MUSINGS
Who's happy we're out?
VIJAY NAMBISAN
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India's early exit from the World Cup 2007 may have actually saved the country crores of rupees.
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If India's labour force is 500 million, and each member of it works 25 days in April for eight hours a day, it amounts to 100 billion person-hours of possible productivity. Our team has saved us 17 per cent of that figure.
CASTING about for some silver lining to the World Cup cloud, I hit upon a class of people who should be beaming at India's exit. The budget has not yet been passed as I write this, yet they can be happy on one count at least. I am thinking of the economists, more particularly the development planners.
The TV watchers
Had India beaten Sri Lanka or, earlier, Bangladesh, the team would have played six matches from March 31 to April 19, with a possibility of two more in the next 10 days. Call it seven matches. Say that, at a conservative estimate, 400 million citizens would have stayed up until midnight to watch India's matches, and half of those would have watched to the bitter (or otherwise) end. After eight hours' cricket watching, they would have been fit for very little the next day.
Certainly, a high proportion of our keenest followers of the game is from the class of unorganised labour. They could not have afforded to miss work the next day. However, their output wouldn't have amounted to much.
Another large fraction would comprise school and college students who are not yet part of the workforce. But examination-time is coming, and conscientious parents would pack off the kids to sleep by midnight at the latest. Call it eight person-hours lost for each of the 200 million who lasted all the way, and four for those who watched till midnight. That works out to 2.4 billion person-hours. After seven matches, it's almost 17 billion.
You might say that I have not taken unemployment into account. It's true the unemployed are far likelier to stay up all night watching a telecast than the employed. But who and what are the unemployed? There must be 100 million `housewives' in India. Who will deny that housewives do productive work? They are also among cricket's most passionate fans. If the unemployed are reckoned at 10-15 per cent of the labour force, I should still stand by my figures. After all, I have not counted the hours lost by the employed who had a good night's sleep, yet spent an appreciable part of the next day watching TV highlights and disagreeing with their colleagues.
Work hours saved
My figures are shaky, I know. They need the benefit of official statistics. But I've factored in a uniform shakiness. If India's labour force is 500 million, and each member of it works 25 days in April for eight hours a day, it amounts to 100 billion person-hours of possible productivity. Our team has saved us 17 per cent of that figure.
I can't believe it. I must have slipped up: My figures must overlap somewhere. It's like that old conundrum: You sleep one-third of each day, so that's 121 days in the year lost. Another four hours per diem for meals, ablutions, travel, that's 61 days more. Add 52 Sundays and 26 half-Saturdays, it's 78 more. Add Government holidays (20), casual leave (11), privileged leave (20), sick leave (15) and paid leave for travelling home (20). The grand total is 346. When do you work?
I wonder, sometimes, particularly during the cricket World Cup. I'm not counting, in the present circumstances, the 12 hours a day the idiots — sorry, I mean the pundits — spend arguing on the news channels about why we lost. Had we won, they'd still be there arguing why we won.
Wasted time
Time has been wasted taking out protest marches, staging mock funerals, burning effigies, tonsuring heads, solemnly swearing never to buy products endorsed by our heroes, and presenting memoranda to the President. Yet had we got as far as the semi-finals or further, more time and money would have been wasted on celebrating. There would have been official functions and Padma Bhushans. No; I'm willing to cut it down to 10 per cent, but to no less than that.
Think of the growth predictions. April is often a cruel month, so let's say the Gross Domestic Product would have normally grown by seven per cent in that month. An early exit from the World Cup has meant the difference between 6.3 and seven per cent. Over the year, between 7.9 and eight per cent. That's many thousands of crores of rupees saved. Ooh aah India!
Does anyone from the Planning Commission have anything to say?
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