Public / Private Enterprise Debates

Lot of messages are being exchanged these days about government giving importance to private companies at the expense of public sector companies.

Now, many people are divided either supporting or opposing unfortunately many times based on the political affiliation rather than objective analysis..

I have mixed feelings about this topic, having experienced working in both worse and best public sector culture early in my life before working in private, MNC and global companies..

time for some fundamental questions.. ofcourse these questions are fundamental and already answered at different countries around the world.. so there are lot of best practices to learn and adapt..

India specifically has the history of decentralised village economy, pre-nationalization, nationalization, economic liberalisation, globalisation and the saga continues..

The following questions are in the context of 70+years of independence, state of economy, society and its awareness..

Should government be involved in manufacturing, retail/corporate banking, IT, telecom and other consumer industries ?

Is it best served by competitive private sector providing the best customer delight? Should customer decide who will succeed?

What about geographies/industries that don’t have immediate commercial viability?

Are they better sponsored/funded by government with strict governance policies instead of directly involved in execution? Does it provide better results?

With this external funding arrangement, do we as society also know what is the cost(funds) we are paying to serve those special needs?

Does it help to uncover the lapses in service? Today the issues are brushed under the carpet and used as alibi for lack of best outcomes(profits, customer service).

Should government and legislature focus mainly on policy making and governance to avoid lapses?

Is effective governance structure needed to catch fraud at different levels ?

Government if freed from these shackles can devote time for governance and policies to promote domestic industry, create employment, better citizen services..

After 70+years of independence, is it time for us to know what is working and not working and reassess ?

Does “education” provide with objective analysis of issues to help guide and shape the discussions rather than clubbing different political affiliation into arguments?

How do we strengthen the governance processes instead? What to be done to avoid the lack of basic governance experienced with so many banks in the past few years?

Should the focus of the government be more on creating transparency and create better checks&balances in our systems?