The experiences of productivity measurement in India

Abstract

I am happy to start the session recalling a news item that appeared way back in 1982 - regarding the thrust for higher productivity given by our Prime Minister. "Prime Minister Indira Gandhi today called for a speedy study of the factors which hampered production and immediate review of the working of the public sector enterprises.... the PM pointed out that the last two years could be called 'years of operation rescue'. The Govt. had been able to rescue the economy of the country. The next two years, she stated, should be 'operation forward'. The govt. had decided to observe 1982 as the 'year of productivity' and also have announced the 20-point programme. Both these are intended to provide direction and momentum to operation forward, the Prime Minister observed." Rightly she defined productivity as getting the best out of every rupee, every manpower and every machine and laid down guidelines emphasising optimum utilisation of the potential available. Not that the Indian scene was lacking much in the awareness and instituting measures for improving productivity but the stress laid by the highest executive in the Govt. definitely had given an impetus to the productivity movement. The public sector companies have been able to improve their profits and also capacity utilisation - the twin indicators of performance. Before going into the details of the concept of productivity and evaluation of the improvement effected whether in absolute basis or comparable basis in the Indian Industry, let us have a look into the scenario in this context.