Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. — Confucius
Two events of the recent past have stayed with me, and I thought I should share with you as well.
Milind Deora, the Congress candidate from Mumbai South, posted on his twitter account endorsements by Mukesh Ambani and Uday Kotak. Many thought this was interesting for a host of reasons. One, this doesn’t happen often. Two, corporate leaders are never known to speak out of turn, and are known to align with the ruling dispensation.
But why can’t corporates endorse candidates and indeed parties contesting elections? When they donate to a political party kitty, don’t they, in a way, endorse the party? The recent controversy over electoral bonds was avoidable, but I sincerely feel that transparency in public life should be encouraged. And, yes, corporates, too, should have a say in the elections. We posed this question to Harsh Mariwala, and you see his responses in this issue of BW Businessworld’s Last Word.
Another issue that has generated a lot of debate is the recent Jack Ma ‘996 missive’. The richest man in China thinks that we should work from 9 to 9, six days a week. This has created a furore in China and elsewhere. People are debating that when productivity can actually be increased by shortening the work hours, as is being experimented in many European countries, why this draconian measure?
Our first cover story has a lot to do with this. We put Byju Raveendran of Byju’s on the cover for the simple reason that he has taken the ed-tech world by storm and is now spreading wings globally to become an international leader. For a startup like Byju’s — and this applies equally well to all startups — it’s actually 996, all the time!
Having said that, Byju’s is an inspirational tale. From the backwaters of Kerala to the global stage, it’s a tribute to India’s entrepreneurial spirit. You will find the read riveting.
For our second cover, we focus on the industries that buzz non-stop during summers, now that we are approaching peak summer. We find that with some new launches lined up, both the consumer durable industry and beverages market are clocking good numbers.
We talked about the elections. In this election season, we do an in-depth story on the Congress vision and action-plan for the farm sector which has been languishing for a long time.
The grounding of Jet Airways — arguably India’s finest airline — has led to many a heartbreak. We hope that it will be up and flying soon. We do a detailed story on what led to the crisis and what possibly lies ahead.
This issue of BW Businessworld comes with all its regular features and columns.
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Happy reading!