Lunch with BS: Sunil Arora

The secretary of I&B Ministry tells Anjuli Bhargava bureaucrats shouldn't make too much of their transfers and bats for less regulation 'by the system'

I first met Sunil Arora in 2002-03 soon after he took charge as Indian Airlines chairman and managing director (CMD). Not the archetypal bureaucrat, Arora was a hard taskmaster, not a man to mince his words and happy to ruffle feathers as and when the need arose. All these traits ensured that he was never exactly a popular figure even though he achieved results. But like many not-so-popular figures, he was taken quite seriously in the airline and outside of it. Even today, I am aware that Arora retains a large loyal support among Indian Airlines staff.

A controversial letter — with details of certain misdoings — submitted by him to the then Cabinet secretary towards the end of his stint as CMD sealed his fate. In 2005, as soon he finished his Indian Airlines assignment, he was sent off to cool his heels in Jaipur. The letter was all but relegated to the dustbin. It’s a story many will remember but will perhaps never be told.

In 2012-13, Arora was poised to return to the capital as development commissioner, handlooms. Curiously, the contents of the letter found its way into the media around the time — seven years after it had been written — and his posting was cancelled. If a single act can shape and colour your future, Arora’s letter is evidence of it. His exile — shorter than Lord Ram’s — lasted nine years.

I am meeting Arora after at least a decade. We did intend to meet in Jaipur where he was posted in his home state (he worked closely with Vasundhra Raje who, he says, is a “visionary”) but fate chose otherwise. He’s been back since September 2014, first as secretary of skill development ministry and now as secretary of information and broadcasting. He’s taken charge of the new ministry just a few days before we meet.

We are at Masala Art at Taj Palace, New Delhi, and more or less have the place to ourselves. We order some methi chicken (for him), a paneer dish (for me) and a dal (which, the maitred’ insists, is better than that of Bukhara) and some bread to go with the meal. 

We begin eating and pick up from where we left off a decade ago. I try discussing the letter in some detail but Arora stubbornly refuses to be drawn into the subject. One and half hours go by and our official Lunch with BS is yet to begin — when he offers to pay for lunch with his credit card. “We can always meet again for the Lunch with BS,” he adds.

I insist Business Standard is hosting him and start my recorder (just as he orders rose petal ice cream as dessert). There has been a lot of noise around this whole business of skill but there has been so much noise around so many things that I — like many others — am sceptical of what is really a priority for this government and what is simply noise.

I begin by asking whether this actually needs an entire ministry (it was first created as a department in July 2014 and then converted into a full ministry a few months down the line) and if so what on earth was it doing.

The bureaucrat in him wakes up. He argues that this was something — he feels — should have been done a decade ago. “The fact that the National Skill Development Authority (NSDA) and the National Skill Development Council (NSDC) were housed within the department of economic affairs is evidence that the need had been felt even in the past. Someone had to pick up the gauntlet and it was done”

He argues that to reap India’s demographic dividend, it is necessary that the population is adequately skilled and employable. “This can be a demographic opportunity or it can be a huge demographic threat.” So he feels the skill ministry ought to have been set up 10 years ago. “These islands of excellence need to be scaled up while maintaining standards.” 

“While it may be true that only around 5 per cent of our population in India is formally recognised as skilled, there are millions of people in this country who are exceptionally skilled but have neither any formal education nor certification.” So the government has now decided to formally recognise prior learning — those who are hugely skilled but have no certification will now be brought into the fold.

Then, a national mission on skills has been created and is headed by the Prime Minister. A 2015 Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Policy has also been unveiled and finalised. About 23 ministries and departments of the government are spending around ~7,000 crore in various skilling programmes. The effort would now be more focused.

I ask what is the point in announcing yet another policy and launching yet another mission, and when will we see actual results on the ground.

“Not everything is a leap in the dark. Some initiatives are a leap of faith. More than a crore people are already getting skilled through various existing programmes. But the mission will scale it up and attempt to take this to a new level.” He says developing skill is both an “overarching political vision and an economic necessity”.

He feels that there is a symbiotic relationship between skill development and Make in India. The two go hand in hand. More and more of the population has to be trained in various skills for India to become a manufacturing hub and as more and more things are made in India, newer skills will be added to the pool.

He says that working in the skills sector has been “one of the most humbling experiences of my life”. In just one year, he has come across so many people who have dedicated their lives to this. “I have met people who have left some of the cushiest jobs in international banking to work in Bhubaneshwar and in the north east. I have met people who were teaching in Australia but who are now working in Left wing affected districts in India. Phds in computer science from Michigan are now running centres in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai in the skills sector. Its heartwarming to see how much people have given up or are willing to give up to follow their heart.”

I ask why he was transferred abruptly but Arora brushes this aside saying that bureaucrats should not over-analyse their transfers. So I switch track and ask him whether we really need Doordarshan and All India Radio in today’s world? Haven’t they — like Air India — outlived their utility and relevance in a sense? 

It’s not a “versus” issue to his mind. This versus that. “The world is turning digital. By that yardstick nothing has got any meaning. Yet all over the world we have all types of media – electronic, print, radio, digital,” he says. He remembers when there was an earthquake in Bhuj, Indian Airlines did 185 flights in 15 days. So everything cannot be seen in only one light.” He says it is too early for prognosis and diagnosis and too presumptuous to pronounce or form any judgment on macro issues like the future of Doordarshan. In his few weeks at his new charge, he’s still grappling with the micro. 

But do we really need the information and broadcasting ministry to poke its nose in so many things that are not its business? I know broadcasters in the country would be a happier lot if the government did not regulate quite so much. 

Do we actually need a full-fledged ministry? Can’t we make do with just a department? 

He is quick to retort, jokingly: “Here I thought you were a well wisher. But two weeks into my new job and you are going after it!” Then, he agrees and says he’d like to see less regulation of the broadcasters provided they get better at self-regulation. “Both have to go hand in hand,” he says. Less regulation by the system and a kind of auto regulation by the players would be ideal. A recent delegation of broadcasters that met him, he says, acknowledged this and said they had appointed a retired judge who would help them self regulate.

He’s excited about the new film museum that is coming up in Mumbai. “Did you know of all the silent films ever made in India — over 1,300 — only three have survived. I am trying to find out what happened to the rest.” 

And then of course he finds himself sitting on a political hot potato — the Film and Television Institute of India and its fate. He reserves comments on the matter for the time being — he’s yet to get fully acquainted with it. He leaves with the promise of a second lunch — one that he will host.