Prior Art · From My 1986 Archive
An “Austerity Drive” Will Save Crores. A “Co-operation Drive” Would Save Far More
The News (May–June 2026)
Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal for austerity amid global uncertainty and energy-security concerns, the Maharashtra Government has moved quickly. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis directed ministers and senior officials to curtail foreign tours, trim official convoys and shift to electric vehicles. Deputy CM Eknath Shinde switched to an EV; Union Minister Nitin Gadkari cut his convoy by half and toured by bus.
This was followed by a 19-point circular, signed by Chief Secretary Rajesh Aggarwal, instructing every department to cancel approved foreign trips, prioritise hired electric vehicles, ban motorbike rallies / roadshows / cavalcades, defer non-essential expenditure, and appoint no new advisors for six months.
A sound, sensible, top-down circular. I have only one observation — and I make it from experience, not theory.
Flashback: 13 July 1986 — “ECD Vs. ECD”
Between 1979 and 1987, L&T’s Powai works passed through strikes, go-slows and worse. When the company launched its cost-and-productivity drive in 1986, I wrote to all 7,500 workers, managers and union leaders. I called the drive ECD — Economy (Co-operation) Drive, and I underlined why the word in the bracket mattered:
“When it comes to managing productivity-improvement, every employee is a manager! And that is why ‘Co-operation’ is the middle-name of this second ECD — Economy (Co-operation) Drive.”
The point was simple. A management can order economy. It cannot order productivity. The first is a circular; the second is a culture — and culture is built only through open, honest, two-way communication that turns every employee into a willing partner. That trust, painstakingly built over six years of letters, eventually lifted productivity by about 3% a year.
Flashback: 20 August 1986 — “NOT ALONE”
A month later I wrote again, this time to reassure my colleagues that we were not the only ones tightening our belts. I listed what NTC’s 125 mills, HMT, HEC, BHEL and BHPV were each doing — economy drives, recruitment freezes, energy savings, inventory reduction, even installing word-processors and micro-computers to cut costs. My conclusion then is exactly the conclusion Maharashtra should draw now:
“Problems cannot be borrowed — these are our own creation. But solutions can be borrowed.”
The State Government is not alone. The austerity playbook — what works, what merely looks good for a fortnight — already exists in forty years of public-sector and corporate experience. It need not be re-invented.
1986 vs 2026 — Same Drive, One Missing Word
| Theme | L&T “ECD” — 1986 | Maharashtra Circular — 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Cut travel cost | Cut wasteful, unproductive expenditure | Curtail foreign tours; EVs; bus travel |
| Reduce overheads | Eliminate waste; improve capacity utilisation | Defer non-essential spend; no new advisors (6 months) |
| Symbolism | Chairman addresses managers across locations | Ban on cavalcades, bike rallies, roadshows |
| Benchmarking | “NOT ALONE” — borrow proven solutions | (Opportunity: learn from other States/PSUs) |
| The multiplier | Co-operation — every employee a manager | Not yet present in the circular |
A Co-operation Drive changes what 13 crore citizens choose to do.
The savings are not in the same order of magnitude.
My Submission to the Hon’ble Chief Minister
Respected Shri Devendra Fadnavis ji, I offer the following, drawn from a drive I helped run four decades ago:
- Add the bracket. Re-launch the effort not merely as an “Austerity Drive” but as an Economy (Co-operation) Drive — inviting every government employee, and every citizen, to suggest one saving.
- Open a two-way channel. A simple portal / WhatsApp line where staff and citizens submit economy ideas — with the best ones published monthly, with the author’s name. Recognition costs nothing and multiplies participation.
- Publish the score. A monthly dashboard of rupees actually saved, department-wise. What gets measured and shown, gets sustained beyond the first fortnight.
- Borrow, don’t re-invent. Commission a one-page “NOT ALONE” note benchmarking austerity measures already proven in other States and PSUs — adopt what works, drop what is mere optics.
- Make it durable. Tie the drive to a standing productivity goal, not just a crisis. In 1986 the crisis passed; the culture of trust it built did not.
Hemen Parekh
(In 1986, the colleague who insisted on the word “Co-operation”)
Original letters, dated and unedited:
• ECD Vs. ECD — 13 July 1986
• NOT ALONE — 20 August 1986
Blog: hemenparekh.in | Digital Avatar: hemenparekh.ai
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