CHARTER

In our society, there is a stereo-typed opinion that whatever is related to Govt - decided/done/ proposed by Govt or its employees is inefficient and/or corrupt. It is very unfortunate. Everybody thinks he/she is an expert on governance and offers unsolicited opinions and advices which often turn out to be ill conceived. Some observations from what I have come across: 1) People who vehemently argue for privatization on the sole ground that it would eliminate corruption seldom forget that corruption has nothing to do with the form of organisation -whether public or private. (Privatization altogether has a different logic in Economics... 'corruption' is not the main and sole ground). 2) In banking sector, the clerical level employees of a govt bank have much more working knowledge and skills than the officer level employees of a pvt bank. I guess it is the case with many other sectors too. 3) Another opinion is that, privatization reduces bureaucracy /red tapism. We see equal amount of red tapism in pvt organisations. At least, in govt one will know who is the next higher-up to be contacted if case of a problem. Can you find out the hierarchy in any of the pvt sector banks, mobile service providers, etc? 5) The higher salary enjoyed by pvt sector employees is not because they are efficient. It is a simple economic sense. As capital intensity increases, production and productivity increases, thereby increasing profitability which results in higher salary. Eg. A computerised bank branch can manage a business of some Rs.50 crores with just 5 employees whereas a non-computerised bank branch would need more man power. 6) So called educated people rise hue and cry about election system. Mails are circulated accusing election system. Answers to their queries are already in the website of election commission but no one bothers to do a basic check about veracity of such information. 6) I still can't forget - in a recent TV show an apparently educated man was shouting -"I want Dr.Singh to come and tell me tomorrow morning that, look, I am going to strike at those terror outfits in Pak...". What is this man thinking of himself? Unfortunately, the English speaking urban middle class mostly contains men and women like the one mentioned above. We jump queue but expect others to follow the queue..by queue I mean the system. Courtesy Prasanna.