R.M. Nayar dismissed from ETTDC chairman post due to financial problems, mismanagement

The order was curt and precise: "The President of India is hereby pleased to terminate your services with immediate effect." At the receiving end of this quit notice which was issued last fortnight was 55-year-old R.M. Nayar - the jet-set chairman of the Electronics Trade and Technology Development Corporation (ETTDC). It was a dramatic end to the six-year career of Nayar who has been at the head of ETTDC since 1978. The 152-staff organisation has the dubious distinction of spending on an average Rs 40,000 per year on each of its employees as salary and other benefits - perhaps the highest in the country.

The ignominious ouster of Nayar comes in the wake of an enquiry conducted by a secretary of the Central Government which stated that the organisation was beset with many financial problems, mismanagement, and group rivalries. In addition, the organisation has also failed to fulfil its primary objective of promoting the export of electronic goods from India. The enquiry was ordered by C.P.N. Singh, minister of state for science and technology after he had received numerous complaints from several members of Parliament.

Indictment:Though the report has not been officially released, India Today has learnt from reliable sources that it has indicted the chairman for squandering money on foreign jaunts and for packing the organisation with relatively unqualified executives. Nayar, who was appointed as managing director of ETTDC in 1974, has spent 407 days abroad-one day in every six. Further, in addition to the fare expenses of over Rs 3.25 lakh, he has drawn over Rs 2.50 lakh as daily allowances from his organisation. And Nayar managed to spend 48 days during the last five months abroad despite the prime minister's order prohibiting ministers and senior executives of the public sector corporations from minimising such tours.

The tours were, ostensibly, meant to promote the corporation's business. But from available evidence they do not appear to have done much good. None of the nine projects for which the corporation had put in bids in countries as diverse as Ghana, Poland, Iraq, Singapore and Malaysia, has paid off. The corporation has also been grilled for excessive dependence on imports for its survival. Of the total sale turnover of Rs 12.18 crore during 1979-80, imports account for Rs 9.22 crore-over 85 per cent. Since ETTDC is the canalised agency for the import of TV tubes and therefore has a monopoly on its sale, it makes fabulous profits of 40 to 50 per cent on them. But while the corporation's imports have burgeoned by over 1,000 per cent during the last six years, its exports have grown by only 200 per cent.

Says a senior official of the Electronics Department: "The organisation never worked on sound commercial and management lines. All sorts of inefficient and unqualified people from a particular state who had no experience in the electronics trade were recruited." In fact, even the appointment of Nayar is surrounded in mystery. His elevation to the chairmanship of ETTDC from junior post of works manager in a short span of 12 years is in itself revealing. He was appointed as one of the general managers of HAL, Hyderabad unit, when his father- in-law Palanthanu Pillai was Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Brahmananda Reddy, the chief minister.