"Make in India" is a welcome slogan provided..........

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“You have to pay a deposit of Rs. 1000/- and sign a fidelity guarantee Insurance for joining the bank as a cashier” was a condition to join the nationalized bank as a cashier. The amount of Rs.1000/- was fixed when the salary of clerks was around Rs.350/- p.m. The amount continued to remain the same though the salary was increased manifold. Similarly there is also financial reward of Rs. 5000/- which was fixed by the government when the salary was less than thousand and continued to remain so.

As a Management Consultant while I could suggest changes in such archaic rules, the Law that still continues beyond my control baffles me. Professional Tax ( only in some states), Labor welfare fund (Rs.7/- per year per employee even today in Tamil Nadu and Rs.3/- for six months or so in some other state) the Shops and Establishment Act that comes for implementation in bits and pieces by whims and fancies of some officials  and many more.

All these acts and rules prescribe maintenance of salary details in different formats in registers whereby a company has to keep the same data in different formats for different government agencies that may come for inspection again at their whims and fancies. In one state a company was threatened with action for not displaying the benefits of maternity in the notice board when there were no women employees!!! The fonts were too small and the sheet three times the size of a normal notice board, yet insistence on exhibiting the benefits.

For a small business coming under SME category there are too many bosses in the form of implementation authorities/inspectors for too small a turnover and too many returns to various authorities including nil returns. While the government at the centre claimed that they are clearing some obsolete laws, it is also time to standardize returns/statements may be separately for financial and labor law enforcing authorities.   Data in whatever format needed can be asked to be uploaded in a specified website and a certification on the correctness issued or inspection can be held on an appointed date for clarifications.

In case of labor laws there can also be a "Representation Counter" for employees in the website thro which employee objections can be handled for a more peaceful co existence.  In the process the onus of compliance would remain with the companies concerned but the compliance support system of the government would also be forced to be activated. In other words it is not compliance monitoring but compliance support whereby failure of compliance is not the sole failure of the company concerned but of the system.

Ignorance of law is not an excuse for the companies and awareness of the rules is an obligation for the enforcement authorities to ensure that the ignorance does not result in violation liable for penal action. "Challenge the status quo" is the oft repeated phrase in discussion of Leadership models. Right from the example of Rs.1000/- for cash deposit for a cashier up to labor welfare fund of seven rupees per annum people have chosen to sleep with the status quo. Even the fact that the cost of collection/accounting and system monitoring is costlier than the amount earned has not disturbed their inaction.

Laws have to be dynamic so also rules. Technology is incapable of being static. Therefore it is the technology that has to support implementation of rules and laws for the betterment of the society. A classic and already existing example is the number of crimes solved thro cc television footage. Technology is the base, but human applying it fruitfully is the cause of success. What is applicable to crime is equally applicable to industry.  "Make in India" is a welcome slogan provided we make it easy for the industry to make in India easily.

Let us hopefully wait for the Acche Din.

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