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EDITORIAL
It's
the Seniority, Stupid
Why the
best officers are often left behind
 It's
a very familiar murmuring of discontent, heard only in the corridors of
bureaucratic power. It's there whenever an official reshuffle is carried
out to the satisfaction of a few and the disappointment of many. One official's
promotion is invariably seen as another's denied due. The publicly unspoken
text is: it's the seniority, stupid! Perhaps it's time the complaint was
dissected in public, time to ask questions. Should seniority alone be
the criterion in promotion? Should the bureaucracy be independent of the
competitive spirit? Why can't the finest be the boss? The questions are
relevant in this area because they have already become redundant in other
areas of management. It's the age of the fittest, not the eldest. There's
no harm in Indian bureaucracy modernising itself-from within.
Unfortunately,
the Indian reality is: once you have passed the Indian administrative
or foreign service, the rest is service without competition. Nothing counts
except the age of experience. There is no internal mechanism to put the
most competent on the fast track. Many smart officers don't reach the
top because they happen to be junior to officers who need not be competent.
Maybe, the government should emulate the private sector in this regard.
Privatisation is worth trying out within the government services too,
at least in the promotion of officers. In many developed countries there
is an internal system that ensures the brightest is not left behind-in
Britain, for instance. And India is not short of talent, but in many officers'
case, the only time they have expressed the talent was when they appeared
for the civil services examination. The system is there to lead him to
the top, no matter whether he performs or not. India has a bloated bureaucracy,
and a major part of it is eminently disposable. For the moment, see that
the best is not allowed to rot.
Share
the Blues
Even a
depressed market holds cheery prospects for the long term
 Blue
has been turning red on the Indian stock markets this past fortnight.
The share prices of a slew of India's bluest chip companies have fallen
to their lowest levels in the almost half a decade. The plunge is across
the board. A share of Tata Tea is available for Rs 180 or so; only this
February the price was Rs 510. Hindustan Lever's scrip is valued at well
under Rs 200, down from Rs 300 just eight months ago. Even a "new
economy" company like Zee Telefilms has had a mighty fall-from Rs
1,307 a share in February to Rs 350 in October. The only exception are
software shares, though even their growth trajectory has flattened. Three
factors explain this unprecedented pounding of the high and mighty on
Dalal Street. The stock market as a whole has been depressed and volatile.
At under 3,800, the Sensex is at its lowest level in 12 months. The economy
itself seems to be falling into a slumber. Sales and production figures
are sluggish and agriculture production may actually be lower than the
previous year.
Then there
is the global contagion. Every major stock market index across the globe-from
the nasdaq in New York to the Nikkei in Tokyo-is in a tumble. The question
really is: what do small investors do? Should they be tempted into buying
some of the best-known stocks now virtually being sold for a song? Analysts
believe the market has hit the bottom, even though, perhaps paradoxically,
no one foresees an upturn soon. So it won't be too risky to bet that investing
in fundamentally good, currently low-priced shares is sound if one isn't
in a hurry to cash investments before two years. That will be as much
a vote for the future of efficient and competitive Indian companies as
for the economy as a whole. It's also one way to turn the red into pink
on the markets.
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How
can Non-Performing Assets of companies be cleared? By recovering what
you can, writes INDIA TODAY Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in
