More Sreedharans

India’s public-sector management had its share of visionaries. Why are there so few great managers left?

On December 31 last year, E Sreedharan, the man associated with the building and success of the Delhi Metro, retired. Over the course of his long career, he came to be known as a manager who got things done, even within the slow and inefficient sarkari system. The list of projects he has been associated with is exemplary: the Pamban railway bridge in Tamil Nadu, the Konkan Railway, the Kolkata Metro, and finally the Delhi Metro. That last project, whatever criticisms have been levelled at its business model, style and aesthetics, is nevertheless the premier example of get-it-done efficiency within the public sector that exists today. Part of that success is due, certainly, to the fact that the government cut red tape for it effectively, clearing up land hassles and expediting permits. But a large part is also old-fashioned managerial expertise, the ability to find the right people for a task, to prioritise, to set realistic deadlines — and keep to them. What one is forced to realise, with Mr Sreedharan’s retirement, therefore, is that such basic managerial expertise is becoming increasingly rare in India’s government and public sector.

This was not always the case. India’s public sector has had more than its share of effective, visionary managers. V Krishnamurthy expanded Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, and helped India earn valuable foreign exchange in the isolated 1970s by giving it a worldwide profile as an implementer of complex turnkey projects. He then went on to help launch Maruti and to steer the Steel Authority of India Limited through the difficult post-liberalisation years. Nor was Mr Krishnamurthy alone. Mantosh Sondhi, who spent many years as chairman of Ashok Leyland, was primarily a public sector man, and spent many years in the government. And the invigoration of Indian Railways in the 1980s was led by M S Gujral as chairman of the Railway Board, who laid the foundation for an increase in freight traffic that the Railways continued to benefit from for decades. Mr Gujral went on to head Coal India. These individuals were respected throughout the corporate world for their forward-looking vision and their unmatched efficiency. Sadly, there are few enough such names in the government or the public sector today.

Their lack is keenly felt. India’s growth story requires an upgrade of infrastructure and core industries that, in many cases, still requires skilled public sector leadership. Without managers of the nature of Messrs Krishnamurthy, Gujral or Sreedharan, that will be impossible to deliver. Yes, the world has changed; private sector salaries are no longer limited, keeping public sector employment competitive, for one. And red tape around appointments has increased — just consider the difficulties involved in finding a head for the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor before Amitabh Kant was selected two years ago. Yet if government wishes to cut red tape, it can do so. Mr Sreedharan’s career is an example; Mr Gujral too, then a mere general manager, was appointed chairman of the Railway Board in 1981 after the decks were rather radically cleared of other claimants by then Railways Minister A B A Ghani Khan Choudhary. The answer may lie in market-linked compensation, or in more effective insulation from political pressure, or in a political leadership that looks for visionary managers rather than pliant tools. But without more Sreedharans, India’s infrastructure push will come to naught.