Regretting ’Unofficial’ Posts


If Trade is new form of War, Social media communication surely seems to be emerging as Bullets. One of the most important aspects for development and advancement of Human civilization has been Communication. A successful brand building exercise or any other mass communication can be viewed as the process of creating and sharing ideas, information, views, facts, feelings, etc. among masses to reach a common understanding. A leader in business, politics, religion, science or any other domain may be highly qualified and skilled but if (s)he/they do not possess good communication skills and knack to use the right technology, all these skills and advantages become irrelevant.

‘Regret’ has been expressed by Chung Eui-Yong, South Korean Foreign Minister, in a phone call with EAM S. Jaishankar, regarding the offence caused to the people and government of India by a social media post of Hyundai Pakistan. Similar statement has been issued by Hyundai Global. Hyundai’s Indian unit has called the post ‘unofficial social media activity’ and ‘it has zero-tolerance policy towards insensitive communication’ and they ‘condemn any such view’. Hyundai sells annually around 8,000 cars via ‘distributor’ in Pakistan, while in India it has a full fledged Subsidiary with three decades’ investment and has sold over 5,00,000 cars last year. Yet, #BoycottHyundai has been trending in India since Hyundai Pakistan post supporting the so-called Kashmir Solidarity Day appeared on social media platforms. Messaging of the same nature have been seen for boycotting Kia, KFC, Suzuki, Isuzu and other MNCs for their similar posts.

Governments and Global Corporations may not have many commonalities, but minimising such ‘unofficial’ posts by a third party, whose association is much less of representational nature than the third party commands in public perception, is an emerging priority for both. These feed to misinformation, disinformation and even lead up to Fake News more often than not. The quick and wide reach of social media and the propensity of account hacks etc add to these issues. Perhaps the issue needs similar attention as understanding and compliance of International Tax regimes, because Global corporate management can not plead ignorance to the importance of localised religious , historical and political nuances.

 

Efforts towards Fake News Busting

Incidents of circulation of “false/fake news” and rumours saw nearly a three-fold rise in 2020, according to NCRB. A total of 1,527 cases of fake news were recorded in 2020 (a 214%increase ) against 486 and 280 cases in 2019 and 2018 respectively. The cases of such fake stories surge invariably when an important event like elections, either for states or centre, takes place. Taking this into account, the Election Commission of India has taken several measures to curb this menace designed to adversely influence the polls or poll prospects of a particular political party.

ECI has set up a dedicated cell to weed out fake news and fake media. The Government of India also does work in close cooperation with it to ensure the election process and people stay uninfluenced by Fake news. A system is up and running on the ECI website to debunk fake news. Dedicated press notes and advisories are issued to aware people about insidious designs of those trying to deliberately deceive or mislead a targeted audience in a particular region, state or at national level, especially through different social media channels.

In March 2022, ECI was even seen in action when it registered an FIR against the fake news hazard talking of EVM hacking by attributing former Chief Election Commission T S Krishnamurthy, and falsely claiming that the former CEC had expressed that a particular party had won assembly elections by hacking EVMs. This fake news was widely being circulated on the social platforms by some miscreants with flagrant vested interests. At times, ECI, also works with social media platforms in identifying and pulling out posts which appear to be fake and have prospects of misleading people at large. The central government is also at an advanced stage, finalising IT related new rules for social media organisations, which would potentially mandate social media platforms to remove such vindictive and spiteful contents within 24 hours. Under the new norms, deployment of technology driven automated tools and mechanisms would also be in place to proactively and timely identify, remove or disable public access to such illegal contents.

Many media houses as well as private initiatives are also in place now to combat fake news menace. These efforts rely on catching a content going viral and putting it to test the authenticity. Though there are multiple AI based methodologies being tried, the most common process is still finding a phone number to speak and verify the source. What is being checked has already gone viral, is an inherent issue with this approach and needs innovation to resolve many deadlocks, huge backlog of pending verifications and making the entire process efficient. The other problem is knowingly or unknowingly leaning to certain political viewpoint rather than keeping this exercise apolitical. This biased fake news busting exercise takes away credibility, thereby seriously damaging the efforts.

Public Broadcaster in India, Prasar Bharati, through DD News (TV), Akashvani Samachar (Radio) and PBNS (Digital) has been combating fake news by running various programs on these media. The efforts have been multiplied for disseminating authentic covid-related information. This has certainly helped in pre-emptively busting the rumour mongering tendencies. Together with the Government’s efforts by disseminating guidelines and running fake news busting exercises by PIB and MyGov, Prasar Bharati is playing a proactive and pivotal role in transparent communication about the disease, vaccines, movement restrictions and other aspects of this combat. Unlike private media however, these efforts have to remain focused on key problems of public domain, while disinformation is a much wider issue. Though, PBNS has been producing social videos of general awareness as well as it’s daily e-magazine namely “PBNS Daily Magazine” covers wider issues too.

 

Future of Journalism

The thing about numbers is that they don’t lie. This feature alone should make numbers the truest friend of any journalist. Relying just on words to express complex ideas, thoughts and opinions can not only be cumbersome, but also get trapped in the folly of disinformation, misinformation and even fake news. The widespread extent of COVID-19 has exacerbated the known discomfort of journalists with large amount of data for making opinions and analysis.

More often than not, journalists seem to be picking on the concept of dismissing any prevalent theory in an effort to combat any narrative. The idea of generating new theories and narratives requires a deeper look at available data in scientific research, census of various kinds and other public and private sources of data. Majority of the media organisations across the globe are focussing more and more on gathering different facets of data and humanising them to suit the burgeoning needs of the people with varied interests from all walks of life. Nevertheless, data driven journalism needs different data tools and techniques to stand tall, it does alleviate the pain of being judged, addressing the issues to the core and bringing out the most relevant facts and figures which leave no room for any confusion. Marketeers are familiar with the concept of primary and secondary data of market research. The basic tools deployed for crunching data in market research should also be made available to journalists in Journalism courses.

COVID-19 experience has shown journalists that the ability to understand the reports from the scientific community and decoding them, simplifying them, needed to be done in a masterful way at quick speed, to fulfil the duties of a thorough journalist. Data reported by politicians and executives as the basis of quickly planned policies needed to be examined with a comb to ensure transparency and equitable distribution of scarce, and life saving, resources. This learning also highlights the urgent need to understand data by journalists as one looks towards a future which is green and sustainable.

One of the three key goals identified by the government during the budget 2022 is promoting digital economy & fintech, technology enabled development, energy transition, and climate action. To protect the interests of future generations and prepare them for upcoming global challenges, achieving these tech and sustainability goals is vital. Data being generated around tech developments, and even the basic climate change related facts need to be understood in a better manner, as every conceivable aspect of the future of human civilisation is going to be affected by the debate and discussion around sustainability and tech development. Data is already ruling the roost for all three pillars of – information, education and entertainment – hence, journalism needs to get a better hang of looking at the couple together – numbers & words.

 

Unifying India through Melodious Voice

She will not speak again but her songs will continue to represent the mood of the nation for generations to come. Bharat Ratna Late Lata Mangeshkar (1929-2022) will remain perhaps the most iconic figure instrumental in the amalgamation of British provinces, various princely estates, zamindari estates and Jagir into one nation, India.

Over the last 70 years, her songs became part of everyone’s everyday life, as thanks to successive technological advancements, music is in office, while walking, alone or with a friend, to relieve stress, to refresh the mind, to celebrate, to mourn – and she sang them for all occasions. It is a scientific fact that Music does wonders to our mental, physical and spiritual advancement. Lataji‘s songs gave us mental peace, satisfaction, positive thoughts, increased attention, enhanced productivity and creativity. Her songs accompanied Indians on their walks, gym and yoga classes and surely helped with health, as research has shown that blood flows more easily when music is played and it relieves symptoms of depression, stimulates memories, and manages pain. Patriotism is a natural outlet of spiritual progress, and her songs have been the instrument to honour mother India.

Lataji treated music as a sacred ritual, as she removed her footwear every time she entered a recording room. She was trained in Bhendibazar gharana under Ustad Aman Ali. Her rendition of songs after Indian classical music definitely helped in preserving the cultural identity of the land. She sang for stars of Hindi and over two dozen other languages, as every female actor wanted to lip sync to her songs, every music composer, director wanted a piece of her work. Her family? List of siblings consisted of all-legendary singers and composers-Asha Bhonslae, Meena, Usha, and Hridaynath Mangeshkar.

PM Modi represents every Indian when he said, “I am anguished beyond words. The kind and caring Lata Didi has left us. She leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled. The coming generations will remember her as a stalwart of Indian culture, whose melodious voice had an unparalleled ability to mesmerise people.”

Truly, She leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled.

 

COVID Vaccination – Front Row Seat

Indian media is celebrating the words, “I appreciate your government’s efforts as it has selflessly donated nearly 8 million immunizations with at least 38 countries.” in a letter received by India’s Ambassador to the USA. It has been written by US Congresswoman Joyce Beatty who is the leader of the Black Caucus, an influential Congressional group championing human rights and help to poor and needy. India has surely leaped into the front-row seat in the post-Covid world order due to its large-scale implementation capabilities demonstrated in handling the pandemic while considering the welfare of all at home with Sabka Saath and abroad with Vaccine Maitri.

Covishield, Covaxin, ZyCov-D, Sputnik V, COVOVAX, CORBEVAX vaccine, and now Sputnik light in the pipeline – India surely has managed to be on top of vaccine development, manufacturing, transportation, and administration at an unprecedented level. As against 542 million doses in the USA, India has managed to administer 1,689 million doses at a war footing. Further, India has supplied around 150 million doses to 98 countries (Covishield, Covaxin, Covovax).

This has not been an easy ride for sure that India has braved 3rd wave very effectively and is almost back to normalcy. Starting with a lookout of only 450-550 million doses in Nov2020 and huge concerns of geographical mobility difficulties, lack of cold storage facilities, and other factors leading to vaccine wastage India had a mountain to move. Fearing the crowding in coming to vaccination centres was genuine and caused valid reluctance.

Walk-in coolers and walk-in freezers helped in building over 29,000 storage points all over India. Leadership across the levels engaged in virtual meetings for hours on end every day with vaccine manufacturers, vaccine transport agencies, storage centres, cold chain points, and COVID Vaccination Centres. This was done to ensure that every drop of the available vaccines is used as optimally as possible.

Training the ASHA workers at war footing, developing CoWIN platform, and deploying effectively to manage vaccination efforts were masterstrokes. Vaccine Hesitancy was actively resolved by leading from the front as Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared images of taking vaccines early morning at AIIMS. Misinformation and fake news combatting were done by engaging in talks with the community and religious, political leaders. Door-to-door campaigning, ‘Har ghar dastak’ involved health workers, nurses and teachers – which went door to door, counselling and enrolling people, and issuing appointment tokens for vaccination.

On 18th September 2,50,10,390 covid vaccines were administered. This is 10,42,100 per hour or 17,368 per minute or 289 doses per second. None of the developed nations have been able to come anywhere close to this scale and is a testimony of transforming the Public Health Care system under Ayushman Bharat. India has shown a large-scale implementation capability not seen anywhere else in the world, and India does it with the ethos of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, as appreciated by the black caucus.

 

QR Code: Welcoming the Next Revolution


In 1951, the world was introduced to a game-changing technology by Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver, when they invented Barcode, the thin and thick black bars that are like limbs to each and every product worldwide even today. For seven decades, Barcodes have ruled the production world as it allowed it to track products and inventory like a piece of cake. The inception of QR scanning is so revolutionary that if recognised critically, it is even ready to replace the present system, along with opening doors to a completely scan-based lifestyle & businesses.

 

Today QR scanning is widely used globally for making payments, as evident even in rural India, for restaurant menus, for tracking and storing details of various product, companies, stakeholders and clients, in media like hyperlinks, in bookings of flights, shows, trains etc., in hirings, computing, record-keeping, buying, selling, directing, sharing and what not. In 2019, over 73% of India’s total web traffic had come from mobile phones. Internet penetration rate in India went up to nearly around 45% in 2021. This rate of Internet literacy in the country and access to smartphones have led to the massive adoption of QR Codes. Hence, from product packaging to billboards, to walls of buildings, one can find various types of QR Codes almost everywhere.

 

Ever since the launch of UPI, India has experienced a paradigm shift in Digital payments. People relied on it for fund transfers (especially post-demonetization), leading to a significant rise in QR code adoption by merchants, customers and others. A July 2020 report of an RBI committee on ‘The analysis of QR Code’ said, “Over 20+ million UPI QRs deployed in the market (July 2020). The volume of digital payments using UPI QR are approximately over 250 million on a monthly basis.” The committee even suggested that the Government should allow a lower controlled interchange instead of zero MDR on QR code & even offer tax incentives to merchants to let QR code transactions flourish even more in the country.  Covid-19 has fueled the future in digital payment, especially in Asia. According to McKinsey, there has been an 80/20 rise in digital payments. This indicates that the digital user base has seen a 20% increase, 80% of which has been registered during the peak of Covid-19.

 

Apart from payments, these dotted codes are helping brands globally to elevate their position in the market. They are being used widely for imbibing products and events information, for availing offers, channeling traffic on social media, and even app downloads. Almost all of the Fortune 500 companies have already added QR Codes to their marketing stack since the last few years. With its unique feature to work through its print on a physical paper, it is also becoming a tool of mass awareness and learning too.

 

Digital tools are largely governing the operationalisation of the modern world, especially metropolitan and urban settlements. The second decade of the 21st century has beautifully led the world to kickstart its transition into a digital era, letting people across the globe to accept technological assistance, first in profession, then in governance, then personalization and now even in core household operations. One such digital tool is QR (quick response) Code, which is as powerful as the digital technology itself.

 

RBI Digital Currency

“Introduction of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will give a big boost to the digital economy. Digital currency will also lead to a more efficient and cheaper currency management system. It is, therefore, proposed to introduce Digital Rupee, using blockchain and other technologies, to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India starting 2022-23.” FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced during her budget 2022 speech. Apart from RBI, Central Banks of Singapore, Thailand, Sweden, England, Canada, Venezuela, Uruguay, and a few other countries have been working towards implementing respective Central-bank-backed digital currencies.

It was a big leap in human civilisation to move away from the barter system towards a centralised monetary system, which has started with Gold and other kinds of coins had moved on to gold-backed legal tenders, and finally evolved into a Fiat currency. Rather than equivalent gold holding, a Fiat currency is backed by full faith and credit of the issuing government of the Reserve Bank or Central Bank of the country. Transactions in these Fiat currencies happen in physical notes and coins form or via a bank account, for on paper or digital transactions. A CBDC is in the token form of Rupee. It is an electronic record of the country’s official currency and can prove to be crucial towards goals of financial inclusion. Transactions of a CBDC do not necessarily need one to have a bank account.

Financial inclusion is critical for strengthening the abilities of the poor to tap all opportunities to come out of poverty, and to a vast majority in India, the middle class, to fruitfully utilise nurturing ecosystem of entrepreneurship and skill development in their chosen domain. The zero balance requirement concept for bank accounts opened under Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojna has been critical in bringing banking services to millions of unbanked Indians. RBI-Digital-Currency will be truly a shot in the arm to the efforts of bringing the unbanked into the financial system. As FM noted, the added benefit of the CBDC would be simplifying the implementation of monetary and fiscal policies and a more efficient and cheaper currency management system.

 

Planning for a VUCA World?

VUCA had become part of our lexicon for quite some time, but Covid has brought it to the realisation that the world has truly become volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. In this context, the National response mechanism for short term crisis management, as well as long term strategy formulation, is under scrutiny across the globe. The traditional sequence of problem formulation, detailed planning and bureaucratic way of implementing the steps was put to test, and it failed miserably during the pandemic. What worked though, can be termed as Agile model, where a corridor with feedback based course correction mechanism is the target instead of a rigid set goal.

Indian Economy has shown strong resilience and has bounced back from the crisis of COVID-19, yet the recovery has not been uniform across all sectors of the economy and definitely not across demographics. Various courses have been completed without even meeting teachers, trainers, peer groups, research target groups etc. Poor families who have lost a working member are going to need help from younger members, esp. young girl child to take care of chores at the cost of going to school.

To add to the micro-economic level issues, the pandemic induced shifts in technology, supply-chain dynamics, and generic consumption pattern changes are increasing the uncertainty.

What is of help though is the feasibility of real-time or near real-time feedback mechanism using the latest tech developments. This is where the emphasis on reinforcing the digital economy is critical as done in Budget 2022. Starting from Digital University to ease the learning of basic skills to advanced technologies, to the concept of using satellites to ascertain the extent of rural vs urban inhabitants, agri vs other usage of the land, environmental impact of infrastructure development and other activities, almost an end-to-end use cases have been identified for deeper engagement of citizenry. An important aspect is to keep a learning attitude and positive mindset to encourage one and all to strive for a better future.

 

Fifth Industrial Revolution (5IR) Preparedness

One of the three key goals identified by the government during the budget 2022 is promoting digital economy & fintech, technology enabled development, energy transition, and climate action. To protect the interests of future generations and prepare them for upcoming global challenges, achieving these tech and sustainability goals is vital. The novel concept of Digital University is to provide world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience at each Indian’s doorsteps. This collaborative University will be built on a networked hub-spoke model and content will be available in different Indian languages and ICT formats.

 

On education, training and skilling front, there are plans to develop quality e-content by the teachers as well as content in all spoken languages for delivery via internet, mobile phones, TV and radio through ‘Digital Teachers’. A DESH-Stack e- portal for on-line training and search facilities for jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities is to be launched.

In Agri and Allied domain, the focus is on preparing farmers for digital and hi-tech services, where a scheme in PPP mode as well as NABARD led co-investment model fund is to be launched for engaging all stakeholders meaningfully. For tech enabled operations management like crop assessment, digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides, and nutrients, discussions around ‘Kisan Drones’ is a very important step. With the Beating Retreat 1000 drone show and now with Kisan Drones, the government has shown willingness to put aside apprehensions of this evolving technology and embrace it to leap forward in large scale aerial survey and delivery. Drone-As-A-Service (DrAAS) is being envisaged across multiple sectors.

To build on key learnings of COVID pandemic handling, an open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem, consisting of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity, consent framework, and universal access to health facilities is to be rolled out. Further, as the pandemic has accentuated mental health problems in people of all ages, to better the access to quality mental health counselling and care services, a ‘National Tele Mental Health Programme’ is to be launched. This will include a network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technology support.

To reduce damaging effects of red tape by enhancing transparency and to reduce delays in payments, a completely paperless, end-to-end online e-Bill System is to be launched for use by all central ministries for procurements. Digitally signed bills can be submitted and tracked in this system online.

To continue the bolstering of digital payments in the country, financial support for the digital payment ecosystem announced in the previous Budget will continue in 2022-23. Further, 75 districts are going to get Digital Banking Units (DBUs) by Scheduled Commercial Banks for enhancing and promoting digital Banking experience. As talks have been on to introduce Digital Rupee, using blockchain and other technologies, this has now been confirmed to be issued by RBI starting 2022-23. This will lead to a more efficient and cheaper currency management system in the country. The newly proposed flat tax rate of 30% on virtual digital assets is a step towards acknowledging them and bringing the discussions mainstream.

These budgetary provisions are going to fuel the discussion and development of systems, processes and capabilities for combining humans and machines in the workplace. As 5IR is set to put an individual at the front and centre of the production process, it is imperative that India prepares its young to reap demographic dividends.

Atmanirbhar Rural Sector


Atmanirbhar Bharat is developing into a mass movement as well as the anchor for policy framework. Focus on rural development seems to be a key step in this direction. Knowing fully well that rural sector demand traditionally remains robust, though the effect is visible due to pandemic which has also caused supply constraints due to supply-chain disruptions, it has been one focus area towards this goal. Knowing fully well that rural sector demand traditionally remains robust, yet as the effect of pandemic is visible, increasing demand has been one focus area. Pandemic has also caused supply constraints due to supply-chain disruptions, hence attending to this aspect too has been vital for Atmanirbhar Bharat.

For productivity enhancement of agri-sector, credit availability has been the main concern in past, esp. that of small farmers, who constitute 80 per cent of the farmer community. ₹ 1,80,000Cr have been provided to more than 11Cr farmer families under PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi, providing necessary investment for transformation. Further, the new changes in the crop insurance scheme has allowed more than ₹1,00,000Cr as compensation to about 8Cr farmers.

46% of Indian economy is in the rural area which supports 70% of the population. Only 14% is from agriculture, so non-farm rural sector accounts for over 30% of GDP. Increase in Productivity is the operative part for leap in New India’s growth story.

Construction of roads, resources and infrastructure in rural areas has opened up possibilities for the country which have been neglected for decades. With a rate of more than 100km/day, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana has been instrumental in the construction of 36,500 km of roads in rural areas in 2020–21, connecting thousands of habitations with all-weather roads. Under the Svamitva scheme, more than 40 lakh property cards have been issued in 27,000 villages, where these property cards are not only preventing disputes but are also assisting the rural populations in accessing credit through formal banking setup.

More than 2Cr pucca houses have been provided to the poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in the last few years. Under Jal Jeevan Mission around 6Cr rural households have been provided tap water connection despite the constraints imposed by the pandemic, bringing huge relief to women in particular. Support to rural women central Self-Help Groups, partnering as ‘Banking Sakhi’, resourcing them with Ujjawala Yojana, entrepreneurship promotion through ‘Mudra’ scheme, educating them through ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, have made tremendous changes in the status, outlook and capabilities. Resultant contribution to the growth and development of the rural economy, thereby to national GDP, is going to be many fold.