Air India's woes

Discussions are taking place everywhere regarding the fate of Air India. But once you find answer to a larger question, the answer for Air India comes up automatically.

That big question is should Governments be in business and if yes in what sorts of businesses.

Let us take two examples from India, one Indian Oil Corporation and the other National Mineral Development Corporeation. One is bleeding with losses and the other has net profit margins in excess of 50 per cent. IOC has red on the balance sheet but it is for a good cause of keeping transport of men and materials affordable and thus keeping inflation low. NMDC is returning super normal profits only a monopoly can earn. This surplus can be utilised for itself or through dividends it can go to Government.

But what about Air India? It is not at all an essential service as far as domestic travel is concerned. For travel abroad, skies are full of airplanes. Then why should the Government be the owner of a business which is losing crores every day and which serves no great purpose like oil marketing companies?

It is time this aspect is looked at. An even better business for the Government than that of the likes of NMDC, etc. is running a software business. All these firms are cash flow positive, needs very little capital expenditure and what is more most of the expenses accrue after real cash inflows.

Election manifesto

Rice for Re. 1 per kg, free TV sets, sarees and so on.



These are from the election manifestos of different political parties of India.



No one is bothered about the lareger issues facing India and Indians.



One thing Election Commission can do about this is to create a compulsory list of issues on which different political parties should propose what they are going to do. If a party decides to do nothing on a particular topic it can leave the topic; but with a comment 'no plans as of now'.



For example an indicative list of issues will be primary education, healthcare, employment, social security, etc.

This way all the parties will have to think and formulate some plans on each of these issues. Of course they may leave a topic , but that would create a very poor opinion about that party.

And of course the parties are free to place any issue in addition to the compulsory list of issues.



This will kick off with the Election Commission announcing the list of issues immediately on announcing the election dates. For selection they may put up a paper on their website whcih everyone can respond to. So there will be a national debate on core issues right from the moment the approach paper is placed on the website till the close of campaign. Thus naturally focus will comeback to those issues which really matter.

Re worked NREGS

There is not a better weapon to kill enterprise than the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Workers are assured of wages for a major portion of the year for reduced hours of work. So it is natural for them to be complacent. Most of the work coming under NREGS is just to keep the scheme going and is not of much value if the output and productivity is measured by the conventional yardsticks.

Contrast this with the situation faced by farmland owners and MSMEs in rural and semi- urban areas. They are forced to scale down or abandon their activities since they do not get enough people willing to work. In such a scenario we may see many such would be entrepreneurs giving up their pursuits and settling for daily wages and subsidised foodgrains.

A win- win solution would be making NREGS a public private partnership model. In addition to projects funded by the exchequer, we should also include private enterprises under the scheme. For that the manpower requirements of both the public and private enterprise in an area is first calculated and then in case of private enterprises a portion of the manpower requirement is funded under the scheme; for example if a farmer or tiny unit requires 20 people to be employed, this can be notified under the scheme and wages of say 4 or 5 persons can be given from the NREGS fund and the rest directly by the entrepreneur.

This way, employment generation is ensured alongwith encouraging private enterprise and taxpayer money is utilised in a productive fashion.

O P Bhatt = 3.30 Mega Watts per day

Last week the world observed Earth Day by switching off lights for one hour.

State Bank of India is having more than 10,000 branches spread all over India and some abroad. If the Bank decides to switch off one 25 watt bulb per branch, imagine how much power it can save.

Assuming the Bank works for 9 hours per day the savings comes to:


25 watts * 9 hours *10000 branches = 22,50,000 watts per day or 2.25 MW per day.

Suppose instead of switching off the lights, SBI donates those 10,000 CFLs with the help of some NGO and these are used instaed of one 60 watt incandescent bulb.

Then the power savings assuming 3 hours of usage from 7 pm to 10 pm works out to:


35 watts (60 W - 25 W) * 3 hours *10000 bulbs = 10,50,000 watts per day or 1.05 MW per day.

So total savings comes to 3.30 MW per day.

Assuming 300 days net of holidays for the bank and house holds total power saved for a year comes to 3.35 MW * 300 = 1005 MW per year.

Contrast this with the total owned installed capacity of India's largest power producer, NTPC Ltd which is 27850 MW per day. So the savings per year is approximately 3.61% of the power generated by NTPC per day.

The reason I have chosen SBI is that with a single circular issued by O P Bhatt, this much power can be saved.

What is more, SBI being a public institution such an initiative will get lots of attention not only in India but all over the world and there will be many to emulate the same.

Thus O P Bhatt = 3.30 Mega Watt per day.

Rhythm Drive

I first came across the term 'rhythm drive' in a piece in Reader's Digest. It means you drive your vehicle through the road without braking; yes without applying the brakes at all. Like you, I also scoffed at the thought.

This was years ago when I did not have a vehicle of my own. Later on I had my own bike and my employer reimbursed me 25 litres of petrol. I stayed very near to my office and had little spare time on weekdays. And on sundays it was biking at the highest speeds and I could see the speedometer needle at 90 kmph on some stretches of Delhi roads. Fuel savings was the last thing on my mind those days.

But now, I am a husband and a father. And my office is around 8 kms from my home. Savings I look out for everywhere and I tried rhythm drive.

You won't believe me, but there were quiet a few days when I did 100% rhythm drive.

I start out on a pocket road, then move to national Highway 17 and am on it for around 7 out of my 8 km jouney. There are 4/5 traffic signals, one flyover and peak traffic but still many days I have done rhythm drive.

I don't know how much fuel it saves but it does a lot to smoothen your driving. And you apply the brakes only when absolutely necessary.

What is more interesting is that this whole thing can be a very challenging game; you and the brakes. Why don't you also try it out?