POST COVID INDIA - SOME FACTS & HOPE.

Total human population is passing through such a situation that all normal interactions are being considered as “not applicable” and all doubtful attitudes are being welcomed. What an irony in life! Earlier we used to prefer people without mask. Now we can identify all masked people in our locality at ease. And we feel safe to cross a man with mask on road. We are not shaking hands to express affection, love or gratitude. Rather we are preferring to keep a considerable physical distance even from best friends. Life is such an awesome teacher! It can make us understand that what we sometimes feel evil can be a blessing when life is facing adversities. We are forbidding others not to spit on public place, which was very normal a few days ago. We are feeling safe to be alone on road, isolated in house. It was radical opposite before a month or two. Is our comprehension changing? Are we getting habituated to accept all “don’t” s as “do” s? Simple answer is NO. We are changing our preferences as we are passing through different phases of life. Gradually we started to feel that healthy living is much more important than style living. Celebration with house mates are more enthusiastic than with classmates or colleagues. Gradually we are discovering a lot of new avenues in our journey which we might never consider as important if we would not face DEATH in such a huge numbers. Life is not always totally dark, you know! You have to find out the ray of hope.

In such a situation, almost everyone is worried about financial future of India. As it’s a densely populated country with high poverty line habitats, there is always a chance of financial damage for businessmen, job cut for employees, salary compromise for many, question of survival for micro business holders, self employed people and above all to meet the daily need for almost all segments. I’m not including those 1% of population who hold the net worth of almost 70% of Indians. The biggest and widest community of hard earners are in a bad state of depression that what will be the future India after this pandemic COVID-19!

Sandeep Kochhar, one of my friend from Gurgaon, owner of Blew Minds had raised some very good points in this respect a few days ago. After going through those data, thing that came into my mind that we are too obsessed with the worries whereas we are not focusing properly on some mesmerizing aspects that our country has. Through my write up, I sincerely thank him for such a great value addition. Hope you’ll also like to think on these aspects as all are related to our daily living and most importantly directly proportionate to our financial future. Let’s have look.

1.      India is second largest producer of cell phones just behind China. Previously Vietnam was in second position. From just three mobile manufacturing units in 2014, India witnessed a quantum jump to 268 smartphone and allied services manufacturing unit until Sept’2018. 82% of phones used in India are manufactured domestically. Among those 268 unites, 37% are mobile plants, 38% are into manufacturing adapters, 19% are in production of batteries and rest 6% are factories producing wired headsets, USB cables according to Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA). The ICEA believes that the increasing demand of smart phones in India and favourable govt policies coupled with Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) under which differential import tariffs are being imposed on mobile phone components in stages, are some of the reasons for exponential growth of mobile manufacturing sector in India.

2.      Largest cutting and polishing center for diamonds. Surat of Gujarat is the world largest diamond cutting a polishing center. Almost 90% of world’s diamond are being cut and polished here. Millions of workers are engaged in this industry and surprisingly manpower demand in this trade is still booming. There are skill developing projects also to provide quality training and upgrading unskilled or semi skilled workers to exceptional category. This industry is pioneer in foreign currency earning. This industry in India can be still considered as unorganized sector, despite attempts by large companies to corporatize their business. It consists of more than 10k units, big or small. About half the diamonds exported from India originate in Surat and estimates for this city are that this industry alone employs about 700000 workers and more directly. Way back in 1970s, India begun cutting low quality gemstones and exporting them to US. This paved the way for a robust cutting center to thrive as labor was cheap and available. But it’s not like that it’s not just cheap labor that allowed India to find a niche for itself in diamond polishing business but the main edge came from the enterprising Palanpuri Jains who turned the very scattered cottage industry to a robust Rs.80,000 crore industry of today. Though it’s a report of 2013, figures may differ to some extent, but you can’t deny the contribution of this industry on Indian economy.

3.      India is second largest producer of coal. Just behind China. According to Statistical Review of World Energy ranking (2018), India had produced 716 million tons of coals, ahead of superpowers like US, EU, Australia, Russia. Through sustained programme of investment and greater thrust on application of modern technologies, it has been possible to raise the All India production of coal at 675.40 million tons in 2017-18. The all India production of coal during APR-MAR 2018-19 were 728.72 MT with a positive growth 7.89%. Coal India Limited , Singareni Collieries Company limited, Captive are the main contributors in coal production. Though companies like TISCO, IISCO, DVC are producing small quantities of coal.

4.      India is 3rd largest producer of electricity. 1st and 2nd position are occupied by China and USA. India produces 1,561,100 GWh as per CEOWORLD MAGAZINE (2016). The electricity generation target of conventional sources for the year 2019 – 20 has been fixed as 1330 BU. That means growth of around 6.46% over actual conventional generation of 1249.337BU for the previous year 2018 – 19 . the conventional generation during 2017 – 18 was 1206.306 BU and India witnessed the growth of 3.57% in next year. The electricity generation target of conventional sources was fixed at 1330 BU comprising of 1142.13 BU thermal, 136.932 hydro, 44.720 nuclear and 6.218 BU import from Bhutan. ( as per Govt of India, Ministry of Power). The world is in a transition phase and energy is central to it. India has been responsible for almost 10% of the increase in global energy demand since 2000. India’s energy demand i this period has been doubled, pushing the country’s share in global demand up to 5.7% in 2013 from 4.4% at the beginning of the century. Improving the energy efficiency meets the dual objectives of promoting sustainable development and making the economy competitive. Recognizing the formidable challenges of meeting the energy needs and providing adequate and varied energy of desired quantity in a sustainable manner and at reasonable costs, improving efficiency has become important components of energy policy. In addition, the environmental and health burdens arising out of the use of hydrocarbons may also force mankind towards energy efficiency and clean energy systems. Energy conservation has also assumed enhanced importance with a view to conserve depleting energy resources.

5.      In steel production , India stands in 2nd position as single largest Country while China is in top position. Though as consortium European Union holds the 2nd position in world listing. While among the top performers on steel producing companies, Tata Steel holds 11th rank while 6 companies of China, 2 of Japan, 1 from South Korea and 1 from Luxembourg hold top positions of the list as of 2018 – 19. ArcelorMittal of Luxembourg holds the 1st position which is owned by Indian born industrialist L.N.Mittal. ( Source : World Steel Association). In 2019, India has replaced Japan as world’s second largest steel producing country, while China is still the largest producer of crude steel accounting for more than 51% of production. In 2020 India still ranks as 2nd largest producer of crude steel after China. India’s crude steel production in 2018 was 109.3 million tonnes, up by 7.7% from 101.5 million tonnes in 2017. This moved up to 111.2 million tonnes in 2019 as per Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Petroleum Minister while he quoted this data at Rajya Sabha referring figures confirmed by World Steel Association.

6.      India is 2nd largest producer of foot ware and leather garments.  Leather industry occupies a prominent place in the industrial map in India. Our country is 2nd largest producer of foot ware, 2nd largest exporter of leather garments, 5th largest exporter of leather goods and 3rd largest exporter of saddler and harness items. Uttar Pradesh and Maharastra are major production and export centers of leather, leather products and foot ware. As per information received from Council of Leather Exports, the manufacturing based export of leather, leather products and foot wear from India increased from USD 5.65 billion in 2016 – 17 to USD 5.74 billion in 2017 – 18, growing by 1.65%. The leather industry holds a prominent part in Indian economy. The sector is known for it’s consistency in high export earnings and it’s among the top ten foreign exchange earners for the country. The leather industry in bestowed with an affluence of raw materials as India is endowed with 20% of world cattle and buffalo and 11% of world goat and sheep population. Added to this is skilled manpower, innovative technology, increasing industry compliance to international environmental standards and dedicated support of the allied industries. This industry is an employment intensive sector, providing job to about 4.42 million people, mostly from weaker sections of the society. Women employment is predominant in leather products sector with about 30% share.

7.      India is 4th largest car and 2nd largest two wheeler market. It’s not only the manufacturing sector but also the distribution and marketing sector for all international brands. As we crossed industrial era and entered into information age which allowed people to get healthier salary and think beyond bottom line living. People working for this industry started to lead a better life with some noticeable changes like owning a four wheeler, taking family to foreign trips on vacations, brand consciousness and all such high profile attitudes which were out of imagination of middle and lower middle class people. Slowly people got interested in corporate jobs and IT and other industries started to absorb skilled people on various roles. Slowly cash flow in their hands started to rise and they started to get loans from bank with support of their fat paycheques. Life started to become more lavish. Right now India has a car market size of $70 billion.

Above all are only facts and figures which may change with socioeconomic changes around the globe. But the bottom line resources will be lying with us. Whatever devastating this pandemic will be, however long this lock down will be, I don’t believe the job or professional market will shrink too much. Though there are lots of scary predictions, I prefer to be on positive side. Obviously there will be some lay offs, pay cuts, change in business trend will happen. But on a larger scale it’ll be a new start altogether. Those who are working in corporate world, be ready to accept some financial losses. According to analysts, may offices will turn into virtual and more or less 30% of manpower will be shifted to WFH mode, in worse side there will also be a rotation system which will accumulate 16 to 19 working days per employee. Slimmer paycheck in on the card. But consider yourself lucky that you’ve the job still. For small and micro business owners, it’ll definitely be a tough phase to meet the needs. Please don’t quit. Rather be engaged more deeply with some more knowledge. If you can continue through the reconstruction phase, your viability will be on high possibility factor. For aspirants who are still to enter into professional arena, please prepare yourself with versatile capabilities. You never know how things will change with time and your pastime hobby may earn more than your principal profession.

There will be lot of possibilities my dear friends. We all have to be patient and self constructive. We all have to rely on our both hands for earning. So, please utilize this home stay period to develop your secondary skills. Except working time, don’t spend your time by counting the morbidity scores or reading fake stuffs on various medias. It will only increase your depression and negativity. Better spend time with yourself, your core beliefs. You don’t need to be convinced from others. Start believing that “ I’ve many things to do. I can do. I’ll do.” Self affirmation is the best motivation which comes inside out. When you can believe, you can do as well. Make your existence that much worthy that situation will be bound to ask you,  “Can I afford your service?”. Trust me, that’s the day, you’ll be reborn as an UNSTOPPABLE!

Would love to hear from you all. I skipped narrating about AI and machine learning intentionally because I believe it'll not be an easy game for broader professional areas till date. Correct me if I'm wrong. will be glad to learn something from anyone. If you like this, please follow me here or at www.facebook.com/neenirns or at https://althoughts.in