Recently, Agnihotri was approached for an interview by Times of India but for some reason, the interview was never published. Vivek says he never got a forthcoming answer and he was just told it was against ‘policies’ of Times of India, which he found rather strange.

Vivek Agnihotri, the author cum filmmaker has been rather vocal about the Urban Naxal phenomena that have come to the fore recently. In his book, Urban Naxals, Vivek talks extensively about how the Naxals have an entire urban network that often goes unnoticed because they are disguised as activists, lawyers, etc.

With the recent arrest of several urban Naxals who were working actively as conduits for the Naxal terrorists, his book gained even more popularity and relevance.

 

Following is the interview that Times of India considers against its policies.

1. What is urban Naxalism and how does it spread its wings?

Urban Naxalism is the fourth generation (4G) war. It is complex and long-term. In 2004, Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) People’s War, usually called People’s War Group (PWG), merged the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCC) and formed Communist Party of India (Maoist) pledging to the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. The party became a member of the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organizations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA).

This new entity drafted five vision and strategic documents under an urban perspective plan — a blueprint for their urban movement/activities. It is believed that Kobad Ghandy alias Rajan, who was arrested in September 2009 in New Delhi, played a major role in the preparation of this urban perspective plan.

These five, ‘Strategy and Tactics’ document and ‘Urban Perspective Document’ admits that enemy (Indian State) is very strong in urban areas and therefore never to engage with the enemy until the conditions are favourable. And to make them favourable, it suggests, exploring and the opening of opportunities, organize people through frontal organizations (FOs). Target the ‘vulnerable group’ of minorities, women, Dalits, labours and students through influencers who work as under-covers for a long time and accumulate strength. The document stresses uniting industrial proletariats, weak and students and uses them as vanguards who can play a direct role in the revolution.

The strategy is to make a direct attack on the enemy’s (Indian State) culture, including genocidal acts against civilians and wage a highly sophisticated psychological and cultural warfare, especially through media manipulation and lawfare. To create a state of unrest chaos and conflict leading to a civil war. For this purpose, legal professionals are required, media professionals are required, creative people, varied intellectuals and academicians are required, and civil society leaders are required, especially those who are connected with NGOs for smooth transaction of funds and to hide behind compassionate human rights causes. It begins with low-intensity conflicts where all the actors attack from different platforms.

So, an invisible Naxal-intelligentsia-lawyers-media-academia-NGO-Activist nexus works as strategic fortification with the ultimate aim of taking over Indian State to achieve Maoist rule. They have identified Pune-Mumbai-Ahmadabad as Golden Corridor. Delhi-Kanpur-Patna-Kolkata as Ganga Corridor. And KKT’s (Kerala, Karnataka & Tamilnadu) Chennai-Coimbatore-Bengaluru as Tri-junction. The key universities like JNU, JU, Osmania, HCU, Tiss etc work as R&D of Urban Naxalism.

Anyone who directly or indirectly works to accomplish these objectives is an Urban Naxal. Anyone who sympathizes with them is a potential Urban Naxal. But I always insist that the critics of the government, anti-establishment activists or dissenters of the system must not be confused with the real enemies – Urban Naxals.

The following chart illustrates the Urban Naxalism network.

 

2. According to your experience, how do urban Naxalites communicate and remain in touch with the Naxalites on the field in forest areas?

This is a very well-structured operation. You can blame them for anything but never for their organizational abilities. While the Naxals in jungles engage the security forces, the Urban Naxals engage the government and legal system. They infiltrate into the enemy camp (Indian state) in critical departments like finance, military, police, power, IT, defence production and disrupt the activities from within by gaining control over the workers. Slowly, passive protests and continuous grievances lead to a domino effect in an already disgruntled nation.

They create a network of doctors and hospital attendants sympathetic to their cause who shall treat their injured cadres with utmost secrecy.

They create cadres in urban areas who are technically qualified to handle the modern communication with their cadre spread in jungles. They possess drones, satellite phones. There are technical teams which handle latest arms and ammunition.

They have formed groups of highly motivated individuals who constitute what the Maoists call as ‘City Action Teams’. These members are entrusted with the destruction of high-value targets or the annihilation of individuals of importance. The identity of such members is unknown even to the local urban party structure.

Their most critical arm deals with the collection of centralised intelligence and cyber-warfare. The party tries to use modern electronic means to infiltrate into the enemy’s networks and collect vital information. For this, they need to have individuals with requisite skills, who can only be found in urban areas and who, because of the nature of their job, need to be based therein. Such persons are under the direct control of the highest party echelons.

Then they use various FOs like Kabir Kala Manch which travel all across for propaganda and in the garb of events they communicate between the cadre and Urban Naxals.

 

3. Why does Naxalism spread – is it because of the ideology or due to something else?

When the armed Naxal movement began, the gun became a symbol for land redistribution and the end of an oppressive and corrupt system. A lot of young tribals were fascinated by this quick form of justice and they also picked up guns. They attacked the policemen who always sided with the influential and powerful. They used violence to demand better wages and rates for their produce. And they got it. Insurgency spread and soon the area became the theatre of a new kind of warfare. A parallel government started taking shape. Personal justice became the order of the day.

‘Apni Satta, Apna Kanoon’(Our governance, our laws) became the motto. Kangaroo courts got set up. Naxalism became the new establishment.

The establishment has to survive. Survival requires funding and an ecosystem. Therefore, it becomes a compulsion to form a nexus with the politicians, police, and the middlemen. They also started looting contractors, trucks, and godowns.

Today Naxalism is a big enterprise. People have to be fed. Arms to be procured. Ammunition to be replenished. And above all, the terror to be maintained so that the government officials don’t dare enter the area and therefore they block all kinds of developments. Terror has a quality –its virality can’t be controlled. Naxals become service providers for interpersonal rivalries and start facilitating revenge on the condition that the person will join them and become a Naxal. Kangaroo courts are used for this purpose. ‘Adha foot kam kar do(Shorten the man by six inches)’ means ‘Behead him’. Extortion is used to feed this mafia. They kill those who don’t subscribe to their ideology. They kill to create a power and governance vacuum and soon they fill up this space. They attack schools because education promotes awareness and empowers youth with skills for a livelihood other than farming and forest-related jobs. This is how they keep the population in their area of influence out of the mainstream milieu and spread their terror and grow from localized movement to a pan-Indian shape, in the form of urban Naxalism to accomplish its real goal– to wage a full-fledged war against the Indian State.

 

4. According to your research, how long do you think will Naxal movement last in India?

This is not a 100-metre race. It’s a marathon. Naxal movement in jungles is already on the decline. I think post-2019 elections it will further get diluted. But the Urban Naxalism is on the rise. A lot of funding from vested agencies is being pumped into the system. Sometimes even actors don’t know that they are part of this ant-state theatre. There was a time in Bollywood when the producers weren’t aware of the mafia money being pumped through legal routes. For example, you have a digital media platform and you need funding, you start publishing articles which promote Naxal objectives, the funding will present itself to you through the legal route. As long as we have competitive democracy with identity groups, vote banks and ambiguous laws on such activities, it is very difficult to eliminate them. The nexus will be formed by the vested interests. It’s a money-making enterprise with powerful middlemen.

 

5. It is believed urban Naxalites undertake detailed planning and strategizing of many Naxal activities an also raise funds for their cause, is it true and how can this menace be controlled?

A wrong narrative has been created that Naxals extort big business houses to help the poor tribals. In fact, Naxals extort poor adivasis. This movement survives on terror funding which is being used to buy arms & ammunition, intelligence devices, drones, training, infrastructure etc. This terror funding comes from Communist terror organisations from the east and from Islamic terror organisations in the west.

Then a huge amount of money is collected through extortion of the poor. You will be surprised to know that they extort poor Tendu leaves sellers to the tune of 60 cr in one season. There was a case in Maharashtra last April/May when tendu leaves contractors were arrested with crores of cash. Any major construction like roads in the area is charged at 15%. Minor construction and other works at Panchayat level -10 to 15%. Levy on vehicles and any business based on four wheelers or passenger bus etc at 5-10% of earnings. Salary of one month of Govt servants like teachers, ashram staff, hostel staff etc. is taken as extortion. Operators of tractors and machinery in agriculture – usually one month’s earnings or 10%. Commission from all funds granted to panchayats in the affected area is extorted. Mining is charged at 10-15%.

On an average 1 km road in Bastar is built at around 2 to 2.5 cr if it’s NH and 1 to 1.5 in other cases. In 2016, more than 230 km of roads were completed in Bastar. So estimated extortion is around 65-70 cr on roads.

It is estimated that 1100cr-1500cr is extorted every year from the affected area and most of it is used for the Urban Naxal activities.

 

6. What are the top steps that the law enforcement agencies have to take to eradicate Naxalism from India?

Fast-tracking building infrastructure, with a focus on solar lights, mobile towers with 3G connectivity, and road-rail connectivity.
Cut their lifeline completely, i.e funding. Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) must be reviewed to ensure effective choking of fund flow to LWE groups. NGOs must be vetted and thorough scrutiny of foreign funding,
A complete overhauling of our education system with a focus on meritocracy aimed at a positive and constructive approach to nation-building. Zero tolerance approach to ‘Naxal sympathisers’ in academia. Direct legal action against anyone who is directly or indirectly connected with Naxalism like the USA did with communism.
Ban political party/politicians which even remotely work with Naxals or Urban Naxals.
Is Naxalism a sign of a failed government?

When India found freedom, many fundamental issues remained unaddressed. Naxalism grew because of social disparity, oppression and the state’s indifference to certain sections of the society and certain regions. This has caused wide disparity in society. Naxals take advantage of this. The only way to defeat them is to fill this disparity. Sadly, no government in the past focused on development. In a democracy of India’s size, there are huge groups of alienated and angered people with no real idea of the perceived sense of injustice, oppression, and loss of dignity. Naxals are cleverly exploiting this sentiment to their advantage – caste conflicts in Bihar, resentment against landlords in Andhra, discontent against forest laws in tribal areas, unemployment amongst youth and radicalism among Muslims are all given the prescription of capture of power through violence as the ultimate solution of all their problems. While the local grievances need to be effectively addressed through improved governance and ruthless accountability, there is also a need for creating mass awareness of the ultimate designs and consequences of what the extremists stand for.

Good news is that in the last few years due to the increased pace of development in Bastar, Naxalism is getting diluted.

 

7. Or is it driven by political goons or terrorists?

Today, Naxalism is well connected with international terror organisations. They have the common enemy – Indian State. Recent studies say that the Naxals have well-established linkages with other insurgent groups and a few Muslim Fundamentalist Organizations (MFOs). These links provide the movement not only with psychological support but also material support in the form of money and weapons. If police and other sources are to be believed, the Naxalites, with the help of Dalit youths and the Islamist terrorist group Indian Mujahideen (IM), want to have their own government in the country. The revolution is believed to emerge from the conflict of Hindus on one side and Dalits and Muslims on another. Two consolidated rebellious, energetic forces pumped with raw adrenaline, will go for each other’s blood. And then it will be opportune to hijack and change the narrative to oppressed, the proletariat, and marginalized vs bourgeoisie, elites, and Brahmins. This attracts poor and intellectuals both. In this case, the Adivasi, Dalits, Muslims, and other “forgotten people”, united under one common red flag, will demolish the State. That’s the ambition. And they also have a plan.

So, since Naseerbhai’s ‘explosive’ 🙄 interviews / social media comments in which he expressed his opinion on Virat Kohli’s behaviour and on the politico-social scenario in India, I’ve had a few people (mostly BJP / Kohli supporters) ask me what my opinion on it is, given that I have great & genuine respect for Naseerbhai as an actor, a person, a teacher and I have, in the past, publicly acknowledged Naseerbhai as not just one of India’s best actors but also as one of the best thinkers of his craft?

And my answer was that I acknowledge that he has an opinion & he is free to have one. Just like I am free to have an opinion on what the right fuel formulation & aerodynamic wing-design should be for a Formula 1 car. Or what the right CRISPR workflow should be while genetically modifying cotton to make it pest-resistance. Or what the 2019 spring-summer colours for couture should be.

Now, what our depth of study in the subject matters we are opining on is or what our degree of expertise in the areas that we are commenting on is, is something that viewers / watchers / listeners should explore on their own, to figure out if our opinion is coming from a place of scholarship or not and how much is it influenced by what we see / hear in our media & social ecosystem and how we have lived our life!!!

The doctrine / concept of libertarianism (individual rights, natural harmony of interests, etc etc) bears fruit ONLY when people are responsible enough to exercise their individual rights of free speech based on a particular degree of scholarship in that field, and are believed based on such scholarship.

One of the biggest issues today in India is that fame is considered a replacement for scholarship and our media (both right & left wing) undertakes zero editorial judgement while ‘reporting’ the news. Often-times, it ensures that a largely combative conversation is augmented as that causes more people to support / attack each other.

Until there is significant & rapid upgrading of primary, secondary & communication studies education for ALL as well as a sharp augmentation of education for journalists, this will continue to happen.

Let’s hope that time comes soon!!!

Published on December 17, 2018 by LinkedIn Editors (India)
By Dipti Jain, Abhigyan Chand and Isabelle Roughol

If 2018 left you breathless and exhausted, expect little break from action in 2019. That’s the one conclusion we could glean from the predictions of our soothsayers – corporate leaders, authors, journalists, and political commentators – for the next year. And change will cut both ways: while our work, life, and institutions will be impacted by new challenges, we’ll also find solutions to some pressing pain points. Here’s our annual look at the year ahead. We also want to hear from you: weigh in with #BigIdeas2019.

 

1. AI will be in every industry and every job…
We asked 200 LinkedIn Top Voices about their Big Idea for 2019; one in four mentioned some application of AI, from parsing evidence in medical research to helping surfers spot the best wave. Six of the 15 hot emerging jobs of the past year relate to AI, while AI skills are the fastest-growing on our platform, up 190% globally from 2015 to 2017. “While 2018 was the year of AI hype, it feels like we’re at an inflection point where these technologies are being incorporated into more of the tools we use every day,” says Sharon O’Dea, co-founder of communications consultancy Lithos Partners. “It’s when technology trends start to become invisible that they really make a major impact.”

 

2. …but its indiscriminate use will result in a clampdown.
Late last month, a Chinese scientist announced he had used CRISPR-Cas9 – an AI-powered gene-editing technology – to alter embryos. That would have been acceptable science, had he not implanted the genome-edited embryos in a mother’s womb. Kamesh Goyal, chairman of Digit Insurance, feels governments will be compelled to devise some kind of regulatory framework because life-altering AI is dangerous and unethical. “Next year, a huge debate may start where at least one country – and I hope it’s America because that’s where the technology is most advanced – starts seriously thinking about some checks and balances,” says Goyal

 

3. Governments will seize the opportunity to tax and regulate Big Tech.
India is in the throes of finalising its data policy framework. That would require companies in payments, e-commerce, and adtech to house data locally and compel them to start offices here, says Satyarth Priyedarshi, head of product marketing, JioChat. Other countries are also tightening norms. The UK plans to introduce a “digital tax” of 2% on tech companies’ British revenue, fighting back against US tech giants that evade taxes by domiciling their profits in Ireland or the Netherlands. European governments are also likely to turn to antitrust, predicts Emily Taylor, CEO of Oxford Information Labs. “We will rediscover competition law and regulation as a way of combating over-concentration of power and distortions in the market,” she says. Smarter companies will help shape regulation rather than obstinately oppose it, says Booking.com CEO Gillian Tans. “This collaboration will be the deciding factor of which sharing economy companies will see success in the future,” she says. “Regulation will be something to lean into – not fear.”

 

4. Inclusive design will go mainstream.
A growing awareness among professionals and advances in artificial intelligence is transforming inclusive design, says Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft (LinkedIn’s parent company). “We used to call it assistive technologies and it used to be a checklist of things you did after the product was built,” he says. Now it’s “about taking this way upstream into the design process. What if we said upfront we want a design for people of different abilities to fully participate?” He points to the new Xbox adaptive controller, where even the packaging was designed to be accessible, or new AI that helps people with dyslexia read and comprehend written text.

 

5. Machines will take over your hiring and performance appraisal.
The upside: Expect a fair and unprejudiced evaluation of your efforts and skills. “Sensors are capable of killing gender biases, interaction biases, frequency biases, et al. The resourcefulness of machines will be superior to the resourcefulness of human beings and the starting point will be in 2019,” says brand strategy specialist Harish Bijoor. The downside: Leaner HR teams, meaning job cuts.

 

6. Automation will disproportionately impact women’s jobs.
By Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund
“New technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are changing the way work gets done all over the world. The automation trend is especially challenging for women because they tend to be employed in more routine tasks than men across all sectors and occupations, making them more prone to automation. New IMF research estimates that 26 million women’s jobs in 30 countries are at high risk of being displaced by technology in the next 20 years. This means 180 million women’s jobs globally!

We don’t have much time to act, so 2019 is the year to make important inroads in tackling this challenge. How? We must help women get the skills they need to succeed. Education and training will be key — including greater emphasis on lifelong learning and STEM. Think, in particular, of coding programs like Girls Who Code in the US or developing tax deductions for training as they do in the Netherlands. We also need to close gender gaps in leadership positions across all sectors, while doing more to help men and women combine work and family life. Finally, we need to do a better job at bridging the digital divide and ensure women have equal access to finance, bank accounts and connectivity. 2019 is the year we should take a leap forward in leveling the playing field between men and women.”

 

7. The future of online is offline. And vice versa.
The Amazon vs Flipkart rivalry could soon play out at a storefront near you. “Expect explosive growth in hyperlocal (commerce) with Amazon translating its stake in More (and the other retailers it aims to buy) to new products with additional cities or offline stores,” says Satyarth Priyedarshi, head of product marketing, JioChat. Flipkart hasn’t responded assertively in this segment and with a new management (read: Walmart), I wouldn’t be surprised if they take the M&A route with a player like BigBasket,” he adds. And that would compel more mom-and-pop stores to reinvent themselves with digital payments, e-billing and loyalty programmes.

 

8. We are finally going to spend more time online than watching TV.
Around the world, people will start spending more hours a day on the internet than on television. The glass-half-empty way to look at it is people are turning away from legacy media, says Viacom president and CEO Bob Bakish. The glass-half-full vision: “There is more content being consumed today than ever before in history,” he adds. Closer home, regional language content will find more takers as people turn to digital screens for news and entertainment. “Vernacular and Indian language-focused startups are booming, as domestic and international investors look for India’s very own social network,” says Pooja Sareen, editor-in-chief of Inc42.

 

9. Content creation will move beyond studios.
User-generated content has long been touted as the holy grail for businesses tapping into the power of content. Ankush Sachdeva, co-founder and CEO of Sharechat, feels there will likely be an explosion in the segment: “These would not be studios producing content. These would be common people, in towns and cities of your country, building content for the people around them.” Data and handsets have never been cheaper in India, so the stage is well and truly set. But what’s going to be fueling this revolution? Advanced camera technologies (doing duty in humble phones) and machine learning are at a scale where UGC won’t just compete but even surpass professionally generated content (PGC), Sachdeva adds.

 

10. For respite, we will turn to inspirational commerce.
In an anxious world, we’re going to need more than a juice cleanse to take care of our exhausted psyches, writes Gina Bianchini, CEO of Mighty Networks. Health and wellness influencers, exhausted themselves, are shifting their models to building supportive communities and connecting their fans to each other, rather than amassing a large number of one-way followers — communities they can monetise through memberships or events. Bianchini writes: “While the first generation of e-commerce was about selling physical products online, this coming wave of ‘inspirational commerce’ is about creating opportunities for people to buy experiences and connections to realise their full potential.”

 

11. We will stop living an Insta life.
The social media honeymoon is over. As people question their screen addiction, the impacts are felt in all walks of life, from dinners where guests demand the phones be put away to changing trends in the beauty industry. “In 2019, people are looking to scale back, simplify their routine and their look,” says Melissa Butler, founder and CEO of The Lip Bar, after years where trends were set by Instagram influencers and elaborate makeup tutorials on YouTube. “Social media has played such a big part in pressuring us to show up in a certain way. People are looking to reconnect with who they are, go back to the basics.”

 

12. Move over, Millennials; it’s Gen Z’s time.
In 2019, Generation Z will outnumber Millennials, that generation you’ve loved to hate for the past decade. “Generation Z is now heading into the workforce in meaningful numbers and for the first time in modern history five generations will be working side by side,” says Michael Dell, CEO and chairman of Dell Technologies. Gen Z — which Pew Research Center defines as those born from 1997 onward — will be about one-third of the global population and one-fifth of its workers. What is this new generation’s work ethic? “My experience is that they lean in and lean hard,” says best-selling author Brené Brown. About half of her staff is Gen Z. “They are all very different people, but as a group I experience them as curious, hopeful, always learning, painfully attuned to the suffering in the world, and anxious to do something about it.”

 

13. A US-China cold war will first be fought on the technology front.
Despite current tensions, the US and Chinese economy are too interlinked for a trade war to truly escalate in the short term, says Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer. A cold war is more likely in five or 10 years, he adds, when an economic downturn and sustained animosity have undone those ties. But for 2019, the fight is on the technology front: “There you do have a cold war. There you have the Chinese with their AI model, the Americans with our AI model. The Chinese with their internet, the Americans with our internet,” he says. He echoes former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who warned in September that our online world risked a “bifurcation” into Chinese-led and US-led internets. “They’re not playing nice at all,” Bremmer adds. “I do think that longer term we’re heading for big trouble between the Americans and the Chinese.”

 

14. …and India will be a key battleground.
Chinese and American companies are facing strong headwinds in each other’s markets and winning in a large country like India can be a gamechanger for both sides, “especially if you believe data is the new oil,” says Ravi Venkatesan, UNICEF’s Special Representative for Young People & Innovation. But the influx of foreign capital and companies could also stoke fears of digital colonisation. “The absence of strong Indian companies, barring Reliance Industries, in most sectors queers the pitch for Indian policy makers and regulators trying to decide what is good for India in the long term,” Venkatesan adds.

 

15. But desi equity investors won’t complain: they could become richer.
Expect the trade conflict to hamper the US’ economic growth and necessitate a second round of quantitative easing, says Vivek Kaul, economic commentator and author of the Easy Money trilogy. “All the easy money that drove up Indian stock markets between 2008 and 2015 might just come back. And the stock market might reach a newer high,” he said.

 

16. India will (finally) get a national policy on employment generation.
It will help the country move away from a growth-based approach to an employment-first slant, across government plans, says Amit Basole, associate professor, Azim Premji University. In fact, the National Employment Policy will demand that job creation becomes the primary goal of India’s fiscal and industrial measures. Eventually, we will also get the answer to a needling question: is there a job crisis in India?

 

17. Coalition politics could make a comeback.
2019 promises to be an election year with a difference. “The swing away from (power concentrated with) a single dominant party has begun and we will see more pluralistic kind of politics,” says economist and former Union minister Yoginder K Alagh. And that means governance will be more decentralised. Expect higher collaboration between the government and private organisations, including industry chambers such as the Confederation of Indian Industry, he adds.

 

18. Brexit will continue to consume the European political scene.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May is now touring European capitals to attempt to renegotiate her Brexit deal with the EU after she canceled a parliamentary vote. Brexit should have been the most predictable geopolitical event of 2019 – we’ve known for two years the clock runs out at the end of March. Instead, it continues to defy predictions. Negotiations will be uncertain to the very last minute, Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, warns. “May now needs to be thinking about plan B, since she’s lost so many [members of parliament],” he says. A revamped “Norway plus” deal is becoming the most likely outcome, but the tail risks of a no deal Brexit or a second referendum are also increasing, he adds. “It is really, really hard to come to terms to negotiate something this complicated with one of the most challenging supranational institutions in the world, the EU, and one of the most dysfunctional developed governments in the world today, the UK.” Writing any more about Brexit at this point would just be handing the stick you’ll beat me with in a day or two.

 

19. A “me first” world will be harder to steer.
Some of the institutions that since WWII have held the world together — the UN, NATO, G20 and more — are weakening, notes Stan McChrystal, CEO of the McChrystal Group and former commander of US forces in Afghanistan. What comes after is uncertain, he warns, because when you pull the key stone from the arch, things may fall apart that you did not expect. “Our challenge is we’re in a ‘me first’ world now, and I mean ‘me first’ by nations, but also ‘me first’ by leaders, ‘me first’ by companies,” he explains. Leaders need to make decisions from a broader perspective and consider interdependencies, McChrystal says. If you go into a negotiation expecting to win everything and leave the other side weakened, he warns, “in many cases, what’s happened is the very ecosystem we both depend upon is gone.”

 

20. #MeToo will enter Phase Two…
Less than a year after #MeToo exploded onto the public scene, the stream of executives undone by their own bad behaviour flows unabated. In India, the movement took down several powerful men from the journalism, media and entertainment industries in its wake. It will now spread to mid-level leaders and less visible industries, predicts Ross Martin, CEO of marketing firm Blackbird. “You won’t know all of their names, but you’ll certainly know the brands that they lead or work for,” Martin says.

 

21. …but some disgraced executives will make a comeback.
The spin doctors have learned to plan for it and manage what Martin calls “the sorry cycle.” “We’re compressing the time and space between success, failure and then redemption,” he explains. “Apology content has become a major component of any marketing strategy.” It’s OK to find that cynical; he does too.

 

22. Workforce diversity will be a core priority for HR heads.
While most big companies are already trying to move the needle on gender balance, the scope of inclusion will “expand to differently-abled professionals, and an out and proud LGBTQ community,” says Nathan SV, Chief Talent Officer at Deloitte India. The last couple of years have seen the emergence of a gig economy powered mainly by India’s millennials and the Gen Z. In 2019, Nathan expects the part-time work culture to cut across age and experience as retirees, early retirees, and young mothers look to restart their careers. Project-based hiring suits employers too since mid-to-senior-level employees drive up payroll costs. Net-net, organisations will be gauged on how well they manage the integration process, predicts the HR influencer.

 

23. What will matter at work is your humanity.
When robots take all our jobs, what do humans have left? Precisely that — our humanity. Creativity and so-called soft skills are becoming all the more important to your career because that’s what can’t be automated. In fact, LinkedIn data shows the fastest-growing skills gaps — the difference between what employers seek and what workers bring to the table — are related to soft skills: oral communication tops the list, followed by people management, time management or leadership. Employers who want to make the most of their human employees make sure to look after them as whole people, not just task performers, says Susan Cain, author of “Quiet” and CEO of Quiet Revolution. “I’m increasingly seeing employers having a goal of facilitating the entire life of an employee,” Cain says. “I don’t mean it in a Big Brother type of way, but being an aid in the entire life of an employee as opposed to just the part that shows up to make wages.”

 

24. Conscientious objectors rise up in the workforce.
In a tight labour market, professionals can afford to have principles. It’s starting with Google, always a bellwether of corporate culture, where in the past few months employees have spoken up against the company launching a censored service in China, forced it to back out of a contract with the Pentagon and staged a walkout to protest sexual harassment in the workplace. “Employees at these companies are no longer going to stand for leadership doing things they just don’t believe in,” Ross Martin, Blackbird CEO, says. This instinct is particularly potent among Millennial and Gen Z workers, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman notes. “This idealism has opened a generational rift between managers and our younger protégés, who can sometimes be strident,” he says. “But their passion is one of the main reasons I’m excited about the future: The people just entering the workforce now will become the conscience of the corporation.”

 

25. The combustion engine will get smarter before it goes away.
Going green doesn’t have to be reserved for the wealthy who can afford to switch to an electric car, says Bertrand Piccard, chairman and pilot of Solar Impulse, who flew a solar plane around the planet. For middle class people struggling to fill up the tank — we were speaking at the start of the Yellow Vest protests in France — there are solutions. He points to an anti-smog device installed on the engine for a few hundred dollars that reduces fuel consumption by 20% and particles by 80%. Built-in AI in your car can help you drive greener and cut another 20% off the bill. “Today, half the energy we use is wasted because we have inefficient systems,” Piccard says. “There will be more carbon taxes because we can’t afford to keep wasting fossil fuels. But we can put systems in place to be less wasteful, to consume less, and in the end we’ll save money.”

 

26. Don’t even try to guess the price of oil.
By Bethany McLean, author of “Saudi America: The Truth about Fracking and How It’s Changing the World”
“Here’s a prediction for 2019: Energy markets are going to remain wildly unpredictable. One realization I came to when I worked on my last book was that most everyone who makes predictions about the future of oil prices is alike in one remarkable respect: They are wrong.
“Remember M King Hubbert’s famous prediction of peak oil back in the 1970s? He looked roughly right — until the shale revolution changed everything. Now, the shale revolution is supposed to ensure a mammoth and growing supply of U.S. oil for the foreseeable future. ‘Lower for longer,’ meaning oil prices in the $50 range, has become something of a mantra on Wall Street. But skeptics suspect there may be fewer wells that are profitable at $50 oil than executives would have you believe. If so, and if the dearth of long-term projects over the past decade results in less supply than expected, there may be price spikes in the future. Or not. I think this is the ultimate truth about the oil market: It defies people’s attempts at predicting it, much less controlling it.”

 

27. Expect a multimodal transport platform to emerge.
As the country’s public transport system improves, last-mile connectivity will become the battleground for mobility players. “What we are trying to do at Uber is build this platform that allows you to, say, take a bike to the bus station, take a bus to go to near your office and, from there, take an auto or another bus,” says Apurva Dalal, head of engineering at Uber India. The company placed its bets in the space with the $200-million acquisition of electric bicycle company Jump, and it is negotiating with scooter-sharing startup Bird for a potential “multibillion-dollar” acquisition. Closer home, Amazon led an $11 million round in bus-aggregator Shuttl, Hyundai pumped funds into car rental startup Revv, and Ola led a $5-7 million round in bike-sharing startup Vogo. Dalal does “see a company building that multimodal platform, furthering the cause of transportation to a whole new level.”

 

28. We will reach peak outrage.
In the last couple of years, public opinion has been driven by “polarised tribes,” says Willow Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism: “Outrage has been modified, optimised, personalised and, of course, monetised.” Outrage, like fear, is helpful in the short term but unsustainable in the long term, she says. “Many do not want to live in a state of semi-permanent outrage, they’re simply tired of it,” she adds. “And I believe increasingly, people are going to want to reclaim consensus, collaboration and shared values rather than polarizing ones.” While Bay is referring to the United States, any country where people discuss politics on social media will recognize a version of this. She points to a study by More In Common which showed that 67% of Americans did not conform to partisan ideology or had disengaged from politics. They’ve been dubbed the “exhausted majority.”

 

29. We will ask ourselves hard questions about what free speech means.
By Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin
“This isn’t about the death of free speech on college campuses, which sometimes can’t find a hall to host a political provocateur on short notice. It’s about a deeper and more deeply fraught idea that has already been embraced by Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, that European-style censorship may be necessary. Maybe there are ideas so obnoxious, like the belief that the parents of students slain in a mass shooting are part of an anti-gun conspiracy, that we shouldn’t let them be amplified endlessly on the Internet. Or maybe we should be uncomfortable that these censorship decisions are being made by a few tech leaders, who historically have had little interest in either the journalistic principles that have guided other media magnates, or the costs of paying human beings to gather and weigh facts. It’s unclear to me how we quash or validate dangerous ideas except through vigorous, open debate, but even I have to admit that this hasn’t worked well recently. What we all know now is that the case for free speech is weaker now than it has been in 50 years.”

 

30. The battle against extreme poverty will heat up.
Over the last 25 years, more than a billion people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty, and the global poverty rate is at its lowest level in recorded history. However, that trend may not continue into 2019 due to increasing poverty concentrations in areas like Sub-Saharan Africa, says Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We can’t always change the circumstances a child is born into, but we can invest in that child’s potential to thrive in spite of them by investing in their health and education,” says Gates. “Economists call health and education ‘human capital,’ because they’re proven to be the twin engines of economic growth.” Especially important, she argues, is investing in the health and education of women and girls. “Healthy, economically-empowered women are some of development’s best allies,” says Gates. “If the number of people trapped in poverty continues to decline, these women will be a big reason why.”

 

Food Consumption in India is a state subject. Even if the Central Govt wants, they cannot ban the consumption of any food anywhere in India (including the UTs). The constitution simply does not allow it. Only the states can. The centre can lay down rules and norms wrt to inter-state / international trade & commerce related to food products, but there is nothing they can do to prevent someone from consuming any food, which the government of a particular state has permitted people to consume.

Now, let’s come to the (in)famous ‘beef ban’ that has been propagated as being one of the draconian measures imposed on the country by the current Narendra Modi-led government.

A basic 10-minute act of research gives you the following facts.
Listed as under are the states and the years in which they banned the consumption of Beef (Cow meat) in India and which was the government that enacted the ban (listed in descending order chronologically):

Sikkim – 2017 – Sikkim Democratic Front
Goa (conditional ban) – 1995 – Congress
Rajasthan – 1995 – BJP
Delhi – 1994 – BJP
Dadra & Nagar Haveli – 1978 – Congress
Andhra Pradesh / Telangana – 1977 – Congress
Maharashtra – 1976 – Congress
Puducherry – 1968 – Congress
Karnataka – 1964 – Congress
Orissa – 1960 – Congress
MP / Chhattisgarh – 1959 – Congress
Tamil Nadu – 1958 – Congress
Bihar / Jharkhand – 1955 – Congress
Haryana – 1955 – Congress
Himachal Pradesh – 1955 – Congress
Punjab – 1955 – Congress
Uttar Pradesh / Uttarakhand – 1955 – Congress
Gujarat – 1954 – Congress
West Bengal – 1950 – Congress
J&K – 1932 – Congress
The North-East states & Kerala are the only states where beef is not banned in India.

24 out of 29 states in India currently have various regulations prohibiting either the slaughter or sale of cows.

Out of 24 states, in 21 states it was a Congress Government that banned the consumption of Beef. Only 2 by a BJP Government.

Article 48 of the Constitution of India mandates the state to prohibit the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle.

On 26 October 2005, the Supreme Court of India, in a landmark judgement upheld the constitutional validity of anti-cow slaughter laws enacted by different state governments in India. The then central government (UPA) did not go in appeal / review.

Carabeef (Buffalo meat) was & is not banned and is free for consumption all over India. It is Carabeef that has fuelled India’s Pink Revolution and has made India one of the largest meat-exporters globally.

So what was / is all the media hullabaloo about??? And why have so many people in our country bought this utter crap that it is this Narendra Modi-led government that has banned beef?

There has been some criminal & ridiculous cow-vigilantism and violence from the same in a few states and people should hold the state CMs to account and call them out for not acting against the gau-rakshaks.

But, I really don’t see how the ‘beef ban’ has been attached to the Narendra Modi government and how swathes of people have swallowed this canard peddled by several of our ‘national media’???

I hereby announce that I am willing to convert to whichever religion anyone wants.

I will convert for a period of 2 yrs only, after which your religion can no longer claim me as theirs. For this, my conversion fee is Rs 5Cr payable to me + INR 50Cr payable to any 10 primary schools of my choice.

This amount buys you only 1 tweet or 1 Facebook post of my having converted. Nothing else. You may spend money to promote said tweet / post. However, please note that double of whatever you spend on promoting said tweet/post, will be payable to other primary schools of my choice.

Further, I will not set foot in a place of religious worship of your religion. If you want me to go to such a place, my conversion fee doubles and so does the amount payable to the primary schools. That said, I will go to this place of religious worship only once, and at a time, date & place of my choosing.

Lastly, I like alcohol, I like sweets, I like beef, mutton, pepperoni, bacon, paneer, puran poli, sabudana khichdi, thalipeeth, gushtaba and mulga-pudi (the red gunpowder chatni that they serve with dosas down south). Also, I love weed. None of this will be given up by me irrespective of how much money is paid to me…. Actually… if you donate 5Cr each to 100 primary schools of my choosing, I may consider giving up sweets for 2 yrs.

Anyway, this is the value of my religiosity. If interested, message me…

I’m amazed that feminists are no longer protesting the fact that women get paid 70% of what men get paid for doing the same job or that women still die dowry deaths or that women are still wary of getting out of the house after 8pm in many towns and cities or the fact that female foeticide still happens leading to only 900-odd women for every 1000 men in India!

These were the real issues that feminism was supposed to represent. Wasn’t it?

According to me, these equal-access ‘protests’ (Shani-Shingnapur, Haji Ali, Sabarimala) are not feminism but militant activism or malicious acts to stir up religious sentiments for political gains of the person stirring up the same. AND the courts are unwittingly complicit.

Why the hell is everyone celebrating women being able to undertake some rituals to an imaginary entity & engaging in pointless activism for pointless issues which obfuscate the real problems women face in India?

 

P.S. I have hardly ever gone to a place of religious worship voluntarily, other than as a tourist, chauffeur, chaperone or to marvel at its architecture, science, construction and take in the chill vibes that seem to be in most such places.

Me: What’s up man? Happy Diwali. (My voice muffled as I talk through my PM 2.5 Anti-Pollution face mask)

Woke Lit Delhi-ite (WLD) who lives in Gurugram: Happy Diwali dude. Just going to pick up a new 4 wheel drive we bought for Diwali (his voice muffled too as he adjusts his particulate respirator mask)

Me: Damn. Don’t you guys already have 3 cars including 2 SUVs?

WLD: Yea man, but my nephew just reached 16, so he needs a car of his own. You know my uncle na, the one with whom my dad has setup his 3rd battery & industrial chemicals factory in Okhla? His son. Its a gift for his 16th bday.

Me: Cool.

WLD: Plus, there’s this awesome new SUV that’s out which is great for both city drive + off-roading.

Me: Have you EVER gone off-roading?

WLD: Of course not. But I want to be able to if I feel like it. Come on, let’s go pick it up.

Me: Ohh K.

We exit the parking & are almost hit by a water tanker that’s come to deliver water to WLD’s building. Thick smoke gushes out of the tanker’s exhaust, rises up in the air and merges with the equally thick smoke emerging from the diesel generator in the compound which is powering the compound including the heated swimming pool and air-conditioned badminton & squash courts.

Me: You guys need to get the fuck out of here man. How are you living like this with tanker water & diesel-generator power?

WLD: Dude, are you nuts? Its ‘Gudgaon’ man. Its woke. In fact we’re picking up a bigger apartment there (pointing to an under construction project which we could barely see with all the cement dust that was being generated by it and the 16 other real estate development projects ongoing in that sector of Gurugram.

Me: Congratulations man. When do you think it will get done?

WLD: They said 2 more years but (phalana-dhimkana) IAS officers have bought flats in there too, so they’ll probably speed up construction.

Me: Damn. That’s a lot of cement dust. Aren’t these guys worried about the construction pollution norms?

WLD: What the fuck is that man?

Me: (Silently rolling my eyes, shaking my head)

WLD: So are you guys doing crackers in Mumbai.

Me: Hell yea.

WLD: Dude, WTF is wrong with you? Don’t you care about the environment? Crackers pollution will kill you dude. Don’t you know that? I thought you were the save-the-earth types with your carpooling-should-be-mandatory & refusal to use single-use plastic. Didn’t you see the Supreme Court judgement which said that you can burst crackers only from 8-10pm. Crackers are the biggest culprits for pollution & bad for the environment.

Me: Looking at WLD as if he has lost it. You’re in a city which has the most cars (nearly double that of the next ranked city) and the most number of 2-wheelers in India, driving a 4WD SUV (with shit mileage), going to pick up another 4WD SUV (with equally shit mileage), have your business as industrial chemical manufacturing (which has the worst pollution record EVER), living in a compound which needs to use a diesel generator for 75% of the time, which gets supplied water by tankers, in the middle of crazy amounts of construction dust AND you think bursting crackers for 2-3 days is what is polluting the city and if you no longer do that, then you will be fine and no longer polluting? HA!

A massive 40% of Delhi pollution comes from road & construction dust. 20% comes from vehicles, 20% is from industries and a whopping 10% comes from concrete casting / batching. And on top of that, there’s the seasonal stubble burning, which accounts for approx 4% of the pollution at any time. Firecrackers, at worst, are 1% of all the pollution, and that too for 10 days.

The problem is with making crackers a easy way to enable people to exorcise their guilt about their lifestyle. By not bursting crackers, people think they are all woke & lit & have fulfilled their responsibility towards the city’s pollution worries and can continue to live their life the way they are, without any major lifestyle / societal changes. I know how hard it is to co-ordinate a carpool daily or ensure that you don’t use single-use plastic. That’s the hard change to make in your lives…

WLD: (Silent).

WLD: (after some time) Waise bhi Supreme Court ki kaun sunta hai. They made that stupid rule about bars & national highways and now we have to drive all the way around the building to get into the bars. Chal ek beer peeke phir SUV pick up karte hain!!!

P.S. Any similarity with any people, coughing or not, is strictly co-incidental.

You will often hear rhetoric that the Indian National Congress is a 100+ yr old party of which Gandhiji, Sardar Patel & other stalwarts were members and was responsible for getting India independence.

IT IS NOT!!!

Yes, there was A Congress Party once upon a time that did all this. But the current maa-bete ki party is not that Congress…

Pl peruse as under:

The original Congress party was in existence only till 1969 and had the 2bullocks+yoke symbol.

Then in 1969, amidst an internal power struggle, Indira Gandhi broke away from the original Congress(O) and formed her own party – the Congress(R), which had the Cow+Calf as its symbol. This was on account of her having lost the internal Congress elections and she not being able to deal with it.

The Congress(O) merged with the Janata Party in 1977. That ended the original Congress Party.

Then, in 1978, in yet another power struggle, Indira Gandhi again exited the Congress(R) to form her own Congress(I) party, with the hand as its symbol. The ‘I’ in the party was meant to represent ‘Indira’ not ‘India’. This was again on account of the Congress R not wanting her to continue as its head post her Emergency disaster.

After her exit, the Congress(R) continued for a few years and then slowly shut down.

Somewhere along the way, the Congress(I) slimily changed the meaning of the ‘I’ and became the Indian National Congress.

So, when you read in a article or see some rubbish rhetoric by a Congressi on TV about this canard, pl remember – they are lying! Ignore their rhetoric and remember that they’re simply a power-hungry corrupt horde.

In case this canard is there in your kids’ school text books, please educate your kids about it. You do not want them identifying the liberators of India with corruption, nepotism, dynasty, minority-appeasement and an incredibly low IQ.

The Indian National Congress of today is less than 40 yrs old and has nothing to do with India’s independence…

P.S. Facts like these are all available all over the internet. Don’t go by my word. Please seek and find for yourself.

P.P.S. Let’s come to the merged Congress(O)+Janata Party. The Congress name was dropped on merging and the just the name Janata Party continued. The only member of that party as of 2013 was Subramaniam Swamy who merged into the BJP in 2014. So, one can make a roundabout point that the BJP actually has more of the DNA of the original Congress(O) Party than the maa-bete ki Congress.

I don’t get why everyone is treating the unfortunate killing of tigress Avni as if a genocide of tigers has been enacted by the Maharashtra Forest Department?

I completely understand that it is absolutely heartbreaking for an animal to be killed, esp a mother of 9-month old cubs. Also those guys who posed for a photo with the tiger’s corpse are idiotic morons who should be publicly whipped.

But all this still does not take away from the fact that she was a man-eater and had killed 5 people (confirmed by DNA) and perhaps 8 more people (suspected, no DNA evidence).

Can we please look at this in light of the larger picture of tigers in India…
In the past 12 years, India has taken enormous strides to protect the tiger & augment tiger population. In 2006, there were 1,411 tigers, which increased to 1,706 in 2010 and 2,226 in 2014. The 2018 Tiger census, which has commenced in Feb 2018, is expected to cross 3000.

No matter what has happened with Avni, we have to give it to the successive governments for their tiger protection & conservation efforts, which have yielded results and will continue to do so. India has added nearly 1600 of the tigers since 2004 so I’m sure it was a well thought out decision to kill this one.

Further, villagers closest to the nature reserves are the ones who are the state’s biggest support when it comes to tiger conservation. It is these people who give instant reports to rangers when they see poachers enter a reserve or leave a reserve with an animal (dead or alive). These villagers truly care about protecting the animals not only for natural reasons but also because their livelihoods are dependant on tourists who come to visit the reserves. If these villagers are the ones who were being killed / affected by Avni and hence they complained, I am glad the state has acted on their complaints.

Let’s keep all this in mind & not all go full-throated rudaali on a knee-jerk reaction just because a dangerous animal had to (unfortunately) be killed.

P.S. While we mourn Avni, let’s celebrate another awesome tigress – Maya, who has been greatly responsible for re-populating Tadoba! These are some photos I had clicked of her in Jan 2015!!!

 

– Project was launched on October 31, 2013. Construction began a little over 2 yrs later.

– The statue has been designed by Padma Bhushan winning sculptor Ram Sutar and has been primarily built by Larsen and Toubro supported by the state-run Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd.