No more Shasheendrans....

Mr. V. Sasheendran, Company Secretary at Malabar Cements is no more. Let us keep aside the discussion whether it is a suicide or assassination. One thing is sure – the death is interlinked to the incidents of corruption prevailing at the Company and the stand he took against the same.

In my view, the unfortunate incident tells us three things:

1. That it is very critical to enforce good governance systems in Companies, especially those under the Government

2. That A Company Secretary has very important role in ensuring good corporate governance practises

3. That it is high time we need to have whistle-blower protection mechanism in place in the corporate sector

Let us not see more ‘Shasheendrans’.

Commonwealth Games 2010 - A Disaster

The preparations for the commonwealth games 2010 has blemished India's global reputation. India has never ever fallen to such abysmal depth of disgrace. Even though, India and Indians have demonstrated our expertise and ability to plan and execute mega projects with absolute perfection in certain areas like space science, IT, general elections, we do lack ability to replicate the same in all areas.

Present controversy surrounding the commonwealth games are the result of the below:

· Generally followed corrupt practises in all Government sponsored events/projects

· Lack of transparency, red-tapism and the ability of people in power to twist norms and unsnarl the red-tape.

· Lack of planning and inadequate co-ordination among various stakeholders. Even if co-ordinators are posted, they often have other priorities to attend.

· 'Indian Model' of execution - starting at snails pace and precipitation towards the 11th hour. Adhoc planning is adopted throughout the process. Precious time and resource is mostly spent on fire-fighting rather than for planning and controlling.

· Inadequate penalties for wrong-doers, that too often delayed.

My view is that India has to give serious thinking into investing heavily in developing systems and processes with built-in checks and balances. Poor governance is 'the problem', which India has to attack and fix with utmost priority.

Yet another strike

Yet another bandh, under the fancy name ‘National Strike’. Normal life is mostly affected. I do not know why the strike has been declared. One of my friend helps me with his better GK -today’s strike is against the anti-people policies of the central government, price hike et al. I do not know how many Indians really know the objective behind today’s strike. I do not know how the people’s opinion can be affected by the strike. Having said that, I do not know how the sponsors of today’s strike will be able to influence the policy makers through the process.

My view is that such strike, harthal or bandh, whatever it may be called, declared for vague general statements do not evoke any public response. These are itself anti-people in that the net result is waste of productive man-days and national resources and causing lots of hardships.