Masterclass on Nepal-Malaysia Corridor

An annual catch up with Mr. Bed Kumar is a lesson in humility and a masterclass on Nepalese migration in Malaysia.

Migration is not about the h-index rather the humanity of the stories migrant community organising legends share in their struggle for rights and equity, as they build at home through remittances in the midst of political turmoil back home.

Let the research evidence be channelised in to good policy at various national and corridor scales.

Trade as Shocks and Shift’s- Professor Evelyn S Devadason talk at UM

Braving the downpour on a Monday morning to attend an inspiring talk by Professor Evelyn on trade as shocks and shifts was a mind bending experience. We need a refreshing of our vocabulary for the polycrisis we are in the midst, as old paradigm no longer hold their ground.

At the Economics Faculty Auditorium

The insight density of the talk was inspiring

The Talk had all the institutional paraphernalia

Dignity and Trust as FPIC

The S in ESG is not measured apart from accident and harassment incident statistics, yet it is the ballast which holds the ship intact in the midst of a storm. It is the plumbing and the wiring, ensuring trust and dignity, the ethos of sustainability itself.

Disclosure is accountability and compliance, dignity is core of doing business done the right way. The notion of psychological safety in a age of neoliberal precarity is critical to creative work in the era of AI. The social pillar is tied to psychological safety, which is achieved through diginity and trust.- the soul of FPIC.

Politics of FPIC

The problem and opportunity with FPIC especially for forest based carbon credits and renewable mandates is the gap in understanding between the elites of local communities, the federal power structures and the international banks. Politics which is often erased from the reports is exactly what is needed.

Configuration of Barber Subaltern in Malaysia

In my Barber Shop

For the South Asian Man in the diaspora, the barber shop and its ‘thanda thanda cool cool champee’ or head message in Hindi-Urdu-Bangla is therapy, from the quotidian druggery.

The banal jokes cracked over loud 90’s Kumar Shanu, or the latest Anirudh anthem is a few moments of a lightness of being.

For the semi literate south Asian Barber, from Madras, Rangoon or Sadda Panjab the employment is an opportunity to earn in a foreign currency and remit money. The subaltern here is a micro entrepreneurial artist, making money for the shop owner, while keeping in mind the money he needs to support himself in Malaysia, remit money to build a house in the village and also keeping the resources to renew his next permit.

To keep the spark of joy alive in this strategic calculus is indeed resistance.

Decency at the Core of Sustainability

The core values of sustainability remain the sams in any crisis, which is to lend dignity to the vulnerable in your communities of practice and in turn incubate/ foster trust. ESG is a flurry of KPI, but that amalgamation of indicators does not necessarily add up as a vector summation into Trust. Trust is a relational thing, it needs less calculation and more conversations.

The future of resilience, sustainability and impact is simpler than we think. It needs a willingness to be decent.

Consulting Services Buying Behaviour 101

Consulting buying behaviour is culturally contextual and need based, and the lens is often compliance and risk management in the Sustainability services space. The client whether a bank or a manufacturing firm needs solutions in the essential services approach, which adds to the alpha rather than one more report. LLMs don’t offer original solutions, only regurgitate the present.