Innholdsfortegnelse for 23-Aug-20 i Business Today

Everybody in the world depends on farmers for good food, but not everybody realises how intricately our planetary health is connected to farming. Ensuring a healthy food system will help ensure a healthy environment, and thanks to advances in science and innovation, productivity and sustainability need no longer be in conflict with one another. Food Security and Sustainability By most measures, the history of food production has been a success, as advances in farming practices and innovative technologies have kept up with global population growth. Yet food shortages still exist in too many places. According to the United Nations, almost one-fifth of the global population has irregular access to a sufficient amount of healthy food. Our current food production system is overall too resource intensive, with excessive consumption of land,…

Our lives have changed due to the current crisis. Like everything else, the mindset of consumers and their food consumption are set to undergo changes as well. As food becomes an integral part of stay-at-home life, health and wellness will take centre stage in eating habits. A look at some clear trends. Good Food, Good Habit Even before, we were witnessing a change in how consumers perceive the value of food. There was a steady evolution in terms of different dietary patterns emerging. Innovation centred around nutrition, health and wellness was gaining prominence. This trend is likely to accelerate with people now rethinking even more how they eat, what they eat and socialise over food experiences. Not only that, offering affordable nutrition for consumers would be very important in the…

C.K. VENKATARAMAN, MD, THE TITAN COMPANY It’s 17th Jan 2021. Niraj Bajaj is working from his home in Navi Mumbai. He is VP, Corporate Banking, at one of India’s large private sector banks. During the Covid crisis, his bank understood the power of work from home (WFH) and significantly reduced its office infrastructure in view of the obvious multiple benefits: lower rental and opex, increased employee work-life balance and less exposure to pollution and traffic for employees. The result is that Niraj now gets to work two days a week from home. This is one impact of Covid that is here to stay. So, he now dresses down on at least one of those two days, aligned to internal meetings. As it is, even in a formal environment like a…

Q: What was the problem you were grappling with? A: It was 2017. We had applied for a Syndicate at Lloyds of London and were waiting for the outcome. Lloyds is the world’s leading insurance market providing services to businesses worldwide. Though GIC Re had been a Corporate Member at Lloyds since 2013, setting up our own capital-backed syndicate was the next goal. After serving for four years in GIC Re’s London office, time was running out due to my imminent return to India. I had pinned my hopes on this one initiative. The waiting period before the final verdict was very trying. Q: Who did you approach and why? A: In such circumstances, one is often guided by one’s own approach to life. During this unsettled time, when one…

Higher education systems around the world have been crippled by Covid-19. In India alone, over 37 million students in the country’s higher education system have been affected by campus closures. The demand for online learning continues to surge as colleges in India ensure academic continuity for students though remote teaching. Three months down the line, institutions have, in some form, adapted to virtual learning despite being largely unprepared for an abrupt shift. Now that the near-term response is implemented, universities in India, much like their global counterparts, will have to make enduring changes in the medium and long-term. The strategic nature of their response will determine how well they adapt to the rapidly-changing future of higher education. Medium-term: Blended Classrooms As this crisis has shown, universities will need to futureproof…

As the world struggles to emerge from an unprecedented lockdown that shut down most of its transportation, the choices we make about our ability to move may change the world. Sadly, major innovation is often paired with moments of crisis. In these moments, where we are shaken from the status quo, we must think differently. After decades of working in transportation, I can tell you that the plans we make now about the way we move will dramatically change the face of our planet and our people. We cannot afford to just rebuild, we must evolve. When I was a kid, I used to ride the New York subway with my father. We would try to get in the first car and I would stand by the window at the…

The Covid-19 pandemic is shaking up well-established business models and dispelling long-held assumptions, holding out an opportunity to reshape and democratise healthcare around the planet. The future will call for a new approach to prevention, screening, diagnosis, therapy, monitoring and management of diseases. We are likely to see convergence of translational research in biomedicine with disciplines such as public health, epidemiology, infectious disease modelling and data science. The multi-disciplinary approach will demand a reimagining of biomedical innovation. The availability of genetic information, together with other phenotypic as well as medical information, is helping identify new drug targets by linking particular genes and their products to individual diseases. In addition to genomic data, other data have also moved into the spotlight. Proteomics and metabolomics, as well as epigenetics and an integrated…

Stock markets have been on a roller-coaster ride since the coronavirus outbreak, but for Dhiraj Relli, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, HDFC Securities, the situation is all about opportunities and learning new things. Relli has been trying out different dishes while keeping an eye on markets. Relli picked up an interest in cooking in his teens while making, as he says, an improvised version of Maggi with some vegetables. “Over a period of time, the dish became so popular among my acquaintances that I remember cooking it at many places. It was great fun,” says Relli, who studied chartered accountancy and has an MBA degree. His love for cooking intensified later when he started watching MasterChef Australia with his daughter. Relli cooks on weekends, but it also depends on…

Central and state governments borrowed 94 per cent more in June this year as compared to the same month last year In June 2019, they had borrowed ₹1,98,606 crore, compared with ₹3,72,071 crore in June 2020 However, corporate bond issuances moderated, after a sharp rise in April-May GOVERNMENT CORPORATES GSec is government securities; T-bills are treasury bills; SDL are state development loans; CP is commercial paper; Figures in ₹crore Source: Motilal Oswal…

Healthcare is the most important macroeconomic indicator across the world right now. A large-scale global delivery of Covid vaccine seems a bit too optimistic over the next 12 months. It means that a very sharp, quick global economic rebound is unlikely. In the first quarter of the pandemic, the GDP of the United States contracted 9-10 per cent, or about 33 per cent on an annualised basis. This is true even in Germany, though it is likely to have a swifter rebound because its health curve is under control. China, another bellwether, is in a much better shape. In fact, its economic recovery sounds best because they were able to contain the virus. Both globally as well as domestically for India, growth is highly interdependent across regions. You can't have…

Mobile technology is one of the fastest-scaling technologies the world has ever seen. There are already 9 billion devices globally and that number is growing fast. It is also one of the greatest drivers of economic growth and human equality in history. In research with Imperial College London, we proved that the deployment of mobile broadband networks spurs economic development. The results show, on an average, that a 10 per cent increase in mobile broadband adoption ratio leads to a 0.8 per cent increase in gross domestic product. Connectivity has also proven to be even more critical since the Covid-19 pandemic gathered speed. At Ericsson, more than 85 per cent of employees have been working from home since early March. Mobile technology is a platform for innovation We often get…

In the last few months, we have seen the possibility of extremes — the shock and suffering brought on by the pandemic, and inspirational stories, of fight-back and transformation. It’s been a crash course in change management. People and organisations across the world have met the challenge with resilience and innovation, using tech to respond, rebound, and reimagine a new world order. We saw many years’ worth of digital transformation happen in a few months. In this world of remote everything, organisations are using technology to stay open for business, accelerate their recovery and reimagine business success. The pace of tech adoption and innovation is already fuelling economic recovery and will have a big role to play in reshaping education, health, public services, retail, IT services, MSME and agriculture in…

Future of microcredit is part of the broader question of the future of financial system itself. Microcredit in India is still at an early stage of expansion, yet to overcome doubts and hesitations. Ultimately, the entire informal sector has to be addressed by microcredit, because there is no other financial service available for it. It should expand itself to formal labour, too, offering housing, education and insurance. Access to financial services can dramatically change people’s lives. The mainstream financial system has turned into a vehicle for wealth concentration. It provides financial facilities to those who are already financially fortunate. It doesn’t intend to get involved with financially unreached people. Grameen Bank in Bangladesh challenged the system. It pointed out that the problem is not in the credit-worthiness of the people,…