The Brave Engineers

It is human nature to start reminiscences when one is a little idle and when I go through my life the time in N.I.T.Rourkela seems the most surreal one. I or rather we did things that seem completely improbable now and depending on the way you look at it they were completely bizarre or just hilarious.

It was Holi. The campus was situated next to a tribal settlement. Suddenly the rumours started flying in campus that a student of second year has been drenched in colours against his will and then mildly beaten up in the settlement. It was enough to start a virtual war against the tribal settlement. The revenge had to be taken-the village had to be attacked.

And it was the fashionable thing to jump into such activities. It fetched you tremendous peer respect and favourable publicity. So here was I, 53 kgs of weight, thin and wearing a spectacles of negative 3.5 power and the only violence I had indulged in was killing mosquitoes. I was desperate to get the glamour and star appeal of the studs who could go to such villages and create some mayhem.

So a group of about two hundred students then marched with broken tree branches, hockey sticks, cricket bats, lots of bluster and bravado. I was there with a twig right in the front. We reached the village after a minor trek and suddenly discovered there was absolute silence and all doors were shut. The brave marching contingent halted –confused and looking for strategy.

Then suddenly an arrow flew from one of the houses. And panic and pandemonium broke loose. The students ran for their lives. I was there in the front and I still remember after almost twenty years my feelings that moment. When I looked back I saw everybody had disappeared or was running like a gazelle and I was the only one left within the boundaries of the village. It is somewhat akin to what an antelope would feel when it sees itself surrounded by a horde of lions in the African bushland. I think I ran though I do not remember where or how fast. In the process I remember outrunning stones, sticks and somehow surviving almost like Sunil Shetty does in the middle of a bullet storm. Bollywood is imaginative but everything they show is not fantasy.

The marauding engineers were that day exposed for their bravery.

What Makes Italians So Hot?

What is it that makes Italians the best-rated lovers in the world by women consistently year after year? I am sure men all around the world want to emulate their Italian counterparts. Here is my attempt at throwing some light on the most educative and useful of all subjects.

First, of course the looks. The men have olive complexion, sharp features and being of Roman lineage anyway fit the generally conditioned idea about male beauty better than other races.

Second, they are genuinely interested in women. They love everything about women and the women notice that they actually light up from inside when they see them. It is also not a sexual kind of interest, which is a special trait of the North Indian male but a true desire to spend time with the women and make them happy.

Third, of course the famed Italian charm. It flows naturally from their genuine interest in women. But they can be insouciantly charming and their body language in presence of women is devastatingly seductive in a non-threatening way.

Fourth, their sense of dressing is awesome. Somehow they manage to carry off the most audacious of touches. Like an Italian could be wearing a woollen jacket and light blue shirt with a cuff open and the wrist would be exposed to show a stunning wristband design. Or he would be wearing a dark suit without a tie and the open buttons of his black shirt could be showing a large cross on his chest.

Fifth, the reputation precedes them and sort of makes everything they do so innocent and appealing to the women.

There are of course some Indian men who could give Italians a run for their money.

AIDS in Nigeria

Nigeria is a country obsessed with sex. The President, a highly respected man otherwise, has eight wives reportedly. Amongst the wealthy and the powerful not having multiple wives is the exception rather the rule. The women are as aggressive as men in hunting for partners.If you go to a cyber café ,the only thing you see is boys and girls chatting on yahoo to hook and fix up their rendezvouses. A significant proportion of single women are willing and available for a price. If you want a girlfriend all you have to do is go to the university and ask for one. It is not unusual for fathers to ask their daughters to fix up a school/college girlfriend for their colleagues.The FM stations in the morning are full of pastors exhorting the sinning masses to restrain themselves sexually.

No wonder with so much promiscuity, AIDS has struck. In absolute numbers South Africa and India are ahead but in percentage terms Nigeria has 5.3% of the population affected by AIDS against 1% in India.

To find out the real extent of the spread of AIDS, we have to factor in the statistics that the life expectancy is only 48 and only 58% of the population is above the age of 15.Assuming that the population below 15 is relatively AIDS free, then approximately one in eleven Nigerian adults has AIDS. It is a horrendous figure and it is today a leading cause of death like in many other African countries. Thirty percent of the prostitutes (called harlots rather colourfully) have AIDS and are a principal source of the spread of the disease.

It is a point to ponder, if you ignore the tremendous human tragedy, how the natural system has in-built checks and balances. For promiscuity now there is AIDS, a disease as dreaded as any in history.

The Other Rath Yatra from Puri

I spent a large part of my childhood in Orissa,a state known for its bucolic beauty,stunning temple architecture ,frequent floods, poverty and Lord Jagannath.In fact Lord Jagannath occupies a more prominent place in the life and psyche of Oriyas than any God for any other community,I can think of. Of course, the chariot festival is well known but less known is that Oriyas of all ages, classes and types think of him as protecting and helping them everywhere. He is Jagannath meaning lord of the universe, a lord for all. Some of his most famous devotees have been Salabeg,a Muslim and also an elephant who was trapped by a crocodile in a river. He is the Lord who is for universal brotherhood;kind,compassionate and very much a part of your own milieu rather than a powerful God ruling you from a distance.

So it is with a lot of pain that I read that Rajnath Singh’s rath yatra will commence from Puri.I understand that he has his right as an Indian citizen to travel anywhere.But it is tragic that he uses Puri and its rathyatra tradition and in all likelihood he will try to take Lord Jagannath’s blessings for his journey .This is a political stunt,a cheap and devious trick to exploit the Hindu insecurities.

Lord Jagannath always stood for harmony,peace and tolerance.The Oriyas were always a peace-loving people.In fact,I remember growing up without even once being exposed to any caste and religious identity.I remember in the engineering college I studied in,I lost out the award for the Best Actor despite a brilliant performance.I was told later that the Mathematics professor who was the judge had preferred somebodyelse for the award because I was not a brahmin.I remember being utterly stunned by this for days at the narrow-mindedness of the man.In fact today almost after 20 years,I think of him with revulsion.But this was the only incident of someone trying to define me as a member of a caste or religion and acting on that basis.The harmony amongst different identities,castes and religions was faultless.We used to treat Muslim or Christian boys with a fond quaintness rather than with suspicion.

So it is even more tragic that the people and the soil of such a state are being defiled to further narrow,divisive and communal agenda of a rustic cow-belt politician and his party.

India-Two Different Millennia

India is a more fascinating country from a distance.Everytime I travel abroad ,I realise the greatness of the country which sometimes escapes my attention in the din and noise of its daily life.It has grinding poverty but it also has unique grandeur.It has its venal politicians but also a brilliant middle class that is making waves around the world for its prowess in IT,management and engineering.It has its centuries old caste inequalities but also its rich,distinct culinary tradition.Amartya Sen’s “The Argumentative Indian” does a fine job of delving into the splendid tapestry that is India.Alongwith Nehru’s “The Discovery Of India” ,it will remain a fine example of throwing light on the cultural,social and knowledge mosaic that is this 5000 year old civilisation.

But the disconcerting fact remains that the great contributions of India to the world like concept of zero,the decimal system,elements of trigonometry,buddhism,ayurveda or formal rules of grammar all belong to the period till the end of first millennium(till 1000AD).The last thousand years have not seen any great contribution to the world even though there has been some great architecture like the Taj or Konark built.So today inspite of India’s rising status the average Argentine or Dane does not use anything intrinsically associated with India.He probably talks on Finnish phones(Nokia),watches American movies,secures himself with a Chinese lock,drives a Japanese car,plays in a German shoe(Adidas),drives with Saudi oil.The impact of the IT sector is of course high on the corporates in general but not on the common man.Logically the inventions of the last thousand years will always play a more dominant role in life than the inventions and discoveries of the previous millennia . So the relative importance of India in the average life of a human being today in the world is lesser than what it was in the first millennium.

The most probable reason for this seems to be that the world discovered the riches of India in a big way in the second millennium.Combined with better routes and technology, it could travel and attack the country.So the last thousand years seem to have been a time of wars,battles for dominance and bloodshed.The British rule of course typifies this.This meant that the resources and time of the rulers and the people were more focussed on survival rather than on developments on the frontiers of knowledge.This over a period of a thousand years led to the relative decline of the country in the world standings.

One can only hope that the people and politicians understand this and South Asia gets out of its history of bloodshed and rivalry as we enter another new millennium.

Dubai and Lagos-A Story of Contrasts

I have had the opportunity of spending some time in the last three months in Dubai and lagos. It is a fascinating contrast. Dubai and Lagos are stories of two divergent ways in the world and how good governance makes a difference. Lagos is the capital of Nigeria and Dubai a principal emirate of UAE.

Both are rich in oil but Nigeria more so. It has the world’s fourth largest oil reserves. But Nigeria quite surprisingly imports oil also.

Both are on the sea. Dubai has a very pleasant climate for four months in a year but for six months it is unbearably hot affecting life and work. Lagos temperatures fluctuate between a pleasant 18 to 35 degrees centigrade through out the year.

The common language of Nigeria is English and everybody speaks it. Some local citizens of Dubai are passably conversant with the language but many do not understand it.

UAE is principally a Muslim country but Nigeria has Muslims and Christians co-existing in relative harmony. In Nigeria, each religion has its own space and freedom.

Nigeria is located closer to the important markets of Europe and USA and has close cultural relations with Europe especially UK.Dubai’s cultural relationship in the true sense is with other gulf countries.

The people in Nigeria are open and friendly whereas in UAE they are more closed.

The land in Nigeria is fertile and there is rain throughout the year. Dubai is on a desert.

With so many natural advantages, one would think that Nigeria would be far more advanced than Dubai. But strange are the ways of the world.

Dubai has a per capita income of approximately 19000USD and Nigeria’s is around 300 USD. Dubai is rated as amongst the most modern cities in the world and is a tourist hub. Lagos is one of the most difficult cities to live in with inadequate basic amenities. Dubai is clean, modern and forward-looking. Lagos is filthy, poor and chaotic.

What makes Dubai so much better than Lagos despite its inherent handicaps? It is quite simply governance. The administration in Dubai has ensured implementation of forward-looking ideas whereas the military junta in Lagos simply occupied themselves in padding up their Swiss accounts. The result is poor law and administration, shabby infrastructure and bad image resulting in businesses and talent staying away from it. Dubai has overcome its natural odds in creating modern infrastructure and efficient law and the outcome is an international city.

Is your social strategy in place?

Despite all the euphoria about economic growth, the obstacles in India’s path remain formidable. One of the most difficult issues to tackle would be the increasing level of economic disparities. So while there are 53000 households with annual incomes of more than 1 crore, 400 million go to bed hungry. These 400 million are below the poverty line which by definition means that they do not get enough to eat everyday. The simmering violence of a hungry stomach can be explosive. And a large alienated mass of people is a potential tinder box if they are mobilised. History has shown that such disparities are socially unsustainable.

When a large section of the society is disaffected then it tends to retaliate against people who it thinks are exploiting them or the society. The consequences of such conflicts are enormous and problems become intractable. We have seen that the population of NE and Kashmir have felt alienated(though for both economic and political reasons) and it has led to a spiralling circle of violence and resentment. This has had catastrophic impact on the economic activities. Despite the best efforts of the government and parts of civil society business has not recovered in NE. We are seeing the increasing influence of the naxalites in a broad swathe of Eastern and central part of the country. The dangers of such inequality are multiplied in India because of lack of a proper justice system and endemic corruption in the law enforcement circles. The lack of justice and the unfairness around make the deprived sections more volatile and violent.

In these circumstances, it is even more threatening for the key organs of the society which are seen to be exploiting the society. So the rich landlords were the targets in the naxalite movement and the government or security forces in Kashmir or the tea gardens in Assam. In these times of increasing disparity, many people have started seeing the corporate sector as flourishing at the cost of poor people by charging high prices or making money unethically. This is reinforced by the visible lifestyles of executives and owners.

The typical response of businessmen to this would be that they need to reap the rewards of their talent and hard work. The executives also need to be paid international salaries as the country becomes more competitive and the companies need to retain talent. While these are valid reasons, the corporate sector needs to also take steps to assuage the concerns of large sections of society. This can be best achieved by being a good corporate citizen . Good corporate social responsibility can act a protection against the vicissitudes of the social dynamics and make the companies less immune to violence and subsequent losses. The steps taken today can prevent bigger disasters tomorrow. One shudders to imagine what would happen to FDI or venture capitalists if the CEO of a multinational is kidnapped and beheaded for a ransom.

Corporate social responsibility implies a) Being honest, doing everything legally
b) Fulfilling all obligations and commitments towards all stake holders(including society at large)

Sadly, many corporates in India fall short of expectations even on being ethically proper. In the past, we had examples of companies not paying the employees their providend fund dues which has fortunately got corrected. Many corporates go to great lengths to avoid taxes, duties in collusion with government officials. They shamelessly degrade the environment knowing fully well that it is a treasure to be fully protected. There are several instances of crooked businessmen not clearing the genuine dues of their business partners and associates. The consumers getting cheated by cynical manipulation of licenses with the help of politicians is an accepted practice in this country. No wonder in surveys of respectable professions ,managers and entrepreneurs still figure very low.

This aspect of corporate social responsibility should be a given. In fact, the corporate associations like FICCI and ASSOCHAM or CII should be pro-active in ensuring minimum level of ethics like watchdogs. Any member flouting or sidestepping the law should be censured by its peers. Necessary inputs and systems for getting information and acting on them should be put in place. The government has to be more concerned about this and should tighten laws for evaders.

It is also important in the era of globalisation to be ethically above reproach especially for companies which have global aspirations. The consumers worldwide expect ethical behaviour and can with the power of internet or alert citizen groups or individuals can destroy companies. . It cannot be just an offshoot of the benevolent intentions of the CEO. This also has to be in the DNA of every employee or dubious acts by sections of the company like in Arthur Andersen can lead to collapse


The second aspect of corporate social responsibility then assumes importance. It is about giving back to the society from where one draws sustenance. The Tatas have done it widely in different fields and the goodwill they enjoy today is partly an outcome of this. The benefits for business from this dimension of CSR are enormous. No government or political party in Jharkhand today can think of unduly harassing TISCO. Similarly, Infosys by the simple act of funding the expansion of the premier pediatric hospital in Bhubaneshwar today commands huge goodwill in Orissa. Fortunately, many corporates today have embarked on programmes to give back to the society.


But in India the corporates need to also go beyond the above traditional understanding of the corporate social responsibility to ensure that they actually work as a powerful force for the good of the society. Today the best and brightest join the corporate sector with idealism in their hearts. They look upto their leaders .At the top there are crooks but there are also men of iconic stature and unimpeachable integrity like Premji and Murthy. There are some top level professionals chief executives who command a great deal of respect in the society. They need to dynamically influence policy and be more engaged with society. It is in the interest of the business that they speak up on behalf of the silent masses of society. The civil society needs people who have the courage to stand up. Many arms of the society (academia or media)in the face of consumerism can wilt because many times they are not financially independent or there is a quid pro quo with the powers that be. It is on such issues that the corporate leaders of the society should stand up. Today, they have the strength to not to succumb to pressure. But they do not stand up and only seethe silently. So it is sad to see that the Gujarat riots are not censured by the corporate community in general or Gowda’s antics are being handled with kid gloves.

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So corporate social responsibility which is ethical behaviour and fulfilling obligations towards all stakeholders is not just a feel-good activity to draw talent or build up reputation .For the Indian industry the significance of corporate social responsibility goes beyond the traditional underpinnings. It is a strategic necessity from several angles. The corporates need to have a sound social strategy as part of their business strategy.

Innovation and FMCG industry in India

Background

The Indian FMCG market has slowed down in growth for sometime. From a growth rate of excess of 12 percent in early 90’s, it has registered only 4.4 percent odd so in the last five years.
In the last five years , the GDP has grown by a CAGR of close to 6 percent at real prices. So FMCG business is not even growing at the pace of the domestic economy. One would have thought that in a country where penetration and consumption are still low by international standards, this industry catering to basic necessities would have registered higher growth. But in the last decade sectors like telecom and durables have grown spectacularly but not FMCG.

The reasons for the slow growth have been discussed and debated endlessly. Primarily a) The housing, telecom and durables sectors had a latent demand which ensured explosive growth. b) The easier and cheaper availability of credit supported this growth. c) The consumers started spending more on products of these sectors and had lesser money for FMCG products and so downgraded in FMCG.

To counter this, most companies have got into a battle of market share and aim to differentiate themselves on trade reach or advertising efficiency. The route to winning has been believed to be better distribution, operational improvements or outflanking the competition on pricing and promotions. However on hard evidence, these directions have delivered incremental growth and also not helped in exploding the categories.

Failure to exploit trends

In general however, the sector has been unable to exploit the key demographic and sociological trends of the last decade. Within the sector, the companies which have done so have reaped dividends.

The most significant demographic trend in the recent years has been that Indian consumer is getting younger. The average age of the population is amongst the lowest in the world. The youth has far more purchasing power than before and a different attitude towards life in the post-liberalisation era. So sectors which have captured this trend in products and communication have grown like lifestyle apparels, shoes or even trendy watches. In FMCG , Perfetti has done well growing at more than 30% CAGR in the last decade by mainly focussing on youth with hip products and edgy communication targeted at them..

The second important trend has been that families have become increasingly nuclear and urbanised. This has necessitated the need for convenience foods and saving of time. One outcome of this has been the restaurant boom. But convenience foods are yet to take off more due to issues of taste and right price rather than cultural factors. Largely, the industry has missed the bus here.

The other major trend of higher consumption potential due to both rising incomes and increasing consumer base hence has anyway not translated into corresponding growth.
Any sector or company which wants to grow spectacularly has to exploit the inherent potential in the above three defining trends a)Younger population with a different attitude b)Need for convenience and c)Increasing consumption potential. The visible and existing models of behaviour and organisation and strategy in most FMCG companies do not suggest that they are trying to ride these trends and hence it is difficult to anticipate any major change of trend in performance.




Criticality of Innovation

So the sector needs to look at significantly different ways to participate in India’s boom. It need not be dependent on the monsoons or minor price-cuts to drive its growth. These new ways should exploit the key demographic and economic trends. The companies cannot depend on existing products and communication strategies to drive their business. And only new and innovative ways in the sector can rapidly leverage these broad trends for growth.

The other industries have seen spectacular growth due to innovations which have exploited these trends. Some of them which have changed the rules of the game are a) The consumer financing boom changed the way durables could be bought b) The technological changes leading to crash in rates of calls and equipment altered the way cellular telephony is perceived and experienced.

Similarly in FMCG, innovation as played a key role in the outstanding growth of some companies. Frito lay has experienced spectacular growth with an innovative product Kurkure. The caps in sachets by Colgate, the introduction of “lite oils”, the sachet revolution by Cavincare have fundamentally altered the rules of the game and delivered spectacular growth to the companies.

But for most companies, innovation though important, is not a key strategy in performance. There is no premium on innovation. The companies remain hostage to analysis and stability. The R and D centres are not the leading edge departments. The structures do not support innovation. The cultures encourage conformity. Innovation is not on the agenda of most senior managers where as it needs to be the prime driver for their performance.

It is important to realise that the innovation will play the most critical role in rescuing the industry from lack-lustre performance. It is also important that this percolates to every level of the organisation. The processes starting with appraisals, brainstormings and feedback loops have to be in place. The innovation has to be across all dimensions starting with product development, distribution, communication, people strategies and manufacturing. It needs to be pervasive and a very powerful element in the fabric of the organisation.


It is time the industry moved to innovations as the prime platform to ride on the broader social and economic trends .

The Book Capital of the World

Make no mistake about it. Delhi is the publishing and information capital of India too. Most publishers like Penguin, Oxford or Rupa are located here. The top news magazines like India Today and Outlook run from here. The daily fodder of the Indian news fiend NDTV operates from Delhi. The organisations, which decide what our children are going to read like NCERT, are based here. The weighty intellectuals who give us our daily spiel in newspapers and TV channels are mostly based in Delhi. But the Delhite has been known for his groping in DTC buses, chhole bhaturas and robust dancing but never for his books.

I had joined a company in Delhi and then was studiously concentrating on a problem in my cabin when I overheard some colleagues discussing about the new bloke. I was being described as nice, sincere blah blah and also quirkily as one who also reads books as if it was like having a cow in the flat. I was the odd man out in the office where they could not believe one could spend money on buying books rather than gold or a new large fridge. Not a surprising behaviour, considering that the reading habits of the charismatic head of the office were limited to ruffling through Debonair in railway platform Wheelers.

The place in South Delhi where I stay has possibly the lowest ratio of bookshops and magazine stalls to total shops for any city in the world. I am also sure that the percentage of expenditure on books to the total household income in Delhi must be 0.0000001%, again a world record low. Here in a three km radius from where I stay, I can get Hitachi plasma TVs in five shops, Rado watches in fifteen places and Lebanese food in seven joints but I have only three street side magazine stalls and two bookshops. Out of these two, one is good and all of forty sq feet and the other stocks books in only thirty five percent of its space.

But the times they are a-changin’.

The Delhite now has heard that knowledge is a critical ingredient to push ahead in the modern world. He also knows that it has become a status symbol. And nobody can hold a candle to Delhiwallahs as far as status symbols and pushing for success go.


The Delhiwallah has discovered books and is buying them! It is becoming a revered status symbol like a Skoda or a Rolex. I was talking to some guys from Time- Life publishing who sell educational books for children-very good and very expensive. The full set costs a whopping 1.25 lac rupees. They sell it on EMIs too. But the biggest market in the country by miles is Delhi where most sales happen on cash. In the other towns in India, most sales happen on EMIs. So what is the secret? Here, rich businessmen and contractors who proudly display it in their drawing rooms buy most sets. Imagine the status value when Mrs.Chopra tells her friend from Shalimar Bagh that her son reads about alligators from such big, expensive books and not from something published by Navneet.

A similar tale from my friend in Oxford University Press. They were confused for a long time when their leather bound books started flying off the shelves in Delhi. Several months and consumer studies later they discovered that the books were being bought as artefacts for drawing rooms.

So I was not surprised to see an article which said that now interior designers get mandates from their clients to select suitable books for display along with dining chairs and divans.

So there is now money in selling books and I heard that the sanitary ware shop across the street selling glass shower cubicles is now being demolished to turn into a bookshop.


To encash on this newfound craze for the status symbol, I suggest three ideas:

a) The travel agents start offering a complete set of works from an author where people go to - so travellers to South Africa will get a complete set of J.M.Coetzee or travellers to Prague get a set of Kundera.

b) In the busy marriage season the booksellers can pitch for sending the invitation along with leather bound classics.

c) For every five hundred and seventy mithai packs you give in Diwali, gift one book.

Soon Delhi will become the book capital of the world.

Calcutta Conundrum

There are many people who are trying to understand Calcutta and unravel the mystery behind the thinking of its people after the Saurav Ganguly episode.

Saurav was kept out of the team after perfectly justifiable reasons. In fact, the performance of the team in the last two series amply demonstrates the validity of the move. The team actually looks much more positive and hungrier. Its fielding is outstanding and it has in large patches looked like the Australians in attitude. Saurav brought an infusion of guts to the team but that does not mean eternal selection.

Most people I speak to are very happy with his exclusion but the Calcuttans would have none of it. They booed Dravid and the Indian team though out the Eden match. Assorted celebrities from the world of cinema and arts come on television and protest against his exclusion. The city, which paints its walls with pictures of Ronaldo and Ronaldino during a world cup, jeers its own team. It justifies the superiority of its emotions over loyalty to country or civility.

Calcutta though has never reconciled the loss of its status as the pre-eminent city of the sub-continent. It still seethes over the perceived injustice of shifting the capital to Delhi. It is sensitive to issues, real and imaginary .It does not accept anything, which does not follow its way of thinking and living. In reality, this precludes this from being a great city. Great cities are known for their tolerance and universality of spirit, their ability to accept diversity of thoughts. Bombay lost its claim to being a great city the day it had the riots.


But it is not so easy to explain Calcutta. It celebrates Christmas and Durga Puja with fervour. Every family in Calcutta tries to buy cakes for Christmas. It has the some of the lowest communal hatred amongst Indian cities. It has a large heart. But the city also is a bundle of contradictions. I remember the issue of the person who was getting hanged after having raped and murdered a thirteen-year-old girl. There were candlelight marches and processions in his support. The newspapers were full of front-page stories with sympathy about this man. And this in a place, where diseased and dying masses confront you at every stop. In my stay in Calcutta, I have not seen the average Calcuttan exhibiting this trait of compassion over the people he sees everyday. But when it comes to deaths supposedly over a principle (death penalty), he is all eager to hit the streets. They fill up concert halls to listen to classical music and book fairs to buy Kafka and Camus showing their proclivity for fine things in life but they do not mind living with filth on the roads outside their doors.


So the Saurav episode is also another page in the book of contradictions that is Calcutta. There is no point in trying to understand it because it can never be understood.

Manjunath

Manjunath’s murder is symptomatic of the malaise in the system.

The earnest officer was being honest and fearless. He was perhaps too idealistic in the state of U.P. Here, you are expected to buckle down and accept injustice and unfairness. Here, you are expected to only see all the corruption and decay around you silently and possibly crib about this to your wife and friends. You are expected to slowly become a part of the same rotten system and start making money by being a player yourself. You are expected to throw the teachings of your conscientious parents and maybe Ayn Rand into the nearest dustbin and start chasing the average Indian dream of a three bed-room house with two airconditioners and one sedan. So what, if on the way to the dream, you do not recognise yourself in the mirror and you just see hollow eyes and a charred heart.

Manjunath refused to do that and he paid such a heavy price. I am appalled that the perpetrators of the crime even thought of committing such an act in cold blood and then getting away with it. In the process the utter lawlessness in the state of UP has been exposed.

It is a tribute to the Indian media that they have painstakingly followed up the story and given it the necessary exposure. NDTV and other channels besides several leading newspapers (led by Indian Express) have played an outstanding role in building up public consciousness.

However the IOC management and the government remain silent. Is it the silence of the guilty or the silence of the cornered?

The other question is that obviously the adulteration is not happening for the first time. According to some news reports, it is a racket of ten thousand crore rupees. So for the scam to be of this extent 1) either the other persons in charge have turned a blind eye out of fear and/or self-interest 2) or, the checking processes are inadequate. On both counts, it indicts the IOC top management and the oil ministry.

Manjunath’s sad end can be sanctified only if these larger issues are addressed.

HDI and GDP Growth

The joyful pandemonium over economic growth faintly amuses me and reminds me of the games that able gentlemen play in the corporate boardrooms and corridors. It goes like this.

When we are talking about the progress of the country we must consider the overall growth not only economic. This holistic growth status is better described by Human Development Index in a very useful annual exercise by UNDP. This is a composite indicator which captures the achievements of the country on three basic dimensions of human development namely income, health and education. It is a much more comprehensive indicator than simple GDP growth.

Economic growth is one of the requirements of poverty reduction and human development. It is probably a very good indicator for developed economies which have reached desired levels on parameters like infant mortality, life expectancy or literacy. So in one sense, the only play the developed countries can actually have is economic growth. But poor and developing countries have a lot of work to catch up on the other parameters and the obsessive focus on economic growth alone after ignoring other indicators of progress is callous and insensitive.

It is analogous to the situation, for example ,in FMCG companies where the progress of the brand is projected depending on the requirements of the managers. So based on the context the state of brand could be described by a) current marketshares(ms) b)ms growth over last year c)urban ms d)growth in urban ms e)growth in ms vis-à-vis last quarter f)primary sales growth (sales from company depots to distributors)g)offtake (sales from outlets to consumers) and several others. So in most likelihood, some factors would be showing high growth or a positive trend and the trick is to focus on those factors, hide the unpleasant indicators thus ignoring the holistic health of the brand.

Similarly, economic growth today is being focussed on because it is positive and it induces a feel-good factor. The media is the champion of this drum-beating and I almost see the country’s politicians and industrialists thumping their chests with pride when they meet their counterparts in various seminars and conferences and saying “Mera economic growth tera economic growth se zyada hai”.

They tend to forget that four hundred million of their countrymen go to bed hungry everyday and 2.5 million child deaths ( the highest in the world and one fifth of it) occur in India every year. They forget that even though we are making progress, in absolute terms we have only dented the mammoth poverty obstacle.Illiteracy, hunger, pregnancy related deaths, gender inequality and incidence of disease are rampant and we fare just above sub-saharan Africa on these parameters. The situation in Bihar, MP, Rajasthan and UP are almost as sorry as sub-saharan Africa. These unpleasant truths are captured by HDI but hidden in the metric of economic growth.

So even though India is amongst the top ten countries in economic output on purchasing power parity basis, it is an abysmal 127 on the HDI rankings.


Maybe, it is time the states are ranked on these parameters and they are incentivised on their performance(if not being done already) and this is given wide publicity. ‘India today’ attempts a ranking on these but awareness about it needs to be spread more. At least, the middle classes could use this as pointers to their voting.