Occupational Hazard....is it worth ?

About six months ago a good friend of mine telephoned me to ask me to do some "National Service" by being an assessor under a National Scheme; the payment for this service would be much lower than what one would be getting otherwise, he said. Being a subject of importance to the country, he said, I should accept his invitation.  I agreed immediately as I have always been interested in such assignments that benefit  all.

I have also been carrying out Sustainability Assessments for one of the largest Industry Associations in India for the last five years.  For the last four years I did that free; this year, as I am a retired person, I have accepted their honorarium.

Ten days ago I had severe cough;  we had already fixed two assessments and I had to start on a tour of five days.  If I had postponed, two organizations would have suffered some business losses.  The assessment was already due for a longtime (due to procedural issues with the agency conducting these assessments) and I did not like the delay in assessing these units, both belonging to the Government of India.  I went ahead with the assessments.  But from the second day of my tour my cough was unbearable; I was away from home by at least 1500 KM and did not have the medicines required.  On the third day my voice choked and I could not speak (or even if I "spoke" no one could hear it).  My co-assessor came to my rescue in both the assessments and we did a fairly good professional job.  I had to visit my family doctor and was on a course of antibiotics for five days after reaching home; I had to skip many appointments as my throat was still bad (bad even now).

The day after tomorrow I have to go for another assessment; again an assessment of a Government of India organization.  This organization is located in the midst of an area infested by Maoists; today's  TV news is that Maoists have taken four police officers as hostages and may kill them anytime.  There were bombs and shoot outs in that area in the recent days.  Should I go or not ?  As a professional should I meet my commitments ?  What happens if I lose my life/limb/eye etc., in any accident/incident or am abducted?  I plan to be back home on 02 October, 2010: Mahatma Gandhi's birthday !!

On 10 October, 2010, I will be starting for another assessment, this time for the Industry Association, to a Thermal Power Plant in the State of Orissa; again this area is a troubled area.  Recently Moists blocked the access to this place for a few days.

In spite of my ill-health I have to complete quite a few assignments by the end of October, 2010.

I have decided to go ahead: "[I]Que sera sera[/I]" (Whatever will be, will be).  My hunch is that the probability of my getting killed or abducted is very remote.  If I am killed, it does not matter as I am not going to be there to suffer; if I am abducted, there will be a lot of stress.

Am I doing the right thing ? Am I foolish ? Do Professional Commitments make our lives miserable ?  After all, is it worth risking one's life for not so great work?...just an assessment !

Lies, Lies and More Lies.....it looks life is full of lies

For the last two weeks I have been exposed to lies, lies and more lies.  First it was Shohaib Malik and Sania affair.  So many lies were spread by as many people, including Ayesha (Maha) Siddiqui and her father, Shohabi and others in the "family", and many appearing on the "news" channels.  Then came the Dantawade massacre...even here lies were passed on as "investigatives" journalism....people were made to debate whether there were 1000 Maoists or 200 Maoists that killed 64 sleeping  CPRF jawans!  Didi comes in between to declare that Moists are not terrorists.  Before Dandawade died down came up the Shashi Taroor vs. IP Lalit Modi "debate".  How does it matter to me if IPL is played in Kochi or Ahmedabad?  The story (lie) has all the masala for a good Ramgopal Verma film.  See the start cast: Sharad Pawar, Narendar Modi, Shashi Taroor (and of course Sunanda Pushkar), Harshad Mehta (this is another one, not the share broker who had died long ago !!!),  Gaikwad (MD/Spokesperson made villain to please someone !!! his qualification to become the MD was that he was the RTO officer in BEED !.), Vasundara Raje....and the list is long to reproduce here. I wonder, why the name of Srishanth has not come out yet; there may be a proxy for him.  Anyway he has to leave the Punjab IPL team, now or a little later.  We are told of  Rs. 50 Crores bribe, of Rs.75 Crores "Sweat" equity, 25 % unknown shareholders, some sleeze, some immorality, probity in public life, tweeter's new uses etc.  News is also out that brothers-in-law, step sons-in-law and others remotely related to LM have benefited from his being the President of IPL in the earlier biddings.  Am I coming across such "white" lies for the first time now ?  No....life has been full of lies and white lies.

The latest white lie that I heard was that my not paying Rs.12000 and odd for my father's ceremony had put my eldest brother in deep trouble as he depends on the interest for his living !!!! What is the money involved ? Rs. 80/= month interest !!!!  But my money, more than 12000 is locked with him !!!

Meen Viththa Kaasu Naaraadhu.......

I was invited for a talk on Green Procurement by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, at their ADB sponsored workshop on Environmental Management. The programme for the day was held at the Infosys campus, Bangalore and the conference arrangement was excellent. I had a hectic schedule, flying down from Pune to Bangalore early morning, travelling to Infosys campus (taking about 2 hrs), delivering the lecture and leaving for the Bangalore airport by 14.30 hrs. In between this hectic schedule I had some interesting discussion and I thought I should share that with you.

One of the speakers at the workshop was Niranjan Khatri, General Manager, ITC Hotels, a good friend of mine. The previous evening, I understand, he hosted a dinner for the delegates of the workshop at the ITC Hotel in Bangalore. We sat for lunch together to catch up on things that happened since we met last. We were joined by a lady from IIM, Bangalore. While Niranjan was explaining the various efforts taken by ITC Hotels - paltinum rating for the building, zero discharge, zero waste, rain water harvesting, solar energy use, CDM, social forestry etc.,- the lady interjected: "After all you are a Cigarette Company; how can you kill people and still claim that you are a green company ?". Having faced such questions and comments for many years, Niranjan replied that ITC is carrying out a legal activity, licenced by the Government of India , that they follow all the rules of the Government and pay their taxes without fail; in addition the company has taken steps to strategically move away from Cigarettes over a period of time with majority of sales coming from other business in a few years from now. Further ITC's CSR activities are well recognized all over the world; ITC e-choupal has changed the way farmers sold their produce and it got recognition from all over the world for the innovative application of ICT. ITC Hotels are among the greenest hotels in the world. If ITC withdraws from the cigarette business, the vacuum will be filled by other brands; or beedies (tobacco wound in tendu leaves, a cheap product for smoking tobacco) would take over the market left by cigarettes. What happens to millions of tobacco farmers and farm labourers if ITC withdraws from its Cigarette business ?..the discussion went on like this and the lady was not convinced that Cigarette manufacturing/ sales and CSR could go hand in hand.

I have heard similar arguments agains ITC earlier too, when Sivakumar, CEO of ITC Agro gave a lecture on e-chaupal at our Institute a few years ago. I thought ITC has been pragmatic; they had inherited the Cigarette business and unlike other cigarette companies in India they have branched off to other businesses to move away from the cigarette business over a period of time. No doubt, cigarette business brings in a lot of profit compared to other businesses of ITC. Is it a crime to continue with the Cigarette business and engage in activities beneficial to the society and the environment ? Are CSR and Sustainability meant only for non-cigarette companies ? 

I thought I should intervene at this point and asked the lady which company in her opinion was doing a great job in CSR in India. She immediately replied "Tatas". Tatas have been known in India for their philanthropy and CSR activities. They were responsible for establishing the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (Popularly known as Tata Institute in Bangalore, established more than a century ago), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Tata Steel, various hospitals etc., and are generally acknowledged as an ethically sound company. I asked the lady:"Do you know that Tatas made their early money through trading in drugs?". Would that make all the good work done by Tatas "null and void" ? Alfred Nobel got his money from Dynamite; does it mean the Nobel Peace Prize does not have any value ? Watson stole the data for solving the DNA structure..does he deserve the Nobel Prize that he got with Crick ? These posers made the lady think...we could complete our lunch without much further talk on CSR and ITC.

In Tamil there have been many proverbs. To sample a few:

a) Rishi Moolam Nadhi Moolam Parkadhe
b) Nai viththa kasu kulaikadhu
c) Meen viththa kasu naaraadhu

These indicate that such debates have been going on for many centuries....we learn from them and move on.