SALAAM to the BEST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My day begins with encounter with the best…I go to the nearest bus stop catch the bus at a particular time and reach my workplace. Well you will say nothing great in that,everybody does that. But what we don’t notice everyday or rather take it for granted is the on time availability. (exceptions do exist)
But seeing the condition of Mumbai roads, rising traffic BEST still makes a mark. Buses still arrive within 5-10 mins of their schedule. Along with it the level of customer service is amazing. Most of the conductors, carrying this volume of traffic, still ensure that everybody buys ticket, change is returned and this with amazing efficiency and politeness. (there have been very few instances when altercation erupts)
BEST everyday carries 4 million passengers…but still incurs a loss. Causes are many…now rising fuel costs have added to the woes. But this blog is not about this. For people like me who come from the hinterland…..BEST & Local services are simply amazing.
So what’s the big deal?

Unleash them…….Form a company for BEST & Mumbai Urban transport….not like the one currently exisiting…but with more autonomy and ones which can follow their commercial interest ,and not take order from some MLA/MP who most of the times don’t understand B of business.
The result will be organizations who have behind them decades of experience of running public transport and can provide such services in other part of India as well. They might compete with state or private entities if required.

But where will the funds come from ?.Already India spends 25 billion $ on fuel bill…..taxes collected through them can be pumped into such entities and the return can be not only in monetary from but also in cutting down the bill.

There are several such examples of state PSU’s which instead of selling off should be made more independent and commercial. Take the example of MSEB now unbundled into 4 entities.
It has been ridiculed for bad customer service and power failures….but few people know that it has second largest generation capacity after NTPC.(NTPC has m-cap of 68000 crs) It has PLF (plant load factor) a measure of efficency, comparable with best in INDIA. The same logic can be applied here….unleash it. Let there be a autonomous board responsible for MSEB which can decide the policy matters and execution part can be left to the engineers. The result one more power company which can compete within India for operating power projects and deliver power efficiently.

But we are so much obsessed with disinvestment that we can’t see any other way of reviving the public sector. Ultimately once disinvested, the property which has been created over 30-40 yrs of diligence, is sold off instead of which private sector can be encouraged to create more capacity which India desperately needs be it in transport, electricity, petrochemicals, heavy industries etc.

Don’t believe me….even Lee Iacocca in his autobiography had severely criticized American co’s intention of M&A’s. Which only leads to larger co’s and does’nt create new technologies or new capacity. The same logic can be extended to disinvestment as well.

SO what do you say?????