Rohit Bansal
A Surya Prakash, the Chairman of Prasar Bharti. For the next 30 minutes, he spoke with great excitement about “DD Kisan,” the new 24.7 channel the PM was launching later in the afternoon. Having grown up in the 70s, I teased Surya how on earth “Krishi Darshan” can make for compelling viewing. Surya, who I must state by way of disclaimer is an old colleague and an indulgent friend, filled me with optimism. “Ye aisawaisa channel nahin hai, Sa-ar!”
“Our graphics, our packaging, and our content will be second to none. Dozens of youth are crafting each and every aspect. Our tie ups range from IARI to the Met Department to the national commodity exchange. Our weatherman won’t be vague like private channels (Surya named two, but I’ll let that pass!). We will give you tips on when to cut your wheat depending on which variety you’ve sown. And when our expert agro-meteorologist feels otherwise, we’d tell you to ignore the hail storm because the wheat will be up and about three days later.Why just rice and wheat, we’ll also talk of strawberries. And if it is rabbit farming that you fancy, watch out for DD Kisan!”
For context, Surya went on to explain how the Rs100 crore allotted by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his maiden Budget for the project may even have lapsed. But he and CEO Jawhar Sarkar bit the bullet to hire equipment because outright purchases were a recipe for delay. The next idea is to dub content for India’s plethora of languages – at least an hour of DD Kisan will be presented in regional languages.
“But we have Dish TV and Tata Sky,” I persisted, aiming to ward off the chairman from having to watch the channel and report my feedback. No such luck – Surya has it sorted out. There’s a whip, which the Government has powers to crack, that DD Kisan be carried by all private platforms! Before we signed off, I wanted to remind Surya that he’s only the Chairman – is it really his job to be waltzing between scientific partners in Pune and edit bays in Mandi House? But I didn’t. We had spoken to this an entire afternoon boosting social media prowess of the national broadcaster.
“Sa-ar, all my life I’ve been the last man to leave office. If they wanted the Chairman Prasar Bharti to remain an ornamental office, they chose the wrong guy,” he had stated with a smile. Our public undertakings aren’t often known for hands-on leaders. But this week I received an inspiring email from DV Kapur, the man who created NTPC in the mid 70s. All of 86, Kapur felt the need to capture what’s hardly known about this great institution. I am so glad he did.
The advance copy of Kapur’s book (#DVKapurBook) rewinds to just the sort of excitement that Surya displays at Prasar Bharti. Ask him about sitting in a single room in Shram Shakti Bhawan and dialing bureaucrats and bankers, having to pose as one’s own secretary because no one would believe that a PSU chairman would be calling on his own! Then innovating around a rule that barred unmarried officers to be allotted BHEL bungalows! Here, all Kapur did was to declare the bungalow into a hostel! There’s more about giving variable incentives to performers. And not before attracting a whole cadre of youth who today head several engineering companies.
To those still wondering what could be common between two chairmen of public undertakings separated by 40 years – my reply is self belief. “Stop whining and get going,” they seem to say to those still frozen with the fear of the three dreaded Cs: CBI, CAG, CVC.
Tail Piece: My friends in The Economist have said that India is led by a “one-man band.” They have also printed a mutilated map of India, and then complained India has imposed “censorship” by blackening the offending map. Wish they took note of India’s law on the subject as also econocrats and PSU leaders who defy their lazy generalisations. But as some editors rebuked the newspaper on my Facebook, do the likes of Kapur and Surya even care?
