NOVEMBER 24, 2015

By N N Menon

"MAKE in India" and "Ease of doing Business" Schemes of Mr. Modi, even on their individual merit, would take the economy forward on all fronts and in their cumulative effect would speed up the process of development, beyond our imagination. Needless to say that active participation of all the Stake Holders and the Service Facilitators is a sine qua non for the success of the Schemes. The bureaucracy (Centre & State) plays a very vital and pivotal role in making the Schemes a reality. In fact, every bureaucrat who is a Service Facilitator for Trade, directly or indirectly, is indeed a "catalyst" by himself, and helps to speed up the process of liberalization envisaged through these Schemes. This Article attempts to study the "anatomy" of the bureaucrats and analyses their role as "catalyst" in the process of "Make in India" and "Ease of Doing Business" initiatives.

Bureaucrats all over the country, in all Departments, right from lowest rung to highest echelon,being creatures of various "Acts", derive their inherent "Power/Authority" from the respective Statutes, as opposed to the Officers/Managers in the Trade who derive their "Power/Authority" from their superiors. For e.g. a Commercial Manager of a manufacturing unit derives his "Power/Authority" from the General Manager (Commercial) who draws his power from the Director (Commercial) and so on and so forth. Whereas, in Bureaucratic set up, say in Central Excise or Customs or DGFT, the Assistant Commissioner or JDGFT, as "proper officers" draw their "Power/Authority" from the respective "Acts". Even the Commissioner/ DGFT too draws his power from the respective Statutes.

So all Bureaucrats, while dealing with the Trade, discharging their duties do exercise his own "Power/Authority" derived from the Statute concerned. They have to exercise the "Power/Authority" willy-nilly.

Now, the entire spectrum of Bureaucrats can be divided into 2 categories:

(a) Those who exercise Power;

(b) Those who exercise Authority.

What is the difference? Read further.

As a result of constant and continuous observation, study and research over a period of 45 years (from 1970 when the writer was initiated into the arena of Foreign Trade Policy, Customs and Central Excise). It is quite interesting to study the "Physical Properties" and "Chemical Analysis" of the "catalysts" – in other words "Bureaucrats", some of whom exercise "Power" and others "Authority". Just as there are bad cholesterol and good cholesterol in our Blood Chemistry, there are bad catalysts and good catalysts in the Bureaucratic Chemistry. The bad catalyst emits Power while the good catalyst radiates Authority.The Power emission harasses the Trade while the Authority radiation facilitates the Trade. A chart indicating the Physical Properties and Chemical Analysis of the bad and good catalyst, in juxtaposition makes an interesting study.

The approximate percentage of "bad catalysts" and "good catalysts" in the system currently could be safely put as -

Bad -- Minimum 90%

Good – Maximum 10%

The mind set of these Bureaucrats need to be transformed and admittedly it is a long drawn out exercise to be patiently undertaken by the HRD Ministry through a massive "orientation" . However, to start with, it is felt that the Prime Minister should find time of at least ½ an hour every month to exclusively address all Bureaucrats urging them the need for migration into the Positive group (Good Catalyst) and fall in line with the thinking of the Government. We may call such talks as "DIL KI BAAT".