GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

RATIO:'-lALlZATION IN INDIAN BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 227.
men and women they came offering their mites; and at the
end of three weeks, the entire capital required for. the
construction requirements,-£ 1',630,OOO-was secured,
every penny contrib~ted by some 8,000 native Indians. "6
~ut neither the patriotic origins of the company- nor the
nationalistic sentiments expressed by its chairmen in their
annual speeches before the shareholders have been able
to render it strik~-proof when in the interest of
••. efficiency •• they have decided upon a policy of retrench.,
ment. In 1928 the works has had to experience not only
the strike from the side of working men and cl¢rks but a
~. lockout from the. side of the management as, wdl.
Here, agai~, and even so late as 1928 the word
rationalization does not appear to have been used by the
directors. But the content of rationalization is embodieq
in the speech delivered by the chairman on September 27.
1928. ". It .is not to the benefit of labour," ;saysbe~
II thattwo men or even more should be .engaged on work
which can be done by one. It means inefficiency, it means
10~3' of time. We took a definite step in our. policy of
gradually increasing efficiency by our announcement of
October 1926 that when posts fell vacant they would be
I~ft vacant wh~rever. possible. •• And further, ". we knew
that we had large numbers of surplus men but we resorted
to this very gradual forl':l pf reduction in. order to avoid
hardship to any of the men. Results were obtained onl:>;
slowly •. !mt as they gradually be:ame apparent,. a cam,.
6 Fraser: Iron and Steel in India (Bombay. 1919). pp. 35. 42. 52;
tuckwell: The Tata Iron and Steel Co. (Royal Society 0/ A~ts Journal.
London. 1 Febr. 1918); The Tata Iron and Steel Company Ltd.
(Jam.hed~u') .1929,;; -