HALF THE WORLD’S POPULATION OWNS JUST 2% OF PLANET’S WEALTH !

This morning, I was reading the findings of World Inequality Lab, Paris School of Economics, Paris. It finds that the Covid 19 pandemic had increased the share of the wealth of the billionaires of the world and had brought down the share of wealth of the poor, that made fifty percent of the world’s population own just about 2% of the planet’s wealth.

This means, the pandemic Covid 19 had, while increasing the share of wealth of the billionaire on the world, increased the existing chasm between the rich and the poor.

It was earlier believed that as the number of rich people increases in the world, the ‘tricks down’ effect will uplift the poor from poverty to higher living. The effect of Covid 19 on the planet was that it had not only created much more poverty but also made the rich, more richer. During Covid times more than 100 million people got added to the world’s poor list.

Within the developing nations such as India, inequality has only soared. Same-country disparities now account for more than two-thirds of global inequality, gone up from roughly half in 2000,

Today, around 2,750 billionaires own 3.5 per cent of the world’s riches, up from 1% in the year 1995.

Latin America and Middle East has shown higher levels of income disparity. 75 percent of the wealth of these nations are in the hands of just 10 percent of the population.

The case of India is no better. As per the Inequality Lab findings, India now has a challenge of the ‘missing middle class’. Clearly, the pandemic had been very harsh on the Indian middle class and the poor. More from the middle class had fallen into the poor slot now. The country got shocked by the huge second wave of the Pandemic and stuck by its enormity, the country’s leadership went numb and inactive.

It is important that we understand the scenarios well, learn from it, so that we do not repeat the same.

BASKING IN REFLECTED GLORY

GR Gopinath, founder of Air Deccan, has published an article with the above title in The Hindu on 07/12/2021. The article is made on the background of Parag Agarval taking over as the CEO of Twitter which gave the Indians the hubris to tom tom the Indian CEOs in the leading US corporates.

Basking in reflected glory (BIRG) is a self-serving cognition whereby an individual associates himself with known successful others such that the winner's success becomes the individual's own accomplishment. Thus, on the social media, every one is living it out as Nooyi, Nadella, Pichai, Banga, Agarval, Krishna and others. 

Gopinath has a different perspective. He is not thumping the chest but is seriously asking on why these people who are trained in India, go out to a foreign land to make it great there? Premier institutions of the country, the IITs and IIMs have become the breeding ground for corporate honchos of foreign companies. He asks, why can’t such people make it big in India to take the country & its economy forward? 

He also speak of the insecure Indian diaspora who in spite of the success there, still have not become part of the American culture and mooring. The first gen immigrants there, despite their vocational success, always have to live with a borrowed identity which is not a comfortable situation. That get naturalized only with the second and the third gen. He goes on to compare these successful Indian honchos with their Chinese counterparts who goes back to their native land to build up hugely successful business organizations, often with borrowed ideas from FB, Google & Amazon. And, he closes the article asking which of the above model is the best, leaving the readers to find the answers themselves.

These days thousands of Indian students go abroad for higher studies. As per Assocham, over USD 13 billion is spent per annum by about 450000 Indian students for education abroad. The reasons of them going abroad are the lack of quality universities and job opportunities in India. How would the authorities view this to stop the brain drain? When it comes to creating quality education, our planners are clueless and the not-so intelligent ones left behind are working hard to please the powers that be by recreating the ‘pushpak vimana’, ‘brahmastr’ & the plastic surgery of Sushruta, trying to live in the past. 

The migration trend that started with India’s globalization in the 90’s continues but now, India is trying to imbibe the spirit of nationalism based on right wing ideas. However, at this juncture, we must accept that we are neither here nor there. The aspiring youth in the country knows where to go & what to study to make his career and life, the insight of which is totally lost on our nation makers. We are only indulging in scoring brownie points by taking the names of Nadellas & Pichais without knowing how we create them here.

Till we realize and learn, let us live basking in the reflected glory.

Cheers!

THE INCREASING NEED OF THE PRESENCE OF THE SPOUSE

Padmasri Vinod Dua is no longer with us, he could not recuperate from the health challenges that accompanied the Covid 19 infection he caught some months back. 67 years is not an age to depart for a person like Dua who had immensely contributed to media journalism for more than 4 decades. How we wish he lived and contributed more to the the profession that is today completely entangled in the ‘post-truth’ mess that the country is going through! My utmost respects to him!

It is read and heard that Vinod Dua and Padmavati (fondly called as ’Chinna’ by Vinodji) made a fantastic couple. The Radiologist Dr Padmavati Dua surrendered to the second wave of Covid, probably a reason for Vinod Dua to mentally give up the fight for life. They had wonderful friends and belonged to the elite group of the rajdhani, Delhi. 

May the departed Souls of the Dua’s rest in eternal peace!

That takes me to another thought, that of the wife departing from the world earlier than the husband. It simply is not the same as that of the husband dying earlier than the wife. Globally and specifically in the Indian context, the women have the wherewithal and the adjustability to live without the husband than the other way round. As age goes up, men are much more dependent on the wives than reverse. I had seen plenty of such cases within my relatives and friends that prove the point. Why, even I cannot imagine of living these senior years without my dear wife around. 

When one retires from profession or vocation, there must be something going for him post that, lest things will be very difficult to continue. Most of the purpose and obligation of life would have been fulfilled by then. Mind turns negative with age and one starts to pity himself of the present stage and then the diseases follow and soon, you become a picture on the wall. For creating a sense of purpose for the senior living and to be living happily, the invigorating presence of your spouse is an essential thing. ‘Chotta-motta’ fights apart (even there is happiness in it), the life becomes worth living only when your loved one, which is none other than your spouse, is with you.

THE ESSENCE OF BEING ASHWIN RAVICHANDRAN

Saw the BCCI tweet about Ashwin Ravichandran becoming the third highest wicket taker in Indian Test cricket. Of course, the # 1 man is far ahead of him, the wrist spinner Anil Kumble, who is 200 wicket ahead and Kapil Dev @ # 2. Apparently, Ashwin could surpass Kapil Dev but reaching the record of Anil Kumble looks tough, considering his age and also considering the geopolitics of Indian cricket.

Ashwin is a thinking and applying cricketer. Normally off-spinners fade away fast, if he doesn’t reengineer his finger spin continuously. Ashwin Ravichandran, an engineer by qualification, does apply physics a lot in the spin art. Ask him the the rotation of the ball and the angle, he would be precise in replying, of course in CGS units!

In his communication, one observes that Ashwin is very straight and upfront. To survive in Indian cricket you need a Godfather and play realpolitik. I am not sure if Ashwin has any of it. The result is that, lately, he is often sidelined when it come to matches. He is now identified as a Test player and not in ODI & T20. Rumour goes around that he is best at red ball and not in white. Of course India has plenty of good spinners and they need to be given a chance but not at the cost of the best one. What if Australia sidelined Shane Warne and Sri Lanka did so with Muthiah Muralidharan for the sake of youngsters, as India had done with Ashwin? This must be considered on the background that champion side captain of IPL, MS Dhoni, often used off-spinner Ashwin to open the bowling !!!

The fact that Ashwin took 418 wicket at the lowest number of Tests and with the best average & strike rate show that we simply cannot hide a heera (diamond). This is further endorsed by the new Captain of Indian T20 team, Rohit Sharma that he finds Ashwin as a weapon to control runs in the mid overs. It is also a fact that Virat Kohli the captain haven’t used Ashwin to the fullest. By seeing the body language between them, it was evident that things were not that smooth between them.

If Ashwin keeps himself fit and play his politics little more tactfully, one sees good opportunity for him to cross the 600 Test wicket mark and also making his mark on other forms of the game. What a joyous achievement would that be!

Keep going Ashwin Ravichandran! Wishing you the best!

BOOK REVIEW : RANGE - WHY GENERALISTS TRIUMPH IN A SPECIALISED WORLD

We live in a specialist’s world. In everything we do, we are advised to go deeper and deeper to specialise so that we gain the ultimate knowledge on what we do. ’Total competency, full focus and specialisation’, the mantra goes like this. In management theories ‘core competency’ had become a critical asset for professionals, thus, making him a specialist.

Here is a book by David Epstein, which glorifies the generalists than the specialist. He had taken considerable examples of people and situations to reiterate his argument. In these times of specialisation, we can take the book only with a pinch of salt, for, the experts always say that specialisation is critical for meeting career and life ambition.

After reading the book, we have to appreciate that there are two ways of living, either as a specialist or as a generalist; both could be interesting and exciting. This book highlights achieving success as a generalist and we see so many successful people in this category; Aristotle, Leonard da Vinci, Bertrand Russell, Noam Chomsky etc., all big names! When David Epstein argues that generalists can see the big picture, can see the forest for the trees, can tell us deeper stories of our times and are more apt to see the macro picture; what about it? And he has question to ask such as: How do you make systemic change to avoid extinction without generalists?  Without generalists in place, how do communities survive economic downfall? At the highest level of society, how do you prioritize without generalists? He emphasises that a society that is atomized by specialists stays on only because of the integration done on it by the generalists.

David Epstein, the author of this book, has been translated into 21 languages. He is a master's degree holder in environmental sciences & journalism and he worked as an investigative reporter for ProPublica and also as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. Another successful publication of him is ‘The sports gene’ and that was before this book.

This book busts the theories of ten thousand hours of deliberate practice for becoming successful & the 'tiger moms'. It encourages readers to try lots of things, doing them broadly and failing many times.  It suggest a mind-set of not going down any single rabbit hole to the exclusion of everything else in this life, which is  another way of saying that in general, specialists are unable to see beyond their own domain. Someone widely read, having wider experiences and knowing many things about different fields; can have much greater chance to make creative connections that most others will miss. It's not about knowing any one thing. It is on the ability to see the forest than the trees. About seeing and intuitively feeliing the bigger picture. It's about grasping out trends, and tossing out the bad ideas!

As a sports journalist David Epstein uses the example of Roger Federer, one of the all-time greats of Tennis, in this book.  As a young kid, Roger didn’t focus on tennis and didn’t get fancy coaching or strength training. He played a range of different games including Soccer, Badminton, Skateboarding, Swimming and Table Tennis. Until he was a teenager, he didn’t start playing competitive Tennis. Even his parents did not encourage him to take up Tennis. But once he became a Tennis Pro, he turned into one of those rare, preternatural athletes who appear to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws! This, Epstein attributes to the wider level of experiences and learnings that Roger Federer has had in his formative years, as he embraced diverse experiences and perspectives while he  progressed, before becoming a Pro. Epstein also cites Charles Darwin, the creator of the most fundamental book of science, ‘On the origin of species by means of natural selection’. Before Darwin got aboard the HMS Beagle and sailed to the Galapagos, he had trained not only in natural history but also medicine, theology, philosophy, and geology which helped him to have the acuity to analyse and conclude the origin of species.

Another interesting finding of Epstein is that a lot of successful people, in various domains, did have unusual career paths. He observes this as a natural process. He says, “Our work preferences and our life preferences do not stay the same, because we do not stay the same”. This leads to the observation against too much focus on personality traits in work environments because the reality is that personality tends to change over the time.

Bill Gates recommended ‘Range’ as one of the 5 good books to read for a lousy year 2020. Gates liked the book very much and has this to say about the book and the author “Epstein provides a good framework for understanding why polymaths are so important for innovation. He writes that when great innovators are studied, the researchers find “systems thinkers” with an ‘ability to connect disparate pieces of information collected from multiple sources’ and who read more and more broadly than other technologists”

The book poses a serious question on how can go we back from a culture that focuses too much on specialisation. The general criticism of ‘Range’ is that Epstein creates an impression of being too critical of specialists. Against this, Bill Gates gives good advice. “If you’re enthusiastic about a hyper-specialized field like molecular biology or quantum physics, go for it. However just give some room yourself to explore what your colleagues and friends in other fields are learning”, says Gates.

I find the ‘Range’ as a myth busting book. However, it is a very slow read, as one needs time to digest the hypothesis that Epstein throws at you, chapter by chapter. I recommend it as a must read all thought leaders.

DEV BHUMI & GOD’S OWN COUNTRY

What is common between Uttarakhand and Kerala, you may wonder! 

Part of Ayravarth, Hindi speaking, BJP ruled, Himalaya bordered, predominantly vegetarian Uttarakhand and Dravidian cultured, Malayalam speaking, Communist ruled, Arabian sea bordered, predominantly non-vegetarian Kerala could easily qualify as antithesis to each other. 

But there are commonalities.

The first is that both states have a Godly connection. Uttarakhand, part of the Himalayas, with its high mountains, is considered as the abode of Gods, particularly the ‘Mahadev’ (Shiv)! Thus, the  state calls itself a ‘Dev Bhumi’! Kerala has a ‘coined’ description of it as ‘God’s own country’, that has to do with the myth about Lord Parshuram, an avatar of Vishnu, reclaiming Kerala from the sea by throwing his axe into it. 

The next commonality is the rivers, while there is no comparison of the mighty Ganga/Yamuna with the short rivers of Kerala, the fact is, both states have a river culture and river based economy. 

Both states had high forest cover that is depleting due to encroachers, poachers and the politician controlled forest mafia. 

The power generation in both states is hydel based, that has to with excess water availability due to lavish rains that occur there. 

Another connect is the renowned and venerated Badrinath Tempe of Uttarakhand, consecrated by Adi Shankara from Kerala during 8th century CE, where the puja is performed by Malayali Brahmins, even since.

Now comes the negative  commonalities. 

Both states continue to suffer from disastrous landslides associated with incessant rains that has unseasonably increased every year, due to climatic changes happening across the country/world. 

Every year, we read about heavy floods, high number deaths and loss of property that go unabated in both states.

And, the governments of both states haven’t done anything proactively to mitigate the sufferings of people from floods and landslides, which need strong and forceful methods. The unplanned ‘developmental‘  activities without taking the nature into consideration; such as construction of roads, dams, power stations, urbanisation and all, is adding to the nature’s agony. The inaction is due to vote bank politics and the forest mafia influence. The clever politicians would not want to disturb franchise equations of the state . 

All that both governments do is, lip service. The question is, how long will they continue this way? 

Till both the states are ravaged by nature’s fury and completely destroyed ???

THE DISTURBING QUESTION

Some 70,000 years back, Homo Sapiens came out of Africa (OOA-2) and started moving. They were referred to as ‘Hunter gatherers’ and they started expanding, initially through the southern coast, to Asia & Oceania and finally, reaching all continents. During their journey across, the Sapiens sometimes fought and sometimes interbred with the Homo Erectus (and its various avatars), who had come  out of Africa (OOA-1) and spread across the planet, some 2000,000 years ago. 

However, it isn’t very long ago (in comparison), only about 7000 years back, that humans started settling down with agriculture cultivation. They domesticated wild animals, dug up metals, built up townships and began societies. 

History and science, thus, tell us that  the whole human species are migrants and of course, grossly interbred. All of us carry certain percentage all those hominids in our DNA, which could easily be identified through a DNA test, something not expensive to undertake today! The question therefore is, to which percentage faction in the DNA is one biased? 

Take the case of the Indian sub-continent which over the the last millennium had become 7-8 nations with a possibility of permuting again. The current India where the diversity is still very strong (in haploid factions, languages, religions and culture), the unity is achieved by accepting and tolerating the diversity with the level of empathy that was required to do so. Until now, it went well, under the protection of the constitution. With the rising of majoritarianism that is on now, are we not showing the candle to burn off what is not accepted? And, will it only burn off whatever unwanted, or the whole?

This is the introspection that we need to do. Looking at the way in which the persecuted minorities behave across the world, are we not intelligent to understand that any act of aggrandizement can only result in resistance, chaos and annihilation of all that we had built up, on either side of the spectrum? 

When we fight the so called separate others, are we not fighting within ourselves?

‘AUKUS’ TAKES ‘QUAD’ FOR BREAFAST

In the past, I had made some posts about the importance of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, QUAD in short, an umbrella security club sort of an arrangement that was built by Japan, Australia, India & the US, in order to oversea the autonomy of Indo-Pacific Ocean zone, in the wake of Chinese’s assertion over it for the past two decades. With the increased Chinese aggression over the land, India considered it to be a strong deterrent against that nation. At the time of my earlier posts, with Donald Trump as the US President, the QUAD was buiding up steam at the right earnest, later culminating  in the ‘Malabar Naval  Exercise’ jointly by the QUAD member nations in the middle of this year. 

All that has changed now. The US under Joe Biden now has demoted QUAD into a ‘cooperative effort on things like energy, people to people exchanges, infrastructure and supply chain resilience”, as announced by Ms Wendy Sherman, US Deputy Secretary of State at Delhi, lately. 

What brought about this change of plans? 

1. Subsequent to Biden taking power in US, the country’s policies shifted and it was felt that an informal alliance such as QUAD will not work effectively and it needs substance of power to work against China. So, they involved nuclear capabilities to deter China. The fact is America never trusted Indian nuclear endeavours and so, it joined up with its besty, the UK and of course, Australia to form Australia-United Kingdom-United States, AUKUS, an alliance for nuclear submarine capabilities in the Indo-Pacific Ocean zone. 

2. The Indo-American relationship was never made on strong rails. There continues to have mutual distrust in several areas between the two nations. India could never be a stooge of US as Pakistan had been and it is not expected that India will support every move of America. And, India continues to maintain very good relationship with Russia (whom the present US regime hates), including military dealings with it. 

3. The Biden-Harris duo have been directly and indirectly chiding India on the perceived erosion of its democratic values and the intolerant stand that Indian ruling dispensation has taken on other religions. 

4. Come to think of it. Isn’t there a racist angle in the formation of AUKUS? Japan and India are Asian nations and are not white controlled. Culturally too, the US is not comfortable to have intimate relationship with the Asians. 

All these must have changed the US perspective and it demoted QUAD into a social club for cooperatiion on developmental issues. 

Is it a setback for India? From the current foreign affairs perspective, it could be viewed as one. But India, with an external affairs policy that conceived initiatives such as NAM (Non Aligned Movement), it never tried to cosy up to US, UK etc, in the way these nations want the relationship to be (a la US-UK, US-Pakistan etc.) 

So, with the weakening of QUAD, India is back to fending for itself……

THE NEED FOR A STORNG OPPOSITION & THE SELF DESTRUCTIVE CONGRESS PARTY

All agree that democracy works best when the opposition to the ruling party is strong. There is an absolute necessity for a balance in governance that can only be provided by a strong opposition party. We have seen that in nations when the incumbent party accumulates excessive power without a strong opposition, it goes autocratic. There are many examples of it across the world and at home.

Huge incumbency & concentration of power in the hands of few individuals in the parties of yesteryears had given birth to many regional parties. In many Indian states viz: Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, MS, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Punjab etc., we see very strong regional parties; many of them ruling the states now. However, at national level, these regional parties have not been able to make major impact, as their focus is on their respective states.  

The Indian National Congress (Congress) that ruled the country for many terms continuously, is a sick party today. Most of the regional parties of the country are actually those splintered out of the Congress. Still the party then had enough strength to play at national level to form government, even if in a coalition format which is no longer the case now. Over the years, the Congress had become rudderless. The Gandhi family, without much accountability, had failed to hold the party together. Even within the mother-son-daughter, there are differences on many issues. The elders in the party (Manmohan Singh, AK Antony, Motilal Vohra, Pawan Bansal etc.), have no opinion and acts as ‘yes men’ to the family. Leaders such as Chidambaram, Oommen Chandy etc. are there but are indifferent. Within the organisation hierarchy of Congress, many had established ‘checkmate’ between each other to protect self interest and stop others going up. With gross inactivity and incumbency at its peak, some ‘thinking’ (?) people;  Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Manish Tewari, Sashi Tharoor etc had formed a Group of 23, asking questions and seeking remedies from within which is not taken kindly by the acting president and the family and the group is being strongly resisted. At every state, be it Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan etc. where Congress party is ruling, there is huge dissent within, things are unmanageable now. 

All these being the case, the ruling party which wanted to obliterate the Congress, doesn’t need to do much, because the party is on a self destructive course by itself. All BJP did was to choke the money sources of Congress. Today, nobody needs to destroy the congress party, it is destroying by itself. That is good for the BJP as it could go about with the  ‘Hindutva’ agenda while enjoying absolute majority, without even having an opposition leader in Loksabha. 

At this rate, in the next union election, the ruling party can take out one D (Democracy) out of its 3D slogan and make it simply, 2D (demography & demand) ! 

THE DOUBLE EDGED RELIGIOUS / POLITICAL LEADERS

മനുഷ്യൻ മതങ്ങളെ സൃഷ്ടിച്ചു 

മതങ്ങൾ ദൈവങ്ങളെ സൃഷ്ടിച്ചു 

മനുഷ്യനും മതങ്ങളും ദൈവങ്ങളും കൂടി 

മണ്ണു പങ്കു വച്ചു, മനസ്സു പങ്കു വച്ചു.

These lines are written by Vayalar Rama Varma, for the Malayalam movie ‘Achchanum Bappayum’, way back in the year 1972 and it won the best song in the national movie awards for the year. 

Loosely translated, the lines go as under:

Men created religions

Religions created Gods 

Men, Religions and Gods combined 

To divide the earth, and the minds.

When parochial polity joined the fray, it became a potent explosive proposition. Election after elections in the country, the combined trio (politics, religions and the Gods) began impacting society/state/nation so much that today we hear the salvos fired by it, far and wide. Too bad, too bad for the country and its people…..

They make statements, they put the blame squarely on each other, they use words such as ‘jihad’ to combine with any other word (love jihad, narcotics jihad), to demean the others. 

And after the words penetrate into social fabric and after the rhetoric shakes the very foundations of humanity, to appease the idiotic masses who simply follow these trio with utter emotional confusion, the trio convene മത സൗഹാർദ മീറ്റിങ്ങുകൾ (religious amity meets) and embrace each other, give joint press statements blaming those forces (????) who are behind destabilising the nation! Ha ha ha! 

പൊട്ടന്മാരായ നാഗരികർ, നമ്മൾ (we, the stupid citizens) applaud them and take a sigh, thinking that all ends well. 

BUT, IS IT? 

Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD – SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN A WORLD OF DIGITAL GIANTS - A Book Review

When well-known author of a widely read book, ‘Disrupting Digital Business’, Ray R Wang, the Founder & Principal Analyst of Constellation Research Inc., a sought after research & advisory firm based in Silicon Valley California began writing his second book, his thoughts must have been on the 1985 top of the chart song, “everybody wants to rule the world” by the band, ‘Tears for Fears’! The song depicted people’s desire for control and power. Of course, much of Ray’s new book published by Harper Collins, ‘Everybody wants to rule the world – surviving and thriving in a world of digital giants”,  is about controlling the trillion dollar market out there, by constructing it through the means of data driven digital networks (DDDN).

The book tells the reader the power of DDDNs to drive the most successful companies of our times. The book cites the trends in business where big time consolidation is changing the global landscape and shows what this means for businesses of all types and sizes to fit into the value chain. It offers insights about the actions taken by innovative companies to position themselves in the new dynamic market place and it advises businesses to move from status-quo to market leadership.

This exceptional new guide shows you the ways to adapt your business to thrive among digital giants like Google, Facebook, Apple & Amazon. Drawing on sizeable original analysis and case-studies from his own research firm, the author directs you on the way to bridge business leadership & technology adoption, to create a future-proof company of your own. 

Everybody wants to rule the world’ is published very recently (July 2021) and therefore is cites even the latest developments & trends.  For e.g., Ray Wang says in the book, “It’s true that between March 2020 and August 2020, what would have taken five years to accelerate to digital, happened in 5 months of COVID”

The book reiterates that data is the foundation and uppermost priority of each Digital Network that wishes to grow. Therefore, it is necessary to know how the data is shared, monetized, and controlled. So, it is important to identify quality data from the huge cesspool of data available and to understand how it is consumed by the user. Data supremacy is not about having huge quantity of data but having well-curated, high context data. If you can find out how the data interacts with each other and develop the patterns, you are certain to succeed in business, using the same. Winning DDDNs are those that identify the patterns that emerge from the interactions. These patterns result in ‘precision decisions’, like how to price a product and what product / service should be suggested to which customer groups.

Digital giants like Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google & Microsoft have shown the ability in dominating markets and moving on the far side of digital transformation. Upcoming digital giants, the types of AirBnB, Disney, Grubhub, Lyft, Spotify, Uber & Walmart have shown significant growth in the post-pandemic markets. Some of the Indian successful examples are Byjus, Zomato, Ola, Paytm etc. All these giants have applied digital business models, engineered distinctive digital monetization models, and improved their business channels.  The rising digital giants mirror the characteristics mentioned below for creating protracted and sustainable data driven digital network (DDDN) platforms:

• Build-up the biggest business network of active member community, say, greater than 50 million registrations, in case you want to be a global player.
• Take ownership of the relationship with your customer by cutting the intermediaries and taking control of customer account, and by delivering the best customer experience directly through continuous engagement.
• Have data dominance by designing superior data driven digital networks to derive decision speed and to create competitive advantage.
• Deploy more than one digital monetization model, may be to have a multimode revenue channels like advt., search, goods, services, memberships, and subscriptions.
• Have a strategic growth mind-set by trading profits for market share growth and immediate gains for long term investments that allows you to dominate the value chain

Reading Ray Wang’s book took me to memory lane of reading a similarly titled book by Prof. Jagdish Sheth and Prof. Rajendra Sisodia, “The rule of three, surviving and thriving in competitive markets” published in 2002. Based on extensive research of the market forces, the authors argued that natural competitive forces shape the vast majority of companies under “the rule of three” where 3 strongest, most efficient companies control 70-80 percent of the market, be it globally, nationally or regionally. The book had cited many examples such as Nike, Adidas & Reebok; American, United & Delta Airlines; McDonald, Burger King & Wendy’s etc. On an Indian context, a good example is; Reliance Jio, Airtel & Vodafone-Idea triumvirate on the mobile telephony market.

Analogical to the findings on ‘The rule of three’, in this book, Ray Wang takes us to the new trend of ‘digital duopoly’. A duopoly is a form of oligopoly, where only two companies dominate the market. The companies in a duopoly tend to compete each other, reducing the chance of monopolistic market power, only to the extent possible. Visa and Master card are examples of a duopoly that dominates the payment industry. Digital duopoly is all about using DDDN, thus, gravitating to become part of a duopoly. Wang writes in the book, “Can I choose to quietly run my business in my small niche, without the backing of a DDDN and without provoking the giants? The answer is no. If you want to survive for another decade, there is no other choice. Like it or not, the options are to build your own duopoly or join a coalition that can hold its own against the dominant DDDNs in your market, or give up and wait for the grim reaper.” That is a terse advice, but coming from his experience, it is better that we lend our ears.

Paul Daugherty, Group Chief Executive - Technology & CTO of Accenture says about the book: “Everybody wants to rule the world’ provides essential insights on the post-digital world. All leaders will need to understand the role of data and new monetization models and why networked organizations will compete on decision velocity and signal intelligence. Ray shows us why digital transformation alone is not enough.”

In time to come, globally, maybe we could expect 100 players in 50 distinct DDDNs representing more than 70% of global GDP.  In India too, we are seeing it. In the recently concluded IPO of Zomato, we had seen the valuation of the company skyrocketing, not because of higher revenue or profitability that it has achieved (in fact, it had none) but only thanks to its DDDN effect. In the coming decades, we could see at least two prominent players in each market where the first proactive player benefiting from a first mover advantage by taking more than 50% of the market.  Thus, we await the times of digital duopolies to dominate the markets in future.

CHINA-WATCH, FROM TWO THOUSAND FEET ABOVE

The names that come to mind when we think of leadership in modern China are Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kaishek, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping. 

Sun Yat-sen, the first president of the Republic of China is considered as the father of the nation and the forerunner of the ‘Revolution’. His political party Kuomintang (Nationalist) has the distinction of ending monarchy in China. He is widely respected both in the mainland China and Taiwan,

Chaing Kaishek has the distinction of being one of the longest serving non-royal heads of state in the 20th century. He created the National Revolutionary Army which had both Kuomintang and Communist Party (CCP) members in it and he became the Generalissimo of the army. Kaishek’s role in unifying China by defeating the northern warlords was significant. Later, he fell out with the CCP and went through tumultuous times, settling in Taiwan as it ruler, when the communists overran the mainland. 

Mao Zedong is credited with the creation of modern China. The ‘Long March’ and the creation of ‘People’s Liberation Army’ by him are legion. He ruled the nation brutally and closed his eyes to the sufferings of million of Chinese of famine and diseases. He was instrumental in making the party as the supreme being and declared that the people, army and the government must be unquestionably loyal to the party. In the latter half of his leadership, the nation and its people went through huge distress. 

Deng Xiaoping was considered by the world as a pragmatic leader who opened up Chinese economy by taking it through the principles of ‘state capitalism’. Without diluting the supremacy of the party, he steered China out of the huge mess created by Chairman Mao. His initiatives stabilised the economy and ensured its fast growth, year on year. He gave good attention to south China (the Cantonese region) and converted it as the manufacturing centre of the world. While all these progressive developments were happening, he advised the nation to ‘hide the strength and bide the time’ (and that is precisely what Xi is now doing - biding the time). The last  40 years of unprecedented economic growth of China is the result of Deng’s policies and the Chinese never had it so good and rightly so, he is called the ‘Architect of modern China’! In the same way the Chinese describe Chiarman Mao, Deng Xiaoping also came to be is called as the ‘Paramount leader’. 

The man who is poised to become the greatest of the Chinese leadership is Xi Jinping. He had created the necessary regulatory ecosystem for him to let it happen. Coming into leadership in 2012, he maintained firm grip on the country and the party. In order to win the people’s empathy, he acted brutally on the corrupt people within the party and government. With policies such as ‘belt and road initiatives’ he ventured into the neighbourhood nations and other continents and in the process, made most of the developing nations economically dependent on China. China being the factory of the world, it also helped to maintain trade surplus with almost all nations. In about 10 years, he had put China almost on the top of the world both militarily and economically. His latest move is taking control of the emerging Chinese technology entrepreneurship that had made its mark globally, with a view to destroy monopolies and to create competition. 

It is actually on the strength of the economic foundations laid by Deng Xiaoping that Xi Jinping is riding the China wave. Xi has this unwavering ambition to establish Chinese supremacy over the world. He is unwilling to brook any inside resistance or competition to reach his aspirations. By doing all these, Xi is about to ensure his place in Chinese history, as the ‘Supreme leader’, above that of Mao. Towards this. there is also a move within the CCP to discredit Deng Xiaoping, the nation’s economic saviour. 

In a Covid world, many nations, including USA, have turned against China and realise Xi Jinping’s global designs. Leading countries now doubt that Corona Virus pandemic was a strategic initiative of Xi towards meeting China’s global supremacy. Energising alliances such as QUAD etc.by US is to counter any such move by Xi. 

Will Xi’s ambitions fructify? Only an internally stable China without dissent can let it happen. Xi also realises that and is trying his right earnest to keep it so. 

Let us continue our China watch……..

THE AMERICAN MISADVENTURE IN AFGHANISTAN, THE NATION OF WARLORDS

There is a Panchatantra story about a ‘mooshika’ (mouse) lady. It is about a sage converting a mouse into a lady (called Mooshika) and then trying to marry her off to the strongest man in the world and then going to sun and from sun to cloud to wind to mountain, requesting each to marry his daughter. Finally, the mountain tells him that the rat is more powerful than him. Thereafter, the sage marries her off to the rat after converting the lady back to a mouse. 

 Mooshika lady has now become an adage, used whenever anything gets converted back into its original form. 

 Isn’t this happening in Afghanistan? Taliban, a movement that began in 1994 in Quetta of Pakistan of Pashto madrasa students which becomes a militia to join Afghan civil war with the help of ISI, then confiscate power from the warlords to become the nation’s rulers. After being in control for five years, they were overthrown by the US led invaders as a reaction to the 9/11 episode, and thereafter trying to to bring democracy in the country. That was in 2001. Two decades later, the US, still not able to finish off the Taliban insurgency, gets tired of its responsibility of resurrecting democracy in a clannish warlord country and started vacating the troupes. Taliban is back with a vengeance, except for Kabul, it had taken control of almost the rest of Afghanistan. The fall of Kabul in imminent, it looks like. 

So, the mooshika lady becomes a mooshika again. 

 What could happen to Afghanistan is anybody’s guess. The killing fields will come back as Taliban will behave brutally to the enemies within. Pakistan’s control will goes up, China will come in there and the threat to India from that end will double up. Now, look at the United State of America. Wherever the big brother had gone militarily to overthrow governments, it had eventually failed. Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Libya and now Afghanistan; all turned into big time misadventures. (It is another story that war is a big business for the American weapon industry) From Afghanistan, with a two timing ally such as Pakistan, America must have learnt a huge lesson. The US had been fighthing a nation without understanding its culture. To top it further, It is now challenged by the emerging world power, China which has the support of Russia & Pakistan. US must have realised that getting out of Afghanistan is the best thing to do. 

 Meanwhile, back to square one, the nation Afghanistan is going to bleed badly.

Dr. P K Varrier

Everyone in Kerala knew Dr. PK Varrier. Many people in India and selected people across the globe knew him too. As an ayurveda physician and head of THE true  Ayurveda therapy institution, the Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala (KAVS), he had treated Presidents, Prime ministers, Monarchs and many Heads of the nations. Who could claim such an unique distinction?

My first connect with him was when Kerala Management Association decided to bestow him with its prestigious Management Leadership in 2002. I had the privilege of drafting his citation and reading it out at the award function. The award was given away to him by the then Speaker of Kerala Assembly, Vakkom Purushothaman. 

An year later, I was invited to his organisation to deliver a keynote in ‘Information Technology in Business’. He was there to listen to it with all senior managers of the organisation. It didn’t stop at that, I was again invited to speak to the Board of Trustees of KAVS, headed by Justice Paripoornan, at BTH Sarovaram, Kochi, on why IT is important to KAVS. Post that, KVS started the computerisation there at the right earnest. 

Much later, in 2010, I had the pleasure of meeting him again at his office, when KAVS decided to go in for ERP, a project headed by Dr Murali (such a gem of an individual), his close relative, who holds a doctorate in Physics and was a scientist at TIFR Mumbai, after his superannuation came to serve KAVS. 

My last direct interaction with him was when I called him personally to get an appointment with him for the Admin. Officer of TiE:Kerala, who was having acute asthma challenges. Not only that he gave it but also he treated her personally and looked after like his own daughter (it required longer term treatment) 

He could be many things to many people; a freedom fighter, a doctor, a lover and preserver of art (particularly Kathakali), an institution builder or an industrialist but he will ever be remembered for his positive approach to life and love for fellow beings. 

He lived a 100 years, seen and done it all. Left us to join the creator. May his noble soul rest in eternal peace! Goodbye Sir! 

Prayers 🙏

Rishi dear

A precocious prodigy 

In studies, sports or arts

Or in music or instruments

Your touch made the difference 

Compassionate to the core 

For fellow beings or pets

Being their great buddy

You made the energies flow 

Whenever you chanted or played the violin 

Whenever you ran the cross-country race

Whenever you painted the Warli art

You left such deep poignant impression 

For those small years you lived

Before going back, just like that

To the Creator’s abode, so early

You exuded happiness galore

In another world, another time

We must be meeting you dear 

So long, but keep the radiance 

Forever we long to see ........

(My wife’s cousin Dr Anita Shet lost her second son Rishi in a freak accident in the US,  at the age of 17, a week ago. Ref:www.rishishet.com)

CURRENT ISRAELI - PALESTINE CONFLICT

Many millennia ago, Mosses led the suffering, enslaved Jews out of Egypt into the ‘promised land’. While he passed away on the journey, his successor, Joshua completed the task by crossing them over river Jordan to reach the promised land, Israel. By BCE 1000, the Jew kingdom flourished with the rule of King David and his son Solomon, and it was the best of times for ancient Israel. 

In the next three millennia, Israel was attacked by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Crusaders, Egyptians, Islamist and others. Between sixteen century and the early twentieth century CE, Israel was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Thus the ‘promised land’ had been overcome by the non-Jews. Many Jews by then had moved over to Europe to become a strong business community there. 

After the First World War,  the the ‘promised land’ which by then had less Jews and more Palestinians, came under the British control. During 1920s, the then British Foreign Secretary, AJ Balfour, created a letter of intent (the Balfour Declaration), later endorsed by League of Nations (predecessor to the current UN), supporting the establishment (again) of Israel, the ‘promised land’ of Jews by dividing it between the Palestinians and the Jews. 

It took another three decades for the Israel State to come into being. By 1947, the United Nation, setting aside  the rejection of the move by Arabs, approved the partition of the land between Palestinians and the Jews. By May 1948, Israel was officially declared as an independent state with Ben Gurion, the head of the Jewish agency, as the first Prime Minister. 

Into the modern day ‘promised land’ of Israel, hordes of Jews from all over the world, particularly the Europe (including those who had suffered from the hands of Nazis and the Axis) moved into. Using alliances, money power, muscle power and later military power, Israel thwarted the moves by Palestinians, Arabs and the hostile neighbours, to establish and grow (and expand) its Statehood. 

Who suffered the worst in the development was the Palestinians, of course. They got shrunk into two separate pieces of land, The Gaza strip and West Bank, completely surrounded by Israel. The efforts of Yassir Arafat and later by Abbas to resurrect them and fight against their arch enemy, Israel, are legion. However, the military might of Israel exponentially multiplied and so has its cruelty against the Palestinians. It is indeed horrendous to see how the Palestinians are living there now. 

By May 2021, there began heavy escalation of tension between the two nations. It started with the order of Israeli Supreme Court to evict some

Palestinian families from East Jerusalem and the resulting mob violence between Jews and Palestinians led to rocket attack by Hamas against Israel and Israel undertaking big airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. So far 200 Palestinians, 10 Israelis (and one Keralite) have died. While action is still on, mediators are trying to negotiate and settle the issue. 

In the wake of Israel gaining diplomatic traction with the Arab world, at the same time building up its military power in a super style, the sufferings of the Palestinians are expected to become worse. Fighting Israel, in no way, will help their cause. External assistance have diminished considerably for their cause too. 

Notwithstanding the suffering, It is time the Palestinian understood the reality and act accordingly. Any amount of military aggression from them will only increase their hardship. Discussions, talks & negotiations are the way forward. 

A NEW WORLD ORDER ?

Over the last two decades, the nations have been evolving into being part of new umbrella groups; based on economics, political and also, on defence concerns. We now see certain accelerated pace in the consolidation process.

Here, we predominantly refer to the political developments and defence consolidations.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was founded in Shanghai during 2001 as an intergovernmental organization by Russia, China, Khazakhstan, Krygystan, Tajikistan, & Uzbekistan. The objectives of the formation of SCO were to strengthen relationship between member countries; promote cooperation in political, commercial, technological, cultural, and educational spheres; safeguard regional peace, security, and stability; create democratic, equitable international political and economic order. The last point seems funny as none of founder members is known for their democratic practices, which is worsening, as years go by. Later, in 2017, India and Pakistan joined SCO as full members. It is not sure what was India expecting to be part of the group with China & Russia, two big bullies, patronising it. Other than higher trade possibilities, nothing comes to mind. However with India in the group, today SCO may not be able to function as a NATO equivalent because of the variation in political ideology between India & other nations in the group. That looks like a checkmate situation.

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD)

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (also known as the Quad) started as an informal strategic dialogue between the United Staes, Japan, Australia & India. The dialogue was initiated in 2007 by Prime Minister of Japan with the Vice President of the US, Prime Minister of Australia and Prime Minister of India. The dialogue had succeeded in Exercise Malabar, a joint military exercise of an unprecedented scale on Indian Ocean. This was viewed as a response to Chinese economic & military consolidation and China did respond to the developments by issuing formal diplomatic protests to the Quad members.

The acrimony between US & China  for sometime, and the present challenges between US & Russia, is slowly taking QUAD into an Asian equivalent of NATO, and it could precipitate a Cold War situation.

On 12^th March 2021, the first Quad summit took place online between the four member nations and the group resolved to commit to manufacturing one billion doses of Covid vaccine by 2022 for distribution in Asia, where China’s presence casts a huge shadow.  Quad seems to have come of age as an important pillar of stability in the region, trying to create ‘free, rules-based order, both in the Indo-Pacific and beyond’, as envisaged by its founders.

The recently concluded talks between USA and China in Alaska on 18 & 19^th of March 2021 were practically an aborted attempt with tough dialogues and body posture displayed by both parties. Both sides accused each other of having broken diplomatic protocol between them. While the United States accused China of threatening the rule based order of global stability, China lashed out at US, accusing it of condescension and hypocrisy. China also displayed an attitude to US of, 'you need me, I don't need you’.

The China – Russia Solidarity

Immediately as a follow through of the failed Alaska talks, China held Foreign minister level talks with Russia on 22^nd March 20221 in China in which both accused United States of interference and sanctions. In a show of unity, the foreign ministers of both China and Russia have condemned Western sanctions against them and accused the US of political interference. Naturally enough, Chinese Foreign Minister and his Russian counterpart rejected outside criticism of their respctive authoritarian regiems.

Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the UN

Anticipating troubles ahead, in March 2021 itself, Russia and China along with North Korea & Iran, established ‘Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the United Nations’ giving message of supporting the UN’s founding treaty, seeking to promote multilateralism and diplomacy over the use of force by Nations or blocks against ‘perceived violations’ by other UN member states. It has 17 signatory countries in it, in addition to the above four, which include Cuba, Cambodia, Palestine, Syria, Venezuela, Algeria, Angola, Belarus, Bolivia, Laos, Eritrea, Nicaragua & St. Vincent.

Apparently, the’ Group of Friends’ as above, are taking an advance bail against the atrocities that each is committing inside their nation and asking the UN and the world to accept their authoritarian regimes. It is expected that the number of nations in this group will go up. It is early stage of the group consolidation. Also, it wouldn't be surprising to see new members added to Quad. In addition to this, we also must take cognizance of existing bodies such as NATO and the bilateral agreements of protection between nations. 

It is now evident from the dynamics that the world is now moving into another evolution of world order.

IN YOUR EXPENDABILITY LIES YOUR GREATNESS

You may be the darling of your people

That doesn’t make our thought any supple

You, the deep State does not bother

You are just a census number, rather 

It exhorts you to love your nation

Surely, more than your imagination 

It needs loyalists from time to time

As it gets into complex wartime 

You could be a soldier or a doctor 

May be a teacher or a pen pusher

Be ready to die for the blessed nation 

And do not have any indignation 

People could perish sooner than later 

All are born with an end, you know better

Your wish to actualise, is your need

Deep State wants your sacrifice, indeed

We then begin to worship your valour 

Lest an unknown, we make you bigger  

It is our To wish to make you a fighter 

Hold your dreams, we made you a martyr!

So dense a black hole is the deep State 

You hating it of meanness is a distaste 

Caring people is surely not its goal 

Managing world view, is our ball

The polity may be right or the left 

No difference it makes, to set right  

Your lofty expectation, you fool

To it, you are anything but a tool 

You are a number, one in a billion 

Your being there do not count any million 

In your expendability lies your greatness 

And we award you glory, posthumous!

FUTURE OF FUTURE

What games do the corporates play?

Amazon bought 49% of stakes in Future Coupons Pvt Limited on the  understanding that Future Retails Limited (FRL) would be sole vehicle of its retail business. Kishore Biyani, the Future’s boss, not taking cognisance of it, sells FRL, by now a sinking Co., to Mukesh Ambani (MDA) group, making it a breach of agreement! 

Amazon went to Singapore International Arbitration Centre, the official global body and got an interim order directing Future not to take any further action. Even after this, Biyani & Co. tried to go ahead with the deal with MDA group. Amazon approached the Delhi High Court which ruled that the FRL promoters had willfully violated the Arbitrator’s order. It has directed to attach the assets of FRL, Biyani and other promoters of the Co. 

“The promoters of FRL do not appear to be honest” the Court said & asked why Biyani and other promoters should not be sent to jail ! 

It is another question, why the most powerful Mukesh Ambani group proceeded to buy over FRL when the Arbitrator’s direction was in place. Doesn’t that show its scant respect to the legal bodies? 

Many powerful Corporates across the world  follow the ‘might is right’ policy.

Let us watch the Future of Future. ‘Picture abhi baaki hai dost’ 

LICENSED TO KILL

What you see below is a photo that appeared on the front page of ‘The Hindu’ today. It is on ‘Jallikattu’, a seasonal animal sport in Tamilnadu, When Gujjus fly kites, the Tamils engage with bulls during Sankrati/Pongal. While in Gujrat people fall off the roof and die, in TN they die, gored by the bull.

Jallikattu is one of the cruelest of sports in India. (It is probably the only commanality between a Tamil & a Spanish!) It is all about specially bred bulls let free and chased by people and in the the melee, many getting killed, gored to death by the animal. What a licensed way to die? The news in the photo said, the bull killed two people; one, a bystander. 

Jallikattu was banned by the Supreme Court in 2014, on the appeal of Animal Welfare Board & PETA. But will the pride of Tamilnadu allow such a ban? It was a game in existence for more than 1500 years, people claim. They protested against the ban and a million people assembled in Marina beach Chennai, in 2017, to show the solidarity, resulting in T.Nadu government releasing an ordinance to reinstate this cruel game. Now the state has even annual Jallikattu league matches to boast! 

This year’s highlight, Rahul Gandhi arriving to witness Jallikattu! What a pity? What for? 

Vote bank, of course!

SOME LEARNINGS IN 2020

1. Nothings is in nobody’s control, whether rich, powerful or poor

The people who thought that they had everything in control, had a major shock, given by the Novel Corona Virus which is not even an organism! We took pride in our engineering, medical and space program capabilities. Some of the world leadership did not take Corona seriously and look at the impact it had on the mighty powerful USA and the  European nations. The hubris shown by the rich and powerful got tossed out and man knelt down in front of Covid. For almost an year,  Corona took control of the planet, how is that for a change? 

2. Whatever happens, Life goes on

Businesses collapsed, economy went south, unemployment quadrupled and close to 2 million people died of Corona. People got locked in their homes for months together and doom sayers predicted huge repercussions. However, life went on, with its own ups and downs , and as predicted, about 140 million births did happen in 2020 too.  

3. What you want to achieve in 10 years could be had in 10 months with technology, assisted by a grave calamity

Corona virus brought in plenty of new normals, many of which will stay continued even after containing the disease. Technology, particularly AI, Robotics, Genomics, Drug/Vaccine discovery etc., leapfrogged. What would have taken long to become reality,  became necessity as a result of the calamity - the pandemic and mankind did not hesitate to changeover instantly, swallowing the humble pie! 

4. Learning is never continuous, happens in spurts. 

Yes, learning is life long. The survival of the fittest demands the ability to unlearn and relearn. The frequency of learning also got shortened. However learning do not go like a smooth flowing sinusoidal wave. It is more similar to a centripetal wave with its own fits and starts. 

5. Do not imagine drastic things, it might happen! 

While Corona was in its full fury, people dug out those movies and scientific predictions made years back, of the virus going to impact mankind in these times. What does it prove!  Don’t use your imagination go wild  to arrive at calamitous predictions, surely it could come true. That doesn’t give a sense of comfort to our living, don’t you think? 

6. The more you defy, the more you will get hit

Like Newton’s third law, every action will have an equal and opposite reaction. So with the false pride, the moment one attempts to tie something down in a jiffy, with a greater force it will unravel before him. The proverbial patience and perseverance still continue as true virtues for mankind to manage impactful events. 

7. Do not imitate, be yourself, better that way 

What will make you face high impacting changes is your ability to manage  them. With what quality will you face any situation? To begin with you just understand your strengths and weaknesses, your plusses and minuses so that you will know what to use when while facing situations. This calls for developing and enhancing your intra personal intelligence. Successful people  are blessed with this intelligence in plenty and they will never be pretenders, but originals! 

8. Don’t be strategic, be tactical in tough times

Times of calamity is never meant for long term strategic planning, for you will never know what will happen externally when. In a pandemic time as this there is no point to doing business planning for longterm. You must  be tactical in your thinking do things with short windows. Look at survival as the norm, during tough times. 

9. Only you can love yourself, rest is all show off

In times of calamity, you can save someone only when you are in a safe zone to do so. When you are sinking, if you attempt to save another from drowning, chances area that both will sink to death. So look after yourself first, steady you first, before you you attempt to save another. Accept this global truth and do not try to show off otherwise. Likewise, others will come forward to be of assistance to you only after they feel they are secure. 

10. Keep moving and doing, even within your own space, it is called progress now, and if you don’t, you are dead!

The worst of times give us lesser mobility because we may be entangled in many challenges together, thus, restricting smooth strides. That doesn’t mean that you do nothing to stave it off and sit tight. In your own fulcrum, you should attempt to be mobile, even if that amounts to rotating. You may not have progressed further but as the right time comes, your momentum will enable you to jumpstart in life. 

The only advice is to be ready to face the unexpected. The above learnings will come handy as you come face to face with grave calamities. 

Here is wishing you a meaningful year ahead.