On Plumbing and Skilling

There are plumbers, and there are plumbers from Odisha.

A few years ago, frustrated with the number of times I had to pay for replacing ballcocks on our watertanks, I contacted a new plumber. He took one look at the the tanks and murmered, "Fir se nakli peetal!" (Fake brass, once again!). Turns out that the earlier plumber had been conning me by installing cheap ballcocks that actually corroded in water! 

Much like the puncther-repair guys who toss nails on the road to ensure a steady tyre servicing business, our plumber had been installing the cheapest stuff to ensure that he got called in frequently. The new plumber installed real brass ballcocks, and sure enough, water overflow and wastage became a of thing of the past.

Curious about this plumbers' unusual attitude, his Hindi accent, and to know why he was not the regular fly-by-night operator, I asked him where he was from. "Odisha", he said, "One of my brothers works in Dubai...a few cousins are plumbers in Bombay and Kerala."

After this exprience I have been seeking out Odia plumbers, not only for their aversion to cutting corners but also for a certain professional pride they all seem to take in doing a thorough job: using waterprood plastic tape instead of cotton threads for joints, insisting on getting 'heavy' quality spares because they would last longer.

How did men from rural Odisha decide to specialize in a skill-set - and thrive - in the plumbing profession all over India, and the world?

Turns out that there is a history to this. According to DTE, plumbing as a profession was once dominated by muslims. Following the partition of 1947, and the subsequent exodus to Bangladesh and Pakistan, a few Odiya plumbers based in Kolkata began to fill this vacuum with friends and relatives from their villages in Kendrapara district. The profession became so lucrative that an entire region came to be known as "Villages of Plumbers".

Look a bit closer, and as you would expect, it is just a few individuals who have changed the fortunes of these remote villages. One man picks up plumbing skills in Kolkata, hones it at a large company (Gammon-India), and then sets up his own contract-work firm. His nephews branch out to Delhi, set up a larger company (DD Pradhan & Co. PL), that not only takes up large plumbing contracts, but also serves as an agent to supply Odia plumbers to overseas employers. 

In 2006, the Odisha state goverment took the initiative of setting up the State Institute of Plumbing Technology (SIPT) at a village of the plumbing pioneers - Pattamundai. Formal training and certification now adds to their competitive edge. 

Are there lessons here for ongoing mission-mode programme for skill development in India? Our choices are quite stark. India would need 700 million skilled workers by 2022 to meet the demands of a growing economy, and yet, of the 15 million youngsters who join the workforce every year, more than 75% are not "job-ready". They simply do not have the knowledge or skills needed by various industries. With 54% of the population below 25 years,  the so called "Demographic Dividend" may turn out to be a nighmare haunted by unemployed youngsters.

Just as Odiyas from Kendrapara have built a reputation for themselves in the world of plumbing, what are the lessons we can draw here for the hundeds of other professions?

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LINKS

- Sahoo, Namrata (2016), Caravan: Flush with Cash - Inside the unofficial plumbing capital of India - http://www.caravanmagazine.in/lede/flush-with-cash-unofficial-plumbing-capital-india

- Duggal, Sanjeev (2016), The Hindu: Bridge the Skill Gap - http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/Bridge-the-skills-gap/article14556912.ece

- Ranganathan, Aruna (2013): Professionalization and Market Closure: The Case of Plumbing in India, ILR Review - http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/001979391306600407

- Indian Plumbing Association (IPA) - http://www.indianplumbing.org/home.php
-- also trains through PEEP : plumbing education and employment programme

- National Skill Development Corporation - http://www.skilldevelopment.gov.in/nationalskilldevelopmentcorporation.html

A Tale of Two Aircraft Manufacturers'

HAL and Embraer are two companies set up by governments in India and Brazil respectively, more than four decades ago.  Both sought to break an oligopoly dominated by a handful of aircraft manufacturers in the developed world.

While Embraer has been a spectacular global success, HAL continues to be a staid, stagnant company. Embraer has produced more than 5,000 aircraft that operate in 92 countries on five continents, and it is the market leader for commercial jets with up to 120 seats. HAL, on the other hand, has manufactured (mostly under license), over 3658 Aircraft/Helicopters, 4178 Engines, Upgraded 272 Aircraft and overhauled over 9643 Aircraft and 29775 Engines.

Both companies had very similar origins. Embraer was started out as a government controlled company in 1969 - nearly thirty years after HAL was established in Mysore. And yet, within a span of a few decades, Embraer has become a world leader in the manufacture for executive jets while HAL has nothing significant to show for itself - except, of course, 'upgrading & overhauling' equipment for the domestic market and licensed-production of aircraft from other countries.

What explains this difference?

In a book titled, "The World Aircraft Industries", the authors note that most of HALs efforts, in conformity with other Newly Industrialised Countries (NICs), aimed at license-production of aircraft'. Brazil took a slightly different tack - it first established a a specialised institute for aeronautical engineering research and education in the 1940s. Then, more than two decades later, in 1969, after the basic technical infrastructure was well in place, the government set up Embraer to design and manufacture aeroplanes. Also, from the very beginning, Embraer traversed two paths in parallel — one, manufacturing planes to its own design and, two, manufacturing aircraft under licence.

According to Prof. RT Krishnan of IIMB, "Key elements of Embraer's success have been a clear focus on its core competence, ability to understand user needs in its niche market, quick absorption of technological capabilities, a platform or family approach to product development, cost competitiveness, and, above all, a global risk management model in what is clearly a global business."

In sharp contrast, India seems to have created R&D institutions in silos that remain only distantly connected with the manufacturing industry. Thanks to these silo's, in 2002, when the government of India wanted to buy a new set of executive jets for its VIP's, it turned to the best company in the business - Embraer.

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LINKS & REFERENCES

Embraer, Brazil - http://www.embraer.com/en-US/Pages/Home.aspx

HAL India - http://www.hal-india.com/

Krishnan, Rishikesha K (2003): Where core competence soars, The Hindu Business Line, 1Oct2003, url - http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2003/10/01/stories/2003100100020800.htm

IISc - Dept. of Aerospace Engineering - http://www.aero.iisc.ernet.in/