Day #19: News& Announcements...
7th April 2020: If Mr. Trump manages to save lives using the drug hydroxychlroquinon good for him. Since a day now many people across India have started to wonder how to pronounce the name of this drug, every piece of history from how many times USA has arm twisted India to what India can gain through this deal have all been discussed till everyone goes to bed. Negotiations have become new expertise of online Indians today. It has perhaps shut up the Indians living in America for the first time from dictating what Indian government and all Hindus in Indian ought to do. I looked up the meaning of the word 'retaliation' to understand a bit more. Sometimes we don't pay much attention to what is said in plain sight, it is one of our national failing.
Meanwhile finally AYUSH department seems to have come up with several immunity enhancing solutions and started to broadcast it finally. The systemic lack of faith in the traditional healthcare knowledge systems of India is our biggest failure in the current times and the inability of this Department to negotiate with the larger healthcare establishment is one. Dr. P.L.T. Girija in her book Ayurveda for revitalizing heathcare in India (buy the book), states that the Govt. of India allocates 1% of GDP for healthcare out of which, 3% budgeted to AYUSH and the student intake a third of the modern western medicinal systems.
The other big news today was the Ministry of Environment Forestry and Climate Change giving permission to clear a whole lot of forests for 'developmental' projects of national importance. The relationship between the Pandemic and clearing of forests must have not reached this ministry until now. This act of granting clearance in the middle of a lock down yet again gives an impression that the government is driven in two gears - public perception management and private profit management.
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While on the USA topic - My colleague Rev. Sara Wolcott currently working from California, has initiated a daily call to share stories from two ends of the world for about 15-20 minutes. This goes live on Facebook every evening IST 9.00 p.m.
Currently just the two of us are talking, but, soon, people will be invited to join. We hope to share stories and news and analysis and general ways in which people are coping with the lock down in different parts of the world. It is a new medium and we are experimenting, do join.
Currently just the two of us are talking, but, soon, people will be invited to join. We hope to share stories and news and analysis and general ways in which people are coping with the lock down in different parts of the world. It is a new medium and we are experimenting, do join.
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Health professionals write articles requesting everyone to not portray the current situation as 'war' and them as heroes placing high expectations and imposes several restrictions on them. Meanwhile, Niti Aayog released an app, "a powerful tool against corona virus", promoting which it says, "we can win this War only with effective use of technology". Apparently the war is to be won through voluntary submission to invasion of privacy by the citizens. If apps can beat the virus, the Chinese must have had a good time with it! But Niti Aayog seems to be replaced the analysts of its predecessor Planning Commission with copywriters from advertising industry. Their mis-placed emphasis has created more confusion rather provide clarity to governance in recent years. This became a subject of long discussion with another entrepreneur I interviewed for the podcast earlier today.
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The podcast of the livelihood sector in Tamil that I have started has received good feedback from several people. Today I recorded a longer interview with one of the largest sector - textiles - in Tamilnadu. Tamilnadu commands more than 15% of the total hosiery exports from India and one of the largest employers. I will write in detail about this stress in this sector in the coming days. I observed one pattern between the export oriented leather industry and the textile industry that is intriguing - the leaders of the industry that are called to lobby with the government are the ones that seem to be most short sighted in their capacity to negotiate solutions for the sector. Many of the supposed leaders seem to be more inclined towards short term gains. How do such short sighted people get elected into different industrial bodies as representative leaders?
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Finally, some self promotion today - here is a poster of an webinar by the Auroville Campus Initiative. This is their first ever and I will be offering the first webinar on the subject of "Future Institutions". Do spread the word around with anyone interested in the subject. The promo is below -
OPEN INVITATION TO WEBINAR - CORONA CRISIS TO TRANSFORMATION
Auroville campus Initiative invites you to a webinar on “RE-IMAGINING FUTURE UNIVERSITIES IN THE LIGHT OF CORONA” with Mr. Rama Subramanian on 9th April, at 8pm.
Register: https://forms.gle/V2ePZLourGp7hdKN9
ABOUT THE SESSION
While we are busy with the immediate needs and care just now, the need to re-imagine institutions and collectives everywhere is an urgent necessity too. Recent reports suggest that the next variant of the virus has already surfaced in China a few days ago, even as the world is struggling to map the different strains of the previous virus. If this is the first of the several pandemics that we are seeing, then we are talking about a world completely altered from what we have today. What will be the role of institutions - economic, spiritual, cultural and educational in this context?
To engage with Ram on this question, join us on Apr 9, 2020 at 8 PM
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