We come across, and frequently use, the phrase red tape and we know that it refers to the delay that is endemic to the bureaucratic process – but have you ever wondered why is that bureaucrats are so slow in doing things ?

Anybody who has visited a government office in India would of course attribute this delay to competence or corruption. More often than not, a little bit of speed money — the chaipani — has a magical effect and most red tape disappears. On the other hand, we do know that the best and brightest in the land are hesitant to join the government and so there does exist a certain lack of competence in administrative matters.

But let us be charitable for a while and assume that our bureaucrats are indeed competent and NOT corrupt : in that case should red tape not disappear from our lexicon ? But it does not and will not .. and here is why !

You ask a sarkari babu to buy a computer for his office and he ( or she ) will get tied up in knots ! Committees will be formed, specifications will be drawn up, tenders will be issued, evaluation committees will be set up, contracts will be “negotiated” ( OK, in this case without kickbacks), purchase orders will be issued, AMC contracts will be discussed and then — and only then — a single machine will arrive in the office — the process will take not less than a month but more often than not three months.

But when the same sarkari babu sends his son to college and the son wants a computer, how long do you think the process will take ? Perhaps a day to check with a more knowledgeable colleague and then another day to make the purchase — at most three days !

Why is there so much difference in these two cases ? In the second case both the AUTHORITY and the RESPONSIBILITY of buying the computer lies with the same person but in the first case, it lies with two different persons ( or different organisations)

This separation of responsibility and authority is the root cause of all bureaucratic delays in the government. The police are responsible for maintaining law and order but the authority to sanction the money lies with someone else. The PWD is responsible for repairing roads but authority lies somewhere else. And it is not just financial authority ( though that is the most important one). The authority to issue a formal circular ( to clarify some obscure point of view ) does not generally lie with the person who is supposed to act upon that obscure point of view.

Separation of responsibility and authority is not a bane for only the sarkari bureaucrat. Employees of private companies have to go through the same process but the delay and level of pain is less because in many cases the source of authority and the agent of responsibility is organisationally closer and in many cases the two entities merge into one office : a manager who is responsible for sales is also empowered with the authority to spend money.

So the separation between authority and responsibility is less and in many cases, it does not exist. Why is it so in private companies but not so in the bureaucratic bowels of the sarkar bahadur ? The answer lies in the third element of the ART of Red Tape : TRUST.

Owners of private companies — as reflected in Boards — have a level of TRUST in the their managers but the owners of the country — as reflected in legislature — do not trust the administrators. It is almost as if it is a self evident truth — an axiom — that a government servant cannot be trusted to do anything. You need to have a complex system of checks and balances — the Vigilance Department, the CAG, the CBI — to keep an eye on each other.

Authority, Responsibility and Trust — unless we as a society can come to grips with these three factors and work out a way to harmonise their relationship, bureaucratic delays will continue and we will be left admiring the ART of Red Tape.

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Joe was one of those people one meets when your father calls you out of your room and introduces you to his ‘old friend’ whom he finally got back in touch with. I had faced my fair share of such meetings and walked out one day and was introduced to a kurta-clad person who had a smile of a person who is at peace with himself. At first instance, I found Joe Madiath, founder and executive director of Gram Vikas to be an extremely engaging and focussed person. I found that I need not equal him at age to understand and reply to what he says (unlike some conversations where I used to feel ill-equipped to join in). When my father told me what Gram Vikas is all about and how old friend Joe started it, it piqued my interest.

My visit to Gram Vikas at a small town in Ganjam district called Mohuda turned out to be one that left me yearning for a next visit. The serenity, the woods, the small town hospitality were all in place. To speak about Gram Vikas, it was an NGO founded by Joe Madiath in 1979 when he and a handful of his friends came to Orissa in 1971 following the cyclone which ravaged it and Bengal. Through Gram Vikas, Joe aims to reach the impoverished villages of one of the poorest states in India, Orissa and provide facilities that even the government sometimes does not deign to provide. While travelling through rural pockets of Orissa, Joe noticed an otherwise normal rural India phenomenon, villagers defaecating in the open, by the roadside. The government, under various ‘schemes’ for them, constructed toilets which were on inspection, nothing but a hole in the ground. Like Joe says, it is as though the government feels that poor people deserve poor quality. Through a water and sanitation focus, they aim to provide clean, fresh water for use by entire villages. He sought to deflate the concept of construction being the ambit of engineers. Furthermore, village folk consider it quite all right to bathe in a common pond and bathe animals in it as well. Gram Vikas took initiatives towards these ends as well.

A brainchild of Joe Madiath, the programme has a very simplistic approach to empowering villages and village folk. Gram Vikas aims to provide clean water to every home through three taps, one each in the bathroom, toilet and kitchen. When taking up a village for sanitation, they insist on 100% involvement of the residents. That is to say that every household must have agreed to the initiative and the construction would be done by the villagers. An average of Rs. 1000 is collected from every household, each to his capacity. To this end, Gram Vikas provides the cement, pan, door and steel. An overhead tank is constructed along with wells and bore-wells. This way, even the village youth is taught masonry and can earn a livelihood. A bathroom and a toilet are constructed for each house then using labour from the village itself. Furthermore, pumps are installed for each village as per requirement. In those villages with electricity, pumps are fitted for filling the overhead tanks whereas the villages which are still impoverished of electricity, the tanks are equipped with water drawn using the principle of gravitational flow.

Providing water and sanitation is not the only way this initiative has helped the villages. Self-help groups of women are formed for managing finances for household expenses. One of the main grouses of women across villages was that the men folk would waste all the hard-earned money in alcohol and illicit liquor. After Gram Vikas came in, it was a necessary condition put down that alcohol is banned from the village as a whole. Though it faced more than a fair share of resistance from men, this step actually worked and has made a lot of villages alcohol-free. Women still express their gratitude to Joe for this.

Gram Vikas has also installed more than 55000 biogas plants in villages across Orissa to help meet fuel needs. More than 128 villages have been touched by Gram Vikas in a span of 30 years. When one spark strikes a leaf, it sooner or later creates a forest fire. So did it happen with Orissa. The prosperity of one village had neighbouring ones enquiring about what brought about such drastic transformation in the village. And so the story of Gram Vikas spread.

A Gandhian by philosophy, Joe Madiath feels that this is one small way in which he can assist in making the villages of India self-sufficient and empowered. In his youth itself, he was notorious for rallying his plantation workers against the poor way they were treated by his family. It earned him a seat in boarding school but did not kill the kindred spirit within. Working for the people of Orissa, according to Joe gives him a sense of peace and feeling that he has been able to help the world in a small but meaningful way.

In the past few years, the work of Gram Vikas has been touching one village after another across the land of Kalinga. Though in India, not many people are aware of this low profile yet high-powered organization, nor of Joe himself, Gram Vikas has created waves in the world of community service across continents. The Kyoto World Water Grand Prize and the Skoll Award for Social Entrpreneurship have been awarded to Joe Madiath, the face of Gram Vikas. Organizations from various countries have approached gram Vikas for assistance in similar efforts in their community. Even some states in India have looked to Joe for help in their villages, to replicate the Gram Vikas model for water and sanitation requirements.

I believe that this is an achievement which has received less recognition than its work deserves by far. Transformation of villages is not left at the hands of a government which already has enough on its platter. If a few Indians like Joe cropped up in different parts of the country, it would definitely add up to a mighty story of self-reliance, independence and dignity in people who thought that the government is their sole “maai-baap”. The smiles on the faces of villagers in Ganjam district are a certificate to this achievement.

This post appeared in the blogsite strat.in and has been voted as one of the best blog entries in the Incredible Indians contest.

Know more by visiting : http://strat.in/incredible-indians-contest/

This entry has been  made by Uma Balakrishnan. “I’m a student by qualification and an answer-seeker by choice  (of course, the two need not be related!) I am pursuing my MBA in Praxis Business School, Kolkata where I have my fingers in the pies of the Strategy, Marketing and Quiz clubs, apart from being the co-editor of the college newsletter.

I don’t think I’m out on a mission to “Save the Earth” or bring world peace to fruition, but yes, there must be something I can do which makes Life worth living. Well, I love travelling and meeting people from different places because it has given me the opportunity to meet interesting people and unearth fascinating perspectives. Books and music make up a major part of my leisurely occupations. Ayn Rand and Jeffrey Archer are what I find riveting (though Atlas Shrugged is taking me more time than warranted to complete!). I also enjoy penning down things that touch a chord in me, most of it being poetry.”

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Our country has produced some of the outstanding citizens who have been achievers in their own fields and have contributed immensely for the country. Many have devoted their life for the freedom struggle; some managed to find success in sports and have brought pride and glory for our country and its people. In the field of entertainment, our film industry is now recognized globally because of the talent and hard work of the people related to it over a period of time. But my choice of an Incredible Indian is from the field of business. I think that this is one field whose contribution has always remained understated as people perceive businessman in a different way. People always perceive that successful businessmen have less to do with a country’s development and more to do with making money. Moreover, most of the people are often unaware of the multiplier effect which a business empire can bring to an economy.

“Think Big, Think Fast And Think Ahead.

Ideas are no one’s monopoly”.

The above lines said by Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani say a lot about his personality. On 28th December 1932 a child was born at Kukaswada near Chorwad, Junagadh (now the state of Gujarat, India) as the second son of a school teacher with modest means. Inspite of being born in a modest family the boy was far ahead in his thinking and was very keen to make it big in life. His rebellious nature of challenging the accepted, ability to dream big and a huge appetite to take risks weren’t appreciated by his conservative father. There are many young men out there who face the same problem when they want to do something more meaningful in life and most of the time they have to surrender to their family and relatives pressure. This boy was different as he was loaded with confidence and wasn’t the kind who would give up easily. Right from the childhood he showed his knack for entrepreneurship by undertaking small business activities and making money out of them.

When he was 16 years old, he moved to Aden, Yemen. He worked with A. Besse & Co. for a salary of Rs.300. Two years later, A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell products, and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s filling station at the port of Aden. Satisfaction word did not exist in his dictionary as he always wanted to move to the next level. Apart from that, there was an inner drive and a huge ambition to make it big in the world of business. As a petrol pump attendant he used to bet in the commodity market and make some extra money. This shows that he was a known risk-taker. He was street smart and was gifted with an innate wisdom. During one incidence, he found out that the intrinsic value of the silver is more than the face value of the coins being circulated by the government in Yemen. He immediately started accumulating those coins and got them melted and sold the metal in the bullion markets. This shows how shrewd he was as a person.

What was most admiring about him was his belief in the power of dreams and the magic of thinking big. He remained an advocate of this power all through his life. How many petrol pump attendants can dream of creating an oil and gas empire? This message is very appropriate for the people in a developing country like India. People should get out of their comfort zones and should push themselves harder in order to achieve more. This is the way societies have progressed in the west. He was very candid and was always open to ideas and suggestions. He was also a very helpful person and followed an ‘open-door’ policy. Employees could walk into his cabin and discuss their problems with him. His people skills were legendary. He had a special way of dealing with different groups of people, be they employees, shareholders, journalists or government officials. Success in life is not related to formal education and fat degrees alone. He did not study after matriculation yet he achieved so much success. This is because he learnt from his experiences in life and made sure this is passed on to his next generation also.

Indian has achieved a lot from his contributions and achievements. Today, Reliance is the largest private sector enterprise and a Fortune 500 company. Look at the amount of wealth which the Reliance Group (ADAG included) has created for the country. Look at the amount of employment opportunities (direct as well as indirect) which the Reliance Group has created for our countrymen. Look at the small and medium businesses which are directly or indirectly related to the Reliance Group for their livelihood. If today, Reliance decides to go for a new project than look at the amount of business opportunities and demand that single project will create for other goods and services. This is the way wealth trickles down in an economy because of the multiplier effect. If Dhirubhai made money he also created opportunities for thousand others to grow along with him. Look at the amount of returns Reliance Group has consistently given to its shareholders. In fact, the whole idea of creating value for shareholders was pioneered by Dhirubhai Ambani in the Indian stock markets. That’s why he is known as the father of ‘The Indian Stock Market’. There are many families in our country (particularly in Gujarat) that made enough money just by investing in Reliance shares to get their daughters married and buy houses for themselves. This is the reason why Reliance is favourite scrip among most of the investors today. Dhirubhai has created an institution which has outlived him and will remain so for years to come. It was the conviction of Dhirubhai which has led to Reliance discovering huge gas deposits in the K-G Basin which will satisfy a lot of energy needs of our country. It would save around $20 Billion of the foreign exchange outflow from our country annually. Both his sons Mukesh and Anil have grown their businesses manifold and are carrying his legacy forward to the best of their abilities. Today, Reliance is a force to reckon with not only in our country but on a global scale. It has been only possible because Dhirubhai always use to benchmark his company with the global standards.

He was a person with a lot of compassion for the society. He was involved in a lot of philanthropic activities without being boastful about it. Unlike, other businessmen he did not believe in creating news about his charity work. These are the traits which makes him truly great. Lot of people achieve success in life but very few of them can carry it off with humility. It is extremely difficult to achieve so much in life and still be connected to your roots and remain humble.

A person may argue that he was involved in a lot of unethical business practices. I have a different take on that. He was an opportunist and he made sure that he exploited every loophole to his advantage. Even Lord Krishna has done the same thing in order to win the battle of Mahabharata for the Pandavas. During his time, it was so difficult to do business in India, yet he converted adversities into opportunities. Now, that is the quality one attaches to an optimist. He was a leader who had this unique ability to inspire people around him so that they move forward with a lot of zeal and positive energy. A leader can make the people around him aware about the things which they haven’t thought about themselves. The gleam and passion in his eyes and body language use to have a magnetic effect on people around him.

I feel he is one of the greatest entrepreneurs which this world has ever seen and the various awards and recognitions at the global level is a proof of that. Even if our country has 10 such Dhirubhais we could grow at a much faster rate and achieve our goal of a developed nation at a much quicker pace. Dhirubhai Ambani seems destined to be remembered as a folk hero—an example of what a man from one of India’s poor villages can accomplish with non-shrink ambition.

“Our dreams have to be bigger. Our ambitions higher. Our commitment deeper. And our efforts greater. This is my dream for Reliance and for India.” – Dhirubhai Hirachand Ambani

This post appeared in the blogsite strat.in and has been voted as one of the best blog entries in the Incredible Indians contest.

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