‘The Flaws In Our Laws’ By Dr Bibek Debroy | Absurdities Of Indian Laws – Part II

Continuing from my last post ‘The Flaws In Our Laws’ By Bibek Debroy | My Scribbling Of The Session – Part I, here I proceed to  jot down the next two anecdotes that were also the most interesting anecdotes of the session.

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Identifying Surplus Government Posts

Anecdote 3 was about identifying redundant government posts to recommend their abolishment.

The story, as narrated to Dr Debroy by a retired senior civil officer goes as follows…

In 1973, an Administrative Reforms Commission was set up in Tamil Nadu to find posts in the system that appeared to be redundant. Two such posts identified were that of LBK, LBA. Nobody seemed to have a clue about what these abbreviations stood for, nor about the duties assigned to these posts.

Some facts unfurled when people who had retired from these positions and were drawing pensions were called upon to enquire about the posts.

In 1926, a Royal Commission on Agricultural Reform was set to improve the quality of agriculture in India . The Commission was set up under the Chairmanship of Lord Linlithgow, who later became the Viceroy of India and served from 1936 – 1943. It was decided by the Commission that agricultural productivity would be improved by improving the quality of Indian cattle by breeding Indian cows with foreign bulls. The system was as slow then as it is today, maybe much more slower. Nothing moved on the recommendations of the Royal Commissions.

Ten years on, in 1936 when it was announced that Lord Linlithgow would be the new Governor General, things suddenly stirred up in the system. The new Viceroy would certainly want to know what had happened to his recommendations.

In the government system, creating new positions is just as difficult as slashing jobs. So to get things moving, two job positions were created by invoking the name of Lord Linlithgow . The position LBK stood for Linlithgow’s Bull Keeper, who was assigned with the task of overseeing the import of bulls, while LBA’s (Linlithgow’s Bull Assistant’s) job was to ensure that cows were impregnated at the right time.

As we were in splits of laughter, he added that though these posts were abolished in the early 1980s. Yet there was another post that still continued past the 1980s.

This was the post of Churchill Cigar Assistant.  The World War II had disrupted the supply of cigar from Havana. The Prime Minister of Britain, Mr Winston Churchill loved his cigars, and so his housekeeping staff looked at the possible alternative supply of Trichy cigars from India. Churchill Cigar Assistants were appointed to source cheroots from Trichy and supply them to Britain for consumption of Mr Winston Churchill.  The post continued to remain long after the supply of cheerots from Trichy to Whitehall had stopped.

As we lapped up the anecdotes, Debroy proceeded to the next one.

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The Dead People’s Association 

Anecdote 4, the most interesting of all was about Mritak Sangh (Dead People’s Assosiation)

This is the story of Lal Bihari from Uttar Pradesh, who was declared dead on government’s revenue document after his relatives bribed the officials  and announced him ‘Dead’ to usurp his ancestral piece of land.

He tried everything to prove himself alive – from pelting stones at Police Station in the hope of being arrested and thereby forcing the government to acknowledge his existence, to claiming a widow pension to his wife, hoping they would rectify the mistake upon seeing she was still married to him. But nothing changed. Any number of attempts made by him to prove that he was alive proved futile.

In the process he discovered that there were around 20000 officially dead people in India. Having lived for a long period as a dead man alive, he made a resolve to help other landless individuals in their fight to prove themselves ‘Alive’ and thus he formed the Mritak Sangh[i] .

In 2003 Bihari was awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Prize– a parody of the famous Nobel Peace Prize for his widespread altruistic “posthumous activities [i].

While this anecdote had people in splits of laughter, it also clearly revealed the vulnerabilities of the Indian Legal System.

Like a master storyteller Bibek Debroy proceeded on to tell us about the large number of state level statutes that existed in India, old archaic laws some dating back to the 19^th century and Pre independence days that are no longer the least relevant, the Sarai  Act, Hackney Carriage Act in London and some other anecdotes.

The Q & A round followed.  His answers delved into specifics of the Sections & Clauses wherever needed.

By the end of the session it was obvious that the Dimensions of Legal Reform in India are numerous. It was also apparent that while a Lawyer would focus more on the redressal of injustice occurred, an Economist’s view of the legal system is more oriented towards mechanisms for prevention of flaws in future.

It was undoubtedly a very enlightening session. Dr Bibek Debroy used a common sense approach throughout to drive down the points and share his profound insights. It was an enriching experience for me and I personally felt that this lecture was completely at par with the lectures delivered by some of the world’s best B School professors, that I have had the privilege to attend.

Thanks to MoneyLife Foundation for giving us this wonderful opportunity to listen to a great speaker. It was definitely an opportunity NOT to be missed.

References

[i] http://www.mritaksangh.org/

[ii] http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2003.

‘The Flaws In Our Laws’ By Dr Bibek Debroy | Absurdities Of Indian Laws – Part I

On rare occasions, it happens that a person can dig into a complex topic with remarkable ease and make perfect sense to a diverse group of listeners, while capturing their attention all along and making the subject exceptionally interesting.  Dr Bibek Debroy is certainly one of those people blessed with such rare ability. Fascinated by his knowledge on the vast array of subjects he tweets about, I had registered for the seminar arranged by MoneyLife Foundation, to hear Dr Debroy speak on the Flaws in Indian Laws.

I reached the Royal Bombay Yacht Club just 5 min before the start of the event. The building is just at a stone’s throw from the Gateway Of India and has an old world charm about it. With hardly any time in hand to appreciate the architecture, I rushed into the hall and yet found myself seated on a single vacant seat on the 2^nd row.  And there I was, all set to listen to one of the most interesting sessions by the noted economist, columnist and author.

So the session began. Right from the word ‘go’, it was replete with anecdotes that held the audience in rapturous attention and we found ourselves intermittently bursting into peals of laughter at the absurdities existing in the Indian laws. I am recollecting here some of the numerous anecdotes shared, which I had managed to scribble down.

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The Trigger For Initiating A Research Project For Legal Reforms.

The 1^st anecdote was about an unexpected and a seemingly innocuous event that had provided the trigger for initiating a research project by the Government Of India for Legal Reforms.

The story goes back to the year 1993. One day Dr Ashok Rudra, a scholar, economist and professor at Vishva Bharti invited Bibek Debroy for lunch to ask about his interest in heading the research project. He gave him the time between the start of lunch & dessert to make up his mind.

The project was approved by none other than our ex PM Dr Manmohan Singh, who was then, the Finance Minister Of India. Mr. Shankar Aiyar, a noted journalist analyst and author of the book ‘Accidental India’ had inadvertently provided the prompt for the project. 

It happened so, that Shankar Aiyar was invited to France to speak on a conference. The per diem allowance in those days was $65. Shankar Aiyyar found the amount less and wanted his allowance to be increased to $100. He put up an application to Mr. S. Varadachary, who was then, the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. Varadachary must have seen some merit in the request, and thought it should be extended to all others as well. However, that called for making a modification to the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA). The matter was then taken to Mr Ashok Desai , the Chief Economic Consultant, who thought it made sense to scrap FERA and come up with a new version with changes in all other areas, wherever needed. He discussed the proposition with Dr Manmohan Singh, who agreed and further suggested that a research project be carried out for Law Reform to identify all areas that needed to be amended.

So began the search for a person who could undertake this project. In this context Ashok Desai contacted his friend Ashok Rudra, who then took Debroy for lunch.

Of course, the answer was yes and thus started a Project for Law Reform in collaboration with the National Law School Bangalore with support from Mr Madhav Menon, the founder-director of the law school. The Project was to continue for 4 years and resulted in many interesting findings and suggestions. How many of the suggestions were implemented, is a different question though.

With narration of this anecdote, Dr Debroy had managed to catch the attention of the listeners. He quickly moved on to the 2^nd story.

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The Longest Standing Litigation in India.

Anecdote No 2 was related to the longest standing litigation in India.

When Bibek Debroy started to look out for the longest standing litigation in India, he could not get any satisfactory answers to this question from any lawyer, or any pertinent information in this matter.

Finally a search in the Guinness Book of World Records revealed the longest standing litigation as one that dated back to 1205. The case was filed by a member of a certain Korat family in Ambegaon in Pune and it involved a litigation about which family branch should get the right to worship the family shrine. Spanning a period of 761 years, this certainly qualified as the longest standing litigation in the country (maybe even in the world).

As the word about this longest standing litigation spread around in the newspapers, Debroy received a letter from a certain Mr Narasimha Reddy pointing out that though the history of this dispute dated back to 1205, the dispute was with the court from 1964 to 1966 and was settled in a period of 3 years. To substantiate his claim, Narasimha Reddy mailed all records of the case, which he had personally collected, to Bibek Debroy. Amazed by his interest in digging out the facts and files pertaining to the case, Debroy asked Reddy what had prompted him to travel all the way from his residence in Hyderabad to Pune to collect the records.

The reply was equally amazing. “I have filed for the record of the longest standing dispute from 1945 – 1990, a span of 45 years to Guinness Book of World Record”, said Reddy. Obviously it was in his interest to see that no case surpassed the duration of his litigation.

Unfortunately for Narasimha Reddy, The Guinness Book had either discontinued that category of records or did not want to include any cases from India wrt this category. So he had to be content with an entry in the Limca Book of Records.

Thus stood the case of the Longest standing dispute.

We were all ears and hungry for more.

I later did a google search and found that a litigation over a disputed graveyard in Varanasi has been going on since 1878. This supersedes Mr Reddy’s record.

I stop here now to keep this post short and continue with the other anecdotes in my next post.

For the two most interesting anecdotes click on to ‘The Flaws In Our Laws’ By Bibek Debroy | My Scribbling Of The Session – Part II.

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Including here comments received from Dr Bibek Debroy. I seem to have mixed up a few names.

Reinventing Winning Ways | How To Reorient To A Process Driven Approach

Reinvention seems to be the buzzword of the season. With India’s Elections 2014 over, the need for reinvention has resurfaced with vigor. In light of the dismal performance in elections, some parties have dissolved different committees on grounds of non performance to rediscover winning ways. Questions have surfaced on whether political parties can reinvent themselves. Suggestions for restructuring the ministries to reduce multiplicity of government departments and bring about effective governance have been put forth for the new government by the specialists.

At this juncture, when people are expecting India to take on the path to economic recovery and international brokerages are betting high on India’s growth story, the time is apt for many institutions to start the process of reorganizing themselves. Needless to say the magnitude of efforts and change required will be humungous.

One of the essential elements in the process will be a shift from a reactive or inaction based approach to a ‘process based action oriented’ approach. That, in itself, is a challenging task as it requires a huge shift in the mindset at all levels – starting from the highest and percolating down the ranks; though a somewhat obvious statement, this is seldom spoken about. Nonetheless, a shift in mindset and approach is necessary to bring about even the small changes, or for that matter for plucking the ‘low hanging’ fruits.

The challenges are aplenty. In our society which places a premium on hierarchy and individual merit, following a process is not something that people eagerly look forward to. Not very infrequently, we see that people in the top rungs are considered above the processes that are meant to be followed by all. The perception that following processes undermine authority and impede creativity often translates into a reluctance for adherence to processes. Furthermore, there are many who tend to think of themselves as creative and smart by overriding processes, even in things as simple as having to pay a small fine for breach of traffic rules or by managing to get away without paying for services availed.

A process, by definition appears restrictive, even if necessary. We think of processes as bureaucratic routines that have to be adopted and adhered to. For reasons unknown these seem to be designed to slow down rather than facilitate the work. Unlike in a creative work, where a person derives intrinsic satisfaction from the work itself, there is no intrinsic motivation for following a process. Most of the times there is no appreciation either, because it is what a person is expected to do anyways.

All these put together result in the display of utter disregard for processes, at times, even in the highest institutions of the country, as was recently evident in the transition of PMOINdia twitter account. Needless to say it creates confusion and chaos, and the consequences are undesirable for all.

The importance of processes certainly cannot be undermined. As a matter of fact, the significance of having efficient processes in place cannot be emphasized enough.

Robust processes are needed in banks and financial institutions to detect & prevent fraud and manage risks. Businesses, as they grow, need to optimize different functions such as production, supply chain, customer service etc. Processes are implemented to bring about efficiency, ensure safety and quality, reduce wastage and pilferage, be consistent in dealings with customers or vendors and so forth. Any government needs to have efficient institutional processes to effectively implement their policies in a consistent manner.

Efficient processes bring about consistency in experiences, cut down ambiguity, fix accountability and ensure predictably in outcome. By following processes we can achieve desirable outcomes with optimal efforts, whereas the lack of processes can create uncertainty, discontent and dissatisfaction.

A structured approach towards process management entails designing processes keeping in mind the goals or the ‘To- Be’ state, charting out the ‘As Is’ state and finding out optimal changes needed to bridge the gap under different scenarios. Also taken into consideration are the different stakeholders and their oft-conflicting objectives, organization structures, the boundary conditions and the assumptions. The process once designed is revisited at a determined interval to accommodate any changes to the assumptions, structures or objectives. Change management is needed all along to secure buy in from all those who are impacted by the process.

Since the incentives for adhering to processes are not always very apparent, it is imperative to figure out ways to motivate and incentivize people to follow processes. This requires thorough communication from the highest levels so that people align with the vision and understand how they are contributing to the vision.

The challenge also lies in designing processes in a way that may allow people to express themselves creatively, while being in sync with the overall objectives and ensure that people do not get bogged down by bureaucratic procedures.

A case in point is the innovative campaigning process during the elections that unleashed creativity in people and triggered off a chain reaction by inspiring people to come up with all possible combinations of the ‘Ab Ki Baar..’  slogan. Of course such exceptional demonstration of creativity will not be possible for all processes, however with some effort processes can be made flexible to allow for individual expression of creativity to the extent possible.

It is, however, important to ensure that demonstration of creativity does not lead to deviation from the objectives of the process, impede the work of others or create conflicting outcomes. An example that readily comes to my mind is that of ‘creative accounting’- the term coined to refer to the practice of systematic misrepresentation of reported earnings and assets of companies through concealed irregularities in the accounting processes.

The renewed zest for reinventing winning ways serves as a reminder that it is time for our government and institutions to reorient to a process driven mindset and not let individual hubris defeat the overall purpose of the process.

Narendra Modi - A Compelling Story Told

On 16th May 2014, India witnessed the spectacular victory of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 16th Lok Sabha elections, with Narendra Modi spearheaded to be the 16th PM of the country.  If that is a numerology coincidence, and 16 is indeed a lucky number for Narendra Modi, I would not know. There are numerous ongoing analysis of different factors to pinpoint what all made BJP such a grand success while UPA story went horribly wrong, and AAP, in spite of all the noise, failed to make any dent.

Of the various factors, the projected personality of the PM candidates, and how it was perceived by Indian citizens makes an interesting comparison.

This election came at a time when the country was starved of a leader and yearning for change. After the numerous scams and a steadily slowing economy, people were clearly frustrated with an under-performing and corrupt government and a Prime Minister who remained silent on most of the issues. We got a glimpse of this yearning towards the end of 2013, when Arvind Kejriwal ‘s AAP gained enormous popularity within a very short span and emerged as a party with the potential to challenge the existing regime on grounds of corruption.

Kejriwal came across as an upright person, who gave up his IRS job to join the movement against widespread corruption in India. The middle class people could identify with his personality. We felt he was one of us when he raised questions that were pertinent to all of us. Notwithstanding his elite education and his background as a bureaucrat, he projected himself as a 'Common Man'. Leveraging on Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption, AAP rapidly found resonance with the frustrations of the common people and Kejriwal found himself elected as the Chief Minister of Delhi.

The problems started when Kejriwal continued to use his activist mechanisms instead of focusing on organizing the capabilities and setting up systems and machinery to promulgate good governance. He functioned more or less like the founder of a startup mostly adopting an adhoc approach to deal with the problems, often reiterating the problems, but offering no structured solutions.

In his zeal to project himself as just another common man, he refused to take security, in spite of being repeatedly attacked by common hooligans. In the process he displayed the helplessness of the common man and symbolized their vulnerability and victimization.

But does the common man want to feel helpless? Hell No !

The common citizens want a leader they can look up to.  People want someone who can solve their problems; someone capable of steering the machinery to get work done without making much ado of the efforts that go into it.

Finally, with his resignation in 49 days, Kejriwal came to be perceived as over ambitious and not too keen on delivering upon his promises. With too much of a focus on expanding the base too soon, he contested from 434 seats to the Parliament, in the process alienating a lot of people, including many of those who empathized with his causes and losing credibility even amongst people who had voted him to power in Delhi.

The next 5 years will be a learning ground for Arvind Kejriwal to hone his skills as a political leader, organize his party and remain relevant in the system while working on his quest for a corruption free India.

As for Rahul Gandhi, the lesser it is said, the better it is. The reluctant politician, with the dynasty tag, never seemed quite at ease or interested in politics. Whether he rattled off the same memorized answers to each question during an interview, or posed in the campaign hoardings with farmers and workers, he could neither inspire confidence nor did he look convincing in his posturing.

The leadership void was filled by the projection of Narendra Modi as a  leader who could help India to realize its dream. He was catapulted to a cult figure with the administrative prowess to free the country from the shackles of under-performance and corruption and steer India towards economic growth. Given his humble beginning, he represented the masses, while his penchant for growth, development and technology struck a chord with industrialists and the corporate class. He comes across as an authoritarian figure and projects the image of an able administrator capable of getting work done.

Campaign after campaign, as he spoke of progress and stressed on good governance, people saw in him the passion for development. He had the Gujarat model to showcase his successful performance and impressed upon people his desire to replicate its success at the National level.

While the US had questioned about the nationalistic and sectarian aspects of the campaign and shown skepticism about the future, in India these aspects were dwarfed in the wake of optimism, dream of progress and his vision for a strong, developed and economically sound nation.

Well, from the mandate it is clear that people are willing to overlook certain aspects and give Narendra Modi a chance to deliver on his promises and steer the country towards good governance and inclusive growth.

Inbuilt Apathy Towards Road Traffic Accidents In India

A few days back a young man from Kurukshetra, Dikshant Sharma had started a petition requesting Aamir Khan to take up the issue of Road Accidents in India on his show Satyamev Jayate.

After I signed the petition [i], I surfed for information on road traffic accidents and came to know the following facts:

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for young people in developing countries. India accounts for about 10% of road crash fatalities worldwide.

One person dies every five minutes on Indian roads. Going by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), this figure is expected to escalate to one death every three minutes by 2020 [ii]. In terms of absolute numbers more people die in road crashes in India than anywhere else in the world.

Every other day we read in the newspapers about road accidents. Unresponsive governance coupled with personal apathy makes the situation worse and many are left to die on the streets even when hospitals are close by.

Infographics - Road Traffic Accidents

The disconcerting question is why do these recurring incidents of traffic death remain as just statistics and do not stir up the authorities or people in general?

This problem of personal apathy & unresponsive governance can partly be explained by the fact that people tend to fear and react more to situations in which many people may be killed at one point in time as opposed to situations in which number of casualty remains the same or might be even more, but the deaths are distributed over a longer period of time.

These low-probability high-consequence events such as the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008 or the disappearance of MH370 are known as 'Dread Risks'. Since dread risk events are perceived as unknown and potentially catastrophic, such events evoke widespread fear, anxiety and sharp psychological reactions that may produce large ripple effects.

An article published in Psychological Science, on behalf of the American Psychological Society corroborates the concept of Dread Risk. The study suggests that the fear of flying following September 11, 2001 caused more people in America to travel by road, resulting in 353 additional highway deaths than would have otherwise been the case [iii]. As the dread risk events have enormous impact simultaneously on a large group of people, these are highly publicized and governments all around the world, focus on responding to events quickly to control & contain the situation and rightly so.

On the other hand, in case of road accidents, though the families of victims suffer immense psychosocial distress, the psychological impact on general public is not so pronounced.  Despite the appalling dimensions of the problem, road safety ranks very low on our list of priorities. The cultural indifference ambivalence towards road traffic deaths, does not compel the government to change the status quo. More people die in road crashes than due to malaria or TB, yet the government hardly notices.

This emphasizes the necessity for creating awareness about the need for pre-hospital emergency medical response for accident victims. We need a shift in focus from inevitability of the accidents to preventability of accidents and injury control.

This is not to say that public awareness initiatives will be sufficient to prevent the road tragedies; it will require the concerted effort from government including parliament, the police, road users, NGOs and the media to develop & implement policies on injury prevention. Scientifically designed roads, automobile design safety, better law enforcement and road user sensitization are needed to bring down RTAs.

However to begin with, if the public were better informed about the plight of accident victims, and how to provide them immediate access to medics, it will also possibly help in creating demand for emergency response for accident victims, thus saving thousands of lives.

References:

[i] http://chn.ge/1ePLlSP

[ii] http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/D8iIIQDQkx8RGRdzros9tI/Taking-note-of-road-deaths-in-India.html

[iii] Dread Risk, September 11, and Fatal Traffic Accidents by Gerd Gigerenzer, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany