Article - 88 Week 4 : MATRIX OF BABUDOM

Article - 88 Week 4 : 

MATRIX OF BABUDOM

Indian bureaucrats have been rated the worst in Asia. Hong Kong based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd said this. No surprise there? I used to wonder in my bizarre experiences, how the bureaucrats in Vietnam, Myanmar and even Bangladesh are comparatively more friendly and facilitative (even to their own natives) compared to our counterparts. I am still reluctant to jump on any judgement on the issue, though my fears appear to be vindicated by this proclamation. On many occasions, I wonder if I am over-reacting, while there are millions who succumb to this tyranny, blissfully indifferent to their conscientiousness & moral integrity. Or may we agree with those fence-sitters who declare with aplomb that it is our genetic make up manifesting in public domain?

Walk in to the Customs, Service Tax, Income Tax or our Municipal offices. The hostility & scorn is palpable in the air. Like you are in an enemy territory. Logic, reason, compassion, sympathy, righteousness, and fear of God are like those esoteric higher human values, kept on the pedestals of patronizing proclamations and little else. Money is the only language between the ruled and the rulers and scorn or veiled despise, sugar coated with niceties, is the podium for the language. This is not surprising at all that we are tagged and condemned to this, because we are a poor nation. The surprising revelation is that the bureaucrats in even poorer countries in Asia, behave better than ours and are less obstructive. 

I have had a real harrowing time in explaining this to foreigners, who have been embittered by their unpleasant contacts with our Babudom. The positives of our vibrant democracy cleaning up this mess overtime, sounds too cliched. That 'overtime' seems endless. In some nations, power is wielded by the military or despots and in ours the power is invariably wielded by the bureaucracy. The power of the elected legislature is far less to bring in the real changes. The check and balance system has allowed unfettered power in the executive. The only power that can be prevailed upon is through politicizing the top decision makers in the bureaucracy and leaving the details to the ragtags. The ragtags and the politicized top echelons build the mesh of rules and notifications to have more control and benefit a selected few. The rest are sandwiched to operate within the system as their free wills & self interests permit.

There is no power greater than the power of the people. This power will one day subdue this unfettered power of the bureaucracy through immense political pushes and pulls. We will see that unfolding in front of us.

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Brgds

Capt Rath

Article - 87 Week 3 POLICY INITIATIVES TO CONTAIN POLLUTION ON OUR COASTS:

Article - 87 Week 3

POLICY  INITIATIVES TO CONTAIN POLLUTION ON OUR COASTS:

Bholulal: "Sir, Sir, …. Why all junk ships are sinking in Mumbai coasts? The coast is so fully spoilt with oil. The fish is dying. The trees are dying. Look at the fishermen, who have lost their daily bread."

Babulal: "As per Sect 2675/II of Chapter III/(A/(8) the responsibility of removing the oil before it goes in the mouth of a fish lies with the Pollution Board. We can act, only after they fulfill their duties."

Kachralal: "We have taken immediate action, as per Sub para 123(A)/98/PUL07 of our Rule Book. We have floated an international tenders to clean the oil, before the the fish can have it. We have got very good responses so far. Soon the tender will be given to the party who can satisfy our appetite."

Mantrilal: "Look at poor M.V.Rena. Falling apart on the reefs. If it can happen in New Zealand , it can happen here. No big deal."

Bholulal: "MantrilalG, what action you will take to prevent such events in future?"

Mantrilal: "The guilty must be punished. I have ordered a committee to initiate the enquiry. Whoever is found guilty shall not be spared. This is my promise."

Bholulal: "But Sir, … the owners of these junk ships are not in India?"

Mantrilal: "Ah… that's no problem. We will lock up the ship's agent, the ship's Captain, and the crew in Yellow Gate Police Station…. They can not run to Hongkong or Dubai so easily …. "

Bholulal: "But Sir, … the owners?"

Mantrilal: "You see, we have some Treaty to honor with these countries….how can we question them? That's a sensitive issue...See, can you catch Mr Anderson who left Bhopal a long time back?"

Bholulal: "But Sir,…..the agents and the crew are innocent!"

Mantrilal: "How do you know? Don't talk rubbish in the media without full knowledge of our Constitution & Law Books. Anyway, don't you worry ... I'll ask Babulal to make such knotty & hard rules that no ship can ever come any where near Mumbai - forget pollution!"

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Brgds

Capt Rath

Article - 86 Week 2 Regulating Regulators

Article - 86  Week 2

Regulating Regulators

It's a bad idea to start with. If there is a need to regulate the very people who are supposed to regulate and administer - the system has already failed. We have this old habit of putting in more checks and trying to balance the system. In the bargain, the system gets slower and slower as you keep screwing it tight with more and more of checks. Then at a certain stage, the system just comes to a grinding halt. It does not move, even when you keep on kicking it with all your force.

You try getting any thing moved in a government Department and you realize that, even when the people who happen to be friendly(interpret how you nurture this relationship) to you are genuinely trying to move your file in the right direction. But they fail or get it blocked many number of times. Remember that you are already working in a failed system. So, there is no point grumbling about who to blame. Going by the past, we have a whole new set & subsets of bodies to keep an eye on the errant ones, like SIIB, DRI, Appeal Boards and many such departments who have started feeding on each other and slowing the system down to a very large degree while increasing the dirty money circulation, many folds. We do have a judicial system to correct the excesses. Unfortunately that too is in a similar mess. They would usually avoid many such issues on the pretext of administrative prerogatives, while passing judgements on flimsy cases in order to benefit a particular party. 

Rather than regulating these regulators and administrators, we must let them lose. And focus on the crime rather than the criminal. The processes should be simplified. The users and associations should act as guides in this simplification war. The Laws and regulations should be articulated in texts easily understood by the public. The goal of each department should be defined and a there should be a matrix to measure performance of the people inside. Accountability should be brought in. Award and punishment systems should be firmly in place. The list goes on. This is no rocket science. The 'how' part is known to all. The problem is, no one wants to do it.

The reason, no one wants to do it, is because over extremely long period of time, the public is misled into believing that more stringent and punitive mechanisms directed at the administrators and the regulators would solve the problem. You can not blame the public or collective wisdom so to say. They have been subjected to these stringent and punitive severities from the government for a very long time. Therefore, they have begun to think of such a reversed mechanism to deliver the goods. Such ideas have brought forth movements like Anna's. Even though Anna's movement can be interpreted and supported as a reaction of the public to the excesses of near-failed administration and poor delivery, this will in no way make the system better. There will be another crazy elephant in the room. The smaller miscreants will no doubt be cowed down by this wild elephant if at all it sees the light of the day, but the system will continue to chug along more slowly than before. Public needs to understand the importance of complete changes & simplifications in the administrative processes. 

The government knows how to fix this. The public (collectively) is unaware of it, though there are individuals who know this. The public hears of smoky stuff like political will and so on. Political will is not an unconnected island of benevolence. This will is created through the public perception. I feel the day is not really far, when public will be fully conversant with the ills of the system rather than be fixated with the people within the system. The big change is not very far.

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Brgds

Capt Rath

Article - 85 Week 1 THE NEXT DECADE OF LINER SHIPPING

Article - 85  Week 1   

THE NEXT DECADE OF LINER SHIPPING

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."    Thomas Jefferson

We are witness to an event in shipping, that could change our industry. We know that such a Great Depression had taken place in the 1930s. This was again triggered by European debt crisis & migration from Gold standard. Today we see a similar scenario. Today's paper money stands on its shaky legs, while Europe struggles with its debt crisis. Shipping industry then was not exactly the way it is now. Most of the ships were destroyed in the World War. And here we have a whole lot more ships in the world, than we really need for the next five to ten years. The Great Depression lasted from 1918 until 1945, for 27 years. Is this one as big as that? 

No matter what answer we have for the above question, this is a certainty that it's not going to go away that soon and that, the experts go wrong most of the time. There will not be container loads of cheap toys and toilet papers rushing from China to the rest of the world. The cheap manufacturing bases would shift, upon the next revival of the world economy. That would take some time. Until then, the manufacturing capabilities would be tested from India to Africa. Many countries would try to manufacture their own cheap products for their home consumption. This would derail the steady flow of bloated containers from China. We are already witness to this sad decline. This may take a few years more to dribble to insignificance or even reverse. There would be new cargo routes in a ever changing trading landscape. The cheap labour of Africa, Myanmar, or Bangladesh are plum targets for investors. The governments of these countries have started realizing the benefits of opening up their economies. So cargo would move in starts and spurts in unpredictable directions. There would be many false starts and false falls. The story would be one of navigating in a heavily mined terrain, so far as liner shipping goes.

The good news is  that, there will be many new heros. The bad news is that many old heros would retreat. A creative destruction on a bumpy landing. Those who exploit the new opportunities arising, while leaving behind the un-lucrative routes quickly would do a better job. So far India goes, we are some how crippled with a lot of direct subsidies in the hands of the public. The people here need not bend their back to earn a their basic meal. Even though it does a world of good to energies a large section of people into economic activities, the incentive to compete or work harder is rather dampened (Likes of Malaysia) compared to the hungrier countries like Myanmar, Bangladesh or the poorer countries in Africa. In other words, India may have missed the bus to host manufacturing for  the world. So, we may see similar import centric India as we have seen in the past, unless the government does a U-turn on its policy paralysis and stringent land usage Laws. That is unlikely to happen. Therefore, lets expect the  mirror reflection of current China in the next decade, on the shores of Myanmar, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Africa, or even Pakistan. Forget the infrastructure. It does not take long to build, in a cash rich world of today. All it takes, is for the governments in these places to smell the opportunities and open their doors, while the the rest of the lazy governments cry foul against tax parity, tax heaven, colored money and many such imagined ghouls to stop their capital to leak out in to these preferred places, where they earn more for the investors.

Brgds

Capt Rath