Cherian

#Governance #Matters Last weekend, @pravaasi and I were in Bhopal for a marriage. Monday morning, we came to the airport managed by the Airports Authority of India and waited for our delayed Indigo flight. Eventually, I got the coffee urge and went around foraging for a good cuppa. I went to the largest cafe in the terminal. It had a proper Lavazza machine with the coffee bean hopper. I asked for a cappuccino. The attendant lady asked me to pay ₹300, which, you will agree, is comparable to the Mumbai price in a Starbucks. I took out my card and tapped it on the wireless PoS terminal. (Note - Our payment systems are now widespread and delightful.) She then asked me to take a seat and that she will call once the coffee was ready. I said, I will rather wait. In the meanwhile, the general unkempt look and the overflowing garbage bin, had started ringing alarm bells in my mind. Sure enough, the lady coolly warmed some milk on an induction stove, poured it in a cup, which already had the coffee powder in it, stirred with a spoon, and offered my ‘cappuccino’ to me. I said, sorry Madam, this is no cappuccino and I wanted the machine coffee. Then she tells that the machine is not working, and mumbles I told you so earlier. I am now properly angry and say, no sorry you never said so, and this is duping the customers and I want my money back. After some reluctance, she refunds the money in cash. Chastised, I go to the the other outlet and ask the attendant in advance if the machine working. She says, yes and charges me ₹ 260. After coolly collecting the payment in advance, she presses a button on the machine to draw hot water and proceeds to make the coffee by hand! I am aghast and tell her that if Bhopal airport cannot serve good coffee to visitors, it cannot have tourists coming to the place. Her expression is that this argument is above her pay grade. Anyway, I come back to my seat, sipping some tepid instant coffee. Afterwards, we return to Mumbai after spending several hours for a short trip. As we taxi-ed to the aerobridge, I see five large planes of Jet Airways, parked on one side of the airport. To me, this picture summarises the sad state of affairs in India. While individual companies operate with their own incentives, constraints and management flaws, the real failure comes from Indian #institutions. Whether it is the glacial insolvency proceedings keeping planes rotting, or the monitoring of a two year long plan of introducing better working conditions for pilots and improving safety, there is listless mediocrity all around. On l’affaire Indigo, the graphic below from @businessline captures the issue. The plane to pilot ratio for Indigo was the lowest among all Indian airlines. If #DGCA knew how to do its job, it would have looked at this number on a regular basis and intervened to get it up to an optimal level. Will any heads roll? Your guess is as good as mine. My humble wish is to get better coffee next time I go to Bhopal.