Coronavirus Part - 42, Leaving to Fate, Building Great Organisation, Great Country i.e. U.S.

 

               The covid-19 cases in the country have once again started to rise slightly. The average of the cases for the last 7 days rose to 38 thousand from 33 thousand last week. The active cases in the country also rose from 3.53 lakh to 3.68 lakh. The daily cases are rising and the active cases are rising after a drop for past many weeks. Does this rise signify anything and requires caution? It doesn’t mean much to the country except a state which is evolving to be the single big containment zone. The main contributor is the state of Kerala which accounts for nearly 70% of the daily cases in the country for the past few days and has more than 2 lakh active cases. It is intriguing to see why a single state is causing daily infections more than 30 thousand for the past three days accounting for more than 70% of the total. More than 55% of the active cases lie with the state.

               The numbers without this state speak a completely different story. If left unleashed, this boom in the state can ring-in warning bells by catching up to the rest of the country. The evolving situation for the past three months and more warrants a much better covid-management in the state. I was intrigued why Maharashtra is contributing heftily to the tally for a prolonged time. It still logs way more than any other state except Kerala to be at second place.  The same conundrum spread to Kerala. Except this constant podium-placed states, the rest of the country fares far better than the overall picture. But why is this prolonged covid-mismanagement happening in these two south-western states. Is it mismanagement or the fate written this way.

                U.S. has its worst covid-fate written in the entire world that no one can do anything about it. Is it the same ill-fate for these two states or gross mismanagement? On one side, you have the world’s best country and on the other hand you have the India’s economic capital state and another affluent, educated, God’s own state. The best in the country have fared not so well in covid management. Those responsible must immediately spend all the efforts, resources available on these two states and arrest the spread. When I said, I leave myself to destiny, others criticised saying we should have full control on our life. Going with it, why can’t we control the pandemic even after so many months? Even with vastly improved vaccination, testing, and treatment in place why does it take years or months of peak numbers. Whatever may be the case, Maharashtra has observed extended first wave whereas Kerala is going through prolonged second wave.  It appears the covid-management in India is a lottery – those with luck will hit it, others don’t.

                  Moving ahead, the country needs to vaccinate these two states on war-footing. In Kerala, just 27% of eligible population received both the doses whereas it is a low 16% in Maharashtra. Maharashtra is in red zone of pandemic since year and a half.  Vaccines are available since 9 months. Crores of vaccines are produced in the very state and distributed globally. Still the full vaccination is a poor, dismal 16% in the state which is beyond explanation and comprehension. Why the major portion of vaccines can’t be supplied directly to home first as the home is burning. Since enough doses will be available in immediate future, these two states need to be vaccinated to 100% in the next one month by acting with urgency.

              As far as vaccination in the country is concerned, 63 crore doses are given till date and 5 crore in the last week alone.  7-day average is 71 lakh which is highest by far, coming on the back of registering more than 1 crore in a single day on 27^th Aug. This is an important area which has to be driven by multiple fronts and from multiple sides to gather speed in the next few months.  On my part, I volunteered in few of these vaccination drives putting lot of efforts and we saw a good turnout. The model is corporate-funded private procured doses distributed for free to the public. Government need not be the sole-owner to fund the free vaccines, need not distribute alone, need not be a public employee to take up this huge task to vaccinate the country. As mentioned, this needs to be tackled in multiple fronts by all entities for vaccinating 130 crore in lowest possible time. Still the proportion of private participation is very nominal and minimal. This can become 50:50 or more of Public-private participation (PPP). The government need to embrace private and the private need to embrace the general citizens, decreasing the burden on a single entity and making way for PPP model.

               Moving on to other areas, let me drift onto my professional work. My larger motive at work is to act on two mission statements: 1. The well-being of my working industry in general and every other organisation 2. To strengthen and place my organisation as an industry leader. Talking about the first point, we don’t want to create a single winner but everyone in the field must do well. This is no place for monopoly but a level playing field involving competition creating delight to customers. I don’t work for my organisation alone but for the industry as a whole – like saying I don’t work for India alone but India and other countries as well. I wish and work for the good of every player in the industry – employees, organisations, customers, from a good platform.

               As I read somewhere, life is not about a job, it’s about purpose. My higher purpose and the circle of influence is what motivates me to give the best every day. Our job is not just limited to typing and clicking, its way more than that. We are not just confined to working on a system and do a student’s job. Its way more than that. I encourage all the next generation smart and sharp employees to participate in this shared purpose. We need to work for the good of ourselves, our organisation, our communities, our industry, our nation and the world at large to create a just place for everyone find their purpose. The scope is infinite and sky is the limit for our work. When we are working for the good of every entity, we inadvertently become leaders in our field which is the second statement that follows the first.

               On the output front, the job of a software employee lies in creating great applications that transform the landscape of a customer and his customers. Two such applications which have huge value-add to the government and public are GST and income tax portals of Government of India. Every month lakhs of crores of rupees are being handled by these applications making it a seamless experience for the government and public to pay taxes and file for returns. The digitalisation of the mode of operations is an ongoing activity which should provide great outcomes to everyone.

                Reflecting back on the recent Taliban takeover of the Afghanistan episode, let us remember five things about the Taliban: 1. The hardline Islamic Taliban movement swept to power in Afghanistan in 1996 after the civil war which followed the Soviet-Afghan war, and were ousted by the US-led invasion five years later. 2. In power, they imposed a brutal version of Sharia law, such as public executions and amputations, and banned women from public life. 3. Men had to grow beards and women to wear the all-covering burka; television, music and cinema were banned. 4. They sheltered al-Qaeda leaders before and after being ousted - since then they have fought a bloody insurgency and claimed back power 5. In the 20 years of militant insurgency, 75,000 each of civilians and Afghan security force members lost their life, 84,191 fighters of Taliban are killed,3586 foreign forces also lost their lives.

                This is how bad the Taliban are, who are responsible for the loss of many lives, displacing millions of people. Five points of observation in this context: 1.There is nothing wrong in what the U.S. did. They just retaliated for the brutal 9/11 which they have to. 2. Living by their own ways, the Taliban never really mended and continued to attack the new government backed by western forces. 3. Militants are also men and women who behave the way they do, as the society gives them an opening. 4. The U.S. couldn’t have prevented the Taliban takeover with a mere 3000 forces when 70% of the 4 crore population are under Taliban control. 5. Finally, the great country that is U.S. is helping to evacuate thousands of Afghanis who do not want to live under hard-line Taliban regime.

                Let us see what could have prevented the Taliban takeover. As the world’s best country, the U.S. should have been more assertive with its Afghan policy. They should not have pulled back forces but rather strongly believed in its actions and rallied support from other countries for doing the right thing. They are the true leaders of the world in truest sense and could have helped create a proper, legitimate regime in Afghanistan. As a noble country, it could have reigned in a peaceful, calm, harmless country for the crores of Afghanis. They could have championed the human cause more than anything else and solved this problem by firmly believing in its policy.