Whether Piyush Goyal’s combative style of functioning will work in Railways or will the minister run out of steam before the tenure of the Government expires only time will tell. But from day one, Railways officers and employees have been getting a taste of the minister’s barbs. The buzz is that at a recent meeting, Goyal was in no mood to hear lame excuses and wanted result-oriented responses from officials in his ministry., something those in his previous ministries are aware of. But once the meeting is done, he is all courtesy. The resurfacing of the video showing Goyal as power minister reprimanding Uttar Pradesh government officials for laxity, has got everyone wondering what the message is. Is it that Goyal will brook no nonsense?

Sheer enthusiasm

India’s negotiating team at the WTO which was recently in New Delhi for inputs from the Centre on the agenda for the forthcoming ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires in December, had to stay back longer than intended. No sooner did the team finish its week-long inter-ministerial talks and discussions with the then Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman than the Cabinet reshuffle happened. Former Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, who replaced Sitharaman, wanted to take full advantage of the presence of the Geneva-based negotiating team in the capital.

So eager was Prabhu to understand the nuances of the negotiations that he held discussions with the team for several hours over three days. They may have gone on had it not been for the minister’s scheduled visit to Manila on Thursday night. India may be represented by a new minister at Buenos Aires but it seems he might make up for lack of experience with sheer enthusiasm!

Who’s listening to Modi?

The murder of Gauri Lankesh and the subsequent campaign of malice driven by twitter accounts followed by the PM appear to have dented Modi’s popularity on social media. This prompted the BJP;s IT cell to issue a statement clarifying that the PM following someone is not a character certificate. But it also raised a question: Who decides whom the PM should follow? What do these numbers mean for the popularity of leader? And do the followers really understand what the leader is saying?

According to data compiled by TwitterCounter, a social media analytics tool, “Narendra Modi doesn’t have a very wide-reaching attentiveness to posts on Twitter, with an audience attentiveness score of 22 per cent.” Comparably, “Donald J Trump is really being listened to on Twitter, with an audience attentiveness score of 72 per cent”. India’s second most followed person , Amitabh Bachchan, has a score of 34 per cent.

Mind your language

The newly appointed MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar got some ‘expert’ advice from veteran diplomat and former MEA spokesperson KC Singh. During the PM’s recent visit to Myanmar, when Kumar dutifully tweeted “Act East & Neighbourhood First Policy. PM @narendramodi calls on President U Htin Kyaw, discusses steps to deepen historical relationship”, Singh retweeted: “Historic is what you mean. ‘Historical’ is what happened in the past. Precision with words is my advice as frmr Spksmn. Vary your phrases.”

Trust deficit

Recent incidents in the corporate world have re-ignited the debate on owners/founders willing/unwilling to let go of businesses. An Assocham survey says that India Inc is not ready yet to give complete management control to professional boards and managers as the majority of the corporate firms has promoters holding well over 50 per cent; even those with much lower stake are not willing to bet fully on professionals. Trust deficit and family predominance were two main factors impacting the issue.

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