What Will Bring Magical Change In Power Sector? -By Gunjan Tripathi, Director (Medhaj)

India constituted 30-35% of global GDP in year 1757. British loot of 200 years brought this down to 3% in 1947 and we are still at similar level after 70 years of Independence. These facts devastate me as an Indian and I wish that we get a leader who can show us a blueprint to revive from our global GDP share at 3% to 35% and we all are part of something I would like to call as “Journey from 3 to 35”.

While different political parties call various electricity schemes with different names depending on their political lineage, I associate the entire effort of electrification post-independence under one umbrella to my own coined term “National electricity movement”. As a Management practitioner having worked across the globe for 20 plus years in top blue chip companies and currently in Power sector for last 6 years, I think people in this sector have a brilliant opportunity to play in this journey of “3 to 35” if we all join hands to work on following six points.

Pride

The element of Pride should go up for everyone involved in the sector from a lineman to a consultant to TKC to MD and Secretaries in various state utilities. Everyone who missed the bus of “National freedom movement has an opportunity to onboard this bus of “National electricity movement” the journey of which is pious and challenging as was the journey of freedom Movement. Nothing can give us joy more than this feeling of lighting India by participating in this mission.

Leadership

The leader is someone who can inspire others while manager can manage his and others’ tasks effectively. We need to see leaders who can inspire and motivate people working in this sector to do better. There are great task masters in this sector but less in number who can inspire. This is needed at all levels right from Ministers/Bureaucracy/utility leadership to working levels at sites with various working agencies (TKCs/Petty Contractors/PMA). States like Bihar which got this showed results for last few years and states like UP which started getting now of late have started witnessing results recently. The culture of rewards and recognition should be encouraged for those who deliver results and adopt fair practices.

Self-Motivation

As leaders who can really inspire are far and few in the sector and this is a tough sector with ample reasons which can easily distract and demotivate people from doing a good job so it is important to inculcate the skill of staying self-motivated to do a good job with a bigger motive to serve the nation.

Training Vacuum

The best brains from top colleges go to foreign or IT sector. We need to train the rest and make them extraordinary for them to be able to cater to the sector. Unfortunately, the ones assigned in training department are the ones who are not the best to do this job but the ones who don’t want the field job and shunted because of their corrupt or inefficient working in the field. Why can’t we impart best of training on hard and soft skills to people in this sector and make them extraordinary with the training interventions.

Women Participation

There is nothing in the sector which can’t be done by women employees still the women form meager part of the workforce in this sector. This needs to be improved by taking corrective measures. Besides my strong belief that women make better managers than men, I also feel that the corruption also can be curbed by increasing the women in the workforce as women are found to be less involved in corrupt practices than men.

Corruption

The sector is full of corrupt practices and till date no government or bureaucracy has been able to reduce it. It can only be curbed if Apart from other strict measures, environment also is improved in the sector by focusing on above five points and then people in the sector will have fear of loss of an opportunity of a good employment. Also, efforts to link our jobs to a national movement as mentioned in point 1 can help as our future generations won’t forgive us if we leave our country in darkness to them like our past generations left this to us.

This Article Was Published in Manthan Magazine Owned By Medhaj Techno Concept Pvt. Ltd.