murali772's blog

Though fund-starved, BWSSB is doing little to claim dues running into crores of rupees from Govt agencies. Says Board chairman P B Ramamurthy: "Since bill collection is the main source of revenue for BWSSB, we have been continuously pressing both the government and semi-government bodies to pay their bills.''

The following is my report on the "All India Management Association (AIMA) Conference on Public Private Partnerships: Issues of Governance", held at Hotel Lalit Ashok, Bangalore, on Friday, the 16th July.

Following (in italics) are the relevant excerpts from the New Indian Express report:

The government may have enacted a law empowering citizens to demand information from public authorities, but five years later many government departments are yet to take the “first step” towards proactive disclosure. Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI act mandates that all authorities under the purview of the law must index, catalogue and computerise official records to be easily accessed by the people. So far, however, few departments have paid heed to the provision, says K A Thippeswamy, Karnataka State Information Commissioner. The progress, he said, has been “almost negligible”. “They (departments) do not even have a record room to keep  documents,” he said. “They were supposed to do it within six months of the Act coming into force. But it’s been five years and they are yet to do it.’’

The meeting was convened by Dr A Ravindra, advisor to the CM on urban issues, at the instance of the Bangalore Environment Trust (BET), on the matter of 'road-widening', on 23rd June, at the Vikas Soudha. Along with Dr Ravindra was his deputy Dr Ashwin Mahesh. Though the Commissioner had apparently been requested by Dr Ravindra to be present, along with some of his top officials, only a Superintending Engineer turned up, that too some half way through the meeting.

There were about 20 invitees, largely from Civil Society groups, including Capt Prabhala, Mr Govardhan, Mr Nityananda, Mr Devare from BET, Ms Kathyayini Chamaraj from Civic, Dr Harini Nagendra, a Doctor who is spear-heading the 'Sankey road widening opposition' movement, apart from yours truly representing Praja and Koramangala Initiative.

It started with Mr Nityananda of BET making a presentation, making out a case for widening, where need be, in a more tree-friendly way, citing examples of some specific roads.

India is the world's most competitive telecommunications market. But, the 3G spectrum auction is going to land things as a fiasco for the common man, even while it is a bonanza for the exchequer.

The outcome of the 3G spectrum auction in the UK was disastrous. The 3G network did not diffuse for a decade thereafter, because firms were broke. They had no money left to invest in infrastructure after paying for the spectrum licence and interest. The telecom firms could not generate positive cash flow from 3G activities for a decade. In fact, the principal UK telecom company, BT, sold its wireless business to pay off debts incurred to acquire 3G spectrum licences!

What happened in the UK can happen in India. The firms that have bid Rs 67,719 crore for 3G licences may not have finances left to fund infrastructure. If they borrow substantially, the combination of licence and interest costs, to be factored into pricing decisions, will make 3G services expensive or completely unaffordable. And, as everybody knows, it is low price that enables high offtake of any product or service.

Information obtained through RTI reveals that 157 legislators and 48 officials who visited foreign countries in 2009 (costing a whopping Rs 4.3 cr) haven't bothered to prepare a study report.

''The public trust in business and its leaders has never been lower. To restore trust, it is time for business leaders to embrace their own version of the doctor’s Hippocratic Oath, which shapes a common understanding of the role of business in society and the conduct expected of business leaders,'' wrote Nitin Nohria ( who has been named to take over as the Dean of the prestigious Harvard Business School) recently after critiquing the failure of leadership in the recent economic and corporate turmoil.

''Developing, adopting, and institutionalizing such an oath is not going to be easy. But there is no better or more important moment to try—because at stake is the very legitimacy of business leaders and the future of capitalism,'' he warned. His passion for the idea led to HBS students adopting a voluntary MBA oath.

For the full report in the TOI, click here

The Jayanagar TTMC was built with a swanky futuristic look but all what’s within is huge empty spaces and leaking walls and roofs. Almost close to completing a year now, all the promises are still on paper. Apart from the busy bus service in the basement, there’s been no progress within. A quick survey of the entire building reveals nothing more than empty spaces, unfinished structures and poor quality of construction. Even the flooring and electrical wiring have not been completed. The walls and beams have already given in to the recent rain. The unfinished wiring works on the first and second floors are now seen soaked.

At a time when there is serious shortage of parking space, this TTMC has a huge park and ride provision on the terrace with a capacity of nearly 110 cars. The original idea behind it was that people could drive in, park their cars/ two-wheelers and board their bus. But, with no lifts ready yet, people are forced to walk the entire ramp up and down to park and ride. According to locals here, weekdays hardly see even 10-15 cars parked here. Even on weekends, the numbers hardly touch 20.