This refers to T N Ninan's column "Find the men for the job" (Weekend Ruminations, December 20). The author's conclusion that the government needs to find and empower a dozen men/women - such as D V Kapur, V Krishnamurthy, R C Bhargava and E Sreedharan - who can "deliver well-run projects and companies" is right. But given the mammoth size of public sector investment, the nation perhaps requires to "find and empower" not a dozen but at least a few hundreds to lead the new public sector. That is where the problem lies. We do not have that many top managers of such calibre. Even in a situation where such managers are available, they have some issues that may torpedo their contributions.
There is no guarantee the new public sector will exceed the efficiency and effectiveness of the private sector. The best option for the government is to shortlist a few units in the private sector and get into partnerships with them - what is euphemistically called public-private partnerships or PPPs.
As for the the Confederation of Indian Industry's criticism, business associations are out to find faults with the Narendra Modi government though they did not have the guts to rebel against the the United Progressive Alliance regime.
K V Rao Bengaluru
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