This year has been a true inflection year, which all the risk forecast’s were made redundant as the year passed by. The risk registers were on overdrive, as a disruption in the geopolitics ensured that risk with a capital R, was the dominant lexicon. Climate Risk took a backseat, with the EU CSDDD and EUDR being diluted, as the world was worried over active hot wars in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and a limited war in South Asia. Disclosures and Reporting intricacies are for a status quo-ist paradigm not where guidebooks are being ripped apart real time, COP 30 was a procedural matter at best as jobs became the theme of the World Bank. The variegated geographies of transition will be at play with some parts of the world such as the EU, linking climate action to resilience.

Tariffs threw the play book out of the window as Power with a capital P made a sharp return, it seems the end of history was premature as a new Cold War between China and the USA is the new theatre in town, with shocks and surprises galore. AI is the new kid on the block for an arms race, with chips and small modular nuclear reactors powering data centre cities. All the decarbonisation progress, is reversed with a new power arms race.

There were youth revolutions across the globe, South Asia has a couple of jolts as did Africa, indicating jobs as the new risk locus for governments. Since the youth revolts in Kathmandu and Dhaka, outward migration across corridors has spiked as per insights gathered from manpower agencies in Malaysia.

The Worlds of Work for the IT professional in India has evolved with large scale shifts to the mass recruitment back office model. In the Zoom era, offices are in sync across the world.

All that is solid melts into air, is true decades after this famous line was written. As many things change, people will find an anchor in their beliefs as the old gives way to the new as if in a portal, as Arundhati Roy had written in a FT article during the pandemic. The pandemic it seems was simply a shock towards a new, unknown world, where risks need to be thought afresh, for investors who do due diligence need a new frame to assess risks to their investment portfolios.

Parsi Irani Cafés in Mumbai are a dying tribe, and are edible archives of the Indian Ocean such as Cafe Excelsior which was a sleepy low key place with exceptional pocket friendly fare. A Bombay institution in a heritage district fast gentrifying with decaying buildings. Every meal hence is an act of archiving as recently other Parsi eateries have closed down such as my other favourite, Jimmy’s. I like the normalcy of Cafe Excelsior compared to a Britannia which on it’s on merit is solid, yet a tourist magnate in Ballard Estate.

The chai and bun maska was on point. As a non vegetarian, the mutton cutlet curry was unique with butter rice.

Cafe Excelsior in Pictures