Will Indian industry engage Bharat?

Indian entrepreneurs are capable and talented — the best in the world — and have emerged from the pains of competition and globalisation with confidence and competence. They are the envy of most countries and are the pride of India. They can also be respected, trusted, and cared for — but, they are not, as of now by government, NGOs and the public.

And, this is sad because Indian corporates have, and are, contributing to social development through affirmative action; skills development; micro-finance programmes; women empowerment; primary education initiatives in rural areas; supporting healthcare; building infrastructure in villages; setting up low-cost housing; reconstructing villages ravaged by natural calamities; planting trees and helping the environment agenda, etc. India is the only country where industry has set up care and treatment centres for HIV/AIDS affected persons (ART Centres) — this is an outstanding example of social action. (via Will Indian industry engage Bharat?- Opinion-The Economic Times).

Mr.Das you surely know this ...

A favorite scam in the Indian mobile phone industry is to activate services that the customer has NOT asked for - and start charging him for it. It then becomes the customer responsibility to discontinue these services. If the customer does not pay the bill, his name gets reported to CIBIL, a credit bureau - which will make it difficult for the customer to access other credit services in future.

If he pays the bill , the teleocm has succeeded inthe scam. The effort required for discontinuing these services is in may cases, is seemingly higher than the charge for these services - about Rs.20-30. (40-50 cents per month). The scam becomes outrageous when you multiply this amount with the number of subscribers - at last count nearly 40 crores (400 million).

The Mobile Recharge Scam

The same scam makes an appearance in mobile recharges. Customers have no way of knowing how and where their money has gone. Hiding behind a walls of call centres and IVR machines, telecom companies in India are looting ciustomers. In the mobile recharge system, an additional victim is the retailer. 2%-4% of pre-paid recharges never reach the consumer. The retailer refunds the money to the customer - and the telecom company in most cases never reimburses the retailer. What is the retailer commission for these recharge services. 2.5%-4%. What are the number of recharges which dont reach the customer - 2%-4%. Basically the retailer subsidizes the mobile phone companies by providing these services to the telecom customer.

A similar story is playing out in credit card businesses, banking and unsecured loans.

Big business and Big Government

They are both on the same side. Fighting the two goliaths is equally impossible for Desi Ram or Indy Joe. The outrage against these scams is building up - and will damage the faith that the Indian has in Indian business.

A word of advice

Stop giving gyaan to the Government. Look at members in your association. They are working hard to lose the trust that the average Indian has for Indian corporates. Stop all these wasteful CSR swill and propaganda - and just get your members to work their businesses cleanly. That itself will be a big enough CSR for Indian industry.

I doubt if India needs more from its businesses - BIG or small.