Some aspects of private enterprise

Recent experiences with service industries that have been taken over by the private sector underline the need to keep them under strict public scrutiny.

WHEN one is sitting at home in the evening, the room lit by a sturdy little inverter since the power has, as is usual, suddenly gone off, it is not unusual to wonder about the benefits that have come to us by way of the privatisation of the supply of power. Those of us who live in the capital will recall the days, some years ago, when the long hot summers were made unbearable by the hours and hours of `load shedding', as we have now come to know it. The generation of power and its distribution was then in the hands of state-run organisations and during the hours of intolerable heat with the fans stilled it was usual to revile those organisations; in the press, on television, in conversations across the city the rank corruption and inefficiency of these organisations were analysed and proclaimed as the worst possible examples of the ills of state-run power agencies.

Mumbai was looked at with envy, with its private power supply company, and the total absence of power cuts; many were the dramatic announcements that people living in Mumbai never knew what an inverter was, that these were not available in any electrical store anywhere in the city. The reference was, of course, to the Mumbai that was and is served by the private power agency; not the suburbs that are being ministered to by the Brihanmumbai Suburban Electric Supply (BSES). The answer, it seemed, was clear enough; privatise and all will be well. And so, with a great deal of fanfare, the distribution of power in Delhi was privatised.

But was all well after that? No, it was not. An indulgent public said one needed to give them time, and they have been given that time - some four years or so. And the situation has become, if anything, worse. Now, many parts of the city go without power for hours even in winter, even in that pleasant time between summer and winter, when the fans and air-conditioners have been switched off, and the heaters have not been switched on. At first even this was something everyone put up with - they were new, as the refrain then was, give them time - and the new private players added to this by issuing indignant statements about power thefts, faulty wiring and so on. So the years passed. Presumably, the wiring was replaced, and those stealing power were identified and had their connections cut.

And yet the power cuts continue. Now they are saying it is because of problems in generation, particularly in the new giant hydro-electric station at Nathpa Jhakri in Himachal Pradesh. Apparently there is not enough water in the river, which they say is usual in winter. The odd thing is that in summer it was said repeatedly that there was too much silt in the water, which was why all the units had to be shut down. Now, in winter there is not enough water. Which, of course, leads one to wonder who decided to locate the generating units where they now are. At any rate, the Nathpa Jhakri plant is a public sector unit which, as many say with significant emphasis, explains everything.

So where does it leave the private distribution companies in the capital? Comfortable with an excuse because they only have to distribute, not generate, they take their ease while the government works itself into a lather to get power from other sources. In fact, it is then that it dawns on many why the private agencies took on the distribution; it relieves them of any responsibility regarding the availability of power. Placed in this happy situation they set about increasing tariffs, and installing new electronic meters about which there has been a very wide outcry. The complaint is that the meters run too fast, that they have been deliberately designed to do that, and, according to many, when the power returns after a power cut there is a surge which sends the meters spinning, adding to the number of units shown as consumed, and of course adding to the amount the companies make.

This is, however, not really about the lack of power, but about the easily grasped myth that if something is put in private hands it automatically improves. It does, sometimes, but not always; but what does improve is the publicity, the hype and the image - what they like to call the `brand'. If one considers some of the major changes that have occurred in recent years, changes that have altered the nature of our society, it has not been owing to private enterprise at all. The white revolution, Operation Flood, which Dr. V. Kurien set in motion, had nothing to do with private enterprise, and the revolution in telecommunication, that is, the access to telephones and the almost incredible improvement in telephone services happened because of Sam Pitroda, before the first cell phones appeared.

Yes, private enterprise has radically altered the nature of air travel. The Indian traveller has discovered it is possible to deal with courteous staff, to take flights that are on time, and to travel in planes that are sparkling clean. But there is a dark side to it all, perhaps just one that we know about among others we do not. This is the curious reaction of private airlines to the yearly affliction that visits flights out of most northern airports, fog.

In Delhi, a very expensive system has been installed to make it possible for aircraft to take off and land even when visibility is as low as 50 metres, and that after a great deal of indignation of the harassment passengers have to undergo when flights are cancelled or delayed because of poor visibility. Yet, now that the system has been installed, it has become clear that it will not really make too much of a difference.

To use the system it is necessary to instal some equipment on board all aircraft landing in or taking off from Delhi, and, more importantly, the pilots have to be trained to use the equipment. Private airlines have, apparently, no intention of doing anything of the kind. Their reasoning is that it is expensive to instal the equipment on their aircraft, and even more expensive to train the pilots. Since fog affects Delhi for about two months in the year, and not every day during those two months, why incur the expenditure? If passengers suffer, well, that is rather sad, but an extra smile when they do finally leave, or land, in Delhi would presumably make up for that. However, Indian Airlines has gone ahead and trained over 200 of its pilots to use the new Category III B ILS.

This is the real point. It illustrates the two different ways of thinking that exist in our service industries; much in the way that private television and public service broadcasting differ in their basic assumptions. One has, admittedly, to accept that private enterprise is there to make money, not to practise philanthropy, and, while there is a constant profession of care for the customer, if a choice has to be made between that and making money their choice is obvious. It is necessary to recognise this, and ensure that private companies providing services are kept under very careful and strict scrutiny. Whether in power or in transport, they need to realise that the public will not accept facile arguments that enable them to ensure their profits are intact even when they are paid for in terms of human suffering.