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EDITOR-in-chief Ruben Banerjee managing EDITOR Sunil Menon Executive Editor Satish Padmanabhan Foreign Editor Pranay Sharma Political EDITOR Bhavna Vij-Aurora Senior editor Giridhar Jha (Mumbai) Chief art Director Deepak Sharma Writers Lola Nayar, Qaiser Mohammad Ali (Senior Associate Editors), G.C. Shekhar (Associate Editor), Jeevan Prakash Sharma (Senior Assistant Editor), Ajay Sukumaran, Puneet Nicholas Yadav, Jyotika Sood, Lachmi Deb Roy (Assistant Editors), Naseer Ganai (Senior Special Correspondent), Preetha Nair (Special Correspondent), Salik Ahmad (Senior Correspondent) copy Desk Rituparna Kakoty (Senior Associate Editor), Anupam Bordoloi, Saikat Niyogi, Satyadeep (Associate Editors), Syed Saad Ahmed (Assistant Editor) Photographers S. Rakshit (Chief Photo Coordinator), Jitender Gupta (Photo Editor), Tribhuvan Tiwari (Deputy Photo Editor), Sandipan Chatterjee, Apoorva Salkade (Sr Photographers), Suresh Kumar Pandey (Staff Photographer) J.S. Adhikari (Sr Photo Researcher), U. Suresh Kumar (Digital Library) design Saji C.S. (Chief Designer), Leela (Senior Designer), Devi Prasad, Padam Gupta (Sr DTP Operators) Digital Neha Mahajan (Associate Editor), Soumitra Mishra (Digital Consultant), Jayanta Oinam (Assistant Editor), Mirza Arif Beg (Special Correspondent), Neelav Chakravarti (Senior Correspondent), Charupadma Pati (Trainee Journalist), Suraj Wadhwa (Chief Graphic Designer), Editorial Manager & Chief Librarian Alka Gupta
BUSINESS OFFICE Chief Executive officer Indranil Roy Publisher Sandip Kumar Ghosh SR Vice president Meenakshi Akash COVER STORY Vice presidents Shrutika Dewan, 21 Diwan Singh Bisht It’s appraisal time. But a pandemic barreled in and Sr General Managers Kabir Khattar (Corp), Debabani Tagore, Shailender Vohra 1.3 billion people were ordered to stay indoors—a General ManagerS Sasidharan Kollery, Shashank Dixit lockdown of the country, it’s economy and more. Chief Manager Shekhar Kumar Pandey People were furloughed; salary delays and indefinite MANAGERS Shekhar Suvarana, Sudha Sharma CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTION Anindya leave without pay have been increasing across Banerjee, Gagan Kohli, G. Ramesh (South), Vinod Kumar (North), Arun Kumar Jha (East) sectors. Fear of catching the virus is now running Digital Amit Mishra alongside another anxiety: ‘Will I retain my job’? HEAD OFFICE AB-10, S.J. Enclave, New Delhi - 110 029 Tel: 011-71280400; Fax: 26191420 Customer care helpline: 011-71280433, 71280462, 71280307 10 | Don’t Do It Yourself 3 lETTERS e-mail: [email protected] For editorial queries: [email protected] No health minister, top brass of health department 6 poliglot For subscription helpline: [email protected] infected, dependency on private hospitals...Madhya 50 Audi 5
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2 outlook | April 27, 2020 L E T T E R S FEEDBACK › [email protected]
20/4/2020
I know I am at a sniffing ON E-MAIL distance Rakesh A.: The pandemic Of this little big virus was imminent as humans That attacks one and all, have been destroying nature Without any prejudice or for centuries. It seems as if the bias. earth is now shut for much- Bored, I fret and fume needed repairs. The sky is so Oh God, why so much blue, the water in Venice’s ca- gloom? nals crystal clear, and dol- phins and whales are visible Don’t get me wrong off the Mumbai coast. What I mean to write no thousands of crores of rupees swansong. couldn’t do, the lockdown It is not death I fear, did—clean the Yamuna and However close, Ganga to a great extent. Our It may appear. world, however, remains div What terrifies me is loss, ided into more than 200 quar- How to come to terms ters, barred by the wires of With this tragedy gross! visas and passports. About a hundred individuals and their Even if I survive, companies hold more than How will I live with this half of the world’s resources. trauma, They have not learned any les- This turmoil, sons from previous pandemics An entire civilisation on and continue their self-cen- boil. tric, divisive agendas. Human Oh God, such immense grit and determination may loss! soon deliver a vaccine for Trauma Whichever way the coin coronavirus, but unfortu- lands, nately, there is no vaccine for And Turmoil Heads up or tails, the more deadlier viruses of hate, animosity, divisiveness
DIGIMAG.OUTLOOKINDIA.COM NEW DELHI
I stand to lose the toss. and discrimination. Sangeeta Kampani: This refers to your cover story Losing Sanity?. It is TRIBHUVAN TIWARI difficult to stay composed as the world falls apart, but we must keep striving. I have written some verses about this.
Like all of you, YOUTUBE.COM/OUTLOOKMAGAZINE I am being told to welcome, Each dusk, each dawn Savour, they say, Every moment, Forget things bygone.
Suddenly there is A premium on life. FACEBOOK.COM/OUTLOOKINDIA
Rumours are rife,
Some say, clap Some say, chant Yet others recommend, The power of an esoteric plant.
Like all of you I am a little nervous,
TWITTER.COM/OUTLOOKINDIA Sad and mirthless.
00 OUTLOOK3| APRIL OUTLOOK 27, 2020| APRIL 27, 2020 L E T T E R S FEEDBACK › [email protected]
been left at the mercy of of No Way a few men who have failed them. These impoverished FROM THE Daak Room Forward? millions are being treated June 1, 1586 as criminals, condemned To Won’s Father, GREATER NOIDA to rush back to their Alok Kumar: This refers homes, creating a scene You always said, “Dear, let’s live together until our hair to your story The Economy reminiscent of Partition. turns grey and die on the same day.? How could you pass away without me? Who should I and our little boy listen And The Virus. Thanks to Alas, there is a pattern in to and how should we live? How did you bring your heart demonetisation and GST, this madness: first, Modi to me and how did I bring my heart to you? Whenever we the economy was already in tested the obedience of the lay down together, you always told me, “Dear, do other peo- a terrible shape. Now with people on March 22 and ple cherish and love each other like we do? Are they the coronavirus pandemic after being totally satis- really like us?” How could you leave all that behind and and ensuing lockdown, fied, he declared a national go ahead of me? I just cannot live without you. I just want to go to you. Please take me to where you are. My things are only going to get lockdown two days later feelings towards you I cannot forget in this world and my worse—not just for India, with just a four-hour not sorrow knows no limit. Where would I put my heart in but for the entire world. I ice! This impromptu ann now and how can I live with the child missing you? When wonder what life will be ouncement reminds one of I give birth to the child in me, who should it call like once the threat of coro- demonisation, which he father? Can anyone fathom how I feel? There is no tragedy navirus passes. used to quell dissent and like this under the sky. You are just in another place, and not in such a deep grief as I am. There is no limit opposition. As we cannot and end [to my sorrows] that I write roughly. Please look DEHRADUN expect him to share any closely at this letter and come to me in my dreams and Rakesh Agrawal: The way long-term plan or vision show yourself in detail and tell me. I believe I can see the government of India is for the tattered economy, you in my dreams. Come to me secretly and show yourself. handling this pandemic is we will be condemned to There is no limit to what I want to say and I stop here. not just highly inept, but live in a dark tunnel for a also insensitive to the core. very long time. And, there Unfathomable Excerpts from a letter a woman wrote to Millions of poor, deprived is no light visible at the her dead husband in Andong, South Korea. Archaeologists and hungry people have other end! uncovered it next to his coffin in 1998.
PRABHJOT GILL LUCKNOW taged the lockdown” and M.C. Joshi: This refers to “spiked the spread of the your cover story Ration State disease”. Minority affairs (April 13). The lockdown was minister Mukhtar Abbas declared on March 25 and Naqvi’s description of the the number of COVID-19 religious gathering as a cases in the country then “Taliban-type crime com- was 721. According to a mitted on purpose” is media report, had the lock- clearly beyond the pale. down been not imposed on The terms “Covidiots” and March 25, the number of “super spreaders” are reli- cases would have been 5,000 gion-neutral and not prob- after 10 days; and 30,790 in economy will shine. Your during the coronavirus lematic, but “corona the next 20 days. The impo- cover story narrates the diffi- outbreak, the Tablighi jihadists” reeks of sition of the nationwide culties faced by farm produc- Jamaat cast prudence to Islamophobia and Muslim lockdown is a wise and ers in selling their produce the winds. It is true that bashing. It is wrong to use timely action. Lockdown has as well as in inter-state the event preceded the ban a health crisis to open reli- made life difficult, but gov- movement. The priority of on large gatherings in gious faultlines and malign ernments are trying hard to the governments, Centre Delhi and the national an entire community for cope with the situation by included, should be to rem lockdown. Still, the Jamaat what a bunch of Covidiots transferring money to peo- ove hurdles and restore the should have shown presci- did. The last thing India ple’s accounts and delivering supply and delivery chains of ence and farsightedness, needs during a pandemic is rations to them. A ground farm produce. and called off the confer- communal politics or pol report from a village in UP ence beforehand. At the arisation of society. This says that if all goes well and MARUTHANCODE same time, it is wild exag- is the time to be united the bumper crop reaches the David Milton: By organis- geration to say that the and single-mindedly fight home of the farmer, the rural ing a religious conference Jamaat deliberately “sabo- the virus. O
400 OUTLOOK OUTLOOK| APRIL| APRIL 27, 27,2020 2020 THENEWS Guns Of Never End Lockdown—political and India will receive normal rain this pandemic—brings peace season, the Met office predicted to Kashmir, but a new in its forecast for the southwest militancy is rising monsoon that covers 75 per cent of the country. But it is likely to arrive late in several states. Naseer Ganai in Srinagar As many as 45 militants have been killed in Kashmir over the past seven months EACE in Kashmir is often an oxymoron. But the audio message circulated through social word does provide some media, the outfit said after stripping Pcontext to what is happening in the Kashmir of its special status, India didn’t Valley. The tumultuous political spare anyone, not even the loyal political upheaval in Jammu and Kashmir last leaders. The Front first surfaced on year—the abrogation of Articles 370 March 23 when the police said it had and 35A—gave way to months of busted the outfit’s first-ever module and relative peace. Counter-insurgency recovered a consignment of weapons. operations continued, though. To put Analysts say the new outfit is an things in perspective, 45 militants indication that Pakistan-backed have been killed in Kashmir since militants are not ready to give up on August last year till March. In Kashmir. “The Keran encounter shows A special court in Mumbai put contrast, between January-July in there is investment in arms and training Dalit scholar and activist Anand 2019, over 154 militants were killed by of militants because they cheaply lost Teltumbde in NIA custody till April security forces. The number was over hundreds in the past couple of years 18 in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link 260 in 2018. without putting up a fight or inflicting case. The SC had declined to extend Recent developments, however, hold any damage,” says a security official who his interim protection from arrest. ominous signs on the militancy front. didn’t want to be named. On April 5, five Indian soldiers were In December last year, a Yashwant killed while fighting infiltrators close Sinha-led committee had said people to the Line of Control in north in Kashmir tend to think that protests Kashmir’s Kupwara district. The and civil disobedience will make no soldiers belonged to the elite 4 Para— difference to the Centre, and some the unit which undertook the 2016 groups may be preparing the ground cross-LoC ‘surgical strikes’ in for a new phase of militancy. The Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Concerned Citizens’ Group (CCG) Five militants were also killed in the report says approval of militancy is latest operations lasting two days. going up at a time when Pakistan is Kashmir police chief Dilbagh Singh not interested in promoting an armed says the encounter and subsequent struggle in Kashmir as it is caught up heavy exchange of fire along the LoC with FATF (Financial Action Task shows that Pakistan and the militant Force) guidelines on preventing The US has announced that it will groups it nurtures are making money laundering and terrorist accept H-1B visa applications for attempts to infiltrate into India and financing. With COVID-19 and a an extended stay—a decision that disrupt peace. looming economic recession staring brings relief to thousands of Indian A little-known outfit, The Resistance at the world, the police in Kashmir professionals in America, who are Front (TRF), claimed responsibility for feel the situation might change in the left stranded by the pandemic. the attack on the security forces. In an months ahead. O
5 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 PTI
Liqour shops are POLIGLOT allowed to open in MIXED SHOTS Assam. But ‘mind the gap’ as you line up.
SNAPSHOT rural and semi-urban areas. All ques- tions about the Tablighi Jamaatis who returned from Delhi and dispersed across the state are stonewalled, too. In Calcutta itself, there is no regulation of vegetable, fish and mutton markets in Rajabazar, Narkeldanga, Topsia, Metiaburz, Gardenreach, Ekbalpur and Manicktala, which swarm with people. The areas specifically men- Mamata Banerjee tioned in the MHA letter distributes food are mostly Muslim- to people during majority areas. the lockdown When asked by the media to comment, Mamata’s response was typical: “We are fighting coronavirus, not a communal virus. You know who are at the helm of affairs at the Centre, and their motive behind making these allegations. I won’t say anything more on this.” Moreover, there are allegations that Trinamool leaders, including some Incovidient Questions MLAs, councillors and panchayat mem- bers are pressuring ration dealers to Rajat Roy in Calcutta DGP of West Bengal is reminded of an hand them food grain for distribution earlier missive dated April 4, where the among the people. This forced the All Even as she exudes MHA drew attention to the rampant vio- India Fair Price Shop Dealers’ W. BENGAL confident control lation of lockdown measures in Bengal. Federation to write to the state food in her televised The latest letter also alludes to security minister, requesting him to intervene administrative meetings, West Bengal agency reports on the gradual dilution of and protect dealers from being forced to CM Mamata Banerjee has reasons to the lockdown, with an increase in the yield to illegal demands. That the allega- be worried. They go beyond the matrix number of exemptions being provided tion has got some merit was indirectly of operations involved in fighting the by the state government. corroborated by the state administration coronavirus pandemic, from feeding The observations have solid basis in and ruling party leaders. Mamata the needy and protecting health work- reality: for the past several days, flower Banerjee, too, commented that some ers to contact tracing—the Centre and and tobacco markets have been allowed Trinamool leaders were distributing the BJP have sharply attacked the to open; several tea gardens in North food grain to the masses after expropri- Trinamool government over handling Bengal are functioning. Then, some taxis ating them from ration shops and asked the pandemic. Union minister of state are allowed to ply on Calcutta’s roads them to desist from the practice. Partha Babul Supriyo’s charge that the state and paan and sweet shops open for some Chatterjee, a senior minister and the government is suppressing facts time at least. Most glaringly, people party’s official spokesman, also criticised regarding actual numbers of the across urban areas are breaking social the leaders. afflicted and the dead, with the same distancing directives with impunity At a meeting in Calcutta on April 12, being reiterated by a state BJP delega- under the eyes of a passive police force. the 18 BJP MPs from West Bengal and tion to the governor, has angered The problem is apparently worse in their minder Kailash Vijayvargiya Mamata. A complaint and an appeal alleged that though the Centre has for courtesy were promptly lodged announced free rations (5 kg rice/wheat with PM Narendra Modi. However, the BJP accuses Mamata and 2 kg dal) for 80 crore Indians and allegations have some resonance in the of lax lockdown; she that Bengal has received its share, it was letter purportedly written by the not being distributed in any of their con- Union home ministry on April 10. hits back, saying ‘we’re stituencies. So the ungainly wrangle In that letter written by deputy secre- fighting corona, not a between the BJP and the TMC in tary, MHA (Internal Security Division) Bengal, even in these fraught times, lives Srinivasan K., the chief secretary and communal virus’. another day. O
6 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 POLIGLOT
ASSAM JAIL-BREAK Bihu By HILE the coronavirus crisis has placed the entire country indoors, Wthe pandemic could become the Any Other cause for RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav’s liberty, albeit only for a few months. A con- vict in four fodder scam cases, Yadav has not been able to secure bail from any court Name since his conviction in December 2017. He has been shuttling between Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Jail and the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) because of his SK an Assamese how many eos. Social distancing has taken over an failing health. Bihus he celebrates. The event that brings people closer. Social Now, because of the coronavirus out- break, his family has requested Jharkhand answer would be three—spring, gatherings are off limits, as are ‘Bihu chief minister Hemant Soren to grant parole winterA and autumn. And of course a functions’. Yet, the indomitable Bihu to the former Bihar CM. The family has cited fourth, springing from popular artistes spirit continues to thrive. When lock- that Yadav is currently admitted to RIMS, gigging at shows held across Assam for down restrictions were relaxed for the which is also the designated hospital in a full month and which are coeval with liquor shops to open, masked people Ranchi for isolating confirmed COVID-19 cases. As he suffers from a host of compli- the advent of 24x7 television. Rongali queued up neatly keeping a safe dis- cations—cardiac and renal are his primary or Bohag Bihu, the happiest and tance for their quota. They went home ailments— the comorbidity factor could biggest in the troika, is by tradition a with a bottle and a song. What that prove fatal for him if he gets infected. week-long affair. Even that timeframe song would be? The current ‘chart- Sources say Soren has asked the state’s is a stretch, but the dance-and-music buster’ is from Assam Police (yes, you advocate general to look at the parole application and give his opinion. A senior continues on the loop on TV and social heard right!), an original score exhort- RJD functionary says the party is hopeful of media until it’s time for the next Bihu. ing people to stay indoors and beat the Yadav’s parole within the next week. The That’s ‘TV Bihu’—much like Pluto the CoronaV—unlike covers like ‘We Will RJD is also a junior partner in the JMM-led planet, debated whether it’s the real Overcome’ by cops elsewhere. coalition government of Soren. deal or a con. Well, for all its folksy roots, Bihu It is speculated that Yadav will be The spring Bihu has always been an songs have always held up a mirror, released for a few months, until health risks posed by the pandemic ride out. outdoorsy affair (And Oh, the lifelong documenting current events. There’s a Parole rules won’t allow him to take an affairs born out of the festival that song dedicated to the advent of the active part in Bihar politics—the state is brings people together, bonds them first coal-powered train to Assam. This bound for polls later this year—but his party with music!). Even Assam’s cussed year, Bihu has mutated, taken different is hopeful that the Yadav Senior’s mere floods or those cholera outbreaks of forms—livestream COVID Bihu, presence in Patna will be good enough to rejuvenate the party cadre, galvanise its yore haven’t been able to stop the cohabiting with TikTok Balcony Bihus, support base. And also, most importantly, spring-break ever. But then, these are YouTube Bihu, WhatsApp Bihu… ease the simmering rivalry between his unusual times—a virus threatens to Phew! Like Pluto, hope they remain on sons, Tej Pratap and Tejashwi. There’s some infect people more than viral Bihu vid- the fringes. O fodder for thought in this.
TEXT BY ANUPAM BORDOLOI AND PUNEET NICHOLAS YADAV brevis
American math- President Donald Classical vocalist Mort Football club Formula 1 legend ematician John Trump’s develop- Shanti Drucker, Chelsea’s Stirling Moss Horton Con- er friend Stan- Hiranand—a whose legendary has died at 90. way, who stood ley Chera Padma Shri caricatures of goalie Peter The greatest out for bringing died of coronavi- and disciple of celebs appeared Bonetti has driver never to maths to the rus. Chera was in Begum Akhtar— in Mad Magazine died at 78. He win the WC, he masses, has died his late 70s. has died in for five decades, had the cleanest contested 66 from COVID-19 Gurgaon at the has died at the sheets until Petr Grand Prix from complications. age of 87. age of 91. Cech beat him. 1951 to 1961.
7 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 POLIGLOT MixedShots
ONE FLU OVER THE BIRYANI BEST OTHING can keep gluttons away from their beloved MASKED MUTTON? biryani. Not even a potentially fatal disease. A 27-year-old HEN K.V. Rao, a farmer in Telanga- COVID-19 patient in ESI hospital, Coimbatore, requested na, heard that a tiger in a New York N his wife to bring him the delectable dish. Wzoo contracted COVID-19, he did She dutifully obeyed, but the hospital what any coronaphobe would have staff refused. Bereft of his meaty repast, done—put face masks on his goats, all 20 of he hurled a fire extinguisher and broke them! Lest you think that might be rather windowpanes. Alas, to no avail. The inconvenient while grazing, Rao has a hospital registered a complaint and solution: “Once we reach the interiors of the ensured social distancing from his forest, I remove their masks and then cover favourite grub. Now if only he had taken them again before returning home in the ill in Uttar Pradesh and was evening.” While there is no evidence that recuperating in a particular isolation domestic animals can spread coronavirus ward there, where the lonely souls to humans, Rao’s caution is perhaps warranted. Who would want a serving of threw booze bacchanalias. What better coronavirus with their Kakori kebab? O than spirit to lift your spirit? O
BOLLY MISSES KILLER KISSES OME are counting tiles in their bathroom to kill time during quaran- tine, some are deriving pleasure in watching celebrities do chores. But only filmmaker Shoojit Sircar is asking the right questions. How Swill filmmakers shoot intimate scenes, especially those involving hugs, kisses and perhaps more, he pondered in an Instagram post. While there aren’t enough takers for masked kisses and gloved caresses, all is not lost. Directors can just revert to that romantic gesture of yore—the rubbing of flowers, the stroking of petals, the patting of pollen…all culminating in an orgiastic cut. What the puritan peddlers of sanskaar and glorious Indian culture couldn’t do in generations, a mere virus achieved in just a sneeze. O
MONEY ROOT OF ALL INFECTION? ANGEL ON WHEELS T was a sight people dreamt of HE railways recently displayed such unprecedented in other times—two Rs 500 generosity that one is tempted to forgive all its notes adrift on the streets and grimy toilets, cardboard-textured food and Inot a soul to watch you pocketing Tinordinate delays. After a woman in Mumbai tweeted about those. But with the pesky virus the requirement of camel milk for her three-and-a-half- waiting to sneak into your nasal year-old autistic child allergic to goat, cow and buffalo dairy, cavity, one can never be too sure. senior IPS officer Arun Bothra contacted Advik Foods, the Residents of Lucknow’s Paper Mill Colony certainly weren’t. pioneering brand of camel milk products in the country. When they saw the currency notes, they insisted that it had The Rajasthan-based company agreed to been left on the streets to spread coronavirus and immedi- provide it, but transportation to ately called the cops, who ‘confiscated’ the notes. The police Mumbai remained an issue. That’s consulted doctors, who, for mysterious reasons, advised them when Tarun Jain, a railway officer, to keep the notes in quarantine. It’s only a matter of time manoeuvred an unscheduled halt in before some enterprising fellow calculates how long the virus a Ludhiana-Mumbai goods train to lasts on banknotes and makes a dash for the neat sum deliver 20 litres of the milk to Bandra languishing in social isolation. O from Falna. O
8 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 ILLUSTRATIONS: SAAHIL, TEXT BY ALKA GUPTA, SAAD AHMED Mata aMritanandaMayi devi donates `13 Crores for CoMbating Corona The Mata Amritanandamayi Math, Kollam, Kerala, always in the forefront of social upliftment through education, health and its several other initiatives, has liberally donated from Rs 10 crore to the PM CARES and Rs 3 crores to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDR Fund) to combat the virulent Covid-19, even as the world is at its wits’ end to contain its devastating rampage across continents.
ndia has exhibited commendable resilience where the medical fraternity, Iessential services sector and its people are throwing their might behind the government in tackling the scourge on a war-footing, cutting across region, political affiliations, social standing and religion. India has risen as one voice, as one people. “Seeing the entire world hurting and crying in pain, my heart is aching deeply. Let us all pray for the souls who have succumbed to this pandemic, for the mental peace of their families and friends, for the peace of the world, and for God’s grace,” Amma said. For decades, Amma has been insisting on mankind changing its lifestyle to be more harmonious with Nature, warning that failing to do so would result in increased natural disasters and diseases. “The selfish things man has done to Nature are now coming back in the form of such epidemics,” Amma said. Mata Amritanandamayi The Math, besides donating `13 crores Kollam, Kerala, to help fight the Covid-19, is also providing relief to those physically, mentally and economically affected by the virus. Moreover, it has come forward to provide under stress, anxiety or depression due service opportunities. The Math is also in free care to corona-affected patients at to the pandemic and its ramifications. regular communication with the leaders the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences Anyone can call to get free support. of its 101 adopted Amrita SeRVe villages, (Amrita Hospital) in Kochi. This was started after Amma requested promoting Coronavirus awareness, Since 2005, under Amma’s direction, the doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists ensuring that the villagers are aware Math had provided more than `500 crore to set aside time to provide counselling, of all the latest government-assistance programs available for them, as well as in disaster relief, including the provision stating, “Counselling is a service needed preventing fake news and erroneous of financial support, household items, free at this time,” Amma said. “Please consider information regarding the pandemic healthcare and even construction of new this as an appeal from Amma to doctors, spreading within their communities. Some homes. psychiatrists and psychologists. Whether Amrita SeRVe villagers have been trained At Amma’s request Amrita University you are believers or not, set aside one by the Math to tailor medical masks and and Amrita Hospital have set up a mental- or two hours every day to provide free are fulfilling government contracts to meet health hotline (0476 280 5050) for people counselling for those who need it.” Through its deemed university, Amrita the demand and need of the hour. Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Amrita University), “We need to develop the attitude that the Math has also has constituted an we are nothing but Nature’s servants. We MAth’s CoronA CoMbAt interdisciplinary team consisting of more should practise humility, servitude and support: than 60 faculty from the fields of medicine, respect. At least now let us stop throwing nanoscience, AI, big data, sensor- our arrogance in Nature’s face. The time • `10 crores will go to the PM manufacturing and material sciences, has come to bow down before the forces of CARES Fund and `3 crores to working in tandem to produce low-cost Nature. The time has come to beg Nature Kerala’s CMDR Fund. scalable medical masks, gowns and face- to forgive all our trespasses. The time • Amrita Hospital is offering protection visors, as well as ventilators, has come to abandon the lackadaisical free treatment for COVID-19 rapid-setup isolation wards, units for attitude that Nature will just forbear, suffer patients sterilizing medical waste, and IoT means and forgive all the indignities we keep for the remote monitoring of quarantined heaping on her. Nature is commanding us • A 24-hour mental-health patients. to wake up and look around. To awaken hotline is being manned by Through online classes and interactions, humankind, Nature is sounding a loud trained professionals. Amrita students are also being engaged alarm in the form of COVID-19,” Amma in Coronavirus-related curriculum and warned. SLUGGG/SUBSLUG
CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan during an inspection in Bhopal A Test Case In PTI Testing Times Holes in MP’s hazmat suit are showing—a CM without a health minister fights a pandemic; private hospitals are getting to treat more coronavirus patients than AIIMS, Bhopal
Puneet Nicholas Yadav after he returned as the state’s chief Chouhan could not even choose a lim- minister for a record fourth term, need ited cabinet with ministers for portfo- to be analysed. lios like home, finance, health and NDIA may still not have a clear Chouhan returned to power after a public distribution. Since the Nath answer on the best model for long-drawn political circus in the state government was toppled before it combating the coronavirus that saw Jyotiraditya Scindia and his could present the state budget, there is Ipandemic but Madhya Pradesh has 22 loyalist legislators ditch the currently no specific allocation of offered some critical tips on practices Congress and Nath to switch to the financial resources across depart- governments must avoid. On March BJP. Perhaps as a natural consequence ments while the absence of ministers 23, when the BJP returned to power in of the circumstances that pitchforked for the other three portfolios—all criti- the state by orchestrating the fall of him to the CM’s chair after a 15-month cal to proper management of the the Congress-led Kamal Nath govern- hiatus, Chouhan wasn’t sworn-in along COVID-19 crisis—cannot be ment, MP had already registered its with his council of ministers. The cabi- overemphasised. first few COVID-19 cases. The political net, it was indicated by BJP leaders Chouhan’s administration now drama that unfolded in the state in the then, would be formed after a compro- appears like a do-it-yourself (DIY) preceding days doesn’t need to be mise was reached between old BJP hack where the chief minister must recounted in detail. However, deci- warhorses and Scindia’s brigade of par- oversee every aspect of the state’s pre- sions taken by Shivraj Singh Chouhan ty-hoppers over ministerial berths. paredness against the pandemic him-
10 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 COVID-19/MADHYA PRADESH
Governor Lalji Tandon asks Nath When The to prove majority in assembly the Jyotiraditya Scindia following day. Masks resigns from Scindia joins BJP, 22 Congress, 22 party Congress rebels resign MLAs in MP leave as MLAs. Kamal Nath Came Off for Bangalore in government set to How the MP political story chartered flights. collapse. unfolded along with the coronavirus cases Mar Mar Mar 9 11 15
BJP leaders and hundreds of workers gather in Bhopal, Shivraj Nath Singh Chouhan set to resigns. Assembly return as CM. Same speaker N.P. Hundreds of BJP day, first Prajapati workers take to the four COVID-19 cases PM Narendra Modi adjourns streets in Indore to reported from announces Janata Curfew House till March 26, citing ‘observe’ Janata Curfew. Jabalpur district. for March 22. coronavirus pandemic.
Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar 22 21 20 19 16
Several officials of MP govt directs 15 public state public health health officials admitted Chouhan sworn in Journalist who attended department—principal to AIIMS, Bhopal, to be as CM for fourth Nath’s resignation Coronavirus cases secretary Pallavi Jain Govil transferred to the private term. Bhopal reports press briefing on March rise steadily in state, and Health Corporation Chirayu hospital. Indore first confirmed 20 tests positive. His particularly in Indore, MD, J. Vijay Kumar, test reports death of two coronavirus case, daughter was the first Bhopal, Ujjain and Morena. positive. A dozen cops doctors in two days; first Indore too witnesses confirmed COVID-19 Chouhan says Tablighi infected too. Asked to cases of medics dying of fresh cases. patient in state capital. Jamaat responsible. self-quarantine. coronavirus infection.
Mar Mar Mar 26- Apr Apr 23 25 Apr 3 4 8 & 9
GRAPHICS: SAJI C.S.
self and with bureaucratic chieftains either in isolation wards at hospitals or the virus. Before the virus indisposed left to do the firefighting. In the midst under self-quarantine. these officials, Chouhan inexplicably of this acutely centralised governance From Health Corporation chief J. decided to shunt-out health commis- model has come, arguably, the most Vijay Kumar, principal secretary sioner Prateek Hajela—the 1995-batch fatal blow to the state’s efforts in bat- Pallavi Jain Govil and several more IAS officer who oversaw the NRC exer- tling the health crisis. Practically the senior officials of the National Health cise in Assam—and appointed Faiz entire public health department, Mission to low-ranking staff, over 50 Ahmed Kidwai to the post on April 1. responsible for overseeing measures members of the public health depart- A day before being dismissed, Hajela for controlling the pandemic, is now ment have, so far, tested positive for issued a medical bulletin detailing the
1 1 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 COVID-19/MADHYA PRADESH
First responders Health workers in Jabalpur on a drive to screen people for infection, with just masks and gloves for protection
PTI
state’s preparedness to deal with the in Bhopal and Indore are taken aback What is the rationale behind such a pandemic. According to the statement, by “the preferential treatment being decision…the government will end up six government medical colleges in given to select private hospitals”. A spending twice the money on private Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, doctor at AIIMS, Bhopal, says: “We hospitals for the same treatment Rewa and Sagar with a combined ICU have no problem with the government because it will not just have to pay the capacity of 394 beds and 319 ventila- deciding to shift our patients to owners for treating patients but also tors and eight private medical colleges Chirayu but what is the point of getting for the period that the hospital will be with a combined capacity of 418 ICU three government hospitals (AIIMS, a COVID-19 centre.” beds and 132 ventilators had been Hamidia Hospital and Bhopal For his part, Goenka of Chirayu identified for treating coronavirus Memorial Hospital and Research praises the state government for its patients. The number of COVID-19 Centre) in Bhopal vacated if first pref- help and support. “I have 140 patients cases across MP when Hajela released erence for admitting patients will be at Chirayu now,” he says, adding that this bulletin, on March 31, was 66. given to private hospitals? No other the hospital’s total capacity is an Evidently, the government-run medi- state is doing this. Is the government impressive 800 beds. “I can accommo- cal facilities were well-equipped to not suggesting that it doesn’t have confi- date 100 patients in the ICU and 32 in just accommodate the existing dence in AIIMS or its own hospitals?” private rooms. We have 50 ventilators COVID-19 patients in the state at the A doctor at the government-run and can offer oxygen support to 400 time but also had sufficient capacity Hamidia hospital makes a similar more patients. The government has for treating new cases. point. “We were asked to make also promised us that we will have no For reasons best known to Chouhan, arrangements for COVID-19 patients shortage of medicines needed for the his government decided to not just but in over two weeks now, all we have treatment, personal protective equip- draft in select private hospitals in done is screened patients for the virus. ment (PPE) for all our staff and other Indore and Bhopal to treat COVID-19 The hospital is empty because all necessary requirements,” he explains. patients but also ordered that all patients are being sent to Chirayu. The government has ordered that all infected public health officials who COVID-19 patients receiving treat- were admitted to AIIMS, Bhopal, be ment in any hospital—private or gov- transferred to Chirayu Hospital, a pri- ernment—will be covered under the vate facility founded by Vyapam scam “The government Ayushman Bharat scheme, irrespec- accused Dr Ajay Goenka. Similarly, in will end up spending tive of their financial status. The agree- Indore, Sri Aurobindo Hospital— ment with Chirayu for treating founded by another Vyapam scam twice the money on COVID-19 patients, Goenka says, “is accused, Dr Vinod Bhandari, was iden- private hospitals for for a period of three months… the gov- tified as a COVID-19 treatment centre. ernment will pay Chirayu for the treat- Doctors in government-run hospitals the same treatment.” ment of all COVID-19 patients and
1 2 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 COVID-19/MADHYA PRADESH
compensate the hospital for the loss of won’t be limited to containing the pan- this exercise would depend on the effi- its revenues during this period”. demic in hotspots like Indore, Bhopal ciency of respective state govern- Besides officials of the public health and Ujjain. ments. The experience of the 21-day department, another major chunk of There’s another tough battle that’s stay-at-home order in MP on this front confirmed COVID-19 cases in Bhopal round the corner for the administra- has, so far, been disappointing. is of MP police personnel. Officially, tion running sans a council of minis- “Besides disruption in the supply the police have maintained that their ters. The harvesting season has just chain which all states have complained personnel got infected “while tracking begun and the state’s economy is not of, in various parts of MP, the district members of the Tablighi Jamaat who just predominantly agriculture-based administration’s measures for had come to the state after attending but also rife with crop failure and transportation and distribution of the event in Delhi’s Nizamuddin resultant farmer distress. A major rea- vegetables were shoddy,” says Ram Markaz, where several cases of son for the BJP losing power in the Bharose Kushwaha, a farmer who infection were later reported”. This state 15 months ago was the Congress’s trades at the Karond Sabzi Mandi in explanation for widespread promise of farm loan waiver—the first Bhopal. “Since several localities in coronavirus infection within the police two installments of which had been Bhopal were sealed, the municipal force may not be an exaggeration but it given, according to Kamal Nath, when corporation said it would procure does raise another equally important the BJP toppled his government. With vegetables and then ensure proper question that betrays the state’s the 21-day lockdown extending for delivery through its staff. Later, several preparedness against the pandemic. corporation workers tested positive “We knew that we were sending our for the virus and for three-four days men to track people who may have there was no supply of vegetables contracted the virus but we didn’t throughout Bhopal,” he says. If equip them with the protective gear coronavirus cases continue to rise in needed for handling COVID-19 the weeks ahead, such complications suspects. If we say that our men got the over procurement and supply of infection from the Jamaatis, we should vegetables and food grain could also admit that we did not provide become a recurring problem. them with the necessary precautionary Chouhan’s administration hasn’t yet tools they desperately needed,” says a offered any feasible alternative to the senior police officer who doesn’t wish existing system, which has already to be named. been scarred by poor implementation. The outrage that the state adminis- The pandemic and the lockdown tration’s mishandling of the crisis has have also triggered massive reverse generated, arguably, led Chouhan to migration of the poor who had left issue an order, on April 10, which said “Centre’s engagement their homes for work in big cities and that anyone sharing information in toppling the MP are now compelled to journey back related to the pandemic with the after losing jobs and whatever money media for publication “without prior government delayed they earned. In several MP districts— approval” of designated authorities steps for tackling the most prominently those that fall under will be “guilty of offences under the the drought-prone Bundelkhand MP Epidemic Diseases Regulations, COVID-19 crisis.” region—distress migration of debt-rid- 2020”, and liable to legal action. The KAMAL NATH den farmers, who move to the cities to order was silent on whether media Former CM, Congress work as construction labour and daily would be held liable for similar action wage earners, has been common for if it publicised information that hadn’t years. Now, hundreds of thousands of been vetted by designated officials. another fortnight (till May 3), them are either back in their villages in Besides, it raised questions over Chouhan will have to find quick solu- MP or are marooned in camps across whether, in the garb of curtailing tions to ensure that harvesting is not the country; detained by police while spread of misinformation, the interrupted and farmers are able to marching on foot from the states Chouhan administration wanted to sell their crop without the risk of where they had found work. Chouhan force media to only share the govern- amplifying the spread of the virus. is yet to announce any real financial ment’s version. With new cases of Sources say Chouhan, like chief minis- relief package for these poor people. In coronavirus infection being reported ters of several agrarian states, has the absence of a state budget there is from across the state every day and the urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi also no specific allocation for relief threat of community transmission to ease lockdown restrictions to measures arising. looming large after cases were ensure that harvesting crops, procure- In his hurry to return as chief minis- reported in the interiors such as ment and distribution are not hin- ter, Chouhan may have created the Sheopur, Morena, Sagar, Barwani, dered. While relaxation for farmers biggest challenge of his political career Chhindwara and Nagda, the challenge and the food distribution network are for himself. And so far, the virus seems ahead for Chouhan’s administration expected, the successful execution of to be getting the better of him. O
1 3 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 COVID-19/CENTRE-STATE Altered State of Governance How the fight against COVID-19 is changing the way the government works
Bhavna Vij-Aurora cant in the normal course as his minis- “Not much should be read into Shah try is at the forefront of enforcing the moderating the conference,” says a lockdown and coordinating with the senior government functionary. “Had FTER initiating the discussion states. However, it raised some eye- somebody else been the home minis- with chief ministers on brows because Shah, known for his ter, it would have been the same as the handling the nationwide hardline image, had somewhat receded ministry of home affairs is central to lockdownA and making his opening into the shadows after the back- the lockdown. Whether it is issuing remarks on April 11, PM Narendra to-back decisions to abrogate Article instructions about ensuring essential Modi handed over the proceedings to 370, pushing the Citizenship goods and services or issuing adviso- home minister Amit Shah to moderate. (Amendment) Act and to amend the ries regarding welfare of migrant Though Centre-state relations come Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. labourers, it is all done by the MHA. under the purview of Shah’s ministry, His uncharacteristic reticence since Shah’s presence was crucial at the PM’s the CMs were taken by surprise when riots broke out in Delhi in February meeting with the CMs.” he took charge of the video conference. was being talked about within the BJP Pointing out that it’s the work done He had been present in their earlier and also among Opposition leaders. by ministers, not their visibility, that is meetings with the PM too—on March Congress leader Kapil Sibal had ques- important, the functionary adds: 20 and April 2—but except urging the tioned his silence, tweeting on March “Shah is visible in the Centre-states states to implement the lockdown 28 that while people were locked down conference. You see Rajnath Singh, as strictly at the second meeting, Shah and lakhs of migrants were walking No. 2 in the government, chairing a had mostly been silent. Much like the home, the home minister was neither meeting of Group of Ministers; (exter- other two ministers participating in seen nor heard. nal affairs minister) S. Jaishankar the meeting—defence minister coordinating efforts to get Indian stu- Rajnath Singh and health minister Dr dents back from Wuhan; (finance min- Harsh Vardhan, along with the The PMO is firmly ister) Nirmala Sitharaman principal secretary to the PM, the in the saddle, but announcing an economic distress cabinet secretary, the home secretary, relief package; (I&B minister) Prakash the health secretary and the DG of the bureaucracy Indian Council of Medical Research. is the mainstay Asking Shah to moderate the meeting PM Modi at a video conference with chief would not have been seen as signifi- of the fight. ministers over the coronavirus outbreak COVID-19/CENTRE-STATE
Javadekar briefing the media about the colonial-era public administration ting success stories from districts like important cabinet decisions; Dr Harsh system that has become the mainstay Bhilwara and Agra, which are being Vardhan coordinating COVID-19 miti- of the fight against the novel coronavi- used as case studies for others to emu- gation efforts; (food and public distri- rus, while the PM is strengthening his late. The credit for these small victories bution minister) Ram Vilas Paswan image as a benign ruler by reaching out goes to the local administration.” ensuring availability of essential food to doctors, nurses, health and sanita- The PM’s team is led by his principal items; (road transport and highways tion workers through his Mann ki secretary P.K. Mishra, a 1972-batch minister) Nitin Gadkari looking at Baat,” says a secretary to the govern- Gujarat-cadre officer, in close coordi- ways of getting labour back to restart ment of India. Leading the charge on nation with principal advisor P.K. highway projects; and (agriculture and the ground are officers at the district Sinha. “Between the two PKs, it is rural development minister) Narendra level—district magistrates, superinten- clearly Mishra who is boss. Associated Tomar trying to figure out a way to dents of police and chief medical with the National Disaster harvest the rabi crops.” officers. As the PMO has assigned indi- Management Authority in its initial But the general perception remains, vidual states to all Union ministers, days, he has vast experience in disaster especially with political rivals, that they get daily reports bypassing the management. He was also conferred Shah is no more the first among equals, lengthy state-to-Centre channel. The with an award by the UN Office for next only to the PM? A senior BJP Disaster Risk Reduction last year. leader, not wanting to be named, He is definitely the right man for says it was only a perception due to the job,” claims a senior official. his old association with the PM, and The backbone of the core team is that needs to change. Apparently, cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba, a the BJP’s ideological parent, the 1982-batch Jharkhand-cadre RSS, had also expressed reserva- officer. He is believed to be the tions about this. “The perception operations man, coordinating with was harming the party,” says a sen- various ministries, states, bureau- ior RSS functionary. “The BJP is a crats and other agencies, and tak- disciplined party and does not func- ing key decisions in the fight tion like other parties. The hierar- against COVID-19. Then there is chy in the council of ministers the ring formed by secretaries in needs to be maintained. If Rajnath key ministries, including health, Singh is No. 2, he has to be seen as finance, external affairs, defence such. And the other ministers too and home. Though all of them are need to get their due. Whenever Modi Amit Shah is working around the clock, health sec- goes to the BJP headquarters, he goes monitoring all retary Preeti Sudan and home secre- like a karyakarta (party worker), giving tary Ajay Bhalla have perhaps the the party president due respect and information related toughest jobs at hand. A 1983-batch taking a backseat himself. Ministers to the coronavirus officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, cannot forget this discipline as they are Sudan is usually the first point of con- karyakartas first.” from his home. tact for any queries coming from the An MHA official claims the home PMO or her ministry. She is also minister is closely monitoring all pan- involved in regular review of the pre- demic-related information from his respective ministers coordinate with paredness of states and Union territo- Krishna Menon Marg residence. “Shah all the DMs, SPs and CMOs of the ries in terms of requirements like continues to be as important as ever. state on a daily basis regarding meas- testing kits, PPEs, masks, ventilators Some niggling health issues are keep- ures taken to contain the spread of and even hand sanitisers. ing him away from the warfront. He COVID-19, quarantine facilities and Bhalla, a 1984-batch Assam- has been to his office in North Block a lockdown-related problems, and Meghalaya-cadre officer, is coordinat- few times and attended a few GoM report back to the PMO. There is a ing all lockdown-related issues with meetings, but generally works from dedicated email address, accessed by the states from a ‘control room’ set up home,” the official adds. the ministers concerned, where they in the North Block. He monitors the get constant updates to be passed work of two key teams working under Bureaucracy to the Forefront on to the PMO. him—one collates all pandemic-related Subtly but definitively, the COVID-19 “The PMO is depending on multiple data from the health ministry and vari- crisis has changed the way government layers of information sources to keep ous states and compares it to the global works. While it has highlighted the tabs on how things are unfolding on the figures, and the other tackles issues role of respective ministers, it is the ground in terms of outbreak, hotspots, raised by the states and the problems bureaucrats who have become the face containment and problems like supply faced by them. All lockdown-related of the government’s fight against the of essentials goods,” says the secretary. advisories, notifications and guidelines pandemic. “While the Prime Minister’s “The mechanism has cut down on reac- to states and other ministries are sent Office remains firmly in the saddle, it is tion time and slip-ups. We are also get- out by Bhalla. O
15 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 NAFED And Farmers Fight COVID-19
he pandemic COVID-19 has brought the global life to a screeching halt threatening to disrupt the “lives and Tlivelihoods” of 7.8 billion world population which we never witnessed before since World War II. Needless to emphasise all sections of the society are equally affected by Coronavirus, but the marginalised society, as always, will be the most affected. In the fight against COVID-19, the country is coming together in this hour of major disruptions and the human spirit and hope shall see us through. The example set by one of the most trusted organisations of Government of India, a crucial cog in the wheel of Indian Economy “Agriculture”. alleviate the sufferings of the poor and marginalised sections of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation society. It has stiff targets set for May and June and will complete the of India (NAFED), the central Nodal agency of Government of distribution well within schedules. India, has risen to the occasion in order to take care of the basic In addition, NAFED is continuing to procure pulses and oilseeds necessity of common people life in this hour of need. NAFED at MSP from the farmers in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, has taken the initiative to supply pulses under Pradhan Mantri Telangana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh. It is likely to undertake Garib Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY) and has commenced dispatches procurement in Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh soon. to a number of States like Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, The Federation is also gearing up to purchase vegetables and fruits Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Chandigarh, Telangana, from Cooperative and FPOs to minimise the losses to the farmers Tamil Nadu, Goa, Karnataka, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and to the extent possible. It is seen that the presence of NAFED in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Mandis provides support to the market. NAFED targets to supply 195,510 MT of processed/upgraded They are not only taking care of common man at this juncture pulses covering around 19,55,51,000 households across 36 States but also helping the citizens in overcoming threats the pandemic and Union Territories. NAFED will supply the required quantity by is posing. This will allow the farmers and the common man to stay end of the month. Despite the lockdown, the federation is making safe, stronger and spirited who shall play a vital role on the other an effort to complete the distribution in the least time possible to side of COVID1-9. NCDC: Adopt and Enrich Approach
n the time of Coronavirus crisis stepping out of home is as dangerous as stepping into fire. Encouraged by Prime Minister, IShri Narendra Modi’s clarion call to beat Covid-19 pandemic, Laxman Rao Inamdar National Academy (LINAC) of NCDC has taken the initiative to run an online training program for government officials so that the work is not compromised under all circumstances. This excellent step taken by NCDC in order to make people adopt and enrich with the help of advanced technologies available at their disposal, implementation of which on such vast scale might have been a challenge but the willingness and honest approach would make it possible. Kudos to LINAC, MIS division and the participants who are attending the Professional Online Training program with full fortitude.
DATE Session I Session II 15.04.2020 Communication Skills (PO-I) – SKT MS Office – Advanced Excel (PO-II) – BS/SG 16.04.2020 MS Office – Advanced Excel (PO- II) – BS/SG Communication Skills – (PO – II) - SKT 17.04.2020 Data Collection (PO – I) – AK MS Office –Advanced Excel (PO – I) – BS/SG 20.04.2020 MS Office – Advanced Excel (PO – I) – BS/SG Data Collection (PO – II) -AK 21.04.2020 Project Appraisal (PO-I) -AK Project Appraisal (PO-I) -AK 22.04.2020 Project Appraisal (PO-I) -AK Time Management (PO-I) – SKT 23.04.2020 Working Capital & its Assessment (PO-I)- AK Working Capital & its Assessment (PO-I)- AK 24.04.2020 Project Appraisal (PO-II) -AK Project Appraisal (PO-II) -AK 27.04.2020 Project Appraisal (PO-II) -AK Time Management (PO-II) - SKT 28.04.2020 Working Capital & its Assessment (PO-II) -AK Working Capital & its Assessment (PO-II) -AK BS – Lt. Col. Bikramjit Singh, Chief Director, LINAC AK – Shri Ashwani Kumar, Consultant, LINAC SKT – Shri S.K Tucker, Advisor, LINAC SG – Shri Sandeep Gaur, PO, LINAC AFGHANISTAN/TALIBAN DEAL
GETTY IMAGES
Even as peace talks collapsed in Kabul, Taliban leaders arrive for a meeting with US officials in Doha, Qatar, on April 15
pandemic has given a new twist to the situation. All parties in the negotia- tions are frantically busy finding urgent measures to halt the virus’s spread in their respective zone of influence. None of them are keen at Peace by Piece this distracted juncture to return to negotiations in a hurry. Interestingly, the Taliban was due to send a large The Taliban angrily withdraws from talks with Kabul. The United team to Kabul for talks, but ended up States, the initiator, is preoccupied with fighting COVID-19. sending only a three-man delegation because of the coronavirus outbreak. A spokesman said the trio would moni- Pranay Sharma tending parties only seem to have tor the prisoner release process and hardened further. Of course, this take the necessary technical measures. could be a tactical retreat, as both Many observers feel that even the US, OVID has a finger in every sides try to create pressure on the the key player in the peace deal, will conceivable pie crafted by other to force it to blink first, in the focus on dealing with the pandemic in human hands. After disrupting way of some compromise, before the coming weeks. With mainland US Cthe global economy, driving people they resume negotiations. It is an being the new epicentre of the pan- into sickness, hunger and unemploy- old diplomatic ploy. demic, the Trump administration has ment and freezing social intercourse, it However, in this case, the COVID-19 its priorities redrawn, even as the has begun to infect the stalled peace death toll continues to mount with talks in Afghanistan. each passing day. Even the irrepressi- The painstakingly calibrated peace Indian experts ble Donald Trump, who habitually talks agreed between the Taliban and turns to Twitter to comment on any the US broke down last week after foresaw collapse development that involves American the militia walked away from the of the US-Afghan interest, has so far refrained from table in protest against the Afghan commenting on the Taliban walkout. government’s reluctance to release talks. Taliban was Most feel that even if the US presi- all “big commanders” of the group playing a high dent wants to use his influence on the who are in its custody. Since then, Taliban and the Afghan government to the respective positions of the con- stakes game. resume talks, he may do so only after
17 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 GETTY IMAGES AFGHANISTAN/TALIBAN DEAL
Some of the 100 Taliban prisoners being released by the Afghan government at the Bagram prison in Kabul on April 12
the pandemic ravaging his country is brought under control. This, most experts estimate, will take several months. Afghanistan, therefore, might have to wait. The February-end landmark agree- ment between the Taliban and the US—implacable foes till recently— seeking to end the decades-long What had raised eyebrows was the US’ Since March-end, millions of violence in Afghanistan had generated willingness to accept the Taliban’s con- Afghans have fled to the country from a lot of hype. But most observers knew dition that there will be an incremen- Iran, one of the worst affected nations. that the passage of the future negotia- tal reduction in violence, but not a Nearly 50,000 more Afghans have also tions that would have to involve Kabul, ceasefire that will end fighting, after come over from Pakistan in past too, would not be smooth. the February peace deal. weeks. Most have gone back to their The talks stalled over the ‘prisoner Matin Bek, a member of the Afghan villages and towns without proper swap’ clause that was part of the agree- government’s negotiating team, had health checks, Many migrant Afghan ment. But the Ashraf Ghani govern- told reporters that the Taliban had workers in neighbouring countries ment in Kabul, which was not party to demanded the release of 15 command- were also reportedly denied testing, it, had serious reservations about its ers who Kabul believes were involved in overwhelmed as the doctors were in efficacy when told about it later. Ghani “big attacks”. “We cannot release the those countries in dealing with their refused to release 5,000 Taliban pris- killers of our own people,” Bek had said. own citizens. Afghan health ministry oners in Kabul’s custody under the While the Taliban accused the Ashraf official Waheedullah Mayar was terms of the US deal, saying the Afghan Ghani government of delaying the quoted as saying that there was a dire government had made no such agree- release of prisoners on “one pretext or need for ventilators, millions of pro- ment. Instead, he offered the condi- the other”, Kabul officials say they could tective kits for health workers and over tional release of 1,500 prisoners. The release 400 “low threat” Taliban fighters 50 million litres of disinfectants. differences over the swap—which as a goodwill gesture. This, naturally, did Reportedly, even the Taliban, who would have led to 1,000 pro-govern- not satisfy the Taliban who sought all its typically look askance at modern med- ment forces released by the Taliban in commanders to be released for talks to icine and health workers operating in exchange—delayed the talks that were progress. Obviously, without a guarantee their areas of control, have been coop- to be held between March 10 and to of complete cessation of violence, it nei- erative and serious in dealing with the April 1. Those proposed talks now lie in ther the Afghan government nor the US pandemic. Taliban websites have been ruins. The writing, however, was on thought this was a reasonable demand. used for highlighting the effort being the wall. Clearly disappointed at the However, as the stalemate continues, put up by the militia in dealing with outcome of the first face-to-face dis- the focus is shifting on how the the emerging challenge. cussions with the Afghan government, COVID-19 pandemic might affect Afghanistan is not only one of the a Taliban spokesman had earlier Afghanistan. So far, there have been world’s poorest countries, but years of described the talks as “fruitless”. 714 cases of infection resulting in the conflict have ravaged most of its infra- “Things are moving as per the script,” death of 23 people across the 26 prov- structure and healthcare network, says a former Indian ambassador to inces of the country. But most experts leaving it perennially short of medi- Kabul. He and the others in the Indian feel the extremely low numbers in a cines and essential medical supplies. establishment had remained sceptical country with a population of over 35 In a tradition where not too many peo- about the seriousness with which the million is either because of under- ple are encouraged to consult a doctor, Taliban would have stuck to the nego- reporting or lack of testing. the lack of infrastructure and adequate tiations. According to them, the tests to determine the extent of the Taliban were making the unrealistic virus’ spread in the country can pose a demands for two reasons: one, if they Ghani won’t free nearly insurmountable challenge in were met by the government it would coming days. hugely benefit the student-militia. But 5,000 Taliban In such an evolving situation, peace if they were rejected, it would provide prisoners agreed negotiations can wait. How a skein of the Taliban with a legitimate excuse to the knotted whole can be untangled for abandon talks. under the US deal, the tenuous peace process to begin For the Taliban, the prisoner swap saying Kabul after key players overcome the was crucial, as it had made it condi- COVID-19 challenge will be an inter- tional to the reduction of violence. wasn’t party to it. esting spectacle. O
18 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 SANS FRONTIERS
WORLD TOUR
FOREIGN HAND
UNITED KINGDOM Australia-born Wikileaks founder Julian Assange secretly fathered two children while in refuge in London’s Ecuadorean embas- sy, Stella Morris, his South African part- HE extent to which Donald Trump is willing to follow his ‘America ner, revealed. The 48-year old Assange TFirst’ maxim has begun to shock his global partners. The US’s is seeking bail from Belmarsh Prison transatlantic ally Germany accused it of “modern piracy” when one of where he was lodged last year. Morris, a its consignments was intercepted in Thailand and diverted to America. lawyer, fears he might die if infected by The American president had earlier threatened India of retaliatory coronavirus in the prison. action if it failed to supply hydroxychloroquine to the US. New Delhi supplied the drug, believed to help cure COVID-19, to the US and sev- eral countries as a humanitarian gesture. However, there was confu- sion over the Thailand incident. Initial press reports said the masks were ordered from the US manu- facturer 3M, which came under criticism from the White House for procuring face masks for overseas customers. But the company dis- puted that, clarifying it had “no record of any order of respirators from China for the Berlin police”. Berlin’s interior ministry explained the protective masks for its police were ordered through a German com- pany specialising in medical products. Its spokesman Martin Pallgen JAPAN The coronavirus crisis has told German news agency DPA that police were informed by the com- posed a peculiar challenge to Japan: pany about the first half of its order of 200,000 masks being “confis- how to offload hundreds of tonnes cated” and diverted to the US. of perfectly marbled Wagyu beef in a Berlin Mayor Michael Müller informed the police that “the delivery hurry. The A5-grade meat sells for $500 was cancelled due to a US directive and the plane flew to the US rather a kg. The sudden absence of gourmet than Germany”. But interior minister Andreas Geisel unsparingly tourists poses sellers a problem they described it as an “act of modern piracy”, adding, “You don’t treat your never envisaged. Supermarkets now transatlantic partners like that”. He argued that despite the coronavi- offer it with a 40 per cent discount. rus crisis, the “methods of the wild west” should not prevail. In a tweet, mayor Müller accused US president Donald Trump of “lacking solidar- ity” and behaving “irresponsibly”. He added, “It is inhuman and unacceptable.” The incident highlights the extent the US is willing to go to secure essential protective gear from a limited pool of suppliers. Trump has targeted 3M as part of his efforts to safeguard supplies to treat COVID- 19 positive citizens. The company earlier ignored demands by the White House officials to send about 10 million N95 respirator masks being produced in Singapore for markets in Asia to the US. Trump has invoked his authority under a Korean War-era law— the Defence SWEDEN Table tennis, marble racing, Production Act—with regard to the N95 masks made by 3M. It allows and Swedish trotting are suddenly the the Federal Emergency Management Agency to use “any and all focus of world’s gamblers as football, authority” to buy “the number of N95 respirators” it “determines to be horse racing and other top betting appropriate” from 3M and its subsidiaries. Trump justified the action, sports have disappeared because of saying protective equipment was “kept in our country and gets to coronavirus. An 11 per cent drop, from where it is needed to defeat the virus”. The episode again spurs ques- a $473 billion overall gambling revenue tions about his ability to be a ‘world leader’. O worldwide, is anticipated, bringing it down to $421 bn this year.
19 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 Responses of DR AmbeDkAR InstItute of technology During the coVID-19 national lockdown
orona Virus Disease (COVID), having for the students who stay in the residential taken birth in China in November 2019 hostels coming from far distant places and Chas impacted the entire world and disadvantaged backgrounds, in addition to brought catastraphe to most of the countries. ensure their quarantine with safety measures. The COVID has challenged the advancements Third, alleviating burden of the parents and in the health systems of the various countries, guardians in regard to the new learning including the most advanced ones. The environment and to ensure the academic pandemic has already killed over 80 thousand compliance of their wards. Last but not the Dr. M. Mahadeva people, with several lakhs caught after the least is the real challenge of maintaining Contact: 91 48 54 88 99 infection and are under various stages of social distance of the students, especially in Email: [email protected] treatment. With this pandemic, people are not the class rooms once the lockdown lifted. It only put to all forms of stress like never before must be noted that under prolonged situation, expected to submit reports to the respective but compelled to quarantine themselves at students miss academic interactions, which is Head of the Department in completing the homes. That apart people are also maintain essential for learning. syllabus and other activities. They have also strict social distance. This social emergency Dr Ambedkar Institute of Technology (AIT) successfully used online material available being first in the recent time. The worst part in Bangalore is a mutilingual, multi culture in the different portals with the help of the of the pandemic is lack of diagnosis based and multi religion institution with over five technology. medicines, although attempts are on to thousand students in all the major engineering Boy-students of the distant places, invent one in many countries after the virus branches. Roughly one third of the students particularly those of the other states and catastrophe. But given its wide range of spread stay in the residential hostels in the campus, other countries were safeguarded with close silently, non-medicinal methods are being having come from far distant places. It is monitoring and many of them are room imposed to minimise the spread and the known to be a cost effective institution, rich quarantined. They were provided internet related sufferings. Especially, these methods faculty resources, highly secular and for many connectivity in their residential premises and are largely practiced by the people in India such reasons, it has become a sought after one in their rooms. Foods of the south and north like home quarantine, social distance and by the students of the middle class and lower Indian as well as continental style are being lockdown. Attempts have also been made middle class strata. Having sensitised about provided round the day, after engaging the to develop immunity among the potential the various implications by itself, AIT geared specialised chefs and cooks. The management patients group like children, aged ones and up to meet all the challenges of the national and administrators have been visiting the others suffering from other ailments and lockdown commenced from 23 March. This hostel premises regularly to ensure the diseases. It should not go without mention that is mainly to engage the students and the cleanliness and the arrangements made. like the Indian Army, the Doctors, Paramedicals teachers academically in all measures, keeping Given the present situation, online learning and others in the hospitals have been working the interest and welfare of the students and and academic compliance assumed paramount day and nights in treating and caring the the parents. Thanks to the autonomous status, significance in the technical institution and this affected cases and have exhibited their bravery which has facilitated one-to-one interactions shift compels the knowledge of the ICT among in doing so. Their services are yeoman without rather conspicuously between the students the stake holders, more so with students and caring for their own life. The national lockdown and teachers under this unprecedented teachers. The supervisory authorities like AICTE that is in progress has impacted all walks period. Interesting to note that majority of should popularise online teaching along with of life of the country and hit the economy the students are interacting with faculty regular academic activities. They should ensure badly and severely, as per many estimates. members in regards to the syllabus teaching that students should not miss the classes, Educational institutions being the centres of and mentors are conducting online classes especially when the faculty apply various leaves conglomeration are the worst hit, in terms of with learning materials. Faculty themselves including, assignments on other duties and the annual academic calendars that prompted have registered for ATAL FDP to upgrade special leave period. Mixture of both online reschedules. The COVID lockdown has posed their knowledge. Students were encouraged and offline classes would be more effective. a number of challenges to the teachers, to the learning contents of NPTEL Courses. The technical institutions shall be supported to students, administration and others. The major Besides online classes through zoom, google develop additional capacities to meet the similar challenge is not to lose the academic calendar classroom,TCS Ion Digital Classroom, Skype, situations in days to come. Our experience in any manner and to ensure engagement of Cisco Webex, LinkedIn and many other points to the fact that distance education the students community. It only means to put portals. Students were posted recorded video modalities supported with the technology measures for continuous academic pursuits, lectures of VTU and previous years question would become an important option under without losing academic interest, time and papers were solved. In turn, students have the situation. Similarly, Massive Open Online energy. It is obvious especially in the technical also responded with all enthusiasm and Course (MOOC) with teacher- student network autonomous institutions, which are known for submitted assignments, seminars, mini and contact becomes an added importance. But tight academic schedules throughout the year. final projects through WhatsApp and were to ensure sustainable online learning, not only There are other challenges as well to address allowed to contact the concerned faculty for the network based infrastructure is mandatory to combat the pandemic. First, adjusting the seeking clarifications on their submissions. but also training of the stakeholders, especially academic calendar as the closure affects in In all, it is a matter of pride that over 75 per in rural areas and students and teachers as well several ways, including completion of the cent of the undergraduates and cent percent respectively. Based on the present pandemic teaching modules, compliance of the students of the postgraduate students were covered lockdown experience, government shall and the semester based examinations during the period of lockdown. From the invite the industry to develop the needed and other followings. Second, ensuring administration, all faculty members instructed infrastructure as well as the capacities in the facilitating environment like nutritious food to connect with their students and are technical institutions. COVER COVID-19 STORY
PINK SLIP or PAY CHEQUE?
Post-lockdown, the world of work won’t be what we used to know. For many, the uncertainty of livelihood would likely linger much longer, and be no less painful.
Lola Nayar, Jyotika Sood, Yagnesh Kansara, and Salik Ahmad JITENDER GUPTA COVER COVID-19 STORY
Take a deep breath before you read this, and know that these are only scenarios—thumbnail sketches of what may happen. We cannot yet pluck the future out of the crystal ball, and the future may yet hold surprises. But yes, in one of the better worst-case scenarios out there, 100 million and more Indian jobs will be at risk during and after
the COVID-19 lockdown stage. CII, a 38 million their offices. “My owner gave Rs 7,000 leading industry association, asked or 70 per cent of jobs at risk in March, when the lockdown was industry bosses how they felt things in the tourism industry, as announced. He assured us of future would pan out—of the 200 CEOs estimated by KPMG, salaries, but I am not sure. I am not surveyed, one-third expected job a global think-tank even sure about my job,” says Deepak losses of 15-30 per cent in their Kumar, who operates a cloth-weaving respective sectors. Another 47 per machine at a garment firm. cent felt the figures might be slightly 10 million Fortunately, there is also an opti- less than 15 per cent. But translated Jobs at risk in the entire mistic scenario—indeed, that will into actual numbers, the scenario textile chain, if there is no most likely intersect with the more still seems scary. Tot up the estimates government-driven depressing tendencies to produce a of those likely to be unemployed in stimulus package complex reality. The usual picture of the various sectors, and it’s a horror a shell-shocked economy with zero movie coming to a screen—sorry, demand may be too simplistic. Yes, office—near you. A bulk the pain of unemployment will be felt of the 136 million jobs in From end-March, most companies acutely over the next three to six segments with casual work- have resorted to one of these three months, but there can also be a quick ers and unwritten contracts, decisions—sacking people, asking rebound. In fact, the creation of fresh and self-employed areas are employees to go on indefinite leave jobs and a return of old ones may at extreme risk without pay, and slashing salaries by happen sooner than we expect due to as much as 85 per cent. Emotional two reasons. The first is psychologi- and distressing emails about jobs and That risk cal: consumers, liberated after being wage cuts were dispatched from their is very real in all segments cooped up at home for over five corner rooms by CEOs to employees, where informal employees weeks, may go berserk once the lock- some of whom had worked in the make up a huge percentage, down is lifted. They may wish to buy same companies for decades. The such as manufacturing (76 more, spend more—certainly, travel Dubai-based CEO of Triburg, an per cent as per Periodic more. It may be irrational, but very apparel-sourcing firm, wrote, “In my Labour Force Survey, 2017-18), human to go overboard. Of course, 48 years of working life, I have never financial services (50 per this release of pent-up seen such a difficult situation....” cent) and public sector demand will be restricted to those Those mercilessly pink-slipped are (55 per cent) who retain their jobs. often too scared to even tell their fam- Brand expert Harish Bijoor offers a ilies. “I don’t have the courage,” more concrete reason to feel reveals Rohit Verma (name changed), In agriculture optimistic. He says that although who worked in the marketing division one may witness a debt-cre- Goldman Sachs and World Bank have of Makino India, an auto-ancillary ating paralysis: farmers being predicted the world economy could firm, and whose family includes his either unable to harvest their witness a negative growth of up to 3 wife (homemaker), old parents and crops, or to reach mandis in per cent, and India to grow at a mere two children. Those who are at home time, leaving them indebted 1.5-1.6 per cent, the latter may not be are unsure if they will ever go back to for the next few seasons true. India is less dependent on
2 2 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 COVER COVID-19 EMPLOYMENT STORY
14.5 lakh E-commerce exports compared to China and Japan, he points out, and has a huge domestic demand—so growth may “remain static” around 4-5 per cent. In addition, economic crises in 69.9 lakh countries like India tend to boost Food processing labour productivity. Ultimately, it will be a toss-up between three scenarios—a V-shaped recovery, a U-shaped one or an 474 lakh L-shaped one. US President Donald Retail Trump has categorically talked about the first—saying that the US and other economies will immediately rebound once the lockdowns are 500 lakh lifted, and, hence, there will be mini- Tourism mal unemployment and high- Pavan Kumar Vijay, er-than-estimated growths. Most CS & Founder, experts are nervy and apprehensive: Corporate Professionals they believe the U-shaped scenario to 662 lakh The courts are be more likely, and expect the lower plateau to last for anything from six Building closed, companies are months to a few years. construction not working, and a lot of Only if the IMF’s dire prediction compliance dates were turns out true—which is that the pushed forward, so we COVID-19 crisis will be the worst “It is very important to have negligible work. after the Great Depression of the 1930s—will we be staring at the dismal make sure people who are Being a consultancy firm, L-shape spreading across the globe. we have a hand- That is, once growth plummets across losing jobs can maintain to-mouth model. We get countries, it will hug that low level for a basic lifestyle.” payments from clients several years. In the case of the Great Gita Gopinath on regular intervals or Depression, this trend lasted for over IMF chief economist a decade. In such a situation, expect draw overdraft from our job losses in India to be nearer to 200 bank. I have paid salaries million, besides a long-lasting, severe “These are extraordinary to my 80 employees, impact on everything and everyone including 60 lawyers, related to farming. times and we will do for March, but no new However, there are too many ifs and everything we can to protect buts here. No one has seen such a sce- work has come up, nario before—and we don’t know if the our people’s livelihoods. and even the big clients recovery will be V-shaped, U-shaped or But we will certainly not want have not paid for previ- L-shaped (those are just shapes in a ous work. I like to remain nervous Lego toy game we are playing to cut salaries or jobs due to positive, but, realistically, right now). We don’t even know if we this event.” can compare across a century. The the impact won’t go away Great Depression was caused by huge Harsh Goenka for at least a year. and deep-rooted systemic problems Chairman, RPG Enterprises We are not cutting that were accentuated by entrepre- neurs, central bankers, policymakers wages of the support “One of the indicators for the staff. The consultancy and investors. This crisis is the result of an external shock; the state of most prioritisation of sectors to staff has been asked economies was within the range of to go on leave without normal, if not exactly in the pink of restart is protection of jobs pay for three months, health. Hence, how the economies, and livelihoods, especially of and opt for a skill consumers and entrepreneurs react is industrial labour and upgradation course, still in the realm of speculation and educated guesswork. blue-collared jobs.” which we would support. But right now, it’s as stark as either/ or. Saiful Haq, a property developer CII Report
2 3 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 COVER COVID-19 STORY
PTI
Rachel Goenka Founder & CEO, The Chocolate Spoon Company The restaurant business has been hit in the worst possible way. In the abs ence of a government package or support, I am afraid we won’t be able to pay our staff for long. We are operating with limited in-house delivery. Around 30 of the 430 employees are working Hundreds of migrant workers—jobless, homeless and almost without cash and food—gathered outside a Bandra railway station in Mumbai following to sustain this. I don’t rumours that train services would resume on April 15 see anything getting back to normal. You in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, laments prison. Post-lockdown, the sales of air have the monsoon com- that given the jobs and wage losses, tickets may zoom, as may their prices; ing next. That would be he does not know if property buyers the related spike in demand may another pain. will be in a position to repay their shore up the hospitality sector too. loans. As it is, real estate tends to dip The situation in agriculture is more during the monsoon season. But Raju complex. The overall amount of work Shilpa Harit, John, director general, Builders that needs to be done is, roughly Owner, Association of India, also points to speaking, constant within a short Style Your Way Boutique the eventual, but inevitable, climb- time-frame—but this is a dynamic, We are passing through a back of activity: “After the lockdown, mobile field of employment that it will take a few weeks to get the faces unique bottlenecks now. very bad phase, with zero workforce back, and streamline the Farmers are sitting on a bumper rabi sales for a month now machinery and raw material. There crop, although there are indications and overdue mall rentals. will also be a rush to complete pend- of a 15-20 per cent loss in wheat pro- For April, I have no means ing projects.” duction due to untimely rain. But to pay the eight employ- Similarly, in the extreme scenarios there is a shortage of labour, which now painted, there seems to be no moves from UP-Bihar to Punjab- ees. My karigars (employ- hope for the travel and hospitality Haryana, and also of mechanical har- ees) have not gone back segments. Most experts feel they will vesters, which move from home. But I call each one be decimated with job losses, bank- Punjab-Haryana to UP. The lucky every 3-4 days. I have ruptcies and shutdowns. Let’s also part: a portion of migrant families, look at the hopeful side. There are who go back to their villages and do 1,000-1,500 customers in tens of thousands of people stranded odd jobs during this season, are avail- and around Gurgaon. across the globe—home or away, at able as farm labourers. “Earlier, these I plan to reach out to their origins or midway. There will migrant labourers would refuse farm them with a ‘Help us now, also be untold thousands who would work back home at Rs 300 per day. collect your dresses now wish to visit their family—after Now, as they cannot do those odd not having been able to be with them jobs they do in normal times, they are later’ kind of Facebook in times of deep uncertainty. People willing to work for Rs 200,” says a campaign. may be afraid of travel, but they may farmer, who owns an acre in western also want to move, as if freed from UP. “But supply is low. There were
2 4 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 COVER COVID-19 STORY
PRIORITISATION OF SECTORS FOR RESTART
Textiles & apparels Pharmaceuticals Food processing Minerals and metals I STAGE
Agri mandis E-commerce (groceries Nikunj Sanghi, and medicines) MD & Founder, Automobiles
JS 4Wheel Motor Pvt Ltd II STAGE Chemicals We are almost com- pletely shut. There is Electronics abs olutely zero cash. Construction Probably 2-3 per cent Hospitality business is operational. I Retail Engineering and III STAGE have paid salaries for capital goods April. In fact, 90 per cent of car dealerships have Essential goods and services Labour intensive Export potential Import dependency
done that. Our business GRAPHICS BY SAJI model is based on a low margin—it is almost like instances of workers being smuggled from Haryana to UP after payment of “The Indian tourism and earning daily wages. If bribes at the borders.” hospitality industry is staring revenue is zero, how are The fact is that the wheat crop has to we going to sustain be harvested in the next week or two, at a potential job loss of beyond April? or else there may be huge production around 38 million, which is losses. Although several state govern- ments have announced measures to 70 per cent of the total work- Disha Grover ensure free flow of farm labour, critics force due to COVID-19.” Founder, contend that the workers face prob- Nutrifit by Disha (New Delhi) lems at state borders. KPMG Report (April 1) Employment is one facet of a complex Mine is a self-owned, farm scenario where the economic im- self-operated, sin- pact on individuals will be across levels. “We have estimated that if no gle-branch clinic. I have It’s a chain effect. Take one of the acute assistance comes from the run it for the past three problems right now: farmers’ access to government, there could be years. This lockdown has mandis. “They have few options: trans- portation is hit. There are added costs loss of almost a crore yielded mixed results. as they will first take their crops to (the The bright side is that nearest) storage facilities, and only later (10 million) of jobs in the people are indoors. They to the markets,” explains Yoginder K. entire textile chain.” are able to take time out Alagh, agri economist and vice-chair- man, Sardar Patel Institute of Rahul Mehta, CMAI Chief Mentor from their schedule. We Economic and Social Research, were running ‘online diet Ahmedabad. Also, allied segments like plans’ and have migrated dairy and poultry have also taken a se- Of 200 CEOs surveyed, 52% some of our existing cli- vere hit. The result: shrinking incomes. foresee job losses in their ents to the online plat- For farmers, warehouse receipts of their sectors; 47% expect job cuts form. Our profits are not crops are not bankable or cashable. Until and unless they sell their crops, to be less than 15%, but a huge, but I can protect they cannot earn money to repay the the jobs. I don’t plan to loans taken earlier to buy seeds and fer- worryingly high 32% expect a fire anybody. tilisers, and run their households. The loss of 15-30% of jobs. crisis is accentuated because of the hit on all the modes of additional income. CII Survey
25 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 COVER COVID-19 STORY
Letter from Triburg’s Dubai-based CEO Tarun Bakshi to his employees; Triburg is among the leading Indian apparel sourcing company
Dear All.
In my 48 years of working life never I have been in such a difficult situation and am sure the same thought is going thru all of you…. A) Most retail stores in the US will stay closed till July-Aug. B) Most retailers and our customers have furloughed 95 pct (%) of their employees without salary C) Unemployment in US has reached close to 10 million jobs D) Most customers have deferred payment terms to 150 days…. Many would file Ch11 bankruptcies and some Ch 7 shutdown E) Triburg is not going to receive any revenue in the next 9 months…. F) We have some painful options ahead - winnow the organisation down to a level where we request several associates to go on leave without salary…. Balance associates will be requested to take cuts It’s a painful test that takes away precious jobs and leaves the rest with Riyaz Ismail, curtailed incomes. Director, Mwhile we must be patient, take care of each other in the hope “this shall Madras Bakers Pvt Ltd also pass” We were really surprised You all are the glue that holds Triburg together and I am thinking only of when after the Janata you. Curfew on March 22, 25 out-of-state workers Stay safe and healthy in our centralised baking My best wishes to all station sensed that a longer lockdown was Tarun coming any time and took the last train out of Chennai to their native To finance the next crop, the farmers lowed immediately by agri-markets, places in Bihar and UP. may have to take fresh loans, even if e-commerce, automobiles and chemi- After the Chennai they have been unable to repay the ear- cals. All the remaining sectors should Corporation permitted lier ones. This will result in a classic be opened in Stage 3. The entire econ- debt trap that can last several seasons. omy should be up-and-running within bakeries to operate from Given these uncertainties about how four to five weeks, with adequate April 12, we have been things will pan out in terms of jobs attention paid to safety protocols and managing with just five and economic recovery in the social distancing between workers. local workers, who are post-lockdown period, a lot will However, experts disagree with this able to bake only 600 depend on what crisis management approach. K.E. Raghunathan, former measures the various state govern- national president, AIMO, says loaves of bread. Earlier, ments will adopt—what CII calls a unlocking a few sectors “without their we used to bake 2,000 “calibrated and safe exit from the lock- supply chains and logistics restored” every day. The other down”. To ensure the least harm, and will defeat the objective. “How will it workers have called and speedier recovery, the government help if my retailer cannot sell the will have to decide which sectors to goods?” he asks. Narendar Pani of the said they will return after restart, in what phases—how the eco- National Institute of Advanced Studies the lockdown is over, nomic imperatives are to be matched feels the government has to initially which is some solace against workers’ safety, and getting identify crucial manufacturing hubs, as we would otherwise back migrant workers. open them, woo workers back and ease have to hire fresh The CII feels both the clauses their supply chains. ‘labour-intensive’ and ‘essential’ A constant focus in this process has hands and train them should apply in choosing sectors: thus to be on the employees, on how to from scratch. textiles, pharmaceuticals and miner- ease the pain for them. Almost 40 per als should be opened initially, fol- cent of migrant labour in the informal
2 6 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 COVER COVID-19 STORY
economic package,” says a corporate CEO. “Our stocks can last for another month in the post-lockdown scenario, but demand slowdown will be the killing factor.” What people tend to forget is that a government stimulus package isn’t enough. Even during the pre-pandemic slowdown, decisions by the finance ministry to help India Inc weren’t ex- actly producing great results . Some re- cent research even goes contrary to the popular notion and says huge govern- ment spending during the Great Depression actually prolonged it by a few years. Reason: it created employ- ment, but did not add to economic growth. This time, the government has to tackle both, and attack demand and supply at the same time. Bijender Singh Dalal economy—seasonal and circular The positive lies in the fact that sev- Chairman, Pragatisheel Kisan Club, migrants—are facing hardship, even eral government measures can boost Palwal (Haryana) hunger. “Workers are stuck and don’t consumer sentiment locally, and make have cash. They need to work to sur- up for the lack of demand for Indian Vegetables and flowers vive,” says Abha Mishra of Ajeevika exports. Given that imports are cheap seem to be thriving this Bureau, a workers’ collective that pro- due to low global demand, Indian in- season due to clear air vides legal and health aid and financial dustry can become competitive and and better water from the literacy. “The contractors employing profitably sell goods in the domestic canal. As unexpected them are also affected. I am not sure if market. China, whose economy seems they’ll be able to absorb all the work- to have come out of COVID-19, plans to rain led to discolouration ers once the lockdown ends.” do the same. Like China became the of the wheat harvest, we engine for global growth after the fin were banking on our NTREPRENEURS in the ancial crisis of 2008 through exports, exotic range of flowers organised sector are in a tizzy India and China can do the same this and vegetables. Due to Etoo. It’s only after the lockdown time through higher sales in their res is lifted that they can take stock of their pective local markets. the lockdown, however, factories—the safety of machines, usa- But the macro picture will always floriculturists, who used bility of raw materials, inventory of fin- average out and show signs of stabilis- to sell Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.5 ished products etc. There is no ing—and at the same time hide real crore worth of flowers certainty about being able to execute human pain at the level of ordinary life. pending orders straightaway. Into this “The important concern is loss of daily, have had to face mix comes the uncertainty about em- employment and income. It’s a pity the losses—the flowers ployees. Raghunathan says the entre- government failed to understand this,” wilted before they could preneur is not sure if his workers will says Ravi Srivastava, labour expert at reach the Gazipur whole- even return. It is estimated that be- JNU. It needs to keep this in mind now— sale market in Delhi. tween 50-65 per cent may not, at least for disaggregated human pain is not just not immediately, due to the continuing a marker of social health, it also be- Some of us adopted new scare about the virus. comes an economic and political fact. technologies to improve Given these fears, among both “Yes, it is true that life is more important the quality and quantity employers and employees, it isn’t than livelihood,” explains Pani. “But of yields, but limited unusual to see the former clamour we’re fast reaching a point where life it- access to export markets for government support. For exam- self can be threatened due to lack of in- ple, the garment sector says it cannot comes and wages.” He is one of those has caused distress. revive for 9-12 months, and needs who fears things may get worse after the Once the market opens, help in the first 2-3 months to enable lockdown is lifted on May 3, before the we expect higher it to survive and protect livelihoods. economy picks up. That, in some ways, prices will help Similar voices are heard from other the cure may have been worse than the sectors too. “Industry is under pres- disease. India will know soon. O recoup the losses. sure, and the irony is that the govern- —with inputs from ment hasn’t announced any Himanshu Kakkar and G.C. Shekhar
27 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 MD of Caprihans India Ltd Opinion/ and author of Who Cheats and How Robin Banerjee and Who Blunders and How
Is Corona a Job Virus? Within catastrophe lies opportunity. If only we can manage to reinvent ourselves.
greatest ever disaster to hit essentials. The demand pattern would, however, vary in many ways; jobs the mankind—the will undergo change and so will skill requirements. Hence, we will need to unfathomable virus gain fresh or improved competence. attack—is turning the Here are a few ideas on transforming yourself. Given the lack of world upside down! And the worst current trust in Chinese medicines and food products, some new thought it triggers in our mind is: will I dimensions of business are likely to flourish. Healthcare, get my earnings this month-end? And pharmaceuticals, food processing and pisciculture will get a fresh fillip. what about next month? Many of us Getting trained and gaining expertise could open a new vista of are seriously worried about our opportunities for jobs and entrepreneurship. survival. Read any article, watch any Artificial Intelligence and Big Data can be more profoundly used to channel, see any WhatsApp message— track customer preferences and it’s despair all around. consumption patterns. Block chain is Numerous sectors are likely to get another new-age development, with terribly affected—from apparel to profitable applications in hospitality, handicraft, from automobiles to logistics and banking. Cryptocurrencies like mobile phones, from hotels to airlines. bitcoin are likely to gain prominence with Mayhem looks imminent. possible government supervision. Why lose Yet we need to survive. Complaining out on these new avenues? Gaining skills in will get us nowhere. The good news is these areas do not demand major many will prosper post-COVID, as some qualifications or experience profile. of us would have reinvented ourselves, Many of you would have had several years pushing procrastination aside. of work experience. Can you use your The most important task is to shield knowledge and expertise in technology, our current job. Whether employers procurement, sales, marketing, finance, will continue to pay our full salary leadership, human resource management or while we sit at home is a big question. Many will law to advise start-ups, ongoing ventures or In case we are not doing much, we prosper post- SMEs? Based on your learnings, could you should ask for additional or new work think of consulting and mentoring in some that can be done from home. Suggest COVID by of these areas? Once the pandemic is under probable new customers, carry out reinventing control, numerous businesses will require technology search or do data-mining support to beat the downturn. for international opportunities. The themselves. Some of you would call these higher-level possibilities are endless. Based on our skills. Can all of us imbibe them? What inclination and training, we may about some lower-level expertise? Skill become more valuable assets and gaps are everywhere. Think of nursing, which has huge latent demand— continue getting our salary. local and global. Farming is another area. Go beyond the traditional Irrespective of the status of our variety, and look at exotic fruits and veggies. Proper selection of seeds current job or profession, most of us and appropriate cropping pattern with scientific irrigation can provide a would need to reinvent ourselves. The world of opportunities. world may undergo a metamorphosis. Given our specific likes, expertise, training and abilities, we will need to Travel habits, eating out, group figure out what can now be done quickly to reinvent ourselves. God has entertainment will all undergo decided to transform the world all of a sudden. This will bring us new modification. We will need to adopt and vistas of opportunities. As even a child knows what China’s contribution adapt. Each one of us is unique. We will to the virus-catastrophe is, Chinese businesses are unlikely to be trusted need to figure out what we can change, the way as before. If so, where will the world source its medicines and where we need to accept, how we can other necessities from? India will be the rational choice. acclimatise and when we can shift. Change is painful, but it is more painful to get stuck in not changing. Corona The world will continue to have is a job virus no doubt, but it is also an opportunity for us to gain in this seven billion plus people. They would altering world. Please note the darkest hours are always just before dawn. O need food, clothing, shelter and other (Views expressed are personal)
28 outlook | april 27, 2020 Ill ustration: Saji C.s. MANAGING PARTNER OPINION/ Gunjan Paharia AT ZEUSIP ADVOCATES LLP
Save Business to Save People Instead of forcing businesses to pay employees, there are better ways for the government to do good by helping business stay afloat during and after the crisis
country is currently THE dealing with not only the COVID-19 pandemic, but also a lot of collateral damage caused by the virus that is now threatening to go out of control. The worldwide economic slowdown is now threatening the livelihood of millions across the globe, including people in India. For most companies, the second quarter of this year has been wiped out. They are not only dealing with loss of revenue due to the lockdown, but also the impact of all the major economies slowing down. This is impacting bottomlines, translating into lower production, workforce layoffs, lower profits and thereby lower taxes. With production down to zero, employees locked down in their homes and no sales, most micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are looking with concern at the As production is down to zero and biggest fixed cost in such an employees are staying home, many environment—the workforce. companies are looking with concern at the biggest fixed cost in such an The government’s relief package of environment—the workforce Rs 1.70 lakh crore was an urgent response for the survival of millions, but not a solution to sustain the If governments Management Act, under which this is now a economy or ensure a quick bounce binding law, irrespective of what other laws back after the COVID-19 crisis is over. can slash pay may say. Any violation of the order would The ministry of home affairs has invite punishment, including made it mandatory for employers to of employees, imprisonment and/or a fine. pay salaries during the lockdown why cannot The reason for widespread panic and period, regardless of whether an discontent among businesses, especially employee is required to stay in businesses MSMEs, is that the government is being quarantine or comply with a stay- do so without insensitive to their business exigencies, at-home notice. The MHA has also having failed to understand the basic directed that all employers—in contravening nature of how they work—on low margins industry, shops and commercial and short-term circulation of money, establishments—shall pay wages on the law? without the massive reserves some large- due date, without any deduction, for scale industries may have. On a scenario- the period their establishments are based business model, the government needs to consider the following. under closure during the lockdown. Scenario 1: Imagine a business owner has Rs 1 crore in the bank and the This prohibits any deduction or delay monthly overhead, including salaries, is Rs 30 lakh. The owner expects in payment of salaries to any no revenue stream for three months and cannot be sure the business employee on account of working from will pick up post-lockdown, given the global recession. Should he be home or leave due to lockdown. The saving this Rs 1 crore to tide him over the next 12-18 months of recession government has invoked the Disaster or pay his employees for three months and wonder how he would feed
29 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 OPINION/ Gunjan Paharia
his family should the business not A business that for the business to continue making sense. pick up? Can he not fire his employees in view of the isn’t doing well unfortunate developments? Scenario 2: In the previous scenario, Can the government pass blanket diktats suppose the owner needs Rs 50 lakh would rather to business owners contrary to to buy raw material and restart the save on its jurisprudence? Can the government take business after the lockdown, should on the responsibility of unskilled labour, he save this money to ensure business wage bill, than but not skilled labour? Can the government continuity or pay his employees now insist a business owner dig into his personal and ensure the business does not hold back EMIs savings and sell private property to ensure start again? to pay extra the employees are paid? Various state governments have Scenario 3: A company has been interest later. announced measures like slashing salaries struggling for three months with of government employees. Andhra Pradesh losses and COVID-19 was the last and Telangana have announced pay cuts, Maharashtra is paying salaries straw that broke the proverbial in instalments, Odisha has deferred salaries. If public sector and camel’s back. The business now needs government organisations can take decisions in contravention of the to be shut down. How does the law, why shouldn’t private companies be allowed to do so? Why should government expect the owner to companies not be allowed to temporarily change or suspend some of the generate cash to pay the employees terms of their employment contracts, given the crisis? for three months in an already loss- While paying employees is every employer’s moral duty and the making business? government’s advisories are examples of a noble idea, but enforcing them legally means it is a crime to be a business owner, pay taxes and Scenario 4: There is global recession, contribute to the country’s development. Hopefully, that is not the business intelligence says demand for message meant to be sent. The government should also bear in mind a particular product will be low for that, with a vaccine still 12-18 months away from mass production, the next 6-12 months, the owner people will reimagine their lifestyles after the COVID-19 crisis. realises he has to cut down on It cannot be guaranteed that they will feel comfortable enough to go production, and hence the workforce, back to the life they knew. Markets, malls, restaurants, cinema halls etc
30 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 OPINION/ Gunjan Paharia
may not see the same footfall that unemployment benefit is not a right in India and the current sop is used to be. Some businesses may be being given only for a limited period, so they will likely come back into doomed permanently. the workforce. As this situation is not unique to On the other hand, countries like Germany, the UK and Denmark in India and is faced by every country, it Europe have agreed to give unlimited loans to small and large businesses is fairly educational to see the alike, defer tax payments, take over social security contributions, lower different models. The United States interest rates on loans, announce subsidies and provide businesses with has not prohibited its businesses from ‘wage payment’ assistance—every business files taxes and the government laying off people, but have offered a broadly knows what their overheads are. The governments have now said two-pronged approach—businesses they would transfer 75-80 per cent of a business’s payroll into their can apply for a loan to meet their account every month. Now the businesses can stay afloat, while their overheads (including rents, salaries, employees know they will get 75-80 per cent of their salaries and are not utilities) and the loan will be written filing for unemployment benefits. The employers benefit to the extent off if the business continues to that they can ensure business continuity and retain the team they so employ the workforce after six painstakingly trained, resting assured that it would be business as usual. months. While it sounds good, not This sounds like a great model that India could also follow. This will many businesses in the US are opting also weed out businesses that are more cash-based and have been for this due to red tape and a general underfiling taxes. Needless to add, it is not a one-size-fits-all kind of sense of pessimism regarding scenario. For example, some service-oriented businesses are still bouncing back fully. India has also functional and may be able to generate some revenue at least, hence an allowed a three-month moratorium 80 per cent benefit may not be required for them. This model has the on EMIs relating to business loans, benefit of making businesses accountable—the government pays one but it’s not certain how many business, which may then be responsible for keeping hundreds of businesses will be positively families off the streets and/or from lining impacted. They are only saying that up for government benefits. you don’t have to pay now, but you The government The other idea that the government could have to at some point—and if the should give consider is giving out tax breaks, including business is not doing well, businesses in GST and income tax. Industry-specific would rather save on salaries of their tax breaks, measures could also be considered—for employees rather than save money example, government purchasing certain now only to pay an extra interest including in products for use by government employees, three months later. GST and income decrease in export duties, decrease in The second thing that the US has licence fees and so on. The underlying idea done is increase the amount of tax, besides should be to increase manufacturing and unemployment benefit given by the reduced export employment opportunities, and ensuring federal government. For example, in business continuity. the state of Michigan, the maximum duties and A lot of trade bodies have made unemployment benefit was around representations to the relevant ministries to US$ 360 per week. The federal licence fees. legally allow them to pay lower rents, slash government has added US$600 salaries, pay utilities’ bills only on (under the CARES Act) to the deal consumption (and forego fixed charges) and so on, but the government and now the benefit received is has not announced any break so far. In response to the representations US$960 a week per person, which is made by the various industry bodies, including export, jewellery, tobacco actually more than what some people etc, the government has given extensions for compliance-related issues would make if they were working full- and some sort of non-monetary relief. The government seems to be giving time. This has now disincentivised ideas to businesses to save money, but that is not the real problem. If people to look for a job, causing a business owners do save money, how will the government ensure the shortage of manpower for businesses benefit is going to the employees too? The government’s mandate should like Amazon that are still hiring in not only be that of saving money, but to ensure that owners continue to this environment. Transposing that run their business. Monetary support should be provided to help into the Indian scenario, an unskilled businesses survive this lockdown, and thereafter the government should labourer who works on daily wages continue to support various industries in terms of policies, sops and the would typically earn Rs 500-700 per like in order to help them in what could be starting from scratch for many day and may be work for 20-23 days in small and medium-sized businesses. a month and has to pay for housing, We are on a wait-and-watch mode as of now. The prime minister, in his food and generally the high cost of address, has promised “Jaan Bhi, Jahaan Bhi” and we remain hopeful. living in a city like Delhi. By paying However, time is of essence and clarity will not only help for the reasons him Rs 5,000 every month above, but can also preempt unnecessary litigation that is bound to automatically, are we disincentivising increase given the circumstances. O him too? The only difference is that (Views are personal.)
31 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 THE AUTHOR IS FORMER GROUP LEADER OF VIROLOGY AT THE INTERNATIONAL CENTRE OPINION/ FOR GENETIC ENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY, NEW DELHI. HE IS NOW CEO OF Shahid Jameel THE WELLCOME TRUST/DBT INDIA ALLIANCE, A BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH CHARITY.
When Stalin and Mother Teresa Agree A scientist responds to the human tragedy that is COVID-19, and asks questions of science and society.
was a powerful image. KAJODI A lonely figure, the vast emptiness of the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway and the horizon dotted with high-rise buildings. In the aftermath of the national lockdown announced on March 24, the 90-year- old was trying to walk from Delhi-NCR to her village in Rajasthan, some 400 km away. The image infuriated me. Then it depressed me. Trained as a scientist—a biochemist and virologist to be exact—I was in demand for my views on the coronavirus outbreak. Relying on public health principles, I was advocating social distancing and a lockdown…. But wasn’t I being completely blinkered by the science, and not paying attention to the “public” in public health? Indeed, I was…and I was angry with myself. How dare I sit in the comforts of my THE LONG MARCH South Delhi apartment and pontificate 90-year-old Kajodi to people living on the edge? How on her 400-km trek. would I explain, let alone justify, “social distancing” to someone who lives in an urban slum in Delhi or a Can scientists Those unable to get transport started walking chawl in Mumbai? One room with five on highways and along railway tracks to get to or six people? My anger turned to remain places where they might starve, but at least do depression. Over the next fortnight it with dignity. One poor man remarked, “If and more, as we navigated to the end of unaffected by we die here in this situation no one will even one lockdown and the beginning of an the sight of touch our body. In our village, our people will extension, a variety of other conflicted at least cremate us.” Officialdom, never to be emotions too overwhelmed us. What humans being outdone, framed their misery in emphatic have we scientists learnt, ways—beating them, spraying them with experientially? How must science look stripped bare of chemicals, locking them in confined spaces. upon these scenes that confront it their dignity? Both dignity and social distancing were ideas from the world out there, the world that blew away in the pleasant breeze on beyond the research lab? Here, I put those days in late March. down some of my thoughts and In a social media post, Rajiv Sarin, a cancer physician at Tata Memorial feelings—hopefully we can turn our Centre in Mumbai, wrote, “These sights and thoughts will leave a deep scar doubts into the outlines of a collective on the Indian psyche. I think these have been the worst scenes in mainland interrogation of science in society. India after the 1947 Partition. A very sad reflection on our self-serving society First, can scientists remain unaffected of which government is just a part.” He wrote of the “lack of faith of poor by the sight of humans being stripped people”—rather, their conviction that “in really desperate times, they will be bare of their dignity? We watched the alone”. And then, signs of that old fatalism. “Without exception, they images of tens of thousands of migrant explained their helpless situation without any bitterness for anyone—they workers jostling to get on crowded knew the fault is theirs of being poor.” buses to reach their village homes. This pandemic has taught me a few lessons. My training in science has
32 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 OPINION/ Shahid Jameel
been unipolar. This is despite having “Confusing science with pseudoscience is inevitable as long as science is studied at two of India’s premier taught as a collection of facts and laws, divorced from the scientific institutions—the Aligarh Muslim method,” says my long-time friend N. Sukumar, Professor of Chemistry at University and IIT Kanpur, both Shiv Nadar University. This inevitably leads to evidence playing just a enlightened places in my time. At AMU, minor role or no role at all in decision-making and governance. The results a chemistry undergraduate like me can be devastating in crises such as the current pandemic. could still be taught George Orwell’s As a biomedical researcher, I am aware of the inclusivity of pathogens. Animal Farm by a leftist, Henrik They strike royals and commoners, rich and poor, people of different Ibsen’s A Doll’s House by a feminist, religions and nationalities alike. Social status, faith, the colour of your skin and French by a lecturer of Arabic. At and other differences mean little to a virus. COVID-19 has affected IIT Kanpur, you could still recite Faiz’s communist China, Christian Italy, Islamic Iran and the secular West with Hum Dekhenge without being equal ferocity. It has led to the closure of places of worship just as it has investigated. Growing up in a family of closed down bars, nightclubs and casinos. When heaven and hell agree on scholars in subjects as diverse as something, one must take it seriously? Arabic, biochemistry and sociology, I was wrong again. In India, the pandemic painfully laid bare our societal there were always interesting things to faultlines. When unable to deal with a situation, it is easiest to blame others. read at home. While doing my PhD in Hate-spewing Indian media continues its communal agenda even when the US, I was part of a group that met staring at a pandemic—fake news is going viral faster than a virus! Those every weekend to read and discuss with an education are often no better. Today these “Covigots” are using the India-specific issues. Each one of us virus to mask their bigotry; tomorrow they will use another crisis. from that group came back to work in The virus may be inclusive, but the pandemic is not. A lockdown India—anthropologist, engineer(s), anywhere protects the rich and exposes the poor to human and economic journalist, nutrition scientist…down to challenges. The poor suffer in lost wages, unemployment and lack of access me, the virologist. With this to welfare. Almost 90 per cent of India’s background, I was even more upset workforce is in the informal sector, which is with my clouded vision. The quantum of hurting the most. An International Labour Most scientists spend a major part of Organisation report suggests that COVID-19 their life in the laboratory with little sympathy goes may take about 400 million workers in India time left for social or humanistic down, so does deeper into poverty. Online access being a pursuits. Physicians also spend long luxury available only to some, children of the hours in hospitals, but they come in the willingness poor are lagging behind in learning as well. touch with patients and the better ones With anxiety-driven domestic violence on the develop empathy. Still, the lack of early to help, when rise, women are suffering more than men. But grounding in humanities leaves a void— the number of biologically, the virus is causing higher nothing in their education equips mortality in men compared to women. science, engineering or medicine victims goes up. All animals are (not) equal. Some are more students when it comes to the equal than others. application of their work to dynamic, I saw an online video of a poor fruit seller letting migrants pick bananas flux-ridden domains like ‘people’ and from his cart. Men, women and children only picked up what they needed— ‘societies’. (A reverse gap is true for just one or two bananas each. The poor still have dignity. It is we the middle humanities students, who are often class that has lost it by way of our materialism. This haunts me every time I awed or suspicious of technology, and open my wardrobe and see all those shirts and trousers, all those pairs of can be prone to fake news about shoes, all made redundant by a virus 20 million times smaller than me, technology, disease and health. The which carries a genome 1,00,000 times smaller than mine. pandemic has seen plenty of that.) The death of one person is a tragedy; the death of one million is a statistic. When this world-view is translated This is a remark attributed to Joseph Stalin. And Mother Teresa once said, into governance, it can cause real “If I look at the mass, I will never act.” When Stalin and the Mother agree on problems. Technocrats govern as if they something, you wonder. There is a tendency to turn away from mass deal with not humans but ‘things’— suffering—it’s documented as the ‘collapse of compassion’. When the static objects that can be fixed like number of victims increases, the quantum of sympathy actually decreases, machines. A severe deficiency in so does the willingness to help. People tune down their empathy. This understanding humanity is often visible appears to be a survival trait programmed in our brains to protect us from in their operations. And the other side being overwhelmed. often does not pay sufficient attention But ‘trust’ and ‘compassion’ are essential to compliance—the Kerala to credible data and authenticated model of COVID management exemplifies it. Pandemics are both biological evidence when making policy, with and social in their nature and consequences. If we ignore one at the expense decisions relying more on politics and of the other, we do so at our peril. perception. A good balance comes from I do hope that Kajodi is safe. I also hope that neither my country nor I will teams with diversity and individuals have a collapse of compassion. O with more wholesome training. (Views are personal)
33 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 BOLLYWOOD/FOREIGN HAND
El Dorado Loses Its Zingaat As the world stays indoors, Indian films’ revenues are dwindling at home and abroad
Resonant Dangal earned Rs 1,357 crore in China; Shah Rukh Khan (below) has fans all over the world
Giridhar Jha in Mumbai
RITHIK Roshan, often eulogised as the Greek God of Hindi cinema, should have Hbeen in People’s Republic of China by now. The 46-year-old behind last year’s biggest hit, War, was all set to fly there late last month to promote Super 30, the 2019 biopic of mathematician Anand Kumar, ahead of its release in April. But the great disruption triggered by coronavirus has put paid to all his hopes. His Chinese fans will now have to wait indefinitely for their long-awaited date with Da Shuai (‘extremely handsome’ in Mandarin),
34 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 BOLLYWOOD/FOREIGN HAND
their nickname for one of their Top Ten Indian Grossers Anand Kumar tells Outlook. “Hrithik favourite stars from India. In Overseas Territories* and I were supposed to leave for China As COVID-19 continues to wreak to promote the film towards March- Dangal 2016 havoc across the globe, nobody knows end, but everything has been stalled $228 million when Super 30 will finally hit the because of coronavirus.” The 47-year- screens in China. Wuhan, where the Secret Superstar 2017 old mathematician admits that given virus first surfaced last year, has rec $140 million the global situation, nobody is thinking ently come out of a 76-day lockdown, Bajrangi Bhaijaan 2015 of Super 30’s release in China at the but the situation appears to be far $80.4 million moment. “This pandemic has affected from normal. Under the present cir- every individual and industry, and also Disco Dancer 1982 cumstances, it is difficult to even haz- put human lives in jeopardy. The need $75.85 million ard a guess as to how long will it take of the hour is to stay home and safe,” for the Chinese movie market to Baahubali 2 2017 he says. Anand, however, hopes that bounce back. $58.51 million the tide will turn for the better in the Does the uncertainty signal the end PK 2014 months ahead. “Life is gradually limp- of the road for Bollywood in a territory $53.4 million ing back to normal in China, but it that trade analysts hail as the prover- might take at least five to six months Andhadhun 2018 bial gold mine for Indian actors and for its entertainment industry to $48.78 million filmmakers? Hrithik, for one, has a lot spring back on its feet,” he adds. at stake in Super 30’s release across Hindi Medium 2017 The pandemic has, doubtless, come mainland China. His performance in $36.52 million as a big blow not only to the Hrithik- the movie, where he plays the charac- Dhoom 3 2013 starrer but also to Bollywood, which ter of a poor teacher who dedicates his $35.6 million was already reeling from the failure of life to groom underprivileged students several big-budget movies when 3 Idiots 2009 for admission into the coveted Indian $30.5 million COVID-19 struck. How big a market Institutes of Technology, had earned China has been for Indian cinema,
him critical and commercial success in *Source: Trade magazines especially in the past four-five India last year. But box-office pundits years, can be gauged from the fact believe that Super 30 is destined for that Dangal alone did business of a greater glory in China, thanks to the staggering Rs 1,357 crore in the universal appeal of its plot and the country in 2017. It was followed underlying message of education for by another Aamir Khan-starrer, all. Many think it has the potential to Secret Superstar, which grossed turn into a big money-spinner in China over Rs 800 crore—nine times as it may touch a chord with Mandarin the amount it did in India. audiences the way Aamir Khan-starrer These successes are remarka- Dangal (2016) did earlier. ble since China is not part of the “The movie was scheduled to traditional overseas territories release in China this month as it allows only a handful of (April),” Super 30’s founder Indian films to be released due to
What Viewers Want A good story is more important than star power in international markets
35 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 BOLLYWOOD/FOREIGN HAND
Shifting Sands While USSR was earlier the biggest overseas market, now US, UK and West Asia dominate
its stringent censorship norms. In fact, it is the US with 30 per cent share, the UK (20 per cent) and the West Asia (25 per cent) that account for three- fourths of the total business abroad. Australia, the rest of Europe and Southeast Asia are the other key mar- kets where the large Indian diaspora waits for the release of Indian films every week. factor, which will keep a majority of days,” he adds. “It was primarily Shah According to a recent report by the audiences out of theatres in the Rukh Khan’s popularity in the over- FICCI and Ernst & Young, Indian initial weeks once the lockdown is seas market that made him the king of domestic film revenues in 2019 crossed lifted. Theatres will reopen with Bollywood and also prompted film- Rs 115 billion, with gross box-office reruns of already released movies in makers realise its true potential.” collections for Hindi films at Rs 49.5 order to gauge the mood of the public. It’s not as though the industry sud- billion—the highest ever for Hindi the- The big movies will certainly remain denly discovered overseas territories atricals. In this period, the report on hold for a few months more.” to be its elusive El Dorado in the new states, overseas theatrical revenues fell “It will cause a huge loss to filmmak- millennium. Way back in 1949, K.A. 10 per cent to Rs 27 billion despite ers everywhere, especially those of Abbas’s Dharti Ke Lal (1946) was more films being released abroad. Bollywood movies, which seek a return released in the USSR. Three years The slump was primarily attributed of 30 to 50 per cent of their total busi- later, Mehboob Khan’s Dilip Kumar- to the failure of some big films starring ness from overseas territories these starrer Aan (1952) was dubbed in 17 superstars in the lead last year, languages before being released in as but it hardly indicated any per- many as 28 countries. Raj Kapoor’s ceptible drop in overseas audi- iconic Awara (1951) became a cult hit ences’ interest in Indian cinema. in countries like USSR and China after Far from it, an earlier report by its release in 1954 and went on to be the same agencies had stated that the first Indian film to sell 100 million India’s film segment was poised tickets abroad. Barring a Caravan to grow at a compounded (1971) here or a Bobby (1973) there, annual growth rate of 11.6 per the number of Hindi films releas- cent by 2021. The sector was ing abroad reduced considerably worth $23.9 billion in 2018, in the next couple of decades. In growing 13.4 per cent from 1982, however, Mithun 2017. Through these years, Chakravorty’s Disco Dancer theatrical revenues from gained a cult following in the overseas territories con- USSR and China. However, the tributed handsomely collapse of the Soviet Union in towards its growth. 1991 led to the end of what was However, with coronavirus the biggest international market casting a huge shadow on ter- of Bollywood until then. ritories abroad, all estimates Interestingly, the disintegra- might now go for a toss. With all tion of the Russian market paved theatres keeping shutters the way for a big jump in down, both domestic and Bollywood’s overseas collections in international business pros- countries like the US and UK, pects of Indian cinema look mainland Europe and even in quite bleak this year. West Asia during the post-liber- Atul Mohan, editor of alisation period. With a large movie trade journal In 1982, Disco South Asian workforce, Complete Cinema, says especially Indians in that the situation may not Dancer gained a the IT sector moving look up before August- cult following in abroad around the September this year. “As turn of the new mil- of now, there is a fear USSR and China. lennium, overseas mar-
36 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 BOLLYWOOD/FOREIGN HAND
kets suddenly turned extremely had to be deferred due to the lock- lucrative for not only Bollwyood, down. Film critic Murtaza Ali but also for Tamil, Telugu and Khan says that movie business is Punjabi film industries. among the worst-hit in the world In fact, such was the lure of for- today. “Social distancing guide- eign territories that films revolving lines have resulted in shutting of around NRI protagonists primarily cinema halls and multiplexes, and catering to the Indian diaspora shooting schedules have also been began to be made in large numbers. indefinitely postponed,” he says. Shah Rukh Khan’s Dilwale “Many new releases have been Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) wooed pushed back by several months, but NRI audiences settled in Western Bollywood is likely to suffer worse in countries like no earlier film did, while the international arena.” his Dil Se (1998) became the first Murtaza points out that Europe, movie to make it to the top ten list of China, West Asia, US and Australia the UK box office. Later, Shah Rukh’s have traditionally been profitable mar- My Name is Khan (2010) earned the kets for Bollywood, but with the devas- distinction of being the first Indian tating effect COVID-19 is expected to production to gross Rs 1 billion in the have on the global economy in the long overseas market. No wonder, distrib- run, it seems unlikely that normalcy utors began to hail him as the god of will return anytime soon. “Depending overseas markets. on how quickly the pandemic is Like Shah Rukh, two other Khans, checked globally, it might take any- Aamir and Salman, began to enjoy phe- where between six months to a couple nomenal international popularity dur- of years for Bollywood to regain its lost ing this period. The success of Dangal overseas territories,” he says. and Secret Superstar made Aamir a Movie trade analyst Girish Johar con- darling of the Chinese audience, while curs. He says that it is a massive blow for Salman enjoyed a massive fan-follow- Bollywood in terms of overall losses. ing in West Asian countries. His “Fear and entertainment do not go hand Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) had a great in hand,” explains Johar. “When people run in China as well. But these stars are afraid of coronavirus, how can they never had a monopoly in the foreign No Constraints In recent years, movies think of going to a theatre? Films will be market. If a movie, howsoever small, was with relatively small budgets, such as the last thing on their mind.” good, star power did not matter. It was The Lunchbox (top) and Secret Superstar Let alone Bollywood, says Johar, proven once and for all by the extraordi- (bottom) have done good business even big Hollywood studios such as nary success of the Irrfan Khan-starrer Sony, Paramount and Marvel have The Lunchbox in 2013. Hollywood ventures that were been forced to defer the release of Interestingly, while Bollywood was released around the same time. In their upcoming extravaganzas by a few doing great business in the US and recent years, movies with relatively months or a year. “They might all get elsewhere, Hindi filmmakers had the small budgets, such as Irrfan Khan’s released at around the same time when least idea about the emerging Chinese Hindi Medium (2017), Rani Mukerji’s the situation improves, but it will only market in the new millennium. The Hichki (2018) and Ayushmann aggravate the problems of Indian film- renewed interest of Chinese viewers in Khurrana’s Andhadhun (2018), did makers because it will put their movies Bollywood movies actually began good business. in direct clash with Hollywood in over- about a decade ago, when pirated All eyes are now on big upcoming seas territories,” he says. prints of 3 Idiots (2009) made their movies such as Akshay Kumar’s According to Johar, producers of big- way to the Chinese market and cap- Sooryavanshi or Ranveer Singh’s 83, budget movies ready for release are the tured the imagination of local audi- which were all set to be released, but worst hit in Bollywood. “If they choose ences. It subsequently led to the to release their films soon after the official release of the Aamir Khan- lockdown, they will have to forego rev- starrer, but it was his next, PK (2014), Chinese viewers enues from overseas territories which did business of more than Rs because the situation will not return to 100 crore there and made Bollywood became interested normal immediately,” he says. “And if sit up and take note of China’s huge in Bollywood again they wait for months for the situation potential. By the time Dangal and to improve, they will have to incur Secret Superstar were released, Aamir after watching more financial losses because of the had become such a huge star that both pirated prints of steep interest rates they will have to his films smashed records, doing better pay against their borrowings. It is a business than many big-budget 3 Idiots. double-edged sword for them.” O
37 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 COVID-19 Lockdown “An initiative of VIT Lessons: Bhopal University How Academia Plans To Keep Students against COVID-19- On Track Amidst Mr. Sanotsh Rungta Chairman, Rungta Group of Institutions Challenges in Chhattisgarh themed Cyber Threats” COVID-19 could change how we educate future generations
The Division of Cyber Security & Digital Forensics of VIT 24 March 2020 , nation-wide lockdown was imposed by the Bhopal University has released an Advisory to take precau- Government of India under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi. The tions to be digitally safe. Pandemic COVID-19 is unfolding inside homes throughout India, as students, parents, and teachers learn to deal with a new norm of social distancing and remote learning. he spread of Delay in examinations, entrance exams and impact on the deadly novel admission process is just the tip of the iceberg for Academic Tcoronavirus institutes. This crisis could change our global outlook; it may also COVID -19 is on a teach us about how education needs to reform to be able to better steep rise. Capitalizing prepare our young learners for what the future might hold. this scenario, cyber A testing time for academia criminals are gearing Schools and colleges are Lockdown, teachers across the state up with uniquely scramble to learn how to provide instruction remotely via technology. designed activities and Students are coping with fear of missing major milestones like final attacks in the name year examinations and campus placements while colleges are of COVID -19 for their preparing to postpone plans for the future. The motivation amongst own malicious interest. students is bleak as they’re not challenged enough. It’s undefined Setting up warrantable whether the placement season would even begin in December 2020. Another challenge as depicted by Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal, HRD looking websites to Minister’s public appeal, to all campus recruiters asking them not to impersonate official withdraw jobs offered to graduate students of technical education sites and spreading institutions, hints at ensuing backlash of COVID-19 pandemic. false information online, scamming common public for money or Students must learn to adapt to the new norms resources is their main motto. It becomes mandatory for all the Educators as well as the students we educate, have to acquire new netizens (internet users) to have an eagle eye on all the suspicious skills, and one word that defines it all is “Adaptability”, the ability to mails they receive. respond to the new playing turf will determine the winner in the To safeguard the netizens from the risk of being impacted by COVID-19 Era, says Mr. Santosh Rungta, Chairman of Rungta Group these malwares, the Cyber Security & Digital Forensics Division of Institutions in Chhattisgarh. Tech tools like Zoom and Toodle- a of VIT Bhopal University - a premier institute of Central India digital initiative by the Institution, are the common e-learning tools closely working with the Police Academy Bhopal in the area of used to cope with the academic schedule. Mock interview sessions, cyber security, has released an advisory which consists of major counselling sessions and mock tests are regularly conducted for cyber-attack cases based on the theme of this pandemic along UG & PG students to support learning. Students must also adapt with the precautionary measures to avoid them. Shri. Sankar to being flexible, develop creative thinking, be resilient, leverage Viswanathan, Vice President, VIT Bhopal and Dr. P. Gunasekaran, entrepreneurial skills along with emotional intelligence. Vice Chancellor, VIT Bhopal has appreciated the scientists and E-learning anxiety among students researchers for their effort to bringing out this timely advisory While e-learning is the next chapter in technical education, we’re recommendation from the joint venture between these two currently just seeing one side of the coin. Theoretical training can be institutions. scheduled via online learning, but how would the practical/project This content is an initiative and issued in the public interest by training take place? Government University affiliated institutes IPS Dr. Maithili Sharan Gupta (DGP, Police Reforms, M.P) and Dr. will have a bottleneck in terms of flexibility to respond quickly to Shishir Kumar Shandilya, Division Head of Cyber Security & Digital changed environment. For students,Existing skills may not suffice; Forensic at VIT Bhopal University, along with a team of B.Tech job scenario would change drastically so the ability to remain ahead Cyber Security 2nd year students of VIT Bhopal University. The of the skill requirements of industry would be the need of the hour. team is continuously working on the identification of COVID-19 Post lockdown plan for academia related malwares and malicious websites as the hackers are “It is difficult to make a decision at the moment. We will review the also trying to find out new ways to target the innocent people situation on April 14.” says Pokhriyal when asked about his Ministry’s who are already facing difficult times due to this pandemic. Dr. post-lockdown plan. In the era of uncertainty, we’re forecasting a Shandilya informed that VIT Bhopal University will soon release gloom for college placements. its next version also, as these types of attacks are becoming However, the government is monitoring the scenario closely and much more organized than ever. The recent version is available its expected that a proper intervention would be made, in time, at www.vitbhopal.ac.in/cyber-advisory-v1.0.pdf by government to ease out the disruptions, Covid-19 pandemic Ms. Kadhambari S. Viswanathan, Assistant Vice President VIT would create for forthcoming academic cycles. Academic institutes Bhopal, congratulated the team and added that it is good to see including Rungta, are ensuring robust online access to faculty and this awareness in B.Tech second year students of Cyber Security, students with the live streaming facility, collaborating with apps towards the cyber threats during the current pandemic. Ms. and tapping into in-house technologies to facilitate online learning. Kadhambari Viswanathan has also pioneered a new drive - Safe Looking at the present lockdown scenario, all may not be gloomy, Digital India to sensitize people on digital awareness through there is hope and that makes us believe that education is not locked stopcybercrime.in down, if only we unlock our potentials. PGDM/MBA – A pertinent program to develop skillsets to strategize Post COVID resurrection
Prof IM Pandey, DG, Delhi School of Business-VIPS TC AND Former Professor, IIM Ahmedabad. would be economic revival and Real estate and manufacturing especially for the MSME sector as will be given immediate momentum it holds maximum contribution to by government’s investment in national economy. Government has construction and infrastructure to already made cash available in the bring the economy into immediate hands of farmers, unemployed and and accelerated revival. Fresh capital rural folks. After the lockdown is would be infused in these sectors to relaxed or lifted, more resources are boost their revival. By the time these expected to be made available in the benefits nurture these sectors and hands of the people to enable them to resuscitate them, there would a need spend on goods and services. This will for more blue-collar and white-collar help to boost demand – an essential employees. condition for revival of economy. This implies that all sectors would Large companies will be able to be given the necessary impetus by the revive much comfortably compared government to give full throttle to the to MSME firms, because of their sheer economy which has long been strained size, reserve resources and volume of because of a very fragile financial ost-Graduation in Management operations. White goods companies sector. With this impetus and stimulus is a program which trains may face temporary problems, but to package from the government, Pcorporate professionals on begin with, they will depend on their there would be surge in the need of the nuances of doing business, not reserve liquidity, take less profit and professionals who would need to think for short term profits alone, but for will retain workers. This will help them innovatively to lead businesses out sustained returns and long-term to gain the loyalty of their employees. of the grey and shadowed period of growth of firms. Irrespective of They will adopt innovative approaches COVID-19. economic recession or growth, future to do business. They will deploy their Generally, all sectors will demand of any business or economy depends resources skillfully and strategically more qualified- MBAs and Engineers - on strategies planned today. Skills and adopt cost reducing techniques. to cope with increased demand within for effective strategic planning for a As demand starts picking up, the a period of one or two years. I expect sustainable profit and growth is a key loyalty of employees will pay off and great opportunities opening for India take away from an MBA program. Thus, they will work for more hours in a because of the successful handling of an MBA program is always the need of week. This sector will be slow for about the dreaded CORONA-19. It may not business professionals irrespective of a year or so. But it will revive and pick be wrong to predict that many multi- the economic conditions. up speed. national companies may shift their However, given the extreme and Food and pharmaceutical businesses from Europe and China to rare stress that global economy is in companies are already in operation. India, given its resilience in handling due to COVID-19 pandemic, it is worth There will be further surge in their a pandemic which hit the developed pondering on whether MBA is the right businesses as lockdown is lifted. They countries much harder compared to choice for a student who is aspiring will use more IT related automation. India. for a corporate career. The economic E-commerce is expected to pick up Given this scenario, it is predicted consequences of COVID-19 induced further as people would like to shop that there would be incremental lockdown in India are estimated to be online more. Telemedicine may be demand for MBAs and Engineers over a loss of about ₹25-30 lakh crore and introduced in India and may pick up as the next two-three years and hence growth is estimated at 1-2%. What will people would like to consult doctors it is an ideal situation to be exploited happen to businesses in India? Will online. by students wherein they can prepare they survive? Will people retain their IT is a sector that has seen increase themselves to grab the opportunities jobs? The related question is should in demand even during lockdown that will strike them in a year or two. students invest in MBA programs? and will see further growth in Hence this proves the already existing What will be their job prospects? their businesses as more and more significance of an MBA Program more After the crisis of COVID19, the companies and educational institutes so in the post COVID-19 resurrection topmost agenda of the government will introduce IT-related automation. era. How Engineering Impact of COVID-19 Education is going to on Education Sector ndeterred by the COVID-19 pandemic which led to change in post COVID massive educational disruption, New Delhi Institute of UManagement, widely known and acknowledged for its scenario? innovative leadership, kept all its deadlines intact by shifting he world will not be its students to ‘digital classrooms’ the same very day when the same after COVID capital city of India, Delhi saw its first Corona patient. While the crisis. So how can the nationwide lockdown challenged every sector to transform and T reinvent to sustain, NDIM innovated the new path very early. engineering education remain quarantined from the effects Taking immediate cognizance of the unprecedented nature of of the crisis. the impending crisis, NDIM shifted all its hostellers to their families The crisis of such and overnight moved final leg of its entire teaching to online unprecedented and mode in the second week of March rather than ending the session unpredicted nature has clearly with unfinished curriculum. Even the final examinations of 2nd brought out that the response and 4th semesters of MBA were redesigned in a short time of 3 has to be rational, innovative, days and moved to online mode with students taking final exams swift, impactful and from the cosy comforts of their technology led. Accordingly homes in different cities and the curriculum of engineering towns of the country, banking education and the pedagogy upon NDIM’s rich digital has to be revamped to ensure experience of conducting Mr. Puneet Agarwal that it is able to prepare the Smart India Hackathons 2017, Vice Chairman , MIET Group of Institutions future engineers to handle 2018 and 2019. Prime Minister such situations. Modi himself had led Smart The engineering education has been moving from India Hackathons and proudly imparting theoretical knowledge to practical applications mentioned this at his Howdy of theories in real life situations. The engineering education Modi address in USA. needs to incorporate inter-disciplinary appreciation of Being one of the only 2 these theories and cajole the students to explore innovative colleges in the country chosen thinking to address real problems being faced by the society. 3 times to host Government Further the students should be encouraged to work further of India’s biggest digital to take these innovative thoughts to logical conclusion in revolution Smart India form of actual workable and implementable solution. During Hackathon, the faculty and this entire journey from capturing a problem statement; NDIM’s infrastructure were already geared to smoothly Vishwa Mohan Bansal understanding the problem statement; developing a solution Chairman of New Delhi Institute of to address the problem statement; implementing the solution move to the Online revolution Management, Senior Civil Servant and Served and; monitoring the outcome, it is also necessary also to in management education Govt. of India introduce the elements of resource constraints whether it is without any outside help or time or finance or any other applicable resources. support. Hackathon experience Appreciation of latest technology available will be a key to helped 100% digital transformation of all educational activities at development of solution. As it is, Technology is associated with NDIM, and it’s online migration has been highly appreciated by the both good and evil. Engineering education needs to ensure government and the parents across India as NDIM students would that it brings about appreciation amongst the students of have incredible advantage of graduating on time unaffected by both aspects of technology and guides the students to take the biggest educational disruption across the world. path towards development of technology for the betterment Another silver lining besides students adopting remote of humankind. learning tools is that NDIM professors innovated new systems & The delivery aspect of the pedagogy for engineering online examination platforms and have created content tailored education will also see a drastic shift from a forced, monitored to suit the new digital regime. This is coming handy in providing and controlled environment to a free, limitless and un- online & virtual training and internships if physical internships get proctored environment. The barriers restricting the place, time, restricted due to continuing lockdowns under AICTE directions. mode and instrument for delivery of engineering education Industry response for summer internships through virtual & content will go away. A student will have freedom to capture digital means has so far been very satisfying as contingency plans the content from any mode, any faculty at any time and any at NDIM aim at practical learning through research projects even place, provided the students knows what he or she intends while all students have received internship offers from sought to capture. There will be plenty of data available in form of after recruiters, NDIM having been rated Best in India 3 years in a content, but the student will have to develop skillsets to row by the AICTE and CII for Industry Linkages. identify relevant information for application. This will require Going by the futuristic requirements and uncertainties created engineering students to further develop on their logical, by COVID-19, the institute has decided at providing essential analytical and communication skillsets. digital learnings to students of all MBA Specialisations rather An engineering student will have to imbibe the fact that than restricting to only those who opt for Digital Specialisation. learning will not stop with completion of formal technical NDIM believes that Digital learning is here to stay. That’s NDIM’s education but would continue during the entire work life and unwavering roadmap to building next generation leaders of the even post work life. world. PHOTO COVID-19 PEEK
Our houses are like our consciousness, a brick-and- mortar expression of our inte- rior selves. And in this strange spring of hibernation, we have all retreated inside our caves— the adobe huts and Antillas of our mind. But like us, our houses have eyes. They look out and see—beyond empty streets —other rectangular, back-lit eyes looking back at them. The silent dialogue of cities. In that meeting of eyes, in looking upon a world in coma and being caught in the act of looking, we somehow keep our community alive. Here we bring you a most odd and wistful spring collec- tion, from Kashmir to Bombay, from condo to chawl...call it Windows 2020.
Apoorva Salkade, Jitender Gupta, Sandipan Chatterjee, Tribhuvan Tiwari, Suresh Pandey and Umer Asif
MUMBAI PHOTO COVID-19 PEEK
CALCUTTA PHOTO COVID-19 PEEK
CALCUTTA
43 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 PHOTO COVID-19 PEEK
NORTHEAST DELHI PHOTO COVID-19 PEEK
DELHI PHOTO COVID-19 PEEK
SRINAGAR PHOTO COVID-19 PEEK
DELHI
MUMBAI
MUMBAI PHOTO COVID-19 PEEK
DELHI PHOTO COVID-19 PEEK
PTI IMAGES OF A MEDIC TAKING SWAB SAMPLES FROM A MAN IN VIJAYAWADA; AND A QUARANTINE CENTRE IN CALCUTTA Film Review / ILLIRALAARE ALLIGE HOGALAARE
The Freedom To Stay And Flee Girish Kasaravalli casts a macroscopic lens on how urban India recreates the feudal structures of the rural. The only difference? There is no way out of the city.
“Place is security, space is freedom… What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value. From the security and stability of place we are aware of the openness, freedom and threat of space, and vice versa. —Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience
C.S. Venkiteswaran their ethos and mindset. The title suggests an ironic state of being, where HE freedom to stay somewhere and be someone one yearns to leave, but can’t. In the first story, there is as important to life as the freedom to leave are two sets of people—those who desperately want Twhere and what one is. It is these liberties that to leave and those who are destined to stay back. The determine one’s relation to a space or mode of life that second story is more about what happened to those one has chosen or is bound to. Caste, class and gender who left, their ‘boundedness’ to their station and place are some such states of being where one’s freedom to Girish Kasaravalli, in life. All the characters are emigrants to the city and leave is curtailed. Such lack of liberty is considered all film maker have no other place to go. At one point, when Naga’s the more dire in a village, whereas the city, run by mon- wife playfully suggests going back to the village, he ey, supposedly offers the freedom to move places and replies that in the city, he has some respect as a sales choose vocations, irrespective of one’s caste, class, executive, but back home, he will be the same old religion or gender. Naga, an untouchable menial. Girish Kasaravalli’s new film Illiralaare Allige Hogalaare In the first part, we see the adolescent Naga helping (Can Neither Stay Here, Nor Journey Beyond) consists his mother, who works for a Brahmin family, and at of two stories—one set in a village and the other in a school, where his low-caste status and ‘stinking’ occu- city at two different points of time, with two sets of pation invite ridicule. He is close to Sita, the differently characters. These stories mirror each other to tell the abled and lonely daughter-in-law of the Brahmin house story of the Indian middle class and the tectonic shift in whose husband is missing. Naga is also the messenger
50 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 Film Review / ILLIRALAARE ALLIGE HOGALAARE
of love between his schoolmaster, or opt for ‘American timings’. The There are also rebels against the an outsider, and Sita. It is the master enslavement of children like stasis in both stories: in the first, who first provokes him to dream, Punda and Tulsi is an inevitable Sita’s husband had taken up arms but it is the arrival of Pabbu from part of their grand design, which against the system, while in the Bengaluru that ignites his dream they justify as a charitable act to second, there is reference about of escape. A few years his senior, help rural families. Punda’s father being beaten up for Pabbu had run away from the The visual tone and composition organising fellow workers against village, but now commands respect; of the two stories follow distinct the landlord. Significantly, both the he flaunts a camera and even the patterns. The first features the rebels are invisible or outside the village head invites him home. greens and browns of the thick veg- visible narrative world. The second story is set in Ban- etation, the earth and water bodies These stories about the lives of galore around the beginning of the as well as the dark interiors of huts two adolescents in different points new millennium. The only character and traditional Brahmin houses, in time and space, together depict who links both the stories is Naga, though most events transpire the transformation of the Indian now an executive with a software outdoors. The second has largely middle class. If Naga is the child engineer wife and a daughter, Pinki. interior shots, though the greys, the of post-Independence India, rural It centres around Punda, a boy who lights of the city and the blues of and full of hope, Punda belongs works at their home and looks after the sky also tint its palette. to the globalised and urbanising Pinki. While the village at least had There are various recurring motifs India of the new millennium. If the the possibility of escape, the city in the two—similar spaces, objects, adolescent Naga is capable of is a trap without any exit. Not only photographs, actions and rituals making sacrifices and could put is Punda unable to go back home that mirror each other evocative- his ‘chance’ to escape on hold for to help his ailing father, he is all ly. While the ferry takes people the sake of Sita—it is her only and the more stuck after the arrival of to and fro in the village, the bus last chance to flee the village—the his sister Tulsi, who is working as a stop in the city is a dead end for middle-aged Naga employs wily
maid in another house. Punda. If the school is open though ruthlessness to retain Punda as There is discontent and restless- combative in the village, it is closed his slave. Though the village was a ness in the village and city, though like a prison in the city. If Sita’s gift tiny, isolated place, Naga belonged of different kinds: the people in the of trousers is an act of love and there, it offered him enough space village are are fettered financially, gratitude, the one given by Naga’s to dream. In stark contrast, though emotionally or socially by the place wife is a mere costume to exhibit the city is huge, it offers no place for and their station in the social family status. If rituals sustain fam- Punda, nor will he ever belong to it. It system, and imprisoned by caste, ilies in the village, in the city, there will always remain a space that will poverty, ignorance, beliefs, sheer is a mere puja to propitiate oneself. never become a place for him. inertia, or a sense of contentment, If Naga carries letters of love and Girish Kasaravalli’s film apparently as in the case of upper-caste longing, it is letters of despair and has two straightforward, simple males. In the city, their discontent cries of help from home that come stories, which when read togeth- is more physical and economic to Punda in the city. In both stories, er, turn into a chilling account of rather than spiritual or social. For there is an undelivered letter— the self-deceit and greed that instance, the families of Naga and while Naga does it out of concern constitute the warps and wefts, the his friend Mr Rao desperately want for Sita in the first, ironically, the origins and present of the Indian to better their status. To achieve same Naga destroys a letter from middle class. O this, they will go to any extent—do Punda’s home in order to keep him (The author is a critic, curator and pujas to bring peace in the house in his house. documentary filmmaker)
51 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 la dolce vita
Three’s Company First, we owe an apology for not having a photo that shows the adorable (we’re sure of it) mien of this Labrador. His masters, however, have used him as a prop—they’re getting to be experts at this, what with enough time on their hands to hone marketing skills—for their snapshot of a moment’s prosaic romance. Anushka is totally into her cuddlesome best friend. Virat is so into her. We dig only her shirt. Oh, Take It Easy! That refrain from an old Rahman song came to mind over reports that Urvashi Rautela is an incorrigible plagiarizer of…tweets. From a review of Oscar-winning Parasite to appreciation for Mumbai’s policemen, our girl thinks nothing of a bit of brazen purloining, so what if that under- mines that oopsy-oomphy style of hers. Look here—that bracelet is fine, so is her slick hair and the solemn finger raised to a point, as well as the conservative-radical mix in her swimsuit. But that rubbery, ropey chewed-and-spat-out string of latex she wears around her neck mars the effect. Like those tweets. la dolce vita
Nowhere Near Victory That playfully exhibited silver-knobbed walking stick and that carefully flung gamocha over his shoulders are, of course, markers of Victor Banerjee’s class. The veter- an actor, who has been in near-total ‘self-isolation’ in Mussoorie for nearly 40 years, spends the days in quiet contemplation, with great poetry and better food. The plight of our stranded migrants reminds him of the plight of people sold into bonded labour in colonial times in the service of early capitalism. Worthy thoughts for Wazid Ali Shah’s wazir-e-azam, so imbued with tragic knowledge. Less so for David Lean’s strangely deficient Dr Aziz.
Emily’s Game It was all so fast—the comings and goings, the campy prancing, the frolicsome love to a panting camera, the swagger of those confident minxes—that we couldn’t catch our breath. But in that hectically sexy video of Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines, we caught our first glimpse of Emily Ratajkowski. The following two years were the best in her life—glossy photoshoots, bit parts and a permanent place in ‘hottest’ lists. Now that she’s confined (with her husband, you dopes), she practices those supermodel moves for our delectation. Here she effortlessly honours a leopard print string bikini, but we only have eyes for those earrings. You don’t agree?
53 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 Suva
Tejaswini Apte-Rahm is the author of These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape
Islands in the Sun drils that, doused in coconut milk, makes for a Fiji’s capital, Suva, is the cooling salad. Then there are the delights from most developed and cos- the ocean—seaweed cooked with coconut mopolitan of the capitals milk and formed into ‘pats’; and sea grapes in the South Pacific. To the mixed into a salad of onions, tomatoes and Indian eye, used as it is to tuna flakes. Suva’s markets overflow with multitudes, Suva is a small, tropical fruits, Indian spices, kava root pow- charming, sparsely popu- der (mix with water for an intoxicating drink) lated city of quiet avenues and bird-of-paradise flowers. lined with grand colonial buildings, back gardens dotted Good Girls From India with papaya and mango trees, and Indian culture is everywhere. The British brought old establishments like Charman’s Indians as indentured labour to work the sugarcane All-Races Gym and Ahmed’s Spice plantations from the 1870s onwards (Sugar is important Shop. Fiji is made up of 300 islands and business here—there is a dedicated ministry of sugar). Their over 500 islets; many are uninhabited. descendants are a prominent part of the Fijian population today, with a Suva is the political capital, while Nadi culture that has evolved into a unique amalgam of various Indian cultures. (pronounced Nandi) is the tourist hub. It has given rise to a language called Fijian Hindi, spoken by all Indo-Fijians Most tourists fly in to the international and difficult to understand for an Indian from India. It is a rich dialect in airport there and are whisked away in a its own right. Indo-Fijian radio, however, is another matter—the Hindi catamaran or seaplane to their luxury spoken on-air is much like the Hindi one might hear on the radio in India. island resorts. There are few tourists in Where there are Indians, can Bollywood be far behind? The two main Suva as it is a three-hour drive (on a English newspapers, The Sun and The Fiji Times, have special sections coastal road fringed by tropical forests) that amply cater to the hunger for all things Bollywood. These remind me or a 45-minute flight away (often on a of the teen magazines of the ’80s, complete with song lyrics and pull-out small plane where passengers are posters replete with curves and six-packs. Even taxi rides are usually weighed along with the luggage) from accompanied by Hindi film soundtracks. Indo-Fijian taxi drivers almost Nadi. A few cruise ships, however, dock always ask where I am from and on finding that I am from Mumbai, dis- here. Their arrival is announced in local play boundless enthusiasm. One even went so far as to ask me whether I papers so that downtown vendors can knew of “any good girls” in India whom he could marry. Why not a girl be ready for day-trippers. from Fiji, I enquired. Apparently the ones here are not traditional enough. Try Shaadi.com, I suggested. Sea Grape And Dinosaur Fruit I whimsically decide to christen the wi Does India Have An 11-rupee Note? fruit as the dinosaur fruit. This is because Fiji is a rugby-mad nation; it beats Indian cricket-mania hands down. I found out that wi, one of the first flower- After all, has the Indian government ever issued an 11-rupee note to ing trees on earth, existed at the time of commemorate our cricket team? No? Well, Fiji is the only country in the dinosaurs. It is a great pleasure to sink my world to have a seven-dollar note, in honour of their national rugby sev- teeth into what might (unscientifically) ens team, which won the Olympic gold medal in 2016. It is not just a be called a living fossil and experience its commemorative note, but one that is in daily circulation. soothing taste of not-too-sweet, not-too- sour. It also makes for a superb chutney, Who Let The Rats Out delicious with roasted papad. In Fiji, avo- Pacific island history is a mainstay of newspapers. They almost always cados and papayas are of the same size. have long articles on old clan chiefs and colonial sailing voyages. A won- Which is to say that the avocados are derful titbit from March 1912 caught my eye the other day: owning tiny enormous and papayas tiny, strictly one dogs was apparently all the rage in Paris in 1912. Where Paris goes, the per person. Fijians have a range of roots— fashion world doth follow; so a well-known socialite in Suva went to the taro, cassava and sweet potato—and they downtown market and paid an enormous sum for the tiniest dog she had call it, quite simply, ‘starch’. Breadfruit ever seen. But when she brought it home, it promptly ran up the curtains. counts as ‘starch’ in a meal too. Ora is a When the servants retrieved it, it turned out to be a rat sewn into a dog’s delicate mountain fern with curling ten- skin. Not so très chic, but c’est la vie.
54 OUTLOOK | APRIL 27, 2020 ILLUSTRATION: SAAHIL