Killing of a Psu jewel
Once upon a time long long ago I was part of an organisation which did the statutory audit of Hindustan Petroleum. My contempt for Public Sector Units only grew greater. However the people working in some of these organisations were far, far superior to some of the guys I met in the private sector.
However organisations like IOC, Ongc, Air-India were really well run at some point in time. Air India’s murder was started by Ms. Indira Gandhi and continues till today. In the 1960’s Air India was a well run air line which was loved by many people in the WORLD, the Maharaja was a symbol which people would keep in their showcases, the food was great and JRD Tata was the Chairman. Of course the Tata group did not own the airline, it had a reservation policy and was part of what JRD Tata called the ‘Joint Sector’.
However the combined actions of Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai effectively made it into a lousy airline.
Then came Jet Airways. Nobody was sure who owns it. Fingers of ownership were always pointed towards Dubai, Sharad Pawar,…and many others. One heard on the grapevine that the IPO was delayed to clean up the balance sheet…but nothing came out of it. The service by Jet Airways has always been excellent, the food good, the timings great….
However once they came into play the ministerial mis-managing of Air India was accelerated. Pilots went on strike, aircraft buying got delayed, revival package was delayed…..If Jet was allowed to run AI (with a view to increase the profits of Jet) they could not have done a better job!
So operation ‘Ruin Air India’ is working on full swing. The BJP is of course silent…well that is another story.
Similarly Ongc, Indian Oil, …the list is endless. I know of 2 brilliant people in Indian Oil who were asked to check an agreement that I O C was being asked to sign with Reliance. One clause (which got dropped luckily) was to cost I O C Rs. 200 crores.
Seeing all this one wonders…should my daughter work in the public sector and kow tow to the Babu or kow tow to the goon called ‘private business man’. I am happy that she has to make that choice, not me.
Young
I guess this article is re-published!!!!
subra
yes it is republished. I post a story without any significance to the date..then suddenly when something topical comes up, I push this story to a later date. So it is possible that a story is posted at 5 in the morning and at 9am i find a better story..so this story gets pushed back. Anyway most of my stories are not date specific – more like a Readers’ Digest than like an India Today so i can (and do) play around with my articles.
Jagbir
Yah, Subra. As a regular reader, I never looked at date posting or whether its republished as long as it serve the purpose of spreading awareness, knowledge in enjoyable reading manner and happily all of your articles have these characteristics.
subra
Some clarification in place. Do I invest in PSU companies? YES if there is no need for marketing. Make the product and it sells by itself. And there is no worthwhile pvt sector competitor. So I exited Ongc, but still have NTPC. When LIC lists, i will buy the shares for a short period. I still do not see any competitor even for a NTPC which is not to great at project implementation. However by 2014 will go back to my old favorite Tata Power. Do not see any other company being to be able to take on NTPC. Unless of course Mukesh Ambani comes into power gen
Dr Mohammed Ali Khan
Subra
So Nandan nelekani, Narayan Murthi, Azim Premji, Ratan Tata etc are all goons.. Hmmm..
subra
I will not comment on anybody specific, but I have met honest government employees, and enough corrupt private businessmen. Do I personally know that the 4 people you have mentioned are not corrupt or not a goon? No. I think they have a good image because the media tells me. No, that is not enough. Check the government records of the 1962 Chinese War and see who was prosecuted for Indian soldiers dying because of poor quality of material supplied. The name will shock you. IT IS A HUGE NAME. No I will not mention it. Assuming there are a million businessmen in India – the fact that these 4 have never done an act of dishonesty – does not change any statement. Have I benefited by the private sector ‘businessmen’? Hugely. Financial advisers, doctors,….all have enough blacksheeps…and all are businessmen are they not?
Sunitha
A real good and honest opinion. While reading it brough a smile on my face. 🙂
Bhushan
is that 1962 name of Krishna Menon ?? and this psycho-devil Thapar guy is one of most annoying people like D Sardesai and Madam Ghose