Are you jealous of Mukesh Ambani or does he inspire you ?

A lot of people talk about the inequality between the haves and the have-nots in India. When Forbes informed us that India has 36 billionares (thanks to the booming sensex) which is the highest in Asia, a lot of us felt good but then for a lot of people it was a cause of concern as they fear that this may give rise to discontent among the people who are left behind in the Indian growth story. This article in The Economic Times by Arvind Pangariya argues that one Billionare is actually much better than 1000 Millionares. His argument goes that a billionare is more likely to invest the money back in the economy, and thus create more jobs. A millionare would most probably just increase his consumption and improve his lifestyle. He gives examples of Bill Gates and Azim Premji and says that people are more likely to take inspiration from a billionare than from a lot of millionares. I feel that we see a lot of unwanted criticism at the neo-richs of India. Criticising them on the grounds of widening gap has become fashionable. Actually, these enterpreneurs are a source of inspiration for millions of Indians who want to make it big .

So how do you feel when you see Mukesh Ambani's wealth rising everyday with the sensex. Do you find it obscene or is it inspiring?

Green or Blue ?

This anecdote shared by Arun Shourie when he was Minister of Administrative Reform gives a good insight about the process of decision making in India's bureaucracy. The incident is shared by Shourie in Edward Luce's book, In spite of the Gods: The Strange rise of Modern India. Edward Luce, is a former bureau chief, India of Financial Times.



The grave matter, which was to take almost a year to resolve and would consume the valuable time of some of India's most senior officials, concerned whether civil servants should be allowed to use green or red ink, as opposed to blue or black normally used to annotate documents.



After several weeks of meetings, consultations and memoranda, the IAS officers in Shourie's department concluded that the matter could be resolved only by officials at the Bureau of Printing. Another three weeks of learned deliberation ensued before the bureau returned the file to the Ministry of Administrative Reform, but with the recommendation that it should consult the Ministry of Training and Personnel. It took another three weeks for the file to reach that ministry since the diligent mandarins at Administrative Reform needed time to consider the expertly phrased deliberations of the Bureau of Printing. And so this question of state meandered for weeks and months, in meeting after meeting through ministry after ministry, before the following Solomonic compromise was struck : ' Initial drafting will be done in black or blue ink. Modifications in the draft at the the subsequent levels may be made in green or red ink by the offices so as to distinguish the corrections made,' said the new order. Heirarchy also had to be specified : ' Only an officer at the level of joint secretary and above may use green or red ink in rare cases [duly set out, with appropriate caveats].' As Shourie noted, it was ' A good bureaucratic solution : discretion allowed but circumscribed!' If Franz Kafka had inserted this into one of his novels, critics would have accused him of going too far.

The end of madness

I took CAT again this year. It was my fourth attempt. It seems I am too much in love with the journey than the destination. I can only hope that the journey ends pretty soon. The shortlist of final calls would be out only by first week of January. Till then, one can only hope for the best.