Have Goa’s industrialists made Goa profitable? Or only themselves?

The captains of Goa’s industry who have lived in ivory towers need to tell common Goans what has been their contribution to the welfare of the people of the State beyond their profit-seeking. As we highlight various issues that are core to Goans, we must ask an important segment of Goan society, the top industrial houses, mainly the mining giants on their role in making a better Goa, not for themselves or the government or political leaders but for the people of Goa.

This is a natural expectation. When they have used the land and its resources that belong to the people, there has to be a payback. But has this payback happened? Have the people of Goa benefited? Have small-time businesses and medium scale industries benefited? Has money gone into the hands of the common man’s pockets? And most importantly, how do industrialists who are part of a close-knit club where nobody from outside the ring is allowed, become heads of the biggest industry and commerce bodies which gives them a place in government committees and other institutions. These are questions that need answering.

So what are the expectations from a legacy company, a corporate or a premier industry? Let us look at the Tatas for instance. They have set a benchmark for corporate governance.

Jamsetji Tata, the grand founder of the enterprise had said, “In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business, but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.” Words which simply mean this. That when you do business, you do it because the community is not just a stakeholder but the main reason why you do business?

The spirit of enterprise that is the foundation of the Tatas is commendable. Through their trusts and other institutions, they have worked in the field of Health, Education, Empowerment, Sustainability – and this is important – outside the areas where they do business. The Tatas have not paid lip service to CSR to balance their books and confirm statutory requirements but have truly worked for the community across the length and breadth of the country.

They also have enterprises in Goa with many hotel properties. The St Inez Creek which is a decayed nullah runs in from their Panjim hotel which needs very urgent attention. Of course, the onus is on the civic body to do this. One hopes that some of these civic and community needs will be looked at and the group can play a role in clean creeks, encroachment free and clean beaches and greater community involvement.

But overall, the Tatas have more than played their part. Can the same be said of top ‘industrial houses’ of Goa?

Were top companies with hundreds of crores of turnover seen with the people during the pandemic?

Let’s not go too far back and look at the pandemic. When people needed beds, oxygen ventilators and also food who was with them? Did any major corporate and industry house with turnovers of hundreds of crores directly work with the community? From sending migrants home to organising food for COVID isolated patients to delivering rations, ordinary Goans rose to the occasion. Can the same be said for so many of Goa’s top businesses who are a part of the Goa Chamber and other industry bodies and sit in government statutory committees and boards of government organisations and bodies like the IDC and GIDC?

What they did however was some ventilators and oxygen cylinders to the government.

More than the government hospital, industrial houses should have augmented and had a parallel health infrastructure to save people from getting completely fleeced by private hospitals.

Instead, it decided to donate to the Health Department which itself is embroiled in allegations of serious financial irregularities.

Why have the serious allegations of Dr Ranganathan Venkatesh who has been fighting a long battle with the Health Department for 15 years regarding corruption in COIVID management-related purchases, been ignored. He has alleged that the latest scam from the department is the stealing of money from Prime Minister COVID Care Fund of Rs 55 crore allotted to Goa.

The Health Department purchased two hundred ventilators at Rs 8.5 lakhs.  The most expensive ventilator in the world would have cost Rs 4.5 lakhs. The Central government itself purchased ventilators at Rs 2 lakhs a unit. Dr Naik, who has even been to court, has alleged that the ventilator scam is Rs 13 crore. 

THE BIG QUESTION IS, WERE GOAN INDUSTRY HOUSES WITH THE PEOPLE WHEN THEY NEEDED THEM THE MOST?

They could have converted their hotels and factories into COVID centres. Diverted much more industrial oxygen for COVID patients, used their huge fleet of transport to ferry people to hospitals and back for treatment, vaccination and tests, opened up test centres. The manner in which they went to please the government rather than help people directly is an indication that as always they were keen on keeping the government machinery well-oiled. That is the motive.

They are no different from politicians who opened up COVID care centres, knowing this was an election year. Both had motives and the motive was not the well-being of the people.

The point here is that Goa’s industrialists are too close to any government. They love each other. Have they used this closeness for the good of Goa?

Goan industrialists don’t ask questions. They don’t speak for the people and take their side. And yes, they have very good PR machinery with people with great PR skills who work with different government departments and bodies to get their work done. In return, in the dance halls of their properties, they make politicians dance. It’s a give and take.

BUT HAVE THEY BENEFITTED THE STATE?

This is a question that needs serious introspection. Mining companies have extracted minerals and sent out raw minerals outside the country. They have wounded the soil. They have sold raw materials to China and Japan and helped those countries prosper and their own businesses to thrive.

THEY EXPLOITED THE SPOIL BUT DID THEY HELP THE SONS OF THE SOIL?

Why didn’t they make finished products, like iron and steel here? That would have helped factories to be set up, jobs to be given. But they only dug and sold. Instead of being visionaries for the State, they remained traders who operated for their own benefit. Did they create entrepreneurs’? Here banks do not help small-time businessmen but big companies get loans and all facilities to expand. Almost as there are two worlds.  

The real visionaries are people like Claude and Norma Alvares.

They and their Goa Foundation, which fought for Goa’s environment, taught us the value of minerals and the fact that they belong to us and how each Goan can have wealth in their accounts if people get the value of the resources they own. THEY WERE OUR EYE-OPENERS.

It is time every Goan thinks and asks questions. At the same time they should make the coterie of business leaders accountable for their actions and inactions.

As Warren Buffet said, “It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you’ll do things differently”.

Sadly, Goa’s industry magnates have refused to do it differently. Or else Goa would have been in a better place.