Food Security - The Private Sector Way

Through Ms Kiran Mazumdar’s tweet, I learnt of a rant by the wise Mr Mani Shankar Iyer about ‘Industry has done nothing for the Country’, this morning.

Shocking as it was in its content, it seemed senseless coming from a Senior Politician who handled Governance issues for a long time and is now in the ruling party ! Notwithstanding this feeling, it set me off on a mode of introspection. Kiran adds to her same tweet “We have created jobs, paid taxes n generated economic value”.

While I was quick to respond saying that in my personal capacity I create around 200 jobs an year and that gives Food Security to 200 families a year, it was @bharat_builder, operating under the Twitter handle ‘Aggressive Aam Aadmi’ who inspired me with his push to pen this blog. To appear more contemporary, I chose the above title to this blog, which but gives just one perspective to the narrative.

Let us view the subject of ‘What Industry did’ from a couple of angles – Economic and Social.

ECONOMIC

Primarily the business of the private sector is to be in business and that of the Government to be in Administration and Governance. While the latter is a facilitator, the former plays the role of an executor drawing upon the structure and the enabling factors created by the latter. While the Government creates opportunities through formulation of policies, it is the Private Sector that has to grab these and operate within the designed frame work. Of course, Private Sector also contributes to Policy framing mechanism, very proactively.

Socialist policies and such other strategic compulsions do entail the Government getting into business. That is where we have the PSUs in virtually every sector of business. Totally justified and I am not disputing that at all. I was myself a Public Sector employee for 10 years of my 30 year career.

For the Pvt Sector, the primary interest will obviously be ‘profits’ and there is nothing wrong in that. As the businessman creates wealth, he is entitled to retain his share, after meeting all statutory taxation norms and paying back the Government. But this aspect cannot dilute the inherent ‘social cause’ that he gets to contribute to. Weaving through a web of regulations / red tape, he still survives and creates ‘growth’ for himself, his employees and by extension their families and the Nation at large. Simple case study is that of Tata. Were it not for that one thought in him those days to venture into business, where would we have been? Countless Tata employees and associates will vouch for this, and with a lot of gratitude. And what of Tata’s ancillaries?

Through payment of taxes both direct and indirect, the Private Sector ploughs back the wealth into Nation building, apart from other forms of pay back.

SOCIAL

Each time I drive out or speak to my clients my ears and eyes are always looking for ‘opportunities’. This thought process is now fully internalized. More often than not, I do get to see opportunities to contribute. On several occasions, I get to turn this opportunity into ‘growth’ both for my Organisation and by extension, my beloved Country ! This, as an employee! Imagine what my boss, a business man must be doing, then.

To convert every opportunity into a growth mechanism, I need skill sets in the form of human resources. Here begins the journey. Fruition of a business deal involves recruitment of people, capital investment, etc. Let me deal only with the people aspect here, which is more close to the ‘social’ issue.

There is ample of human resource available in this country. All that one needs to do is tap into it. However, there are always questions about the education system contributing to the skill sets required by the industry. This is a major gap in our system. And this is where we as Private Sector pitch in and expiate.

Several entry level positions are created and over a period, through intensive in-house and external training, knowledge is imparted and the boys are trained. Within the first 2 years of employment, a staff gets to upgrade his skills, which have acceptability across the Industry. Thus, while we train the boys for our own use, we also make them more ‘market-ready’. This helps them move up the career ladder and grow. In the process, they give back to us, the required productivity and contribute to their organisation’s growth. Is this not part of Nation building ?

Every person employed has a family of say, 4 people. 200 jobs that I create in my individual capacity – as an employee working for an Organisation, actually feed 800 people by this logic. On an average, I create One job for every working day of the year. Extrapolate to the thousands who do this like me and see how the numbers stack up. Can there be a better contribution to the Society? Take Ms Kiran’s Organisation. Can anyone brave an attempt to discount her singular contribution to the Society?  

It is therefore foolish to make a general statement that Industry does nothing. We can trade all kinds of charges, but Nation building doesn’t happen like this. Leaders have to be seen to be worthy of their title even through their statements. There are an ‘n’ number of such initiatives that we can list out. All end up with the same conclusion that ‘yes the Industry actually contributes’.

It is incumbent upon these leaders to take cognizance of this fact rather than resort to mindless rants. I dare say that as Private Sector, we are more ‘connected’ with the ground than the Government, in the face of such silly off-the-cuff remarks. Challenges that we face from the regulators are numerous, look at them anyway. But we brave that out !

I hope both sense and sensibility prevails amongst the rulers when in a discourse on such subjects.