Reading Saudi Inc.

1930’s Financial Governance was very straight forward.

Note the chitties, or vouchers which were used in India and Malaya as well especially by the bankers who were either the Chettiars or Banias.

There is a massive valley of miscommunication as so much excellent research is available from academia regarding migration and health such as Prof Mohan Dutta’s think tank CARE on dormitories, food, worker welfare. This research had been performed years back (full disclosure: I was apart of the food team), but this evidence was not read by policy makers. There needs to be some mechanism where empirical field research is translated to policy evidence, and that relevant policy makers read and not reinvent the wheel.

Academics too work for publication and impact factors, as the business model is different for them.
Working in silos, reduces resilience, work in ecosystems. There is no Nobel Prize to be won in working in echo chambers.

Post COVID, a few changes will occur as the notion of ‘prime real estate’ will be dislocated as people will work more from home.

Ed-Tech will rule:Education will be transformed as a number of non laboratory programs will be fully online. Global education will be affordable for students in the global south.

Healthcare will fly: More hospitals will be built and lesser offices. Laboratory diagnostic business will boom. Hygiene services market will be the next big thing.

The ‘Home’ in the ‘WFH’: Residential homes will be bigger, and located away from city centres. One room in the apartment will be a dedicated sound proof office. I see sound proofing and better retrofitting of existing homes taking off.

Jobs: All skills based, value creation oriented paradigm of work, where reskilling though painful will be the new normal.

The pandemic just preponed the ‘Future of Work’

Any ideas?

Reading ‘These Truths’ by Harvard Historian Jill Lepore. A majestic treatise on American History which is not intimidating but illuminating. This snapshot of the Great Depression sounds eerily similar to the present economic carnage thanks to COVID-19.

Health is Serious Business: Day 19/21 national lockdown field note.

It’s Easter, and Sunday which means all the vegetable vendors are in swing than usual. The Kirana shops are buzzing. People by now have seen the value of masks or even handkerchiefs around the mouth. More social distancing happening although much more is needed. The gram panchayat folks were preaching on the loudspeaker regarding social distancing at the heart of the market. Such direct communication is vital. Fumigation was taking place as well as shown below.

The seriousness has caught on. That’s the biggest plus. In a conversation with the pharmacist in the urban village, the bald and pot bellied middle aged man, said when i enquired regarding the business during the lockdown,

‘The business is not unusual as we stick to the MRP and do not overcharge like the grocery shop due to supply shortages. People are taking health more seriously, taking the entire course of medicines. As pollution and dust has reduced, there are less patients coming to buy as well. Many have gone back to their native places too.’

I hope post COVID-19, the focus on healthcare, hygiene and research should be the main takeaway post this carnage.