Prologue: (Indian Public Sector business)

Some commonly used abbreviations

NIT: Notice inviting Tender

EMD: Earnest Money Deposit

ICB: International Competitive Bid    NCB: National Competitive Bidding

RFQ: Request for Quotation  

RFP: Request for Proposal

P&F: Packing and Forwarding

DGSD: Directorate General of Supplies & Disposals (Under the ministry of Commerce and Industry)

ST: Sales Tax   CST: Central Sales Tax

IC : Interchangeability Certificate

These are some abbreviations, which you will come across when you do business with the Indian Public Sector. It is an irony that the very rules, which were, enforced for transparency in Public Sector dealings have now become the bane of the Public Sector, for you can take advantage of them if you wish to.

It should not be assumed that the Indian Public Sector is totally corrupt. It is nothing like that. Corruption is a way of life in the states but not in the centrally administered Public Sector Units. If fingers can be pointed to the Public Sector then it is only in the respect that they are bound and tied by the lowest rule, even if they are well aware that the lowest party got through the technical scrutiny only based on assumptions.

What is true is that the Public Sector Officers remain confined to their departments. If  the maintenance department and the planning department have got some overlaps, no one co-operates officially because “it’s not my job”. This attitude and the so called transparency attitude are now the major woes of the Indian Public Sector. As a reputed Materials Manager once told me “As per the existing rules, we can remove our clothes. But if you think that we are going to show you our briefs, you got another think coming”. Bully for him.

In this section, I’ll guide you through the quagmire of doing business with the Indian Public Sector, but never in a negative way. The State Government departments.... They are beyond salvation now. What do you say about the Chief Engineer of a WB State department who on asked to state the reason for the discrepancy of  official treated water figures and actual treated water says that he will be risking his pension if he makes public the figures for the public works that his department has done. All this in a linked in discussion forum, too. And this gentleman is now looking for a consulting position (after his impending retirement) abroad in the US(probably where his sons or daughters are settled) so that he can pass on his expertise in showing 1 equals to 2, to his US bosses.

Here I conclude this prologue, friends with the hope that you will like it.

It is not my intention to thrill or educate but only to tell you what you will be able to find yourself but at the cost of time. The novel, the plot of which, is outlined here. starts from my next post.

Till then,

It's 

Merci et Adieu

Bilbo