The verdict of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) setting aside the appointment of Dr T C A Anant as the country’s chief statistician is retrogressive. Hopefully, better judgement will emerge on appeal. The issue is more important than a single appointment for two reasons: one, important principles are at stake and, two, the country’s statistical set-up is in poor shape and needs imaginative leadership urgently. To take the second issue first, the requirements of shepherding a modern, changing economy cannot be met by the country’s present statistical structure. It is in need of a drastic overhaul which cannot automatically be delivered by those who are familiar with the present system and can, at best, run it according to extant rules and practices. You need new ideas, structures and rules to run it. People promoted from within over time are not the best equipped to think out of the box to deliver these.
The CAT has held that the head of a statistical set-up should be proficient in statistics and familiar with running a statistical organisation. This will effectively limit the leadership to those who have moved up from within. When drastic change is necessary in response to dissatisfaction on the part of the users, in-house talent may not be the best answer. It has been repeatedly established in the world of business that an organisation can sometimes be best set right by bringing in a new leader from among the organisation’s users or customers. They know best which deficiencies have to be set right to regain customer confidence and business. The turnaround and modernisation of British Airways over two decades ago was crafted by the induction at the top of Lord King, whose earlier connection with aviation could best be described as being a frequent traveller. Nearer home, Titan, which changed the watches market in India, was set up by engineers from HMT and marketing men from industries that had nothing to do with watches. A range of disciplines, from economics to clinical studies, extensively use statistical tools and so qualify as areas from where future leaders of India’s statistical structure can be sourced.
Another key issue at stake is lateral induction at senior levels in the government. The government’s own bureaucracy at anywhere near the top does not like this and will use every trick in the book to stall such entry that is seen as a threat to career progression prospects. But there is no question that movement between the public and private sectors enriches both. The advent of new economic policies opened up career avenues for public sector managers willing to think new thoughts. The absence of a significant reverse flow represents a victory for the entrenched bureaucracy in protecting its turf, thereby denying citizens better public sector delivery. Things have, in fact, worsened with retiring senior bureaucrats capturing most of the positions of sector regulators created in recent years. It is axiomatic, for example, that a head of the Securities and Exchange Board of India can come as often from the private financial sector as from the higher levels of the government’s financial bureaucracy. Otherwise, the country suffers.