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December 10, 2005
Your tax rupees at work!
Currently in India, we are used to see the foundation stones on any public project exhibiting the names of the honorable politicians who laid the foundation stone for the project. My proposal is to erect a permanent signboard in cement on any public project (be it a road, be it a dam or be it a bridge) to name the contractor, architect, builders involved in the project. The contractor name has to be so prominently displayed on the projects. This has to be preserved forever for posterity.
Most of the public projects are so lousy because of corruption and unprofesssionalism of the contractors.
We want to celebrate the people who build great projects. At the same stroke, we want to give the incentive of discredit to the bad guys.
One could argue that the bad contractors have anyway developed thick skin for criticism and that they would float another benami company for another project. But my idea is to celebrate the good contractors more than punishing the bad contractors. By celebrating the good guys, we are setting expectations a bit higher for the future generations.
Inspiration one: Your tax dollars at work
While driving around in USA, I have seen huge signboards by the side of road construction projects: "Your tax dollars at work". These boards explain the project details like timelines and costs. What an empowering idea? It is people's money which is making these roads, not the grace of a politician.
Inspiration two: Reset your expectations
Rajesh Jain's call to "reset our expectations" was an inspiring thought to my idea. Read his article at TECH TALK: Building a Better India: Prologue
Inspiration three: People who built the Great Wall of China
One inspiration for the idea came from a documentary on the Great Wall of China. During the construction of the Great Wall of China, certain sections of the wall mandated the bricks to be marked with the name of the army unit or village unit which contributed those bricks. By marking the bricks with a particular entity, they could trace back the manufacturer later when a section of wall collapsed. This is a wonderful idea.
Inspiration four: Dale Carnegie
Another inspiration was Dale Carnegie. In one of the books, Dale Carnegie tells the story of how a manager increased the productivity of two departments. By writing the production numbers on a black board outside the units, he set a competition between the two departments to beat one another in production numbers. It was a cool trick!
Posted by nachiketa at December 10, 2005 09:18 PM