The brave new resolutions
Dear Readers,
Wish you a very Happy New Year. I hope you had a memorable year-end celebration and began the new year with a bang. Since all of us are formulating our resolution plans for the new year, I am adding two general topics along with finance in today’s article. The need to avoid FOMO, strengthening companies and employee relations, and the current state of the economy are what I am going to discuss.
“In this new year, be grateful that God has given you victory over many things over the past year.”
I find this quote from author Steven Hitchcock very apt given what we went through last year.
FOMO
Many people are in such a rush to experience and be part of the happenings around them that they even keep their dreams for later years.
We all are chasing something that we feel will lose or think that this is the only time to achieve it. Are we all going through FOMO (fear of missing out)? In one of his books, renowned author Sidney Sheldon said, “He was going through his life as if he was two minutes late.” Are we living our life like that?
Of course, there are many external factors where we cannot do much but a lot is in our hands.
We have everything a click away. Just scroll the phone and food, groceries and medicines, almost everything can be at the door within a few minutes. We have unending reels and unaccountable entertainment alternatives. We have a number of ideas to reduce and gain weight, eat healthy foods and shop and eat at places that offer a better experience. But are we happy? Are we actually saving time for ourselves?
There are various apps and platforms to make work easy but has our productivity gone up significantly? In fact, various reports suggest that people are working more than ever and they are consulting psychiatrists to tide over stress and burnout.
Ideally, it should be the other way round. With the evolution of digital, when utility bills can be paid with just a click and cabs are at the door with a tap on the smartphone, life should be at ease. It's time to make resolutions to make life better, not just on social media but where it matters – in real life. Let's find ways to immerse in real happiness. Remember, India is among the unhappiest nations on the global Happiness Index. In fact, we are turning more unhappy every year. Let’s try and improve the happiness quotient, starting this year.
Employees
While many companies celebrate their inclusion in great place to work (GPC) lists, I strongly believe there is a bigger need to take this a step ahead. Traditional companies followed a template of ‘shareholders value’ and generally employees were the last on the list of priorities. But the arrival of the new-age generation and a change in the format of office work has necessitated a major cultural shift. Companies should have the right barometers and compensation tools to measure the output of someone working on a smartphone from an isolated location over somebody on a desktop in the office. Millennials and GenZ can't work the same way the earlier employees did. The shifting paradigms of work have sent every company scurrying for talent.
Initially, we thought startups were offering better benefits to the employees, but that’s not the reality. A majority of startups have a toxic work culture, where hiring and firing are a daily routine. Several recent controversies, such as the one at BharatPe, uncover the various layers of this culture.
Take the example of delivery persons. They put their life at risk and drive swiftly through the traffic and congested roads to deliver their company’s promise. But do they earn enough to take care of their lives?
The Farework India ratings report, which was released this week, shows that none of the 12 delivery platforms surveyed by it scored more than 7 out of 10, putting a question mark on the well-being of their key workers without whom these startups won’t be able to function.
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So, while we are talking about humongous digital growth, the employee quotient needs more attention in the new year, perhaps more than ever.
India and Finance
India has achieved a lot on the digital front in the last three years and will accelerate it this year. This year UPI will go global and perhaps cross 50 billion transactions. Also, credit on UPI will become the talk of the town. The usage of data and AI will become more accurate. Siri and Alexa will pronounce Ramanarayan Ramaswamy and Kalbadevi Road a tad better. Not sure whether chatbots will still find answers to all your questions. Banks will be in a dilemma whether to open more branches physically or perch on the cloud. FinTechs will try their best to become profitable, which is as tough as finding a way in the fog without fog light. Small to large companies will embrace automation and data mapping will reach greater heights. Banks will provide more services on their apps but at the same time, cyber threats will grow. With bare minimum tools, hackers have stolen billions of dollars. Even young boys and girls of Jamtara (A town in Jharkhand) can sweep the bank accounts of large numbers of highly educated people. With the evolution of technology, they can break more firewalls.
I really don't want climate finance to remain in the realm of discussions and want to see dedicated policies from the central banks on this subject. A focus on diversity should be a must and it should be a part of the policy at every level. Unfortunately, I feel, unemployment will remain a big issue as mid to large companies are not hiring aggressively. In fact, the layoffs are still happening in major pockets.
The war in Ukraine has hit global economies and Goldman Sachs has predicted the growth rate of the world would be just 1.8% this year. This means that the majority of the countries will go through major trade deficits and currency fluctuations. Will India miss the recession that the world is going to face? Very unlikely, that's the answer that economists have. India has a stake in globalisation, so the impact might be less but escaping unscathed from recession is unlikely.
Under such circumstances, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her Budget on February 1. One theory says that the government may not spend more, because of fiscal constraints… but the other surmise is, they may spend more in order to make it in the elections next year.
In a recent conversation, leading economists told me that they don't expect big bang reforms. What they don't expect is policy shocks. ( Click here to watch the special series that I started for ETBFSI this week on Budget expectations)
But the biggest silver lining for India this year is that the world has put a spotlight on it. World economists have praised India, saying it can become the third-largest economy in the next decade.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has also said India’s digital infrastructure is supremely powerful and Microsoft is going to invest significantly in India. Nadella was in the country this week and met business leaders, policymakers and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This week we interviewed Shinjini Kumar, Co-founder of MySaltApp and also filed many articles on the outlook of 2023. Click here to see a series of 2023 outlook stories. For this week's ETBFSI explains, we had all the details on Will chatbots turn out to be a gamechanger for banks?
Apart from this, I am adding here the top five stories of the week that you shouldn't miss. If you have any thoughts or feedback, please feel free to share them with me at amol.dethe@timesinternet.in.
Happy Reading,
Editor,
Amol Dethe
ETBFSI