After Lock Down - A Rebirth

The World has seen the most unusual happening of a total shut down in the history of mankind and when the LOCK DOWN opens and Normal Activity starts every country should consider it as a REBIRTH.

Every child is born with a clean slate and has to learn all physical and mental activities. It is up to the family , environment and school  to ensure that the child gets proper learning in life and becomes a good  human being.

If we take the Lock Down as an opportunity given by The  Nature to  Mankind  to start learning from scratch in life ,we should  decide  what is essential to learn  and also what are the non-essentials in life to unlearn . This will surely make  the world  a better place to live. The world as a whole has realized the futility of power, possessions and wealth. It has also trashed the concept of countries fighting for being SUPER POWERS when everyone has been forced to remain Locked Down for just survival.  It has also conveyed the message that it is the worker class  who keep the world going. It is not possible to imagine survival of millions of people  without  medical services  and those  people engaged in providing basic needs of food and essential utilities like water, electricity ,security and house keeping.

For the first time the entire  world has realized that  the only precious thing is being alive. I remember in a calendar a young poor girl is being asked “what would you  like to be when  you grow ?” and her reply was “Alive” How true!

There are many aspects of life where all efforts are required to be made but my focus and concern in this blog is only  the desired changes in the system of  our country to bring economic prosperity for all. The task has been made easier by the present abnormal conditions as there is a readiness to change the mindset . In India , if only the people and the departments responsible for formulating policies and implementing them unlearn the practices followed in the past, economic progress will come very fast.

If we go through the history of business in India since Independence it is pathetic. Till seventies there were a  few private  big business houses and  few public sector undertakings. All Rules and Regulations and all government machinery like Banks were meant  for these Enterprises.

 When the concept of Small Scale Sector came into existence it was converted into a License and Quota exercise by the government and the public both. People with political power provided Licenses for various manufacturing activities , scarce raw material quotas were  given  for imports and most of the quota was sold  without any manufacturing . This practice neither generated jobs nor improved Industries in the country.

Then a new breed of entrepreneurs arrived on the scene who came with projects , were successful  in taking advantages of the schemes for Small Scale Sector. Most of these players manipulated the system for taking benefits of land and finance by the financial institutes .The loans  were  invested in more profitable  activities like real estate and commercial properties thus rendering this sector poor.

 In India of seventies having such business climate  to even think of entering   in the field of manufacturing in the unorganized sector of Used Oil Refining   appeared to be suicidal. The genuine entrepreneurs were struggling to survive.

The government formulated many policies for encouragement of Small Scale Sector which remained on paper only. The Banks had no trust in funding this sector and all the government departments of State and Centre followed the policy of obstruction.  This illogical obstructionist attitude is beyond  our comprehension. Why so much time, energy and money is spent in formulating policies and Gazette Notifications if all efforts are made to ensure   non-implementation of those very Policies. This question was raised umpteen times with various ministries and government departments in many Seminars and many written and personal representations  in vain.

My  entrepreneurial  journey  of 4 decades  sounds like some unbelievable story.  I can cite dozens of “Believe it or not “ happenings”  of my  entrepreneurial  life. Let me enumerate a few to illustrate the point.

The foremost  important hard to  Believe  fact is survival without ever resorting to any of the  so called commercial practices.

Believe it or not –  I received 8% of total requirement of working capital from the Bank after commissioning the Unit though my own margin money  available for working capital loan was 25% , which remained  blocked as security with the Bank for the non-working capital provided. The just fight for the Right to have real  Working Capital from a bank continued for almost 25 years.

Believe it or not –For getting the due  Notified Credit Linked   Subsidy of 15%  from Ministry of Small & Medium Enterprises a five year battle was required  because it depends on the discretion of the individual  to give or not  your due .The discretionary powers  given  to various individuals in various fields is the biggest cause of failure of many enterprises.

Believe it or not- The Excise Department discovered  that  In  the whole country my Unit was amassing wealth by  evading Excise Duty therefore on a S.S.I Unit Excise Duty and 100% penalty  of Rs. 5 Crore was levied and it took 5 years for the Excise Department to realize the mistake that our product  was not under Excisable goods and  that by mistake we were SINGLED  out from more than 400 Registered Units engaged in similar activity  and were  not covered in Excise.

Believe it or not- When the Ministry of Environment undertook the task of formulating a policy concerning Used Oil in the year 2000 and took inputs and a Draft Notification was prepared   but the two main clauses  essential  for the existence and development of the Used Oil Refining  sector  were dropped from the Gazette Notification rendering the whole exercise futile.

 Believe it or not- A Ministry can issue a Gazette Notification for opening a sector for private players but will obstruct  the entry of such players.  Five years back the Ministry of Petroleum’s Gazette Notification allowing  Parallel marketeer of Kerosene Oil  was issued but if you believed  in the scheme and  went full swing to be a player , it may end in 5 years of wasted efforts ,money and energy as has happened in our case.

But the greatest Myth in our country is the existence of Public Grievance Departments, be it judicial system or any  ministry  or government department like  Police, Taxation  or any department connected to  providing any utility services.  The scope of work for Public Grievance Cell is to register a complaint and then follow No Action Policy. Either the complaint  lies indefinitely in the cold storage of the concerned department or some ambiguous reply is sent and matter is closed in the Files as “Grievance Resolved”. This is true that is why it takes  years for simple settlement of issues. There are many examples where even when the problems had been communicated to the highest authority and the departments are asked to take action but still the ministries and departments refuse to change the work culture acquired  during the last several decades.

 This Locked Down  condition can be a boon if the necessary essential reforms are done at a fast pace. This can be a time when the country can convert this obstacle into opportunity.

The conditions are conducive to accept changes without protests.

This crisis has finished for the time being the religious fanaticism and caste discrimination .

Lines dividing the various  Classes of society  is reduced.

VVIP Culture is losing its relevance . Common men has realized  that powerful political people are as vulnerable as them. I am reminded of a cartoon where the photograph of the  Russian Leader Lenin in a Dustbin is shown receiving the photograph of the Dictator Stalin saying “I was expecting you to join but not so soon”

If we realize that in a very short time of months  the  world Economy has been ruined ,the turn around of Economy is also possible very quickly provided the correct measures are taken.

In India if we change the attitude of putting spokes and  change Rules to remove bottle necks  from the working of Industry the progress  will be swift. The present bureaucratic non action policy and making rules with strings attached need to change.

The wish list of all industries will be that the present crisis removes all hurdles created by departments.

Minimize autocracy  ,maximize assistance and just discard  the big chunk of obsolete Rules and Regulations hampering the growth. Simplification of Rules is the need of the hour but administration is still busy  making harsh Rules to Scare already distressed and scared entrepreneurs  in India .What  wonderful  logic at a time when the world  Economy  is at the brink of economic disaster ?

 There are lakhs of industrial Units abandoned in the country . If these sick Units  are given to competent enthusiastic entrepreneurs to run with least conditions the Indian Economy will revive in no time.

For resolving the problems of the people there should be one Central Agency consisting of various competent OMBUDSMEN where complaints  related to Infrastructure, Finance, Labour, Tax Authorities are taken and solved in a time bound manner  directly between the aggrieved  entrepreneur  and the concerned department.

For every misdeed , atrocity, regressive  incident we are used to hearing  people commenting “ This can only happen in India” Now is the time when by swift action India can be a Super Economic Power so that we can proudly say that  India defeated corona virus and became stronger.  We will be able to proudly proclaim  “This can only happen in India” 

My belief is  that  with right learning and unlearning India  in its REBIRTH after LOCK DOWN can be a great economic  entity. 

Urmila Bhargava

9310023230

md@ifp-petro.com

www.urmilabhargava.com