Approach to post covid challenges in India

This year 2020 will go down in history as the social break between pre-covid and post-covid times.  What unfolded as a health crisis has turned into a deep  economic crisis, pulling the world into a recession.  Uncertainties loom large and the world over policymakers are striving to strike a balance between lives and livelihoods.  India and the rest of the countries are no exception.

The pertinent question is how to overcome the post-covid challenges and bring new opportunities? 

The government of India has taken several supportive actions to mitigate economic losses, including ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ package and the introduction of specific schemes to boost consumption and investment.  RBI on its part has been taking regular measures to ensure liquidity support.  The government has also ushered in significant reforms in areas such as agriculture, defence, space, mining and other sectors as well as labour laws. 

The latest announcement of Atmanirbhar Bharat package 3.0 has given a further boost to the economy and has the potential to lift growth, employment, exports and make India a part of the global value chains.

With positive developments on the vaccine front, there is hope that the crisis shall soon pass.  However, post-covid times will not be the same as pre-covid.  There will be many more aspects that were used and developed to meet the challenges faced during this time that will be mainstreamed going forward.  As a nation, we would need to continue to develop a strategic response to the crisis and its aftereffects.

The crisis has left deep imprints on the micro as well as macro-dynamics of every economy.  At the macro level, policymakers will have to relook and re-design their strategies for the future, keeping in view the geo-political and geo-economic landscape.

The covid-19 crisis has also opened several opportunities for the India.  These should be identified and leveraged for a better future.

Foremost, India will play a major role in post-pandemic global recovery.  With India accounting for almost 60 per cent of global vaccine production, the country has a huge opportunity in manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines for the world at large.  On the economic front, an early growth recovery for India will support global growth as well.

Recently, India administered a record 25 million Covid-19 vaccines, setting a world record for single-day inoculations.

There is an unequivocal view that India could expand its global trade due to the new geopolitical landscape emerging post the pandemic. 

According to the Economists, there is an opportunity for India to gain from the reorganization of global supply chains, involving a shift from China.  In the future, many companies will follow a pattern that has been labelled as China.

While the Government has identified Champion Sectors for providing special support over the next five years under the ‘production linked incentive’ [PLI] scheme, there are some sectors where India has the potential to be a global leader and need to be adequately supported.

Media & Entertainment is another industry where India has significant potential to emerge as a global leader.  Skill development is another important measure as training in cutting-edge technology will be required if India is to become a media and entertainment powerhouse.

The opportunities are wide-ranging.  The pandemic has highlighted the role of the digital economy across sectors and even post the crisis, the digital way of functioning will continue.  It has been highlighted that the potential of digitalization for making India a global digital powerhouse.

Sustainable development of Agriculture is perhaps most important as it is critical for global food security and poverty reduction.  The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic brought these concerns once again to the fore.  Innovation and advanced technologies are much needed for food security and to ensure sustainable agriculture.  India needs more digital solutions to make the agriculture sector resilient to shocks.

On the healthcare front too, digital solutions have become critical.  In order to make India pharmaceutical industry even stronger in the post-pandemic world by providing an enabling eco-system for developing self-reliance in APIs, creating centralized infrastructure, building common utilities and easing regulatory clearances. 

India’s reform agenda is not limited to just these sectors.  There are a plethora of areas where we need to improve and perform better, be it in the social, economic or legal fields.  Strengthening India’s financial sector is thus extremely important.

Also, it is essential for making the Indian banking and financial sector robust.  Additionally, the banks and other financial institutions need to strengthen their capabilities to assess and process risks.  They need to harness the power of data analytics for better decision making.  Even we cannot ignore the importance of the ecological approach for all economic activities.

The crisis of today is learning to face the challenges of tomorrow.  Many of the problems are not new, they probably need new solutions that are pragmatic yet futuristic.  Responsible actions are desired from everyone – governments, industries, firms as well as individuals and collectively as a society to enable a better and sustainable future.

What is excessive use of social media

The internet has become an integral part of our daily life.  It has been seen over the last decade, the use of social media [Facebook, Twitter] has been increasing rapidly and especially the younger generations getting addicted to it.  Excessive use of social media is an addiction. Our health is largely determined by the social, economic, cultural, and physical environments we live in. 

The more time one has spent on social media can affects to health that can lead to cyberbullying, worse sleep quality, social anxiety, and depression. It is to be borne in mind that such unhealthy lifestyle encounter diseases and illness.

Most university students are glued to social media and excessive use of Facebook can have a negative impact on the physical health of its users. It is found that students frequently use social media [mostly Facebook] for news and social communication. 

Globally, about 3.1 billion people are using the internet on modern gadgets.  Now the social media [mainly Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and WhatsApp] is termed as a “global consumer phenomenon” and it is particularly popular among the young generation because of quickly delivers instant communication, and seeking information is very easy in our modern lives.

The overuse of technology may lead to psychological and physical issues, such as eyestrain and difficulty focusing on important task, and it has also significant impact on developing children and teenagers.  Moreover, it tends to low self-esteem, personal dissatisfaction, hyperactivity, and even lack of affection.

For graduates and undergraduates, these social media platforms are highly used.  Technology with the use of the internet plays an important role in their academic success. But we should know the proper handling of social media i.e. mainly depend on the purpose and frequency of its use.  With the instant of the internet, we can communicate with friends and family give a greater positive result, lower stress and better psychological functioning.

On the other hand, excessive use of the internet leads to gaming and gambling resulted in depression.  It has been seen that the individuals are preoccupied with electronic games, search, and recreational activities, thus lead to neglect of sporting and aerobic exercise, familial communication, and societal accomplishments.

According to the study, young users, who are actively and emotionally involved in their digital lives reported worse sleep, higher anxiety, and depression.  By using social media consistently one can be associated with a decrease in happiness and an increase in depression.  Spending more than 3 hours on social media per day puts at a higher risk for mental health problems.  14% of kids ages 11-17 report depression and 34% report anxiety. 25% of 18 to 25-year-olds report mental illness.

Quote --“Branded Research, 2018: Respondents cited notifications from and the presence of social media to be the biggest distraction, blurring the line between work and personal life” unquote.

The relevant question is how the excessive use of social media and technology is proving harmful?  How social media impacts health problems on youth and what is the solution?

There is a difference in using social media-- addicts Vs non-addicts. But those who are social media addicts are likely to have physical symptoms than non-addicts, which include - backache, headache, neck pain, shoulder pain, wrist pain, a strain of the eyes, neck problems, and myopia.

Perceptibly, social media has become an integral networking habit in our daily life.  Anything in excess is known to cause problems and usage of social media is no exception to the rule.

Internet is a boon, but the student should use the internet only when they need it.  It is obvious that social media has many positive effects on education including better communication, timely information, socializing online, learning, enhancing skills, making a career among others. 

But there is a possibility of social media can be distracting, but in the modern technology, it does not mean that one cannot use it.  You have to beat the distraction i.e. causing not banishing.  It is ok to use within the limits and obviously doing a good way of doing is to set a schedule for checking social media.

Recommendation for healthy habits of social media:

• They should focus more on the study and reduce time spent on social media
• Students should engage more in physical exercise
• If they have to stay on the internet for a long duration, they should take a break and engage in some freehand exercise
• To overcome the sleeping disturbances student should stop the use of the screen at least 1 hour before going to bed.
• Awareness programs have to be undertaken to inform students of the negative impacts of excessive Social Media use.
• Focus on your real-life friends.
• Limit the time you spend scrolling each day
• Follow people and pages that bring you joy
• When you are out and about, live in the moment.
• Take a break.

The pertinent question is how to maintain the relationship between the use of social media and users' health.  We cannot ignore the social media in the daily lives of a student. It should be remembered that excessive use of social media leads to economic, physical, and psychological problems such as over-expenditure, eye problems, headaches, sleep disturbances, etc.

Perceptibly, social is healthy it helps sharpen memory and cognitive skills, increases one’s sense of happiness and well-being but it is important that each user should monitor the time of use and practice control by limiting their use and also keeping their eyes at a healthy distance from phones and not using them very frequently.

Why new business startups fail

People do think a lot of business and while kickstarting, it is often found that many businesses in startups failed due to many reasons. 

It can be due to external reasons like:

• Political
•  Economic
• Social 
• Technological

On the other hand internal factors such as:

• Poor understanding of the business
• No proper customer relationship
• No proper customer satisfaction
• No proper marketing strategies

According to research on small businesses, failure can be divided into studies solely focusing on external factors and studies focusing on internal factors influencing business failure or survival. 

In an organizational ecology, internal and external factors are playing an important role and therefore it can be argued that internal and external factors would influence the new business startups. Further to this, SWOT analysis of an organization would certainly help to understand the startup fails of a business. A general SWOT analysis is given below.

                                                                                                                                                    The main reason for any business failure: 

• The reformers proceeded without an underlying theory i.e., internal
• The want of an underlying theory led reformers to engage in non-purposeful grafting and reshaping in their experiments i.e., internal
• There has been no justifiable social exchange in the process i.e., external

Even it can be seen in the above case, there are three reasons found, out of those two internal reasons and one external reason. On the other hand, there are some previous studies have found that the role of founders' collective experiences is paramount in resolving problems inherent in startups, others have failed to substantiate this.

The importance of a sound business model

To start any business the primary element is planning, therefore developing the right strategies to build the right business model would help to reduce the level of bankruptcy in any business. A sound business plan may make the difference between a business that succeeds and a business that fails. 

As per the statistics, 95% of small businesses fail due to poor business planning, and even after that, there are no guarantees for organization profit. It is stated that creating a business plan may appear to be a difficult process, but in practice, it will help to clarify and focus one’s business idea, while going a long way to securing the finance and support one needs. It is important to get it right and so by concentrating the efforts on setting out goals, showing how will measure the progress, identifying potential issues and covering strategies, sales, marketing and financial forecasts. 

The importance of a sound business model should be: 

A sound business model increases the customer satisfaction

The strategic relationship between brand extension and Customer Satisfaction goes further to enhance the organizational efficiency and productivity of a business.  The importance of customer satisfaction in today’s dynamic corporate environment is obvious as it greatly influences the business profit/loss and also prevents shutdowns of the businesses. 

In today’s highly competitive and dynamic corporate environment to survive and compete with other market players successfully it is imperative to have satisfied customers and also to retain them so that they come again. 

A sound business model would help to maintain good integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategies

A sound business model would certainly help to communicate the right brand message to the target audience. This will help to meet the targeted objectives of the brand of any business. Therefore, to reduce the shutdowns of the business, it is important that a right brand message should be developed and communicated across all the media including the IMC channels. 

Further, a sound business model would help the business to penetrate an international market. The key difference between domestic marketing and marketing on an international scale is the multidimensionality and complexity of the many foreign country markets a company may operate in. Thus, we should know internationally and be aware of these complexities, the implications they have for international marketing management so that to access and compete on an international level. 

A sound business model would help to produce quality brands to the market

The brand reputation, customer innovativeness, products segment, durable products and services have a substantial level of impact and above all, it reflects a sound business model for the organization. However, they do not draw a line of demarcation between the limitations of each category of products and brands. As such the overlap between two categories could be substantial enough to obliterate the distinction between them, this would help to prevent business shutdowns. 

In a sound business model, there has been a spate of research papers in recent times on the relevance and significance of this context. It has been argued that while the context plays a very pivotal role in a sound business model, but we have to keep the essence of consumer’s continuous evaluation of fit and quality depending on the extent of visual information and the relative ease with which comparable brands could be purchased due to the internal business model. 

A sound business model helps to build good trust with stakeholders

The importance of trust of stakeholders are played an important role and the degree of emotional energy in each business depends on the impact it makes on potential customers and stakeholders. Now, we should understand that this impact in turn depends on the degree of trust with stakeholders, the more trust would reduce the risk of bankruptcy and vice versa. 

Thus, relevance trust must be sustained through the right business model. In other words, the trust must be made relevant through an internal sound business model, or they must appeal to potential customers, discuss the concept of a sound business model and the power of the trusting mind which lead to Customer Satisfactions. 

According to researchers’ arguments, the existence of a link between a sound business model and the stakeholder’s trust creates powerful Customer Satisfaction that would help a business to grow faster in the market without bankruptcy. 

A sound business model would help to find franchising opportunities for new business

While talking about the business model, the best solution would be franchising with some other companies for entrepreneurs to start a business or establish first. It will be less investment for the organization. Even some companies waited over 10 years to begin franchising with some business partners. 

Franchising is a good idea and understanding the concept is quite beneficial. In general, we choose franchising as the vehicle for expansion because we wanted an operating system that would allow ownership under an existing business model and trademark. 

When people have a vested interest in their work, they enjoy it more, bring more to the table and are more successful overall. Franchising is a perfect system to accomplish the goals. This would help any new business to streamline its internal systems and marketing strategies to expand the business via franchising. 

Before starting up any business, one should keep in mind the internal and external factors and how it influences the business.  We cannot ignore the SWOT analysis.  A sound business model is a key factor to strive in business, encompasses planning, customer satisfaction, marketing strategies, quality brands, stakeholders trust and franchising.

Marriage in the age of internet

We often hear marriages are made in heaven. But can you hear internet marriages?  Yes, through the internet one can identify the overabundance of choice of potential partners and it is the source of online looking for a stable relationship!  Now meeting online [particularly meeting through online dating websites] predicts faster transitions to marriage. 

The pertinent question is the effect of Internet technology on a relationship can be stable/longevity or turn out to be a marriage formation?   How do the Internet and social media technology affect our romantic lives?  The association between Internet technology and relationships tend to be more positive, neutral, or negative!  

No doubt, internet-based social media and cellular phones play an increasing role in our personal and social lives.  Most of the thinkers and scholars do disagree about whether the new technologies improve or degrade the commitment and longevity of our primary relationships.  According to internet skeptics suddenly wider choice set of potential partners available online could undermine marriages and other primary relationships.  

One of the most prominent Internet skeptics, has argued that the new technologies have robbed us of the skills to be effective listeners in face-to-face interactions. If the Internet undermines our relationships, then the social effects of the Internet are to be feared.  Though other scholars view the Internet as having a more positive role to play in personal and romantic relationships. 

The obvious question does arise --- whether meeting online is associated with higher or lower rates of breakup and higher or lower rates of transition to marriage. Also, couples who met online and offline have similar rates of breakup.  This should be demonstrated in the right spirit to get the correct picture. 

It has been predicted that the larger the choice set available to people, the lower the quality of decisions that individuals make will be and the worse they will feel. 

One of the key theoretical ideas is the choice overload that invoked to explain why Internet dating might yield lower-quality partnership matches and also why Internet dating would undermine existing romantic relationships.  According to views of the people who are experienced online dating on romantic relationships are presumed to be less permanent and more disposable.  It has been observed that couples who met online progressed to marriage more quickly. 

The study showed that meeting online is especially common among gays, lesbians, and middle-aged heterosexuals, groups that have difficulty identifying potential partners in the offline world.  

No doubt the technology is aimed to search across large choice sets to find the particular kind of partner   [whether by demographics or by acquired characteristics] and that is why internet dating is theoretically efficient.  But theory predicts that larger choice sets would result in weaker romantic matches and more relationship instability, also the theory argues that larger choice sets should lead to better matches and therefore to more stable romantic unions. 

It has been advised that among the internet dating sites that cater to people looking for relationships rather than for hookups.  Before the first date via Internet dating profiles, potential partners may have taken weeks or months exclusively and the information gathering process should be counted from dating to commitment to marriage. 

With the technology revolution, the internet is a boon but too much time spent online by youth is a concern.  Internet use and social life are two important aspects and without a social life, there is a constant fear of community loss.  Associated with internet use is modest but greater Internet [Internet addiction] use significantly turn negative changes and it happens when there are -- less family communication, more loneliness, and more depression.  Also, urbanization and industrialization are the technological changes whose impact on the community. 

It has been predicted that internet technologies would undermine the stability of primary romantic relationships.  As per the survey of divorce lawyers, finding that 68 per cent of divorce cases involved one party meeting a new love interest over the Internet. 

However, How Couples Meet and Stay Together (HCMST) surveys found no differences in breakup rate or relationship satisfaction by whether the couple had met online or offline, but it is found that couples who met online were more likely to break up 2.46 times higher than the couples who met offline. 

As we are living in higher levels of technology and browsing the internet and connecting to the world at our fingertips, where family relationships, relationship infidelity, ease of exchanging information and online dating can develop more quickly.  The study found that those who are dating people who overshare on social media tend to have lower relationship satisfaction. 

One of the key advantages of Internet dating is information gathering from the potential partner’s profile.  There are websites responsible for matching all engaged couples who met online.  According to The Knot 2019 Jewelry and Engagement study, 22 per cent of couples meet online and end up getting engaged and others like OkCupid and Bumble. 

Conventionally, social interactions are more engaging during internet dating and there is obvious marriage choice and couplehood in the age of the internet.  But there is a possibility that an affair can go by other names as well, depending on the type of affair involved.  So, one should be more specific and be more careful while in a romantic relationship. 

What is importance of communication?

Communication is important in day-to-day life and cannot be underestimated.  In human life, communication plays a vital role.  It is the foundation for sharing information, knowledge and developing relations between people to ensure that everything is understood and can be acted upon. Communication is an ingredient part of our daily lives.

In general, a human being starts communicating as soon as he starts producing his first noise in the act of drawing his parents’ attention.   One should comprehend that every emotion which has been portrayed on the faces, the movement of hands, the way we look at someone and even our speech, instantly communicates our ideas to others.

Why is communication important to society brainly?

Thus, communication is imperative for our society, as it is quite hard to imagine a life where there is absolutely no communication. In fact, it is not possible or even we cannot think to lead a life without communication. So, we can surely say it is a most important aspect of our lives because it is only through the exchange of ideas and co-operation that a family and a society can grow and develop. Void of communication is difficult to understand people, misunderstanding and lack of clarity of thoughts and expression.

Perceptibly, communication helps humans to function orderly and productively.

Communication can be of different types such as:

• Verbal communication [it is merely by using speech and language that the communication takes place]
• Non-verbal communication [there is no exchange of words, but it may be gestures or signs or facial expressions that are used for communication] and

Written communication

In early ages, communication was in its initial stages.  It was in development leg since there were no languages, resultantly little communication processes or exchange of information were followed by humans. 

Slowly and gradually the development process is taking place and the human abilities do flourish make a pave way for communication and human society. Humans started using signs and non-verbal communication to communicate with fellow humans. As humans become more and more organized, different kinds of languages and communication methods are developed.

In our modern world, the importance of communication has surpassed all previous levels. The communicative technologies in the world have been increasing not only in number but also in speed, accuracy and clarity.

No doubt the importance of communication does play a critical role in our society and modern world.

How we can effectively communicate and analyse the importance of communication.  Here, it is as follows:

·         Transferring of ideas and feelings:

To transfer ideas from one person to another, communication plays a vital role. Every human being has some ideas that are unique to his own mind and he wants to convey those messages or ideas to others. Until the person does not communicate and share his ideas he cannot let others know what he is thinking or what he has in his mind.

·         Interaction with society:

Humans are social animals they need to interact with each other.  It is highly important that we interact with our surroundings and the people living in the surroundings. Whenever we talk to someone, we, knowingly or unknowingly, react to his/her questions, actions or comments. Healthy communication is essential for a healthy society. 

·         For education:

To educate someone, we need to communicate the ideas, information regarding the syllabus or the study material to the student. If a teacher is communicating well with his students, his students will be satisfied with him and they will be able to grasp more. Inefficient communication can lead to a //transfer of ambiguous knowledge. 

·         To entertain world:

Entertainment, today, is mostly based on the channels of mass communication, like films and television. Internet is another common platform for entertainment, which again is a mode of communication. In short, we can easily say that communication and entertainment are entwined in today’s world. 

·         To Understand the World:

Unless we communicate with the world, we will never understand the way things function and how things are piled up and related to one another. We need to interact with the environment in order to understand life. People who do not communicate tend to get isolated, which thereby leads to many problems.  Social isolation is painful and leads to disease. 

Role of communication

There is no doubt that communication plays a vital role in human life and human society. It not only helps to facilitate the process of sharing information and knowledge with others but also helps people to develop relationships with others.

Therefore, the importance of communication cannot be underestimated. Every day, we communicate with a lot of people including our families, our friends, our colleagues, or even strangers to make our lives better.  It empowers both women and men to provide information and knowledge as a basis for change and innovation and thereby increase their overall involvement in development.

According to a study, communication plays a pertinent role in advancing economic growth and reducing poverty.  The firms that are mostly used Communication are more productive and profitable, invest more and grow faster than those who do not consume the powerful mode of communication. 

Even animals and birds have to communicate with their mates within the same species.  Without communication, we and other animals would not be able to mate and make life continue. Cross-cultural communication is imperative for society to flourish. 

If we call a society that means the presence of communication is open and the institution is run on the grounds of communication and in the absence of this element, there will be no society.

Thus, it is understandable how communication is important.  In toto, the significance of communication pervades in our daily life as it is evident say -- workplace, organization, business, community development, an individual, managerial efficiency, language, technology, home, even between healthcare professionals and patients, education, future endeavours and one’s career.