The Hindu Business Line : Thriving mainly on private push

We find that whatever growth is taking place appears to be due to private initiative; little if any, is attributable to the government, says P.V. INDIRESAN.

Some students are still ignorant of engineering as a profession. — M. Periasamy

The previous article dwelt on three problems the country is beset with — Kashmir, the nuclear treaty and the Singur issue. We could have added three more — the North-East, Bihar and the naxal problems. Apart from the nuclear question, which is probably on the way to resolving itself, the others are probably yet to find a solution. It is even likely that they will never be resolved, at any rate they will continue to fester in our polity for years to come.

Engineering, anyone?

I spent one day last week in a town that is a taluk headquarters in Tamil Nadu. I was shown two schools. In the high school, with nearly 200 students in each class, there was not one student who had heard of IITs. It is doubtful whether the students were even aware that engineering is a profession worth trying for. Some of them wanted to be doctors and policemen, but not one wanted to be an engineer.

Such is the ignorance of engineering as a profession in a school run by a reputed teacher. We are proud of our engineers; our economy has certainly benefited considerably from the profession. Yet, in a town with a population in excess of 10,000, no child has even heard of an IIT; no child has even considered engineering as a profession worth pursuing.

In contrast, China has demonstrated its skill to command the world in several directions. In the Olympiad; it is way ahead of all other countries of the world in the number of medals it has won. China is still a poor country but it has been able to hide that poverty behind screens. It is still beset by earthquakes but its people do not suffer the way ours do when floods strike in Bihar.

China has discontented and disillusioned populations; they do strike but not the way the Naxals do in our country. In our country, Kashmiris appeared to be tamed but a single casualty was enough to induce restless groups to get recharged. As for the North-East, its lawlessness has become so commonplace that it has ceased to be news.

Apart from these political problems, the country is suffering also from reduced growth rate of industry. Higher education appears to be an exception with the government having started eight new IITs and planning a new ‘world class’ university in every state. Unfortunately, here too, the actual situation is not as good as it appears — moneys needed for the ventures have not been released; in any case, there is no faculty to recruit.

If we look at the country, we find that whatever growth is taking place appears to be due to private initiative; little, if any, is attributable to the government. That is why the economy looks so different from Chennai compared to what it looks like in Delhi. At the Centre, each ministry appears to be on a spree of its own; there is little to note about highways, harbours or hospitals.

The China growth story

China is different. It is not expanding; it is exploding. It has built, in record time, a train service to Tibet and is apparently planning four more such services. It has completed the Three Gorges Dam on time; its development is both rapidly and steadily driving inwards. Admittedly, pollution is a problem, but then Britain and Europe suffered the same way when they too started their industrial revolution.

In any case, there is no hope of India competing in any Olympics the way China has done. It appears that whatever be the problems with Chinese governance, it does deliver results, whatever be the advantages that Indian governance may claim, it does not deliver as well as China does.

At the least, China has shown the ability to feed the poor better than we can. Its people are better fed, better nurtured and better educated than our children are.

In that case, why should we cling to our form of governance? Why should we not shift to the way the Chinese do things? Unfortunately, there are two kinds of problems. One, we definitely enjoy more freedom than the Chinese do. Two, China is an exception; most dictatorships enrich the rulers only and leave ordinary people not merely in the lurch; they leave them with practically nothing to live on.

Western commentators have invariably commented favourably on India’s progress; they are astounded by the rate of India’s progress which is second only to that of the Chinese among nations of relatively large size.

Further, it is unlikely that the country will accept the kind of regimen that the Chinese impose on its citizens. Democracies have done well, in actual fact, better than dictatorships have. It is possible that the Chinese will prove an exception, and perform better than democracies have. Nevertheless, we have been privileged to have learnt useful lessons from the British; it will be better for us to improve our democracy rather than transform ourselves into a dictatorship of the type the Chinese are apparently happy with.

Attack of Injelititis

In this connection, let me revert to an article on Injelititis I wrote over six years ago in these columns. Injelititis was a word coined by Northcote Parkinson on his deliberations on management. He said Injelititis sets in when top people begin to remark: “It would be a mistake for us to attempt too much. We cannot compete with top rank. Here, in low grade, we do useful work, meeting the needs of the country. Let us be content with that... Some of our men have transferred to top rank… We are quite happy to let them succeed in that way.”

In the second stage of Injelititis, cowardice is replaced by smugness. The aims are set low and largely achieved. Senior people start remarking: “We rather distrust brilliance here. These clever people can be a dreadful nuisance.” In the final stage, apathy replaces smugness. Nobody cares. In Professor Parkinson’s words: “The broken windows are repaired with odd bits of cardboard. The electric light switches give a slight but painful shock. The whitewash is flaking off the ceiling and the paint is blotchy on the walls. The lift is out of order and the cloakroom tap cannot be turned off... ”

That is not a bad description of most of our public buildings. We see Injelititis spreading across the country, particularly in our small towns. Buildings are is a state of disrepair; nobody is bothered to set them right. Whatever surplus the government generates is immediately set out to increase the pay of the staff and not to increase their quality of life. There are powerful people who are obsessed with what the government should control and are disinclined about what the state should delegate.

“How does Europe keep its streets as clean as they are” is the kind of question nobody is asking in India. Some years ago, the Lord Mayor of London told the CII audience that London keeps its streets clean by cleaning them several times a day. In India, the State is more bothered about what it should let the people get away with than what responses people should make to enjoy the freedom they are guaranteed. In contrast, private entrepreneurs are continuing with their own plans to push the country forward.

(To be continued)

(The author is a former Director of IIT Madras. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)

(This is 234th in the Vision 2020 series. The previous article was published on September 1.)