Answers to shout-box queries – 12

I lost track somewhere and stashed away these questions for answering later. I am coming out with my replies today.

21 Jul 07, 08:35

unni: what is NRF and RLGP in economics? pls help sir

I don’t know any RLGP. Perhaps you are referring to RLEGP.

National Renewal Fund and RLEGP (Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program) are government schemes for different purposes. The NRF was meant for retraining or re-skilling the employees who have taken voluntary retirement from the government or public sector undertakings. It was introduced sometime in 1992.

The RLEGP scheme was in operation from 1998 budget or so. The name of the scheme says it all. It wants to guarantee employment to rural landless labourers. The intent is to ensure that they at least get gainful employment for about 100 days in a year.

20 Jul 07, 14:38

rehana: how do CII and FICCI fundamentally differ ( in aims ... objectives .. functions .. importance etc.)?

Both are associations of the corporate sector. There is no difference whatsoever that is visible to the general public. I would say that it is a question of politics. You forgot one more association that operates in the Indian space. It is the ASSOCHAM. We can also add the PHDCCI. This one is an association of corporates from the northern states.

All these are industry bodies. Membership can be obtained by corporates directly or indirectly through their own associations – which can be regional or sectoral. All they do is lobby with the government on policy matters. Of late, they have also been engaging top consultants to present their case before the government on policy formulation.

20 Jul 07, 14:35

rehana: what are problems of boundary management in public enterprises ?

Departmental functioning in PSUs is generally like functioning in silos or water tight compartments. Though the top mangements do try to implement some of the new and innovative management techniques they come across, in a government like setup, that often results in failure. In a PSU, usually while there is no agency problem (self serving interests of the management), there is a problem of ‘disinterestedness’ that permeates every level. People are sure that they would get their salary, whatever might be their performance either collectively or individually. This becomes the root cause of boundary management problem. Every department feels it is ‘supreme’ in its sphere of functioning and does not stay open for a ‘systems approach’ to functioning. This leads to weak team work and it does have a telling affect on the whole organization.

It does not mean that the organization will come to stand-still. It does function. But the functioning will be sub-optimal.