by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate
Govt. Hospital in Bhopal
By Pervez Bari
BHOPAL: When the lives of one and all are at stake courtesy Corona virus human vultures have become active to take advantage of the prevailing precarious situation all around.
While, Covid active cases have jumped by whopping 1000 per cent in just a month from around 5000 to close 60,000. On March 15, 2021 there were only 5024 active cases in Madhya Pradesh. A month on, there are a total of 59183 active cases in the state – a 10-fold increase in just one month.
Despite tall claims by the Madhya Pradesh Government the medical services of small districts seem to have gone downhill in the state because of the rising number of Corona cases. There are 18 districts where the number of cases is more than 1,000.
In such a hazardous environment a total of 863 life-saving Remdesivir injections were stolen from the Madhya Pradesh-run Hamidia Hospital here on Saturday. The 18 boxes containing these injections went missing from the store-room when a team of employees of the hospital went to issue the drug for the patients. The thieves did not steal any other drug or medical item from the store-room and the police concluded that they had only one target—Remdesivir.
Madhya Pradesh Minister for Medical Education Vishwas Sarang, divisional commissioner Kavindra Kiyawat, deputy inspector general (DIG) Irshad Wali and other senior officials rushed the spot after the news broke. Vishwas Sarang said that an inquiry into the incident was underway. He said they would ensure such incidents were not repeated in future.
The stock of 1,500 Remdesivir injections was supplied to Hamidia Hospital on Thursday by the Bhopal district administration. The remaining injections were used and 863 injections were stored in the Central Medical Store (Kendriya Aushadhi Bhandar) from where the thieves made off with the boxes. The grill of the store was damaged and the police suspect the thieves made their way through it into the room.
According to reports, after the theft, there is no injection left with Hamidia Hospital and the district administration has to ensure immediate supply. A patient requires 6 injections and the missing stock could have been used on 145 patients.
At a time when deaths are occurring due to a shortage of Remdesivir injections, the huge stock of injections went missing from the store-room of the hospital. The store-room was closed around 7 in the evening. On Saturday, the incident came to light. The grill of store room was broken by the thieves. However, the police were clueless as they could not find any CCTV footage from the spot. The police also suspect someone from the staff was involved in the crime.
The Hamidia Hospital administration carried out searches inside the compound, but to no avail. The shortage of Remdesivir had made headlines and, recently, these injections were sent to Bhopal and other districts.
As the accused made off with only Remdesivir and did not steal any other object, it was clear that their target was Remdesivir injections. The government has fallen short of Remdesivir and several patients have died in the past for lack of it. The injections are being sold at 10 times higher rates in the black market due to the shortage.
Bhopal’s private hospitals still face acute shortage
Meanwhile, acute crisis of Remdesivir injections continues in private hospitals in the state capital Bhopal. Due to this, family members of the Covid patients are moving from pillar to post for making arrangement for Remdesivir. The health department has ordered stockists to supply the injection directly to the hospitals. Even then, the crisis has not been solved. Remdesivir injection is given for protection of lungs from Covid virus. But now, it is being given after certain stage of the Covid patients.
As per private hospitals, if 40 Remdesivir injections are demanded from the stockists, only 10 injections are supplied. This is the condition of Remdesivir supply in the state capital. It is a challenging task for private hospitals to make arrangement for the injection. JK Hospital and Sidhdhanta Hospital have shed lights on acute supply of Remdesivir injection. JK Hospital management said that there is shortage of injection for the Covid patients.
Earlier, government had taken control of the supply of Remdesivir and the private hospitals were supplied as per their requirements. Now, the stockists have been instructed to supply directly to the private hospitals.
According to Dr. Subodh Varshney of a private Sidhdhanta Hospital there is acute crisis of Remdesivir injection. Even after direct supply from stockists, crisis of Remdesivir has not been solved. Private hospitals are not getting injections as per requirements, leading to acute crisis of Remdesivir injections.
Health services go downhill
Meanwhile, despite tall claims by the Madhya Pradesh Government the medical services of small districts seem to have gone downhill because of the rising number of Corona cases. There are 18 districts where the number of cases is more than 1,000. Because of the mounting corona patients, the health system in the districts is staggering. Besides Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur, the condition of seven districts is worsening with each passing day.
The number of cases has crossed 1,000 in Ujjain, Ratlam, Sagar, Rewa, Khargon, Vidisha, Betul, Rewa, Narsinghpur, Balaghat, Katni, Raisen, Rajgarh and Shahapur. In these small districts, the health services count on district hospital and nursing homes.
The patients are not getting treatment because of the sudden rise in number of cases in these districts. Patients are coming from the cities and villages of these districts. Nevertheless, there are many who have not been tested. Such patients are not on records. Because of the rising number of patients, beds in hospitals, as well as other medical facilities, are not available in these districts. There is also a lack of facilities in the districts where medical colleges were set up.
The local doctors advise the patients to go to Bhopal or to Indore for treatment. Those who are seriously ill are moving from one place to another to save their lives. Residents of the districts where doctors are not available are left to the mercy of God.
Former minister Sukhdev Panse says the condition of patients in Betul has worsened. According to him, the Coronavirus is consuming more than 100 lives every day, but the government is hiding the figures of death. Panse says beds, oxygen and ventilators are not available, as the hospitals are not being given funds for buying medicine and equipment.
Mahant & 100 disciples C+ after returning from Kumbh
Meanwhile, local Gufa Mandir Mahant Pt. Chandrama Das Tyagi and his over 100 disciples are Covid positive after returning from Haridwar Kumbh. Tyagi is himself undergoing treatment in Paliwal Hospital while disciples are undergoing in various hospitals.
Besides, Madhya Pradesh has reported 11269 corona cases with 21.4 per cent Corona positive rate on Saturday. The state reported inflection tally to 3,95,832 and active cases went to 63,889. Toll went to 4491 with 66 new deaths. Around 52,568 samples were sent for testing while 441 samples were rejected at time of testing.
Indore reported 1656 Corona cases and its tally to 87,625 and toll to 1040 while Bhopal tally went to 66891. Indore active cases went to 10,605 and Bhopal active cases went to 8539.
Jabalpur reported 798 corona cases with 4209 active cases and Gwalior reported 985 corona cases with 5130. Ujjain reported 323 Corona cases with 2311 active cases while Ratlam reported 195 corona cases with 1026 active cases and Sagar reported 324 Corona cases with 1426 active cases. Betul reported 255 Corona cases with 1308 active cases while Rewa reported 315 corona cases with 1439 active cases and Dhar reported 170 corona cases with 696 active cases.
Adjacent districts of state capital like Vidisha reported 193 Corona cases with 1179 active cases while Sehore reported 120 Corona cases with 543 active cases and Raisen reported 183 Corona cases with 1096 active cases. Satna reported 183 Corona cases with 896 active cases and Shivpuri reported 157 Corona cases and 818 active cases.
Maha Govt. puts pressure to stop concentrator supply to MP
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Government is mounting pressure on companies to stop supply of oxygen concentrators to Madhya Pradesh. The issue came to light at a review meeting held by state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday. At the meeting, the officials informed Chouhan that the Maharashtra government had already asked a few firms in Maharashtra to stop supply of concentrators to Madhya Pradesh.
The Maharashtra government put pressure on the companies that they should cancel the orders of Madhya Pradesh for concentrators. Nearly 2,000 oxygen concentrators have already arrived in the state. And 1,300 concentrators are being bought for districts.
‘Corona curfew’ extended
Meanwhile, the lockdown christened as “Corona curfew” clamped on more than 30 districts in Madhya Pradesh will not be lifted on April 19. The restrictions will be in place to stop the rising number of patients.
The Corona curfew was going to end in Bhopal, Indore and in a few other districts from April 19.
The situation arising out of the pandemic in the districts, where the Corona curfew has not been imposed, has deteriorated. Therefore, those districts are being placed under curfew. At a meeting between Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and officers, it was decided that, the districts, where the number of cases is high, would remain under the curfew.
The Central Government has asked the states to impose corona curfew by setting up small containment zones, but, as the cases have shot up, the administration has clamped curfew on the entire district.
The Sunday lockdown began from March 21. But, after the number of patients increased, the administration decided to impose lockdown both on Saturdays and Sundays. As soon as demand came from the districts to keep the markets shut, the government gave permission to impose Corona curfew.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
Frank F. Islam
2021 began with a wave of material and dialogue on the importance of constructive civic learning and engagement to the future of our American democracy. The question is whether this wave will sweep across the country in the years to come, substantially strengthening our common purpose, or die far short of the reform shore.
America’s Civic Conundrum
The answer is most probably neither. This is the case because the wave is confronting decades of decline in civic education and citizen collaboration; an extremely polarized citizenry today; and systemic problems dating back through centuries to the founding of this nation. The conundrum created by these compounding conditions is highlighted below:
- The increased emphasis in grades K-12 on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education since the beginning of the 21st century has left little room for civic education. Recent research indicates that the federal government spends approximately $50 per student annually on STEM education versus 5 cents on civics and American history.
- In the area of civic life, Robert Putnam noted in his classic 2000 study Bowling Alone, participation in civic organizations and associations fell off substantially during the last half of the twentieth century. An excellent article by Alexandra Hudson, published in National Affairs, documents that two decades later, we Americans are still bowling alone.
- The 2020 presidential election results and the protests and refusal to accept the outcome put a spotlight on the extent to which we are polarized. The extent of this polarization is captured in a Pew research study published in the week after the election which was titled, “America is Exceptional in the Nature of Its Political Divide.”
- The finger of blame for the current divide cannot be pointed just at those of us on America’s “uncivil” war battlefield today. It can be traced back backward through the divisions of World Wars II, the Great Depression, World War I, and the Civil War, to the compromises made to establish our constitution.
- The American constitution is the greatest document in the history of democracy. It also contains the seeds for some of the conflicts that separate us today. As we noted in a blog after the 2016 presidential election, these include: the electoral college, the same number of senators for each state regardless of population, the design of electoral districts, and the 10th amendment which reserves the powers not delegated to the United States to the states, or the people.
Those are just some of the boulders through which the civic learning and engagement wave must crash to get to shore and sweep across the land. They present bad news for those idealistic optimists looking for, or anticipating, a complete turnaround in America’s civic life. On the other hand, they represent good news for the pragmatic realists who understand that progress in these United States, no matter how difficult the impediments, can come through a solid plan combined with patience, pluck, and perseverance.
Patriotic Education Begone
The better news, still relatively early in this new year, is that one of the worst ideas proposed for civic education for America in 2020 has been crushed and is no longer even a wavelet. That’s former President Trump’s call during his re-election campaign for a national program of “patriotic education.”
Trump first proposed this concept on Constitution Day, September 17, 2020, when he announced that he would be creating a 1776 commission to craft a pro-American curriculum to “restore patriotic education to our schools.” The patriotic education initiative appears to have been conceived primarily as a pushback against essays published as part the New York Times “1619 Project” series.
Those 1619 Project essays reframed history based upon a retelling of the slavery story and its role in the establishment and evolution of this country. There have been concerns raised about the accuracy of some of the 1619 Projects analyses. But there is agreement among most experts that there’s a need to ensure that our civic education in the future needs to be factual, inclusive and inquiry-based.
The proposed patriotic education program would not have been that. In truth, it would not have not been civic education at all.
It would have been an indoctrination program of selective information. Programs of this type exist in authoritarian and totalitarian regimes around the world. They elevate conformity and blind allegiance, rather than independent thinking and civic values. Patriotic education would have moved this democracy backward rather than forward.
The Democracy Wave
Three recent publications lay out processes and actions for moving our democracy forward:
- Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century (Our Common Purpose) released by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in June 2020 “…includes six strategies and 31 ambitious recommendations to help the nation emerge as a more resilient democracy by 2026, the nation’s 250th anniversary.” The focus of these strategies and recommendations is on citizens, communities, and political institutions.
- Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy (Roadmap), released in March 2021, “provides a framework for improvement in history and civics learning with the goal of supporting the development of all students into prepared, informed and engaged citizens.” This report was prepared by a team comprised of representatives from iCivics, Harvard University, Arizona State University, and Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life and its Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement.
- CivXNow Federal Policy Agenda (Federal Policy Agenda) focuses on civic education, outlining eight recommendations for improving K-12 civic education recognizing “…that civic education, equitably delivered, is a critical component of rebuilding the civic strength of our country.” CivXNow is a large cross-partisan coalition of organizations convened by iCivics. The CivXNow Coalition was instrumental in getting the Educating for Democracy Act introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in September 2020.
These publications and numerous others, in conjunction with the unpatriotic behavior of those misguided and misinformed citizens who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, have created a positive momentum and helped to advance the civic learning and engagement movement in 2021.
Much is being done to build on the platforms provided by the Our Common Purpose, Roadmap, and Federal Policy Agenda reports.
(1) The Library of Congress is sponsoring a three-event series called “Our Common Purpose — A Campaign for Our Civic Strength at the Library of Congress,” which includes
The series is being hosted by Danielle Allen, Director of Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, and a co-editor of the Our Common Purpose report.
Each event is preceded by a workshop for K-12 educators and public librarians. Later in the year, the Library will reach out to public librarians with follow-up activities directed at helping them assist citizens of all ages
(2) The Roadmap provides national guidelines for history and civics that state and local educators can use to develop their curricula and lesson plans for grades K-12. They have been created in an attempt to blend traditional knowledge regarding topics such as voting and government, to facilitate inquiry into and discussion of difficult topics such as racism, and to contribute to the skills needed for civic engagement.
These new guidelines try to thread the needle. As Stephen Sawchuk reports in his article for Education Week:
The new guidelines, developed by a national panel of dozens of academics, educators, and civic nonprofit leaders, center on the idea of “reflective patriotism”: that students should learn to feel committed to this country and the ideals it purports to represent, while also questioning, critiquing, and holding the powerful to account when it fails to live up to those ideals.
They state that students should learn about the importance of civic participation, the founding of American democracy, and the notion that civil disagreement is baked into the U.S. Constitution and is part of the American experiment.
They are guidelines and not standards. Time will tell the degree to which they will be accepted and/or implemented.
(3) The civics initiative that would undoubtedly have the greatest impact in the civic learning and engagement arena is the Civics Secures Democracy Act (Civics Secures or Act). This Act was re-introduced in the House by Rosa de Lauro (D-CT), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Tom Cole (R-OK), and Senate by John Cornyn (R-TX) and Chris Coons (D-DE), on March 11. It is a retitled and slightly revised version of the Educating for Democracy Act introduced in 2020.
Civics Secures is definitely a middle of the road piece of legislation crafted to maximize bipartisan support and its potential of being passed and becoming a law. Notably, the Act prohibits using funds for the development of any national curriculum in American history or civic education.
Other key elements of the Act include:
- New grant programs for state and local education agencies
- $1 billion in spending for the next six fiscal years for grants to states, institutions of higher education, qualified nonprofits and research
- Funding for non-profit entities to develop or expand access to evidence-based curricula, instructional models and other educational programs
- Grants for higher education institutions to assist in developing and training elementary and secondary school teachers
Civics Secures is a comprehensive and moderate piece of educational legislation not requiring or mandating any state, local, or educational institution to introduce any radical or far-left concepts. Nonetheless, it has already generated opposition from the conservative side of the street.
Writing for the conservative National Review, Stanley Kurtz opens his article, titled “The Greatest Educational Battle of Our Lifetimes,” as follows: “With last week’s introduction in Congress of the misleadingly named Civics Secures Democracy Act, we are headed toward an epic clash over the spread of uber-controversial pedagogies — Critical Race Theory and Action Civics — to America’s classrooms.” Later on, Kurtz opines, “Because this new legislation is a backdoor effort to impose a national curriculum in the politically charged subject areas of history and civics, the battle will rage in the states, at the federal level, and between the states and the federal government as well.”
Kurtz reads into the legislation nothing that is actually there and uses his own filter to interpret its intent and utilization. Unfortunately, he is probably not alone in his perspective and there will no doubt be opposition to the passage of this bipartisan and benign piece of legislation. That’s why it will take some time and possibly this entire year to work its way through Congress, if it manages to do so.
Time to Catch the Wave
In conclusion, attention has been called to the need to address this civic alienation and political divides throughout this century. For example, the need to enhance and make our civic education more effective has been on the nation’s radar screen since 2003, when the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Center for Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University released a seminal report, The Civic Mission of Schools, identifying this as an critical issue.
In 2011, Guardian of Democracy was released as a successor to that Report.
In 2012, the Department of Education, under the Obama administration, released a Road Map and a Call to Action for Advancing Civic Learning and Engagement in Democracy. In 2013, the American Academy’s Commission on Humanities and Social Studies issued a report stressing the need to expand the educational envelope beyond STEM to include civic education.
In 2017 the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation convened a national summit, Democracy at A Crossroad: Our Nation Needs Innovative Civic Learning Now. In 2018, the Brown Center for Education at the Brookings Institution released its 2018 Report on American Education, which in its second chapter indicated there was considerable room for improvement in states’ civic education requirements.
In 2020 and 2021, there are more reports and there is a growing civics wave in this country, building upon but different than the waves of the past two decades.
This wave is neither a blue wave nor a red wave. It is purple wave. It is a wave to try to bring us together, not to create the perfect union but a more perfect union.
It is a wave that has been constructed by folks from across the political spectrum to address an intensifying civic illness that has grown more apparent and devastating for this country in this 21st century. It is a wave we all should be able to ride together to inoculate ourselves against that which separates us and to unite us in pursuit of the common good.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown there are many of our fellow citizens who will not grasp the serious and authenticity of very real problems and refuse to become part of the solution by getting vaccines and following guidelines that prevent an illness from getting worse.
It must be expected that there are citizens who will do the same with regard to the need to improve civic learning and engagement for the future of this country. They will deny and do nothing — or, even worse, do things such as suppressing voting rights to make our civic life more unfair. There will be others — “reflective patriots” — who will come onto the playing field to make a positive difference.
We believe those reflective patriots will prevail. We share Alexandra Hudson’s view, who comments:
American civic life — as measured by a variety of metrics at earlier points in American history, at the time of Putnam’s writing, and today — has endured ebbs and flows, dissipation and re-invention, offering reason to have faith in the resilience of America’s civic tradition. In short, we have always been, and in our own way still are, the “nation of joiners” that historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr., and Alexis de Tocqueville before him, praised. For all its troubles, our civic life is still full of the potential for renewal.
We believe that there will be more of us who will surf that purple wave than will not. If they do not, we can wave goodbye to our American democracy.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Employment, News
Foreign Minister of Bangladesh A.K. Abdul Momen (Internet Photo)
Such remarks from a friendly country are ‘unacceptable’, says Foreign Minister of Bangladesh A.K. Abdul Momen
NEW DELHI — Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent remark that people of Bangladesh come to India because they don’t have enough to eat in their country has caused a fresh row between two friendly countries.
The Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, A.K. Abdul Momen, has responded by saying that the minister’s knowledge of Bangladesh was “limited”. According to Dhaka-based daily Prothom Alo, Momen also said that such remarks from a friendly country are “unacceptable”
Earlier, in December 2019, Shah’s remarks in Parliament during debate over Citizenship Amendment Bill had caused at least three Bangladeshi ministers to cancel scheduled trips to India.
“There are many wise people in this world, some who don’t want to see even after looking, they don’t want to understand even after knowing about it. But, if he (Amit Shah) has said that, I would say that his knowledge about Bangladesh is limited. Nobody dies of hunger in Bangladesh. There are no Monga (seasonal poverty and hunger in northern districts of Bangladesh),” Momen said when his attention was drawn towards Shah’s interview to Kolkata’s Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika.
“Monga” is a seasonal phenomenon of poverty and hunger that affects people in the northern districts of Bangladesh.
Shah, who is currently busy electioneering in West Bengal, told Patrika interviewer last week that his Bharatiya Janata Party will stop infiltration from Bangladesh if it comes to power in West Bengal. Taking action against Bangladeshi infiltrators is one of the major poll promises of his party in the ongoing West Bengal Assembly elections. Several BJP leaders, including Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have repeatedly addressed the matter in election rallies.
Bangladesh rejects any suggestion that its nationals infiltrate into India. Momen stressed that Bangladesh was ahead of India on many social indices. “While almost 90 per cent of the people in Bangladesh use fairly good latrines, over 50 per cent people in India do not have proper toilets,” he said.
Momen also reminded Shah that over one lakh people from India work in Bangladesh. “We do not need to go to India,” he said.
In December 2019 and January 2020, Bangladesh called off a total of four high-level interactions with India in the span of 30 days. Soon after Parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill, Bangladesh Home and Foreign Ministers cancelled their respective visits and, a week later, talks over the sharing of river data were also cancelled. This was followed a month later by Bangladesh Deputy Foreign Minister Shahriar Alam cancelling his visit to India.
The cancellations came amid tension between the two countries over the contentious citizenship law and NRC exercise (National Register of Citizens), as well as Amit Shah’s allegations of minorities being targeted by the Bangladeshi government. New Delhi later clarified that Shah’s remarks were meant for “abuse took place during previous government and military rule”.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Opinions
Frank F. Islam
My faith firmly believes in equality, dignity, compassion, respect, tolerance, justice and peace for other faiths, writes Frank F Islam
Over a billion Muslims around are the world are observing the holy month of Ramadan, a 30-day serenity period that comes along with unprecedented philanthropic work and 360-degree development. Muslim communities, here in United States where I live, and around the world, mark this month with devotion, civic activities and philanthropic works.
Ramadan is a month of fasting devoted to remembering the revelation of the Quran to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Ramadan is frequently referred to as the “best of times”. That’s not because we Muslims enjoy fasting, but because of the central importance of the Quran to our religion.
Ramadan is a 30-day period of deeply spiritual time of reflection and recommitment and a special time for giving. This is our chance not only be grateful for all the blessings we have been allotted, but an opportunity to give to those who are poor, who are hungry, who are less fortunate and who have no means to break the fast.
I like to call it a 360-degree development model – spiritual, social, intellectual and emotional. During the entire month of Ramadan, we engage in fasting from sunrise to sunset to renew our faith and to redirect our thoughts from focusing only on daily activities in order to reflect upon and do things to benefit society and most importantly to help others who are in need. We break the fast in the evening with a meal called the Iftar.
After the 360-degree personal development, here comes the social aspect: philanthropic works and civic engagements.
Prophetic saying ‘Give charity, even it is a piece of date,’ encourages even the marginalized segment to engage in philanthropy. This very philanthropic dimension ignites a bright light inside us to celebrate and recognize the civic engagement of our Muslim Community members here in the United States as well as other countries.
In my opinion, civic engagement takes five primary forms:
Individual – being the best one can be and personally responsible for one’s actions
Organizational – contributing to the success of the groups (e.g., business, religion, associations) to which one belongs
Political – participating in those processes that shape the structure and nature of government
Community – collaborating to make the locale and the world in which we live a better place
Social – advocating for justice and equality of treatment and opportunity for all
The members of our Muslim community here in the United States are heavily engaged and involved in activities in each of these areas.
Being a Muslim has taught me many things – but the most important is that the whole purpose of religion is to provide justice and a path to justice for all of us.
That includes animals and nature itself. According to the Holy Qur’an, God asked “Who will take care of all of my Creation. The mountains said the task was too great; even the angels declined to take on the challenge. But then Man jumped up and said ‘We will take care’. So, we made a contract with God to protect his Creation.”
I have learned as a Muslim to believe in the unity of all creation and that everything and everyone is a reflection of God on earth. Because of that I have also learned that there are just people and that just people do just things.
I treasure my faith. My faith firmly believes in equality, dignity, compassion, respect, tolerance, justice and peace for other faiths.
My faith keeps me calm and provides me with a sense of optimism that gives me peace. With my personal peace, I can work with others of different faiths and different creeds for peace and to build stronger communities.
I ask all of you to remember the fundamental acceptance of the equality of other religions by not looking to the heavens and to the Gods whom we worship but by looking at the earth and people and family that we are. We need to strengthen the bonds that binds us as one family. Our relationship should not be defined by differences but what we can do together by being difference makers.
All of us are indeed doing God’s work. Not the work of your God or the work of my God, but the work of our God – our God as members of the same universal spiritual family.
I urge all Muslims to use this Ramadan period to renew our commitment to 360-degree personal development and increase our involvement in civic activities. Let’s make this Ramadan a life-changing period for ourselves and people around us!
(The writer Is an entrepreneur, civic and thought leader based in Washington DC. The views are personal)
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Business Summit, Events, Social Round-up
Remarks Given By Frank F. Islam To 9th All India Minorities Business Summit & National Brand Awards on Trends, Challenges & Opportunities post Covid-19 24th January 2021
Frank F. Islam delivering online speech at 9th All India Minorities Business Summit & National Brand Awards on Trends, Challenges & Opportunities post Covid-19
Distinguished Guests; Awardees; Friends; Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you for that kind introduction. It is my pleasure and privilege to be here to address all of you again for the All Minorities Business Summit and Awards ceremony.
First, thanks to Danish Reyaz for his leadership on this event and inviting me to speak on this special occasion.
I spoke at the 8thAll Minorities Summit in 2019 during very different times. The title for my remarks then was Entrepreneurial Leadership and Civic Engagement. The title for this talk as we look back on the extremely trying and challenging and turbulent times wrought by the coronavirus pandemic and look forward to the times ahead is Business Trends, Challenges & Opportunities post Covid-19.
At the outset, I must say that while that is the title for my comments this year, during these transitional times we also need entrepreneurial leadership and civic engagement. In fact, we need it more than ever. I explain why this is in the final part of my speech.
I will provide my remarks in three parts:
- Part 1: The Impact of and Challenges Created by Covid-19
- Part 2: TheBusiness Opportunities Created by Covid-19
- Part 3: Entrepreneurial Leadership and Civic Engagement
That is my outline and I will adhere to it. Let me begin though with a saying that I think is most important for today. That saying is “When the going gets tough. The tough gets going.”
As minority entrepreneurs and business people, I know that you are tough.
You were not born with a silver spoon in your mouth. You probably couldn’t get a bank loan and had to finance the start-up of your own business but had to do that yourself and with the help of friends and family. My guess is that you probably had some sleepless nights, as I did with my business, as you worked with your team to ensure that your business would make it through its start-up year and be successful in the long run.
Through those trying times, you stayed tough and that is why I know you and your businesses will be central to ensuring the recovery of the Indian economy post Covid-19.
Part 1: The Impact of and Challenges Created by Covid-19
That said, let me now turn to the impact and challenges created by covid-19. The across the board impact was the shutdown and lockdown of the economies in India, the United States, and around the world. Those shutdowns and lockdowns caused millions of businesses to close, employees to be laid off, economic collapse and enormous pain and suffering in all nations.
The impact has varied considerably by industry segment. Research from the U.S. on small business – and from the littledata I have seen from other countries – shows that:
- The industry segments hurt the most and which remain hurting are: accommodation and food services, arts, entertainment and recreation, health care, personal services, and education.
- The industry segments which were hurt initially but seem to be coming back now include: retail and wholesale trade, transportation, and manufacturing.
- Those industry segment which appear to have been hurt the least by the pandemic include: information technology, professional services, utilities, finance and insurance, and construction.
That is a general overview of the impact of covid-19. Each of you in this audience know what that negative impact has been and the challenges that covid-19 has created for you and your business.
Covid has created many challenges both great and small. I want to highlight three. They are: The struggle for survival. Maintaining relations with customers and clients. And, modifying the business model.
As I briefly discuss these challenges, I ask you to reflect on what you did with your business to carry it through these turbulent times.
Without question the biggest challenge for many businesses was the struggle for survival. Keeping the doors open, if that was possible for your business, or if it was not securing the necessary resources to keep the business afloat until it was possible to reopen.
Sadly, many businesses in India, U.S. and around the world did not meet this challenge. Millions of once-viable businesses are no longer with us. The fact that you are at this Summit attests that you and your business did that and are preparing to thrive rather than merely survive in the years to come.
One of keys to survival was meeting the challenge of maintaining relations with key customers and employees. Notice I said maintaining those relations. The pandemic made it essential for businesses to reach out to those customers and employees and to reassure them that the business valued them and would do whatever it took to keep the relationship in place.
For many businesses, this necessitated communicating electronically rather than in person. Some businesses were already adept at this. Others modified their business model and ramped up quickly to enter the on-line world.
Modifying the business model is the third challenge I wantto emphasize. For some businesses, it meant moving to a virtual communication mode. For others, it required delivering goods or services to a customer’s home. For others, it meant reducing hours of operation, the level of staffing, or the very nature of the goods or servicesprovided themselves.
It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. The pandemic required businesses to be inventive by finding and implementing new ways of doing things in incredibly short time periods and under enormously stressful circumstances.
I know that the Award winners andall of you in this audience havedone this.You are here because you have met and mastered these challenges. I applaud you for that.
Part 2: Business Opportunities Created by the Pandemic
Enough for the challenges or what I would call the dark side of the pandemic. Let me flip the light switch and look at the bright side. What are the opportunities that have been created by covid-19?
There are three industry segments that have had the greatest advantage because of the opportunities presented by the pandemic. They are: technology – especially big technology; streaming services; and, delivery services.
As the pandemic forced people to stay home and go online rather than to go out, it rapidly accelerated the growth and profits of the big five technology companies: Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Google. They now account for approximately 22 percent of the S & P 500 – never before have 5 companies been so dominant on Wall Street.
The pandemic also caused movie theaters and entertainment venues to close and drove the growth of people watching online streaming of videos rather than just watching traditional cable TV at-home. Big businesses such as NBC Universal and WarnerMedia launched new services.
Performers and others established their own sites to do streaming as well. And, of course, there was the explosive growth of the zoom video communication services which became a primary source of communications contact for millions of people and businesses around the world.
Finally, the pandemic made home-delivery a high growth industry for delivering everything from groceries to meals to medical supplies. There were big players in this segment such as Uber and Doordash. It was also a segment for a lot of small players in urban areas as they carved out neighborhoods and communities for their delivery.
Those are the big three opportunity areas. Let me now focus on five opportunity areas that the pandemic has made especially promising for small businesses. They are: telemedicine; educational technology; supply chain management; physical fitness; and e-business.
I assume that some – perhaps many – of you may have already modified your business model to incorporate some aspect of the big three opportunity areas of technology, video communications or delivery services that I have described. As I review, these small business opportunity areas I would ask you to consider whether they or some spin off might have potential for you.
There are numerous opportunities in each of the small business areas. I will highlight some online and technology ones.
In telemedicine, there is a need for customer service, health report maintenance, and medical assistance solutions. In educational technology, there is a need for on-line curriculum, learning management software, and virtual classroom apps. In supply chain management there is a need for needs assessment, supply tracking, and delivery management solutions. In physical fitness, there is a need for instructional videos, equipment redesign for use at home, and health improvement progress monitoring tools. In e-commerce, there is a need for new apps and virtual solutions across a wide variety of industries including finance, insurance, retail, media and marketing.
Those are just the tip of the business opportunities iceberg that have been created by covid-19. The list goes on and on. For me to be exhaustive on themwould be exhausting.
Part 3: Entrepreneurial Leadership and Civic Engagement
Therefore, rather than continuing todiscuss those generic opportunities. I will shift to part three of my talk and to discussing your role and responsibilities in entrepreneurial leadership and civic engagement.
Entrepreneurial leadership and civic engagement are always important. Given the current condition of India’s economy and the additional harm that has been created by covid-19, the importance of leadership and engagement is orders of magnitude greater.
As you all are painfully aware, India’s economy shrank 7.5 percent in the three months that ended in September. This moved India into its most severe recession since at least 1996.
The economic decline and covid-19 have had a devasting effect on West Bengal just as it has in all the states of India. Professor Mahmood provided excellent insights on that impact in his remarks on West Bengal so there is no need for me to go into detail on that impact here.
What I will do is to outline a singular opportunity which exists for you in each of your businesses. This opportunity exists regardless of your industry segment.It is to do what I call “breakaway planning.”
Breakaway planning has two dimensions. The first is planning to put your company or a new business start-up in the forefront of its industry segment. The second is to do this by enabling the local economy to breakaway from the grip of the covid-19 pandemic.
The covid-19 crisis presents both an opportunity and threat. I would note that the Chinese symbol for opportunity and threat is the same.
Breakaway planning ensures that covid-19 is converted to an opportunity. It allows you to take what could be a once in a lifetime chance to review, revise and revamp the business model of your company because of the destabilizing conditions created by the pandemic.
The essential elements of breakaway planning are the classic components of traditional strategic planning. They are conducting an environmental scan and doing a Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis.
In the environmental scan, you thoroughly and critically examine your firm’s customer environment, competitor environment, physical environment, legal environment, political environment, social environment, technological environment, and economic environment to determine what has changed because of the coronavirus. In the SWOT analysis, you assess your firm’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to determine how they have changed because of the coronavirus.
Based upon the results of those assessments, youdecide whether your businessdelivery approach and core business functions should be altered. And, you determine whether there are business lines be dropped or new business lines be developed to ensure that your business thrives over the next 3 to 5 years. The final part of this planning is to determine how your businesses can contribute to the recovery and rebounding of the economies and communities in which you do business.
Breakaway planning takes your business beyond the survival planning that you had to do at the onset of covid-19. It is planning to position your business for success as covid-19 winds down and post COVID.
Breakaway planning is the right tool for entrepreneurial leaders. As I explained at the 8th summit, entrepreneurial leaders are dreamers who dare. They are seekers who seize the moment and take calculated risks to create the enterprises and jobs of the future.
All of you participating in this Summit are Minorities and are entrepreneurial leaders. You have proven that because of your substantial accomplishments.
As I said at the outset, you are tough and daring. Entrepreneurial leaders are also tender and caring. They demonstrate those traits through their civic engagement.
Through their civic engagement they work for country and community welfare and promote economic and social equity. The pandemic has made your civic engagement more important because it has most severely impacted minorities, females and others who are lower on the totem pole.
I know that those of you who are Summit award winners and all of you are at the Summit are already civically engaged. Because of the devastating impact of covid-19, there is a need to redouble your efforts to ensure that as you take your business forward you implement initiatives and take actions to move others who are less fortunate forwardas well.
I opened my comments with the statement that when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. In closing, let me share two quotes with you that I believe are also of great relevance now.
The first comes from Mahatma Gandhi who famously instructed us “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” The second comes from Dr. Martin Luther King who was a disciple of Gandhi said, “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
I am confident because of who you are as minority entrepreneurs that you have been and will continue to follow the advice of Dr. King and Mr. Gandhi. You will “walk in the light” and you will “be the change.” You will confront the challenges and create the opportunities to convert the covid-19 pandemic from a crisis toa building block for a better and braver India.
Before I close my remarks, let me state that for those award honorees, this day is your day. Let me extend my congratulations to those of you receiving the awards this evening. For those of you are not receiving the awards this evening, this day is your day also. For those in the audience who are contemplating becoming entrepreneurs, I say join us. we need you and India needs you.
Thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you. I wish you continued success in your ventures and your journey. Your success will be India’s success. God bless you for all that you have done and will do.
