased awareness amongst the people and resulting aspirations, including even of the Bhadralok. They realized the limitations of an agro-based economy in fulfilling these aspirations, and started looking more seriously at developing industry. Even a Prakash Karat started elaborating on the need for large-scale manufacture as compared to the ‘small is beautiful’ ethos one would have expected him to espouse. But, they had done everything quite the opposite in the past, and it wasn’t going to be easy convincing the industrialists that they now meant business. No one was prepared to make any real big ticket investment in the state, yet.

Now, here’s where Ratan Tata needs to be complimented for reading the situation well, and using the opportunity to extract the best deal for his company under the circumstances. He is after all a businessman – going by your own quote of a few months back. He had very successfully launched the cheapest and totally indigenous car, and after conquering a large chunk of the domestic market, was keen to capture a similar chunk of the international market, for which the price was a major factor. He had to keep it low. And, as far as the Marxists were concerned, they decided that their best bet towards taking the state along the industry path would be to woo the Tata’s, who generally had a fair image, and that thereafter, things will follow automatically. So, it was a win-win situation for both.

Only, the Marxists goofed up, and badly too. Even though they had come back to power with an even bigger majority on their new ‘industrialization platform’, they had not done their homework well, and things just went totally wrong. They then went on to compound the wrongs by committing even bigger wrongs in Nandigram, the arrogance of having been in power for so long possibly playing a role there. Hopefully, they have learnt their lessons now, and will come up with the needed correctives. But, when you have been carrying on a bluff for so long, it is not easy to switch to talking straight, I guess. That’s quite the tragedy here.

The first sentence in the 2^nd para above, I expect, is going to be interpreted as an advocacy for consumerism. If that charge comes from someone like Ms K (to cite just one example), who shoulders so much responsibility and manages it all at the lowest cost to her organization, traveling mostly by BMTC buses, etc, I’ll accept the charge. But, if it comes from people who enjoy all the good things in life, but would like them denied to the masses, well, I would term that plain hypocrisy. Incidentally, Ratan Tata’s name doesn’t figure in the list of billionaires in India, inspite of heading the largest industry house, and I am told he generally travels in his Indica, often driving it himself. Narayan Murthy and Azim Premji are on the billionaires list. But, quite like Ratan Tata, they also do not believe in leading an ostentatious life, but definitely believe in leading a comfortable one, and are not the least apologetic about it.

Statesman was, and possibly is, very highly respected for its editorial content, etc. But, if they choose to rest on their laurels, rather than re-inventing themselves to compete in today’s world, even while maintaining their impartiality, they may find the going difficult. Also, more newspaper production is as much, if not more, damaging to the environment as producing cars, the newsprint coming after all from the felling of trees.

If you ask my personal opinion, though, I would have liked Tata’s to produce more and better buses rather than cars. Not that I don’t like cars, or that I don’t like others owning them. But, very simply because that kind of a growth is just not sustainable. And, Tata’s would have been happy to move along those lines, had the government driven policies in that direction. Also, the Singur kind of development is what Mr Swaminathan Aiyer had very correctly termed ‘crony capitalism’ in his column written during the thick of the controversy (I had passed on the link to the group also), and he had suggested a few viable alternatives. Many other economists had like-wise given their suggestions, too. The debate can be about which of those routes to pursue. But, if you have decided that industry itself is bad for this country, as well as the world, and want to remain steeped in the romanticism of the past, well, fair enough. But, what’s the point condemning the Tata’s? You should be targeting the governments.

Kannada mis-use menace

2007-03-16T03:28:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

I have repeatedly been writing about the mis-use of the venerated Kannada language. The following instance highlights the menace graphically.

One evening, last week, I was just behind a SANTRO ZING at the Egipura junction on the Intermediate ring road (linking Koramangala and Indiranagar). Noticing that the car's number plates were totally (and only) in Kannada, I took a picture, got a print, and sent it (by regd post) to the Police Commissioner, under the RTI act, requesting to know a) why no action has been taken so far to check such open and flagrant violation of the MV act? b) What action is proposed now?

Last evening, a Traffic Inspector came over personally to hand over a letter stating that, as per the records, the number KA 02 Z 6934 is registered in the name of the owner of a TATA Indica, whereas my picture showed a SANTRO ZING. Very clearly the user of the SANTRO ZING was upto some mischief, to put it just mildly, highlighting the point that I have been making all along, since not even half the police force is able to read the Kannada numerals readily. Given the callous way in which the police is treating this whole issue, all that a terrorist needs to do today is to steal a car, select a number arbitrarily, make out the plates in Kannada, fix a yellow & red flag for added effect, load it with explosives, and drive it straight into the Vidhan Soudha. He may even be accorded a VVIP status.

Plainly the Kannada number plate and the red & yellow flags have become passports to any kind of nefarious activity that you may want to pursue.

Incidentally, my questions to the Commissioner still remain unanswered.

Unpardonable chaos creation

2007-03-16T03:16:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to The New Indian Express:

I refer to the report in your City Express columns on the 12th instant under the caption 'Why the perpetual chaos on Hosur road?'.

Now, the fact of the matter is that there already exists the near world-class BMIC expressway covering the entire segment between Hosur road and Tumkur road, with only a few small stretches remaining to be connected. And, if this is done, the chaos not only on Hosur road, but along the entire segment, will get sorted out automatically. But, the government will not allow it inspite of the Supreme Court ordering it to do so repeatedly. Each time the court passes an order, the government comes up with some new obstacle or the other, because the connected ruling politicians feel that they have not got their entire pound of flesh. And, then they come up with the extremely costly and totally disastrous solutions like the elevated highway, which, for all the added disruptions caused, may one day end up like the Richmond road fly-over.

A government that exists only to perpetuate the vested interests of its inner few, and is oblivious to the miseries it adds to the lives of the common man, in this process, is best got ridden of fast.

The only cure for hospitals on deathbed

2007-03-16T03:08:00.000-07:00

Text of the letter sent to Times of India:

I refer to your Times City report of March 11th, about 'hospitals on deathbed'. Similar reports have appeared in your paper as well as the others, on a regular basis, from times immemorial. The only difference you notice now is the glass and steel facade (in Bowring hospital), provided at a cost (to the public) of close to Rs 10 crores, a good portion of which would have gone into various new pockets, apart from the old ones which have been collecting their portions from the everyday operations as well for ages. Without this new facade, these buildings atleast had their heritage value. Now, even that is lost.

There is no redemption for these institutions as long as their management remains with the government, and the loot in various forms will only continue to grow in the years to come. The only way out is for their operations to be made over totally to any of the many reputed institutions existing in the field, like St John's, St Martha's, St Philomena's, Chinmaya Mission, Mata Amrutanandamayi trust, etc, etc, possibly monitored by a Healthcare services and Education Regulatory Authority, set up replacing the state Health Ministry.

Brand baaja or swan song?

2007-03-16T02:57:00.000-07:00

Text of the letter sent to Times of India:

I refer to the report captioned 'Brand Baaja for trains' in your columns on the 14th instant.

Now, while it reflects a release from the old mind-sets amongst the Railway officialdom, one fails to understand how an AIRTEL or a Brittannia can bother to associate itself with the stinking toilets and bug-ridden berths that are the order of the day in our trains, particularly the so-called summer specials, which besides are always accorded the lowest priority for movement ending up literally as torture chambers.

There is a long way for the Railways to go, and unless they can gear themselves up to think like Capt Gopinath, the MD of Air Deccan, he, and the likes of him, will cream away all their business, and the 'brand baaja' turns into a 'swan song'.

the name game

2007-03-08T20:23:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

The proposed merger of "AIR-INDIA" and "INDIAN" is a good augury keeping in mind the kind of competition that is emerging in the sector.

Now, while there has been a move to ban the inclusion of the names of national figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, etc, apart from words like Indian, Bharat, etc, in the names for institutions/ organisations, there is no reason why this logic should not extend to public sector undertakings also, particularly since there is no longer any guarantee that they are going to retain their public sector character forever. Converting Indian Airlines to just 'INDIAN' was bad enough. Let not such practices continue any longer.

honking menace

2007-03-08T20:20:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

A honk should be to convey "caution, you may be in my way", or "please allow me to pass" as compared to "get out of my way" that the call centre vehicle drivers seem to want to convey. And, they should be in short bursts, where required, rather than the continuous blasts that these drivers tend to resort to. As such, while we are beginning to see the effects of the genuine training efforts on the part of atleast some of the fleet managers, this particular aspect about honking does not appear to have drawn enough attention.

The inevitable ill effects of economic growth could get a lot mitigated if a bit more attention is given to such details.

pigmy-b

2007-03-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

The more theatrically Amitabh Bachan tries to put across his messge of 'U P mein jurm kam hain', the more hollow he sounds, keeping in mind the overall picture one gets of this BIMARU state, apart from the Nithari happenings and their sloppy handling. For someone who is almost venerated by the general public in the country, it is a sad commentary when he has to stoop to such low level politicking. From the big B, he is shaping himself to become the 'pigmy b'.

a dissenting voice

2007-03-02T01:09:00.000-08:00

I had forwarded the text of my earlier posting titled 'towards people friendly politics', essentially demanding competition in bus transport services, to a few opinion leaders in the city, to which a certain Mr MT responded as below:

Dear Murali,

I respect your views and regard for the private sector. I have been an employee in both sectors, govt and private. I have seen the best and worst of both. Whether it is our country or any other, people in both sectors are indigenous to the country concerned. The private sector is generally driven by the "profit motive" of the owners. Both sectors have as much corruption as possible depending on the country. In some countries, like USA or UK, they get caught and punished. ENRON, Arthur Anderson, World Tel etc were all highly reputed private companies till they were caught and exposed. Nearer home, we have the Harshad Mehtas and Parekhs of the stock market, the Ritu Singhs and Rais [Usha Rectifier] of the private companies and a host of others.

Specifically, with regard to buses, if you take a trip from, say, Bangalore to Hyderabad, once by a private bus and once by a Govt [APRTC or KSRTC] bus, you would see the difference. The private buses have the same crew for the entire journey, against all norms of caution and accident prevention. The Govt buses change the crew every two hours!

Recently there was a news item that people are turning to Govt buses for longer journeys.

I always quote the example of Govt run education institutions, our very own IITs, IIMs and Central Schools. How and why are they considered good. Name one engineering or management college that have earned a similar reputation.

Why then this perception that private is efficient and public is not. There are good and bad in both sectors. Some public service is needed to cater to certain vulnerable sections of society with subsidized costs.

I hope we could agree to disagree, if you are still unconvinced. One way of convincing yourself would be to check out as to how much public money is locked in failed private companies and how they have got away with it, here and in all other countries. [Hyundai's Chairman is in jail today for fraud.]

Regards, MT

My reply

Dear Mr MT

The problem all along has been the government's 'license-permit raaj/ regime'. My first exposure to TVS was as the bus service provider in the city of Madurai. During the emergency, the government nationalised bus services, and TVS was forced to withdraw from the scene altogether. Later, when the government realised that they couldn't manage things themselves, they slowly started 'permit'ting private operations, but with all kinds of conditions imposed on them. This was the beginning of the notorious 'license-permit raaj', with the babu's making all the decisions on what is good for the country and what is not, and twisting and turning the rules to suit their narrow ends. The position has changed very little even till date, particularly in the bus transport services sector. Under such a regime, the TVS's have chosen to keep away, and the Sharma (travels) types, who know how to play ball with the babu's, are together making hay, but at the cost of the 'aam aadmi'. Also, these are the types who are not too bothered about things like brand value, image, etc, and readily resort to all kinds of shortcuts, and short-changings, earning the private sector a bad name in the process. If the unnecessary controls are withdrawn, TVS (and similar reputed business houses) will be happy to come on to scene with huge investments and provide the much needed real and healthy competition to the KSRTC/ BMTC to the benefit of all concerned. In fact, it is in these basic and vital infrastructure areas that their presence is very badly needed in the country today. Instead, they are left to just manufacturing motorbikes and auto components (because there are not that many hindrances from the government there), and in a way contributing to the clutter on our roads. I would hold those opposing the entry of these Corporates into these areas even more guilty of the charge.

Like somebody has very correctly said, every business has to take into account the three E's - Economy, Equity, & Environment, while carrying on their operations. So, first and foremost, they have to be profitable. Yes, the private sector is in it very much for the profits! And, profit-making, I thought, was no longer considered a dirty word, not even in Kolkata; profiteering - may be. And, that's where you need effective competition. I am surprised I am having to repeat these fundamentals!

To the list of excellent companies/ institutions in the government sector that you have listed, I could add the names of BEL, NTPC, etc. But, these are far and few between, and unless they also gear themselves to the changed global scenario, they will also face problems. More than working for any them, I have had the privilege of being a major supplier to the likes of BHEL, NGEF, ABB, Crompton Greaves, ALSTOM, etc, in both the public as well as the private sector, which is when you get the proper business perspective. The Rai's, Ambani's etc have indeed played around and amassed wealth. But, that's what happens when you have the 'control-permit raaj'. Also, those are insignificant compared to the money locked up in failed/ loss-making government undertakings. Whereas in the private sector, these cannot go on for too long, in the case of the government set-ups, it is indefinite, bleeding the exchequer for decades together. Further, it is largely the government financial institutions/ banks that the Rai’s of this world have duped, because of their incompetence, and not say an ICICI bank, proving the point once again. With the license-permit raaj more or less dismantled now in many of the sectors, the players are beginning to play the game according to the rules, and things are looking up. But, like I have stated earlier, in key infrastructure areas like public bus transport, power distribution, etc, unfortunately, it is either the Sharma's, or the equally bad KSRTC/ BMTC, BESCOM, etc that rule the roost.

As reputed as the IIT’s, IIM’s, Central schools, etc have been the numerous Christian Missionary schools and institutions like St John’s Medical College, CMC, Vellore, etc; the Manipal group of institutions; and lately, the NPS, DPS, etc. And, it was a product of the very first batch of the International Business School, in Hyderabad, promoted by a consortium of business houses, that got placed at the highest salary level compared to any other business school, including the IIM’s, last year.

For over 50 years since independence, the country’s Socialistic policies turned the entire population into babu’s, almost wiping out entrepreneurship altogether. If it still survived, it tells a lot about the tenacity of some of our business communities, like the Marwaris, the Parsis, the Punjabi’s, the Sindhi’s, the Konkana’s (Pais of Manipal), the Chettiars, the Mopla’s (of Malabar), to name just a few. They battled on despite the many obstacle placed before them by the government, quite often by crook than by hook, when it became a question of survival. Now, with liberalization, the latent energy is just exploding, and our enterprises are becoming world leaders in each and every field - of course, where liberalization has happened. Unfortunately, that has still to happen in the most vital areas of infrastructure.

If we are to provide the basic necessities to the millions of our under-privileged brethren, and thereafter, attempt to take on the world, it has to come through more and more entrepreneurship, and the government's role should be that of the facilitator and regulator (also to factor in the other two E's, referred to earlier), for which an essential requirement is that it pulls out of being a player also.

Regards, Muralidhar Rao

Please step aside!

2007-02-25T22:57:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

From the reports appearing in the press, as also our recent experiences, the incapacity of the government to manage the power scenario, which is fast assuming crisis proportions, seems very obvious. Each of the ministers concerned is just passing the buck, with not one having any clue as to how to face the situation, either in the short term or the long. The question that arises very simply is whether it has to reach total break-down levels before the government is pushed to privatising. There are enough cities in the country - Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Surat, Greater Noida, to name a few, where private companies have been managing the job fairly well for many years now, and that is all that we in Bangalore care. Please invite them to take over!

Agricultural sector load is just a convenient scape-goat being used by the government agencies involved to mask their poor planning and management. If they are genuinely interested in solving the problems of the rural sector, there are good models there too worthy of emulation - like that of the Hukeri Co-op Society in our own Belgaum district.

And, to ensure equity to all the stake-holders concerned, there is the KERC ( Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission).

towards people friendly politics

2007-02-21T07:23:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the Indian Express:

I refer to the report captioned 'KSRTC needs Rs 2,000/- crores to upgrade facilities' published in your columns on the 21st instant.

Now, I can't see any earthly reason why the government should be investing such a huge amount in KSRTC when the private sector can bring in far more funds to this vital infrastructure sector, as also provide far better services, very much as it has done in the case of aviation, telephony, banking, insurance, etc, if the government just facilitates the process. To begin with, the government could repeal archaic laws like the Contract Carriage Act, and license all services uniformly as bus services, allowing them to operate on routes and at fare levels of their choice, charging annual license fees on the basis of just the vehicle floor area. Within months, you will see the transformation, with every corner of the state well connected with every kind of service, ranging from 'Kingfisher' levels to 'Air Deccan', with the Air Deccan fare levels being far lower than that being charged currently by the ordinary KSRTC services. To cope with the competition, the KSRTC can be incorporated into a company (after reverting all the non-movable assets in its possession to the local municipal bodies), with the staff and labour holding substantial stake in it, and a nominal license fee concession being allowed for some first three years.

The same goes for the city services also.

There cannot be a more people friendly gesture from the government. All that is required is the political will.

KPCB's 'valiant' act

2007-02-20T02:10:00.000-08:00

sub: text of the letter sent to Indian Express:

I refer to the news report captioned 'IT major given closure notice' in your columns on the 17th instant.

Now, I can't think of any major pollution threat an IT company, however big, poses to the environment. The only waste involved is the waste from toilet usage by employees during working hours, which anyway is far lesser than that for even a residential complex of comparable size. And, it is inconceivable that a company like Honeywell could not have taken care of meeting the connected basic requirements. As such, if at all there was any non-compliance, as alleged, it may have been technical, at worst. For which, wielding the stick is very much like the DCF, Urban, Sri Annaiah, doing the same to People for Animals hospital in Kengeri recently. Or, more likely, the result of the person concerned refusing to pay the 'mamools' demanded by the officials.

This is essentially what the Pollution Control Board has reduced itself to, even as rampant violations of all kinds go on unchecked all around. The same goes for the Electrical Inspectorate, and many other such agencies.

A rare exception, in my experience, surprisingly used to be the Dept of Industries & Commerce, Govt of Karnataka, overseeing compliance by industries under the 'Boilers and Pressure Vessels Act'. Here the inspection and certification used to be entrusted to accredited 'chartered engineers', who did a fairly professional job for a prescribed fee. Being an onerous responsibility, since they could be held accountable in case of accidents, they generally went about their task in a no-nonsense manner. Perhaps, that is the model to be followed by the other government departments/ agencies.

KSRTC's tom-tommings

2007-02-12T02:12:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to Times of India:

I refer to the report captioned 'cash registers ring at KSRTC office' in your columns on the 10th Feb.

While doubtless the KSRTC (as well as the BMTC) services have improved considerably of late, comparing them against the services provided by the private players would be rather unfair, operating as these are on a playing field sloped totally against them. Now, almost all the private players are licensed as 'contract carriages', 'tourist carriages', etc ( but never as stage carriages - the term used in the RTO parlance for regular bus operations), which imposes all kinds of restrictions on them. If one were to abide by the rules framed thereunder, one can't make any money, and consequently, the rules are observed more in breach than compliance, by the 'mafioso' ( I would have liked to use a less incriminating word) who alone dare to venture into the fray. The mafioso know how to play the game, while simultaneously keeping the RTO and the various other government officials involved all very happy, as also the KSRTC trade unionists. The respectable business houses however refuse to enter into this minefield, making for a near monopoly scenario for the KSRTC, which they then tom-tom about making profits out of. The real test for KSRTC/ BMTC will be when thay have to compete against TATA's, TVS, etc, and, in today's liberalised world, there is absolutely no reason why the citizens should be denied the benefits deriving from effective competition on level a playing field involving such players.

Even as enormous benefits have resulted to everyone concerned out of reforms in so many other sectors, it is unfortunate that the government refuses to look at proper reforms in as key an infra-structure sector as the public bus transport services sector.

regulators or controllers?

2007-01-25T10:13:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

The TRAI's intent to slash the roaming charges by some 56% appears more resulting out of a directive from the government with a view to wooing the electorate before the impending elections in UP and other states. With these kinds of agenda's being pushed through the regulatory bodies, they are in general seen to be acting more like Consumer Fora than playing the role of the impartial regulator that they were meant to be. Perhaps this is inevitable when their Chairmanships become sinecures for retired bureaucrats.

Unfortunately, there still seems to be very little appreciation in the country of the fact that, for a healthy business climate to develop, market factors should dictate the decisions as far as possible, with interventions by the regulator coming in only when very essential.

be a patriot, please!

2007-01-25T08:47:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

Priyaranjan Dasmunshi's greatest patriotic act would be to quit as the President of the AIFF, a post he has held on to from times immemorial, so that this body also flourishes like BCCI, and takes Indian football to its deserved heights.

SC's Siddhuisms

2007-01-25T08:42:00.000-08:00

text of letter sent to the press (unlikely to be published):

The Supreme Court's reprieve for Siddhu is most shocking, to say the least. What is even more shocking is the judges' use of 'Sidhuisms' in extolling his new-found virtues. Siddhu, however, is so far not known to have expressed even one word of remorse for his act which led to the death of an elderly person. Infact, he has been going to town flaunting the High Court verdict of 'culpable homicide, not amounting to murder' as some kind of an award, rather than the guilty conviction that it is. By continuing to back him, the BJP does not appear to have learnt its lessons from the changed mood in the country, today. Maybe the citizen's groups, whose campaigns led to the recent convictions of the highly connected murderous lot, should start a campaign against Siddhu also now.

'special' gimmick

2007-01-19T00:31:00.000-08:00

text of letter sent to press:

The traffic between Bangalore ant Thiruvananthapuram is so huge today that the Railways are forced to announce 'special trains' every now and then. However, they steadfastly refuse to regularise them into daily services for reasons quite unknown, but certainly not commercial. I now have a new hypothesis - perhaps that is another way to keep themselves in the news!

de-complicating issues

2007-01-12T02:40:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

The Ulsoor lake parking scheme, Malleswaram underpass, National College flyover, and all such issues emanate out of one common problem - too many vehicles being added on (at close to 1,000 a day) to the city roads, far in excess of their carrying capacity. And, the public, while grudgingly beginning to accept that this needs to be checked, simultaneously comes up with the argument that the public transport services are inadequate, in the process helping to perpetuate the typical chicken and egg situation. While extremely expensive options, like the METRO / MONO rail, etc are being bandied about by all and sundry, nobody even wants to think of professionalised bus services, which essentially means competition for the BMTC from the private sector, as the simple and staright-forward answer.

Tainted TATA's !

2007-01-09T07:06:00.000-08:00

Relevant excerpts of the mail sent by Mr L to Hasiru Usiru Yahoogroup, on 6^th Jan, ‘07

Dear All,

Rediffusion has come out with a couple of powerful short video clips and also print ads to run as a campaign to stop felling trees. some of us at ---- watched those clips and they are useful ... Rediffusion is willing to support a long term campaign.

At ----we are keen to see this off, provided the money does not come from tainted corporates, such as Coke, Tatas, etc. Rediffusion is sensitive to this aspect.

best regards, L

Response made by me on 8^th Jan

Rediffusion, if I am not mistaken, is TELCO's ad agency. TELCO is part of the 'tainted' TATA group - the same TATA group of Singur and Kalinganagar notoriety. That apart, Rediffusion is today largely owned by the US multi-national THOMSON International - the same US that is the repository of all that is evil in this world. How can anyone have anything to do with such a Corporate, please?

Muralidhar Rao

Response from L (same day)

Muralidhar Hi,

We pointed out to rediffusion that if it was Tata's that sponsored the ad, we will not subscribe to it. we did also tell rediffusion, that it was their democratic choice to work for tatas.. after all they are in business.

The point of not aligning with a corporate on some issues is about building pressure. This is a well accepted social ethic. You and I know that there is no way we can say no to using Tata products. My house is build with the steel they produce. But I will not allow our social cause to reflect positively on tatas or any other corporate with low social and business ethics. I may have to buy their products, but I don;t have to promote their products, if you know what I mean.

On the issue of rediffusion being part of thomson of us, you are mixing issues here. It is one thing to be against the Rt Hon'ble Uncouth and Inhuman Chief Executioner of the world.... that still fortunately does not mean an entire country on the substantive issue, do you think we should say yes, or no, to rediffusion?

L

My response of 9^th Jan

Hi L

Thank you for the prompt response. I put it that way deliberately to provoke reactions. I am not in disagreement with what you have said about Dubya. And, the differentiation you made between the American people in general and the political leadership also needed to be stated. But, when it comes to the TATAs, aren’t you yourselves mixing issues?

TISCO has engineered the first ever totally indigenous car and now wants to capture the world market. For that, it needs to add capacity. The various state governments fell over each other to invite them to set up the plant. The West Bengal govt offer seemed most attractive. The TATAs accepted it, and paid up the money for the land as determined by the government. Now, if there is an issue with that, the WB govt has to answer, and not the TATAs.

Likewise, for centuries together, India had been exporting iron ore to countries like South Korea, where they were converting them into steel, selling to the world market, and reaping a bonanza. With liberalization, TATAs invested money and effort to become the most competitive steel producer in the world, even while affording the best quality of life to their employees. They then approached the Orissa government with their plan to add new capacity so that the entire value addition from iron ore to steel and even beyond can happen within our shores, and our people benefit from it. The Orissa government saw merit in it, and struck a deal, whereby TATAs were offered the Kalinganagar site, for which they in turn paid the govt determined price as well as guaranteed employment for atleast one member from each of the displaced families. If there is an issue with that, again, it is the Orissa government which is answerable, and not the TATAs.

As against your talk of their being ‘tainted’, I would rate TATA’s as amongst the most respected industrial house in the country. They introduced the concept of ‘earned (privilege) leave’ leave for their employees – a first in the world; a large share of their group profits go to funding institutions like Indian Institute of Science, right here in Bangalore; and there’s a lot more.

Very much as you say for Rediffusion, TATAs are also in it for the business. You know very well that I have been campaigning for restrictions on usage of cars, and promoting usage of public bus services instead, particularly in cities, which should normally seem to cast me against the TATAs. But, my campaign is directed at the government, and not at the TATAs. It’s for the government to decide which of the options is in larger public interest. If they choose to go for better public bus transport services, TATAs will follow suit and concentrate their efforts on upgrading their buses, and give VOLVO a run for their money.

Also, it must be remembered that forest land gave way to agriculture when man decided that he could not live on forest produce alone. Likewise, when land begins to yield far better returns when invested in industry, it is inevitable that it will get converted for industrial use. The challenge is to make agriculture more paying. Our country is blessed with the very best of agro-climatic conditions which could make it the granary to the world, apart from a center for floriculture as well as cash crops, even without going in for GM seeds, etc. But, if we choose to remain stuck with old world notions of ‘kheti-baadi’, all we will be doing is to sink our people deeper into poverty.

Welcome change of guard

2007-01-02T05:07:00.000-08:00

text of letter sent to the press:

The new DGP, Mr K R Srinivasan, has started off well by announcing the discontinuance of the practice of displaying the photograph of the incumbent DGP in police stations, started by his predecessor.

The predecessor's deeds and statements - the photo display order; applying afresh for a BDA site suppressing the fact that he had already been allotted one earlier; when that became known, trying to evoke sympathy for having had to part with it due to extraneous circumstances for a mere Rs 70 lakhs, even as the market value was much higher (question arises as to whether the balance was collected in cash); and accusing the media of trying to tarnish his image for reporting all this - qualifies him adequately to enter politics now, after having sufficiently eroded the dignity of the high office of the state DGP.

A welcome change of guard indeed.

the veiled threat

2006-12-28T08:51:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to Times of India:

"Crime has no religion. Non-Muslims are using the burqa for criminal purposes, and we are being paited with the same brush". This quote attributed to a student of Sophia college, Mumbai, reported in your columns today (28th Dec) under the caption 'Pune jewellers bar entry to veiled women', sums up the issue in its entirety. And, precisely because of that, perhaps it is time the burqa, is banned in public places altogether.

Lalu - the hoax

2006-12-28T08:42:00.000-08:00

text of letter sent to Times of India:

"Bihar is too difficult. It has no potential. Per capita income is low. There are constant floods. But, the Railways is like an empire. It has huge potential". This quote of Lalu's, supposedly made to Haevard and Wharton students (vide your columns of the 28th Dec), if true, shows him for what he actually is. It is he who pushed Bihar to this sad state in the 15 years of his rule, and now he is almost abandoning it. He is no management guru. If the Railways has turned around, it is all inspite of him.

incredible KPCL!

2006-12-20T20:59:00.000-08:00

text of letter sent to Times of India:

I quote verbatim from a report in your columns today “A Bench directed the Karnataka Power Corporation to finalise the tender process for coal supply within six weeks so as to prevent the Raichur Thermal Power Plant from shutting down operations for want of coal”. So, somebody has had to move the Karnataka High Court to push the KPCL to carry out a routine function!

Simultaneously, a report on another page talked of the GM, Corporate Communications, collecting some, obviously dubious, awards at the World Kannada Cultural Convention in Bahrain, on top of the many similar ones he already has accumulated.

No further elaborations required here, I guess, as to what these say about the KPCL, which supposedly is entrusted with the handling of almost the entire power generation infrastructure in the state!

Incredible KPCL, indeed!

out-sourcing - the answer

2006-12-09T03:51:00.000-08:00

In mid-July this year, I occasioned to visit the City Civil Courts Complex, near Cauvery Bhavan, and I sent out a letter to the press as below. I had to make another visit yesterday. Things there are only worse. Last week, I read in the papers that all contracts and procurements in various government departments in Karnataka are set to go digital in two years on a unified on-line e-procurement platform, provided by HP. Nothing can be better than that. So, what is holding up out-sourcing the maintenance of such complexes to professional agencies, I wonder.

Recently, I occasioned to visit the City Civil Courts Complex, near the Cauvery Bhavan, in the heart of the city. The complex is just about a couple of years old, with a lot of the construction work still in progress.With the rapid strides in building technology, one would have expected at least the basics in the buildings in place, in such an important public building complex. Sadly, however, there is very little that is right about them. And, as far as the architecture is concerned, it is clearly the epitome of the PWD culture-a total and tragic eye-sore. Comparatively, even the over two-decade old Cauvery Bhavan complex looks fairly modern.

If the architecture and construction quality is bad, the maintenance is even worse. Even as early as 11 in the morning, the toilets are stinking to high heavens, leading to the litigants preferring the use of the compound walls in the less crowded spots in the locality to ease themselves against. The walls along the stair-ways are streaked all along with ‘paan’ stains. The lifts - just two of them for such a large complex – are supposedly meant for the exclusive use of the judges and lawyers. So much so, I noticed an invalid litigant going all the way up the steps using his crutches. And, if his case was posted in a court on the 4th floor, like mine was, God alone can help him.

The questions that arise are
a) How can we take pride in the institutions that form the basic pillars of our democracy when they are housed in such horrendous complexes?
b) Shouldn’t organizations like the Urban Arts Commission, etc, protect the citizens from the effects of the visual pollution that these complexes constitute?
c) In effect, shouldn’t the whole body that is the PWD be totally wound up, and such jobs completely out-sourced?

health-careless - 2

2006-12-08T03:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, again, I was with the children (read 'building awareness' below). One of them came up with how, when his aunt was taken for delivery to the Vani Vilas hospital, the staff there played around till they were paid some Rs 1,000/- collectively, by way of bribes, before they got down to attending to her. For all that, it was a nightmarish experience. So much so, they have sworn never to step into a government hospital ever again.

In fact, on a subsequent occasion, when another family member needed to be hospitalized, they chose to go to St Martha’s hospital, and in spite of the fact that it cost them dear, nobody was complaining.

I asked the rest if they corroborated the view. They were unanimous in agreement. And, mind you, these are all from really poor sections of the society.

health-careless

2006-12-08T01:14:00.000-08:00

I had sent a letter as below to the Indian Express on 24th June, ’05.

Sub: user charges and government hospitals

"User charge is nothing compared to the huge sums we have to spend to bribe the hospital staff to ensure proper care for our loved ones. If it is a case of a surgery or even a delivery, the amount to be spent here on the staff is almost the same that would be spent in a private hospital". This quote by the government hospital patient's relative, who was asked by your reporter for his opinion on Mr Siddaramaiah (Dy Chief Minister)'s order of withdrawal of user charges, clearly sums up the actual position obtaining. Is it any surprise then that a visit to any of the Corporate hospitals in the city today will show you throngs of even lower middle class people patronising them. At least, they can be fairly sure that they will return home cured. As compared to that, in the case of the government hospitals, one needs to have a lot of luck to manage that given the callous attitudes, insanitary conditions, and the all pervading corruption.

In response to a survey conducted by a leading daily, a few months back, with a view to finding solutions to the wide-scale corruption plaguing government hospitals, a significant percentage of the respondents had suggested privatisation as a possible way out. Particularly in an area like healthcare, however, a check against unhealthy practices could perhaps be provided by strengthening the NGO/missionary institutions in the field, like St Johns, St Martha’s, St Philomena’s, Chinmaya, Ghousia, Rotary Trusts, etc, who all seem to be doing excellent work. The government would do well to hand-over the Victoria, Vanivilas, Bowring as well as all the ESI hospitals and dispensaries, to these institutions. May be a supervisory / regulatory authority could be simultaneously instituted to oversee all the related functions, while also scrapping the ministry.

Mr Siddaramaiah should realise that times have changed, and that his chances of re-election would be better served by more meaningful approaches.

On the 28th Nov,'06, there was another article in the Indian Express (on the front page) on dowry deaths in Bangalore. Quoting volunteers from ‘Vimochana’, a city based NGO, the article went on to describe the deplorable conditions in the burns ward of the Victoria hospital. The question that arises here is how come the Vimochana’s of this world continue to tolerate these kinds of conditions in the government hospitals. Alternatively, if they also think that there is no redemption for them whatsoever, like I do, why are they not suggesting alternatives instead of choosing to remain silent? Vimochana is doing good work. But, perhaps it needs to do a lot more.

Hrithik Roshan

2006-12-06T04:03:00.000-08:00

One of the boys, Nagaraja, had a problem (read the previous blog). He could not digest the idea of Hrithik Roshan being paid a whopping Rs 15 crores for just a single movie, even as there was stark poverty all around. Like the many, with the typical Indian Socialist mind-set, he suggested that the government should intervene and impose a limit.

I explained to him that by engaging Hrithik Roshan, a movie producer was taking a gamble on an investment of some Rs 50 crores that he spends on a movie in the expectation that it will be a hit, going by Hrithik’s ability to attract viewership, and that he would realize upto 3 to 4 times the amount in a short span of time. And, that’s why he is ready to pay Rs 15 crores to Hrithik, whereas he will not take on Nagaraja, however handsome he is, even if Nagaraja is prepared to pay the movie producer.

I added that, likewise, the Kannada hero, Upendra, was in no better a position than Nagaraja is today in, and sheer perseverance and hard work took him where he is right now, though not quite at the same level as Hrithik.

And, as for the government, it should be happy collecting the huge quantum of taxes that comes its way with every successful movie. It should only bother with how to put it to good use.

Nagaraja seemed to nod his head.

building awareness

2006-12-05T21:38:00.000-08:00

At the instance of a friend, I have recently been taking lectures, as part of an awareness building programme, for 10th standard students of a school, on the outskirts of the city, comprising mostly children from the poorer sections of society.

After making a general assessment of their current awareness levels, I asked them to look at what their immediate problems, of a general nature, were, as also to think up what the possible solutions could be. Amongst the prominent ones listed out was BMTC’s poor services. As to the solutions, all they could come up with was that BMTC should improve.

I then asked them if they knew of the private service providers in the airlines services sector. They readily came up with names like ‘Kingfisher’, ‘Air Deccan’, etc. I then went on to tell them that until some ten years back, the government-owned IA (now Indian) had a monopoly over this sector, and that, as a result of the competition, IA is now beginning to lose its dominant position. But, overall, the services had improved considerably, and the fares had become a lot more affordable, even to the common man, resulting in a tremendous boost to the economy. So, I asked them if they would consider this a positive development. Many of them expressed reservations on account of the government player losing out to competition. I then went on to ask them if they would recommend reversal of the policy so that the government player could once again have the monopoly. It was then that the message went home to them, and one of them took bold to ask why the private sector was not there in the bus services sector also. I told them to raise the question with their elected representative.

Moral of the story: We have got so much used to the ‘mai-baap culture’ of government providing everything that we are not even prepared to look beyond to see what else can be. And, particularly in key infrastructure services sectors like airlines, public bus transport, power supply, etc, it is not the interest of a government player that is important. What is paramount, on the other hand, is what can take the sector to its fullest potential.

for more enlightened leadership

2006-11-29T23:15:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to The New Indian Express:

I am intrigued by the news report in your columns on the 28th instant under the caption ‘Couple get jobs, funds’, about a young couple from Bagalkot, both of whom are now employed in the Vidhan Soudha, the husband as a second division clerk, and the wife as a first division assistant. Apparently, this resulted from a Janata Darshan audience with the CM, who showered his benevolence on the couple, moved by their plight, suffering as they were from ill-treatment by their own folk because of their inter-caste marriage.

Now, if you ask any young person in Bagalkot, or for that matter, any where in the state, he/she will have some similar sob story to tell. The questions that arise here are

a) If the CM is going to be giving them all jobs in the government, where is the end to it all?
b) The government is terribly over-staffed as it is. Even as of now, the entire government work can be done by less than a tenth of the existing work force if it withdraws from areas it doesn't need to be in, and by going in for large-scale computerisation. Whereas the government should be looking at such options, these acts of the CM show him up as totally irresponsible.
c) Also, the only attraction that a government job holds for the youth today is the scope for making ‘under the table’ money, that comes along with it. So, in essence, what the government is doing is just corrupting the youth, if they are not already so inclined.
d) It is absolutely dismaying that the CM’s of today should still be going about like feudal lords showering largesse on individuals, rather than working for the common good, whereby many of these people will automatically be absorbed in far better quality employment.

It is time people looked out for more enlightened leadership.

judiciary to the rescue an nth time

2006-11-28T04:57:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

With the Kannada chauvinists running amok forcibly re-painting vehicle number plates in Kannada, even as the police look on helplessly despite the rapidly deteriorating crime and terrorism scenario, the direction from the Supreme Court to implement the high security registration plate scheme has not come a day too soon.

There is a very popular mail doing the rounds on the net listing out our parliamentarians according to the various misdeeds they have allegedly been involved in. Going by that, it becomes fairly clear as to why governance the country over is going from bad to worse, with courts constrained to intervene every now and then. Perhaps, therefore, it is time the courts revised the eligibility criterion itself for contesting elections.

the doomed power sector

2006-11-26T20:21:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

I refer to the reported shutting down of some of the units of the Raichur Thermal Power Station for want of coal, though the Karnataka Power Corporation would like to make us believe that it is all part of its annual maintenance exercise.

With the ESCOMs recording losses at an average 40% perennially, equivalent to some Rs 3,000 crores per annum, things have been in total dis-array up and down the supply chain in this critical sector from long. It is therefore a total surprise that the entire system has not just collapsed altogether all this while. Now, however, with the quantums involved getting larger by the day, such a scenario seems quite imminent.

Indeed the functioning of the entire power sector in the state, as also most of the country, is along a model that certainly cannot be described as business by any reckoning. The normal rules just don't apply here. Obviously, the powers that be prefer it this way!

Kannada number plates

2006-11-23T01:39:00.000-08:00

The function of the vehicle registration number plates is far from that of protecting or propagating the local language or culture. The need for their being displayed on the vehicle as per the given standard is paramount, and cannot be compromised upon at any cost, particularly given the increasing instances of hit& run, kidnapping, terrorism, etc. As such, the traffic police acqueiscing in the acts of the Kannada Anusthana Mandali, Kannada Development Authority, etc, reported in your columns recently, is highly objectionable, and perhaps needs to be checked through the dictates of the courts, if required.

Incidentally, it will make an interesting study to find out as to what percentage of our traffic police force can read Kannada numerals.

Further, while the use of the Kannada script (but not on number-plates) could contribute to the propagation of the language and thereby the culture, the numerals do not serve any such purpose. Perhaps it is time the numerals are given a decent burial in a time capsule (say, on the lawns of the Vidhan Soudha), and the state adopted the international numerals, quite like a few others have already done.