Bureaucracy Today meets the charismatic CEO of Prasar Bharati, Jawhar Sircar. The 1975 batch IAS officer of the West Bengal cadre is our Bureaucrat of the month. He is on a mission to transform Prasar Bharati and is using his astute skills to enable this

It is twilight when we walk into Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer Jawhar Sircar’s immaculately done office at PTI Bhawan, New Delhi. The atmosphere is lively as Sircar conducts a meeting with a group of people and invites us to be part of what is a normal day for him. “I always wanted to get into a relatively free profession such as teaching”, he says as we settle down and take in the warm tones of his office. However, various incidents at the time of doing graduation at Kolkata’s Presidency College which he attended during the peak of the Naxalite movement put an end to his teaching aspirations. “I appeared for the IAS exams and by luck or fluke I got through”, smiles the former Ministry of Culture Secretary who is considered to be one of the best bureaucrats in our country. At the helm of Prasar Bharati since February 2012, Sircar has been instrumental in using his acumen to bring about changes and infuse life into this organizationAfter completing a year of his stint at Prasar Bharati, the CEO says that he leaves it to people to judge how his performance has been so far. The positive changes in the organization and its working are apparent. “There is a lot more visibility of Prasar Bharati now as compared to the past. We are on the air through our advertisements. We have also made consistent efforts to bring in a lot of new talent. This has also caused a lot of heartburn as many insiders are not very happy with the infusion of these new initiatives”, he laughingly points out. However, Sircar is undeterred since without changes “an organization tends to become myopic.” “The circulation of its blood is affected”, he adds.

REFORMING PRASAR BHARATI

“Assuming the reins of the public broadcaster came with an extraordinary set of challenges”, agrees Sircar. He says, “At Prasar Bharati we have 400 stations of various types. I wonder if there is any other broadcaster in the world which has to cater to such a vast network of radio and TV stations. In addition, we have 1,900 transmitters and 35 satellite channels which must function without any fault.” Sircar also points out that the outreach of Prasar Bharati is massive. “Much of  rural India is still covered by our terrestrial network. Even though most people assume that all of urban India watches only cable or satellite television, examining the depths of urban India will lead you to a different conclusion altogether. You will find all sorts of free-to-air services being utilized even in urban India.” Industry estimates provide figures of around 15 million households being covered by terrestrial networks. This translates into a gigantic figure of almost 90 million people being catered to by Prasar Bharati. A boon and bane at the same time, according to Sircar. “In terms of reach no one can compete with us. However, in terms of requirement and management of manpower equipment it can be quite a challenge. The scale of operations at a terrestrial network has a lot of allied problems. Maintaining available resources while trying to modernize and make new changes is no easy feat. The key is to work around these challenges and revive the organization and we have been taking constructive steps towards this process”, says Sircar who has achieved this through constant monitoring, improving the quality of programmes, the adaptation of technology and concentrating on manpower. He also devised the 5C approach – Convergence, Communication, Content, Corporatisation and Cooperation amongst various departments for the betterment of the organization.

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE

The biggest challenge for Prasar Bharati is the fact that for the past 20 years there has been no active recruitment in the organization. An uncanny situation for an organization which is serving the needs of the public on a daily basis. “If any one of my 395 kendras fails even for a day , I have hell on my hands. My job is to ensure that all these 395 fires keep running every day. Even to increase transmission for a few hours requires a massive infusion of manpower from our side”, he says. The situation fortunately is changing according to the Prasar Bharati CEO. He credits the previous Information and Broadcasting Minister and the present IB Minister for implementing Cabinet decisions in this regard.
Hence one of the first things that Jawhar Sircar did after becoming the CEO was to sort out the manpower issue affecting the ailing organization. A recruitment of 3,000 people has been conducted to solve this problem temporarily. Sircar notes that this number is still not enough to fill in the staff gap in 100 cadres that Prasar Bharati has. He says, “3000 is probably just enough to get us by for now. However, this is the first wave of recruitment and we will conduct many more in the coming future. We hired various professionals from the private sector and organizations such as BBC and Bloomberg on a contractual basis who have added a degree of professionalism and innovation to the organization. In addition, we also gave our old contractuals a chance to reappear in this process, so as to keep the balance between new talent and the supervision by old and wise hands.”
Another major breakthrough was sorting out the dismal financial situation of the organization. “In a generous gesture, the Government cleared all our past dues and made all the red accounts vanish. In addition, the Government will also pay the salaries of our staff for the next four years , while we will be responsible for operational costs.” The CEO says, “Prasar Bharati is not a loss-making organization , as is the popular perception. People need to understand that as a public service broadcaster we are not here with a profit motive. The organization does not have a profit and loss account or a balance sheet in the sense a corporate does. As a public body what matters foremost is that we serve the public interest. However, this should be no excuse to exist inefficiently. The key is to serve the public interest in the most efficient manner and provide the best delivery of services to them.“

BETTER PROGRAMMES

           Another area of focus for Sircar was improving the quality of programmes being aired on the channels. He says, “In the past more money was spent paying the salaries of employees rather on the quality of programme making and this needed immediate rectification. Now we are adopting a new formula for improving the quality of programmes such as Simulcast Pact. Through this pact we share the revenue 50-50 with the content maker.
Saraswatichandra by Sanjay Leela Bhansali is one such programme. Simulcast Pact allows us to earn revenue and also ensure that quality programmes are put on air. Another alternative we devised was advertiser-funded programmes. Through this mechanism if an advertiser feels that a particular programme is not up to the mark, then we give him an opportunity to come up with a suitable alternative. Thus if it’s a healthcare company, then a show or a serial on healthcare could be brought about by them and we would take them on board and air it. This ensures that we are able to cater to the needs of a vast population.”
Sircar also devised initiatives to tighten the monitoring of commissioned programmes which previously were not being properly monitored by their producers. “The problem is that people have a very set perspective of Prasar Bharati.
Sarkari body hai. Yaha ke logon ko sarkaari aadat hai. (This is a Government body. People here are used to a relaxed Government way of functioning). This is the first fallacy. Prasar Bharati is not a Sarkari body. Rather it is a Sarkar- supported body created by an Act of Parliament. The Government is essentially supposed to keep itself at arm’s length from our functioning. It is for this very reason that you are able to find politicians from the Opposition party along with Ministers from the present Government in a debate on Doordarshan News. It is our duty to provide our viewers with a variety of opinions rather than restricting ourselves to becoming a State mouthpiece”, he exclaims.
An ardent writer, Sircar says he hardly finds any time for writing these days. “I write for fun. However, at present my only single-minded interest is to get this organization up and running efficiently. I have been entrusted with a huge responsibility of reviving this organization and I must follow certain unorthodox routes. This might get me into dicey situations but that is a risk I am prepared to take”, the CEO concludes.
As the sun sets and our interview comes to an end, several more people and various files are already clambering for Jawhar Sircar’s attention. As he turns to attend to official matters, he grins and tells us: “Jumping from one to the other!”.
With such infectious optimism and dedication to work, Jawhar Sircar it seems is just the man needed to bring Prasar Bharati back on track.

|||||| Thank you for your interest.||||||