Clerical Vision

As most of the union leaders in question are of a broad Left persuasion, it would be sacrilege to suggest that they are being reactionary, or working against the tide of historical progress to the detriment of the common good. But there is little doubt which way history is progressing. More and more of the global economy is getting integrated, work is getting pushed out of central regulators into the market, and computerisation is sweeping away mountains of clerical work that originally used to be the pen pusher's ken. All economies, from Cuba to New Zealand, are also deregulating in varying degrees, trying to use the forces of the market to serve varying ends. The last five years in India have been marked by progress towards deregulation, computerisation and globalisation. This is naturally changing not only the way organisations like the RBI work, but also the kind of work they do.

 

During this period exports have nearly doubled and exchange control regulations cut to probably less than half. This rapid rise in exports and corresponding improvement of the external balance would not have been possible if simplification of procedures had not kept pace. The unions have trotted out disingenuous arguments to mask their sectional agenda. More clerks are needed to ensure better banking supervision, greater scrutiny of foreign exchange transactions to stem the rising tide of exchange control violations with the delegation of powers to the authorised dealers, and quicker examination of currency for reissue of notes to tackle the current notes shortage. But supervision is a technical matter which can only be handled by experts in risk management with the help of experts in information technology. This is hardly the job of clerks. The country will be ruined if the clock is set back and prior RBI sanction is needed for the smallest of foreign exchange transactions.

The RBI management is to be congratulated on slowing down the recruitment of non-technical hands. Its earlier weak-kneed attitude to the unions had prevented it from computerising the operations of the public debt office, and this contributed to the 1992 securities scam although another public sector organisation with equally strong unions, State Bank of India, had started computerising its operations from the sixties.

It should also be recalled that when the first automatic telephone exchange went into operation in the US some decades ago, all the telephone operators went on strike, arguing that automation would throw them out of their jobs. If they had been listened to, every single human being on the earth today would be a telephone operator, in order to handle the calls being made daily. The RBI's clerks are today's version of yesterday's telephone operators. Think of the number of clerks who would be needed if all regulations were to stay in place, and the size of the economy trebled over the next decade. All of Mumbai would have to become a city of clerks.