The problem with ESG is the height of expectations, as a silver bullet to combat climate change. ESG is a practical meta framework to do business the ethical way, but the impact of the bottom line and the ways to measure it are deeply contextual.

ESG needs to be seen across the spectrum, some companies would need to improve their compliance a lot more than others. The carbon intensive sector needs to be gauged from a transitions lens, and a lot of historical and cultural factors are at play. Wars will trigger energy security concerns and will have a direct impact on the pockets of lower income families in the impending winter and at the gas station.

Metrics which are required to measure impact need to be thought afresh. How do we measure the impact of modern slavery legislation on Global Production Networks and impending BHR litigation is one way of a proxy measure to put a dollars and cents measure on taking care of vulnerable actors.

The cost of noncompliance with ESG measures may not be a direct profit imperative on the balance sheet. But non-financial measures are meant to map the weak signals that are a proxy for black swan accidents.

Climate litigation is an immediate business continuity risk for energy, power, and resource companies. Again, look at the context while buying into the anti ESG politics which is a spanner in the works for communities who depend on oil in Texas. Stranded Assets is an important lens too.

Remote Work is akin to a long-distance relationship, needs honesty and an incentive architecture which works towards staying committed.

On evenings like this, i miss my karak chai in Ruwi. My soul hovers around Honda Road in Masqat. My upbringing was from a simpler time.

It’s not every day that you can discuss Foucault and Sexuality in an interview with a prospective candidate for work at an ESG start up.

Thankfully, sociology and other liberal arts majors in the Gen Z generation utilize LinkedIn to fetch job options when their universities provide none especially when a person does not come from a main academic center in India.

I wish I had learnt it earlier and not in my mid-thirties, which expands the degrees of freedom as far as choices one has make one a better person. Learn to expand the choice architecture that one has.

Thanks to the democratic impulse of the digital, writers and photographers like me do not need to pander to the whims of the gatekeepers such as editors and publishers where taste making is a function of a clique in person rather than sheer talent. And who gets to measure that?

Curators of content are the new tastemakers as the deluge of everything is out there.

So many well-meaning individuals and initiatives, startups, and scale ups from professional services to academia to non-profits all seek resources, funding, grants, and revenues to finance their work yet there is little practical attention on growth, the engine itself yet the discussion is on the meta, the strategy. The art of sale is as innovative as strategy.

The Asia Cup in the UAE is an apt metaphor as the diaspora makes the Gelf Desi as remittances do connect us materially. Sri Lanka and Pakistan are in a challenging time due to floods and a political crisis. Afghanistan post the Taliban shift gives cricket in a major diaspora center especially Sharjah is more than symbolic.

The Hong Kong Team with loads of Pakistani origin players connected the post Empire to the imperial sport which is truly embraced as post-colonial and Asian.

The Indian Team can go and play online games. Dream 11 pe hi team banao.

Happy for Colombo, Kandy and Illankai Jaffna! Well done.

The largest South Asian City is the twin city urban agglomeration of Ad Dubayy and Sharjah.

So many well-meaning individuals and initiatives, startups, and scale ups from professional services to academia to non-profits all seek resources, funding, grants, and revenues to finance their work yet there is little practical attention on growth, the engine itself yet the discussion is on the meta, the strategy. The art of sale is as innovative as strategy.

There has been a recent flutter in the discourse about remote work, pandemic and moonlighting which has raised important questions about the Future of Work itself, as WFH is actually work from anywhere. Geographies are global in terms of knowledge work as talent is available on demand as a Netflix series. The Uberisation of work calls for a new social contract, as talent can be let go at any juncture hence the trampoline available in the words of Senior Minister Tharman is not available to most employees. Side hustles are a way to earn an additional buck, but from the employee perspective they are simply safeguarding their livelihoods as a lot of us have families to support. Terms such as trust, authenticity and ‘cheating’ need a rethink. Please look at the context of the employee as most young graduates simply find it challenging to maintain one job, let alone having ‘additional’ hustle income. Easier for an Ivy League MBA to chime in on an employee who is struggling to make ends meet as the social capital cache is lopsided.

Each worker is a gig worker as there is hardly any security of work, as the lexicon of social protection is nonexistent. If an entrepreneur can be a serial entrepreneur, then why can’t an employee be considered in similar terms? Expectations need to be managed better as Millennial’s operate on a different understanding of a work life balance.

#FutureofWork