Yashvendra Singh on why it is wrong to write he epitaph of e-commerce so soonThe Indian e-commerce sector has attracted both investors and detractors. The sustained Bull Run in this segment has given rise to at least six companies with valuations of over a billion dollars. Snapdeal, Flipkart, Paytm, Quikr, InMobi and OlaCabs have all touched the magic number. While most e-commerce players, at least till now, have found raising capital to be relatively easy, voices raising concerns on their future are getting shriller. Critics argue that a majority of the companies are neither making profits nor do they have a business model that will ensure profitability in the near future. Without a clear strategy, they claim, it doesn’t make sense for investors to put in money, and they readying to pull the plug. However, it would be wrong to write the epitaph of e-commerce so soon. The players may not be making money today but make no mistake. The sector is at an inflection point. Investors are pumping money into e-commerce companies today with an eye on their disruptive capabilities tomorrow. When Facebook splurged a whopping $22 billion to acquire WhatsApp, the latter was not making any profits. After eight months of the acquisition, Facebook disclosed the financials of the deal, and even then WhatsApp was making losses. The reason Facebook acquired a simple messaging service like WhatsApp was not based on financial numbers. It was because of WhatsApp’s ability to look into phone contacts of its users. This disruptive feature drove the investment. The underlying interest point for Facebook was where WhatsApp could reach from its level at that time. Similarly, BMW, Audi and Diamler are collaborating with each other to offer about $3 billion for Nokia’s mapping division – HERE. That the division has had a chequered past is no secret. For the last three years, it has been running into losses. But the troika have their sights on the future. They are betting on HERE’s ability to enable driverless cars, which will be the future of automobiles. The situation for the Indian e-commerce players is not too different. Today Flipkart is an online store but the day is not far when it will become your bank also. It can become your hotel reservation resource too. What stops Airbnb, Flipkart and ICICI Pockets (a virtual bank, which can be linked to any bank’s account and any number of accounts) to work together in a single application framework? A Flipkart with ICICI Pockets can enable you to not just do shopping but drive your experience around lodging, traveling etc. | And who hasn’t heard of Amazon. The e-commerce company started as a bookstore. Today it is giving one of the world’s biggest information technology companies, Microsoft, a run for its money. The investments into the sector are not about what it is doing today. It is all about the possibilities of tomorrow.For the Opposite View Read: Can We Evade The Dotcom Bust?
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How easy it is to "ban" something' . A book, a film, food, a drink, a dress... And how difficult it is to learn that important lesson - bans don't work. Surely everyone knows that you only have to forbid something for it to become instantly popular. You ban a book, and everyone starts to circulate copies of it and read it and discuss it and usually wonder why it was banned or find that it never contained what it was banned for. It's the same with a film. Copies of it sprout up all over online and soon everyone has an opinion on it. This happened with the ban on the BBC documentary on the Delhi gang rape. I'm afraid the authorities who banned it came out looking worse than the documentary they feared.. Worse, it became such a trending topic and for so very long, it caught the world's attention and didn't particularly make the country an object of admiration. India becoming a country of increased interest because of its market size and other reasons, news that we think is internal to us no longer remains so. The government is closely watched for its handling of problems to contribute to an assessment of how easy or difficult it would be to work with authorities in the country. But yet, with increasing regularity, something or the other is banned, even before the technical feasibility doing this is properly examined. These bans make for unsavory news In what is often referred to as the largest democracy in the world. And this is especially so when it is done before proper attempts to solve the problem and as the easy way out . Instantly acting on the December gang rape In New Delhi of a 23-year-old girl,, doing something to truly improve security, putting in place police for reforms etc instead of more all less banning protests, would have been better then cracking down hard on a documentary film. But learning nothing from past history the government's telecom ministry suddenly took it into its head to ban porn. I am left scratching my head and wondering what they expected this dictat to achieve. Large chunks of the Internet are dedicated to porn and have been from early days. You can't ban half the Internet. and people so quickly find a workaround. All that the DOT (Department of Telecom) ended up at achieving a list to make itself the butt of relentless jokes in a Twitter backlash. Along with a flood of articles and radio and TV debates. It's even been suggested that the ban was meant for members of Parliament who have been known to surf porn at work. The whole situation was made worse by the fact that it was not legal to try and enforce such a ban. The focus for everyone indignant at this announcement of a ban was the violation of the freedom of expression. But there's another aspect that that deserves more consideration. Banning porn sites is unfortunately unlikely to help reduce abuse against women and children. The forces that lead to such abuse are both personal and societal and very powerful. They may be fueled by alienationand maladjustmentthen goes much beyond the availability of Internet websites. Look for instance at super crimes like the Nithari killings. These were sexually motivated murders of children that probably had little to do with access to porn. In this case, there is possibly some extreme sociooathy at work. To be sure, a great deal of corn in Volos violence against women and their extreme objectification. This is sometimes true even of lesbian porn. It is possible that the presence of porn and its repeated consumption validates abusive acts. But it is not the direct cause of it. And so, it's removal is unlikely to remove abuse. Rape is after all, often said by experts not to be an act of sex, but an of aggression. It's a case of shooting the messenger our blaming the bottle. If the government is interested in tackling abuse against women and children and anyone who is vulnerable, the starting point is certainly not a ban on porn. Instead, better research is needed into abuse in the context of Indian society in particular and then a reshaping of attitudes true looking at the root cause. The web one must remember is not a beast of its own making. It is entirely man-made, and reflects society. switching it off won't dispels the darkness in our souls.
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The fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry is cluttered with multiple brands; no one has a monopoly in the market. The only way for a brand to grab a decent market share is through a distinguished identity. Hita Gupta in conversation with Nadia Chauhan, joint managing director and chief marketing officer of Parle Agro, explores the attributes of differentiation in marketing and how digital marketing is helping brands.What are your key marketing objectives for this financial year?This year is going to be about ensuring our brands have a distinguished identity and a marketing strategy that will make them stand out in the cluttered marketing landscape that we operate in. For instance, with the relaunch of Frooti, we have been able to give it a defined and distinguished identity in this cluttered market environment. We are also looking forward to exciting campaigns this financial year for Appy Fizz, one of our brands that has been growing rapidly over the last few years.What changes have you noticed in India’s FMCG sector as far as marketing is concerned?The marketing approach at large involves a lot more than what we could do before. There are more mediums in the market for brands to communicate with the consumer now. This is enabling innovation and more focused targeting in terms of who the brands want to talk to; this is a big aspect of marketing today compared to earlier when there was a huge spill over of marketing initiatives. Today, marketing is more focused and there are so many mediums that are evolving quite dramatically beyond just television and that is opening up the industry for more innovation and creative marketing altogether.How are you looking at digital marketing in the FMCG space? How does the platform help FMCG?Today, digital media is a very important part of marketing for any brand catering specifically to the youth as the target group is spending more time on digital compared to television. So digital is very important to us as a company and to our individual brands. In digital, we are looking at more engagement and unique opportunities. We are also looking at content creation and a lot of user generated content as well. This ensures engagement and many interesting conversations for the brand online.Today, almost 30 per cent of the marketing spend is going to digital, while television continues to have a large chunk. We don’t do a lot in print, but invest in outdoor, which gets 10-15 per cent of the total ad spends.What are the challenges facing the Indian marketing industry with regard to the digital space?We work with an international advertising agency for our campaigns. And there is a huge difference in their approach to advertising. Many international advertising agencies are tuned into thinking for digital-first and if there is a campaign idea which cannot expend itself on digital, we do not take it forward.Unlike just rolling out a television commercial, in digital, we have to spend a lot more time on developing an engagement strategy. For our campaign on Frooti, we engaged with a well known comedian who became the face of the brand online. That got us a lot of traction.What has been the impact of e-commerce on the FMCG industry?For a product that is widely distributed and easily accessible, the e-commerce industry does not bear an impact. So, brands that are spending a lot on distribution have not been impacted by the rise in e-commerce activity. But from a bulk purchase point of view or occasional or event purchases, e-commerce plays a role. And as a matter of hygiene, we have to ensure that our products are placed across all portals.(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 24-08-2015)
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Sandeep Bamzai says sink the money and wait for the shoots to emerge Mobile analytics startup WizRocket raises $8M from Sequoia, Accel OYO raises $100M from SoftBank & existing investors to expand branded budget hotels Snapdeal reportedly secures $500M from Foxconn, Alibaba and SoftBank These are some of the top headlines this morning. Almost daily, I am finding it difficult to wrap my head with these figures. The element of irrational exuberance has manifested itself once again. Hype and hoopla are back in the mix, but curiously only in the e commerce start up space. Private equity and angel funding is gushing in with liquidity and money is being poured in at dizzying valuations which belong in the stratosphere. My irrational heart says - good on you mate! - my rational mind asks what about revenue streams going forward? Yeh sab paisa wapas kaise aayega, what about return on investment? At the Library Bar of a tony hotel, I posed this question to an old and dear friend, one who understands money and till recently headed a top notch private equity fund. His counter came pat - there is an astounding amount of VC and angel money sitting on the sidelines and it is finding its way into start ups in India. Yeah I know that, but why before curiosity kills me. Again on the front foot, he countered me buy saying investors are loathe to investing in India, there is still no clarity on second and third generation reforms, the executive is moribund, it is waiting for legislation to resolve the imbroglio and the parliamentary logjam means that there will be no movement forward in that regard. Till the govt decides to use its executive powers and come up with transformative ideas, all this money will go into the start up space because there is no regulation there. Hallelujah! Precisely my concern, money pours into an unregulated sector, the bubble bursts and there is hell to pay thereafter. Now let me give you more dope from VC Circle which tracks the fund flows - "Snapdeal has already raised $1 billion from SoftBank Group Corp, eBay, BlackRock, Bessemer Ventures, Kalaari Partners and Nexus Venture Partners. The Delhi-based company also counts Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, as a private investor. Japanese internet conglomerate Softbank alone pumped nearly $657 million in the online marketplace in October last year, becoming the largest investor. The new round of funding comes a month after Flipkart was rumoured to have secured $700 million more from existing investors such as Steadview Capital. Amazon is said to be readying a $5 billion wachest for a bigger play in India." Scary, this is infinite. There is no end to this deluge. At the same time these are serious and canny investors who see an opportunity in the e commerce market place. Everybody and his aunt is cooking up some broth to bag the bulge bracket bucks. Yesterday I saw localbanya.com, your kirana store will also be transplanted on to the web and you will be begging for more online. Is this one crazy party or what? Are they all smoking a new Manali strain or is this all good to go. Wait, like moths to the flame, there will be many who will be consumed by the fire because they obviously don't have the wherewithal, funding and expertise to sustain their buisinesses. So, the big boys will survive simply because they are well funded and the horizons for them are more elastic, for instance Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl expects to generate profits within three years. But what happens to the mom and pop shops that have sprouted lured by the lubricant doing the rounds. Are we then likely to see a bust and just a handful survive? I am reminded of the dotcom boom at the turn of the millennium. Prefix investing went belly up in the US and of course it was mirrored back home too. On January 10, 2000, America Online (now Aol.), a favorite of dot-com investors and pioneer of dial-up Internet access, announced plans to merge with Time Warner, the world's largest media company, in the second-largest M&A transaction worldwide. The transaction has been described as "the worst in history". Within two years, boardroom disagreements drove out both of the CEOs who made the deal, and in October 2003 AOL Time Warner dropped "AOL" from its name. Conversely ebay, aamazon.com and google became industry leaders. Here are three examples of what hype can do: Boo.com – spent $188 million in just six months in an attempt to create a global online fashion store that went bankrupt in May 2000. Books-a-Million - Saw its stock price soar by over 1,000% in one week simply by announcing an updated website on November 25, 1998. The company's share price rose from around $3 previously to an all-time closing high of $38.94 on November 27 and an intra-day high of $47.00 on November 30, before quickly pulling back to around $10 two weeks later. By 2000, the share price had returned to $3. Broadcast.com – Acquired by Yahoo! for $5.9 billion in stock, making Mark Cuban a multi-billionaire. The site is now defunct and redirects to Yahoo!'s home page. At home, this was exemplified by the audacious hometrade who got celebrity endorsements to make money. Nobody ever figured out what he bought or sold, nobody had a clue what his business model was, nor did anyone know what his tagline - Life Means More - meant. But Sanjay Agarwal and Co got Sachin Tendulkar, Hrithik Roshan and Shah Rukh Khan to endorse the mysterious product’ In November 1999, Rajesh Jain made a stunning putsch, he sold his internet venture, India World.com, to Satyam Infoway for a staggering Rs 499 crore. Somewhere along the way Sabeer Bhatia sold hotmail for an equally staggering amount, only this time in dollars. Rediff.com survived through the burning fires, flameouts included caltiger.com, go4i.com, ideasnyou.com, broadcast.com, purpleyogi.com, arzoo.com, india.com. skumars.com, jaldi.com and a myriad others. One only hopes that the second coming is better than what transpired 15 years ago. Sadly there are no answers forthcoming on return on investment or revenue streams or sustainability and profits. Dang, that ugly five letter word which eludes one and all. Meanwhile, sink the money and wait for the shoots to emerge, happy investing.
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Sangeeta Maheshwari is based in London and has managed a dual career as homemaker and successful entrepreneur in London since 2000. She runs a philanthropic organisation MaheshwariA2ZFoundation with her husband Sudhir. The non profit works for the empowerment of underprivileged children in India. In this era of rushed deadlines, ego clashes and estrangement, what specific role can spirituality play to bring about positive change?In this era the pressure of achieving on a shoestring budget of time often outweighs the passion of performing. As a result there is disharmony between our inner belief and ethos with the outer expectation, thus leading to frustration and clashes. The pursuit 'to make it big overnight', is digressing people from fulfilment in life. We lean towards quick fixes and tangible success. We gravitate towards running outwards and our inner guidance takes a lower priority, which creates the imbalance in us. If we invest in intangible resources like understanding of our inner self and the balance to create the harmony to an individual leads to the nation resulting in much more stability and prosperity. Spirituality means being connected to your own spirit- 'Being fully present'. Sangeeta MaheshwariIf we connect and become more mindful and present within ourselves and around us, we can achieve and sustain for the larger benefit. It is important to focus on the philosophy and ethos. Owning responsibility of self is more important than the power that comes with the role. As the world has become smaller because of globalisation, inter religious conflicts and differences seem to have increased rather than coming down. Why do you think so?The world has become smaller and so has become our tolerance and love for self. If we learn to accept ourselves and find that peace within us, we will build empathy and acceptance for others as well. The conflict first starts within ourself. It then extends to our family, leading to our place of work with then extending to the nation and the world. The root cause is lack of true love. When we are deprived of self love how can we offer it to anybody. It is important to find our real truth. We need to work from our heart and use our mind to support the heart rather than working through the egoic mind and using the heart to support the ego with unnecessary emotions, dramas and conflicts. Many agnostics think that “faith”- the kind you had and have in Maa-could also be dangerous. Your comments. I humbly bow with reverence to Maa or anyone who has unconditional love for all. It is the lack of love which is most dangerous to humanity. Maa believed in living with high values and performing to one's best ability without controlling the outcome. The trouble we are facing today is we are focussed on the outcome and not so much on the process and the journey. We find it difficult to accept ourselves, others and a different outcome to what we desire. We are losing trust and faith in ourselves and others. My faith in Maa was for her simplicity, integrity, unconditional love, taking ownership of her life and it's challenges with her inner strength, humility and love with a graceful acceptance of highs and lows in life. I salute to people with faith and true love for life and humanity. Blind faith on others can be dangerous. Maa pointed to the self and the God within each person who came in contact with her. She channelled Khatu Shyam baba, for people to get relief and solutions in their life. However, we have to do our efforts. We cannot do God's work and God will not do what humans have to do. You have been a globe trotter in the true sense of the term. What do you think about the spirituality and faith of overseas Indians? We do tend to hold on to our roots much more as we move away geographically from our origin. I have been fortunate to have lived in many countries and continents. It does broaden our horizon and opens our mind to greater possibilities. We do see others perspectives and integrate what resonates with us. Generally any overseas or global citizen is exposed to a more holistic life and has a broader outlook. Having said that a lot depends on us and how much do we desire the change, adapt and integrate. For decades, there has been talk of the potential of India “exporting” its spiritual heritage as a soft power. The recognition of International Yoga Day is one move in this direction. What more can India do?Yoga balances our energy and dissolves blockages at different levels through breathing techniques and exercises. Ayurveda is a holistic and balanced way to nourish our body. When we eat according to our body type and needs we live better and perform to our potential. An inclusive way of life that India and Indians are known for. While it is important to have our space to think connect and introspect. it is equally important to be able to coexist and share. In India we have grown in a joint family and community way of living. We celebrate with larger extended families and friends. It does build resilience and helps to express. Although now it is diminishing in bigger cities but children did grow up more secured and better equipped with life lessons in close knit and social families. You have been interacting with entrepreneurs and business professionals across the world for more than two decades. How do you think their perception of India has changed over time?India is a progressive, enterprising, young and dynamic country. We are a large country with so much diversity that it does create some challenges. However, other countries look at India with a lot of interest, admiration and excitement for the opportunities that are presented by India today. India is well known and highly regarded for it's vast talent and resources. Many spiritual leaders in recent times have been accused of building business empires like industrialists. Your comments?I am not qualified to comment on any spiritual leader. My only take is connect to your own spirit, find your inner strength and listen to your inner guidance and have faith that all will be fine. If you feel connection with someone who gives you inner joy and peace then listen to that voice. Anything that works on fear is opposite to love. Love resides in the heart and fear in the ego and mind. Deep inside we all know what is right for us. The private sector is playing an increasing role in the Indian economy. But too many stakeholders-from CEOs to workers-lead very stressful lives. What specifically can spirituality do to help?It is very important to spend time on oneself. Everyday a little time towards exercise, meditation, reading inspiring biographies and other books or scriptures like the Bhagwat Gita, the Quran or the Bible is well worth to incorporate in the daily schedules. We must also recognise what helps us in destressing, and take time out regularly to pursue that activity. Then it is very important to have family time. If the employee is happy within himself and in his family, only then can he add and contribute to the company optimally. Companies need to give more weightage to employees' work-life balance. The divorce rate in big cities of India is rising at an alarming rate. Your advice to young couples.Investing in relationships, first with self and then with others. It is the one most important investment and core need for growth, love and harmony. If we do not know who we are and what we want how are we going to understand the other person and their dreams and aspirations. There will be highs and lows but balance it with faith in each other and unconditional love for each other. Communicate and spend time with each other. Forgive and accept and most important let go of resentment. They lead to discontentment, anger and bitter break ups. You can only give what you have. So love yourself and others. We often expect others to give us that acknowledgement and love, and deprive ourselves due to social conditioning. Each one of us must have a hobby or passion that zones us out of worldly issues and fills us with inner joy. How do you visualise the future of India and Indians?Our thoughts make our destiny. I meet so many people excited to make the positive changes and grow. I do visualise India to enjoy the progress it is making and hope we integrate the empathetic values for each other and reinstate the strength of simplicity that brings out our inner strength even more. With more practice and reliance on the age old philosophies that we have been blessed with as a nation, I can see India becoming a major economic and spiritual powerhouse and a nation enjoying a holistic lifestyle.
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Murthy's speech before IISC and Tharoor's speech at the Oxford Union Debate are instances of persuasive communication where the speakers tried to change the beliefs and attitudes of his audiences with different outcomes. Rakesh Godhwani of IIM Bangalore explains whyLast week, two speeches caught my attention on my social media circles. One was a ceremonial speech delivered by Narayana Murthy at IISC on July 16th and the other was by Shashi Tharoor at The Oxford Union Debate on May 28th. As a researcher and teacher of persuasive communication and speech writing, I followed both speeches very closely on the social media. It was fascinating to see that the speeches had very different outcomes. Murthy’s speech drew ire and anger from the audiences and Tharoor’s speech was revered and applauded. Why did this happen? What can we learn from these examples? Both speeches were instances of persuasive communication where the speaker tries to change the beliefs and attitudes of his audiences. This topic has been around for centuries and finds its application in business and politics. Traditionally majority of the focus is given to the speaker and his qualities. The role of the audience and their beliefs is often ignored or assumed to fall in place if the speaker is charismatic. Just like how a chef will always choose ingredients based on the audience’s palate to prepare a dish, great leaders should also do the same to prepare their speeches. So how does a speaker choose words to persuade his audiences? What is the right recipe of a persuasive speech? In general, a successful persuasion occurs when the following two golden laws are fulfilled 1. Golden law #1 - The more the audiences “like” or “trust” the speaker, the more they are willing to be persuaded by him. You can also look at it differently. The more the audiences “dislike” or “distrust” the speaker, the lesser they are willing to be persuaded by him. 2. Golden law #2 - The more the audience’s belief “agrees” with the belief of the speaker, the more they are willing to accept his argument. And when looked differently, the more the audience’s belief “disagrees” to the belief of the speaker, the lesser they are willing to accept his argument. Mathematically put, the equation of persuasion can be summarized as follows Success of persuasion = Likability of the speaker by audiences + Agreeability of beliefs between speaker and audiences In simple words, if the words of the speaker are liked and agreed by audiences, they will be more willing to change. Let’s now apply this formula to the 2 speeches in question of this article to understand why one was received positively and the other negatively. I read Murthy’s speech and saw the video of Tharoor’s speech multiple times. Each time, I felt that I liked and agreed with Tharoor’s speech and disliked and disagreed with Murthy’s speech. I read many other blogs, articles and mentions of these two speeches on the social media and found similar results. If you snoop in the text of their speeches, you might find the inflection points in the speech where there is a distinctive shift in audiences reaction as explained in the formula above. In Murthy’s speech, the first inflection point was in paragraph three, when he compared MIT to IISC and IIT and later said “let us pause and ask what the contributions of Indian Institutions of higher learning particularly IISC and IIT have been over last 60 years”. I think no student of IISC or IIT would like to be compared to any other institute on their graduation day. This might have caused a serious “dislikeness” in the audiences. The next inflection point came when he said “Is there one idea that has led to an earth-shaking invention to delight global citizens?”. This sounded not only inappropriate and increased the audiences dislike for the speaker but also attacked their beliefs and caused a disagreement. He then went on to declare that only his company had produced some notable innovations in the country. By now, the disagreeability in audiences with Murthy was at maximum and they reacted in a variety of ways. Some completely switched off, some became upset and some became vindictive and vented their anger in tweets, blogs etc. The later parts of the speech had some noteworthy points but I think the damage was already done. Now let’s turn our attention to the speech of Tharoor. His speech had many inflection points too. But each of these points had a tremendous increase in likability and agreeability for him in his audiences. He started his speech with a joke on himself which went very well with the audiences. Humour increases likability of the speaker. He then doled out examples, facts, figures and unleashed an arsenal of information that made the audience agree with his belief more. My personal favourite inflection point was this sarcastic statement “…And no wonder that the sun never set on the British Empire because even the God couldn't trust the English in the dark”. He made the audience laugh or clap more than 6 times which demonstrates likability and agreeability. The formula might look very simple. But each of the two factors – Likability and Agreeability – have more than a dozen more parameters that interplay together in the mind of the audience like the speaker’s track record, choice of words, delivery style, logic of the argument, beliefs, attitudes, choice of medium, timing, appearance, relevance of the topic, emotional outcomes etc. Every audience member has a very different way of interpreting these parameters from the speaker’s speech. There are many behavioural and psychological theories that impact and make this subject so deliciously complicated and yet interesting. There are thousands of speeches from famous leaders available on the internet now. Go ahead and apply this formula and see for yourself if you can learn something from it. Feel free to modify it and send me your comments. And for those of you who are about to make a ceremonial speech or a persuasive speech, just remember the golden laws – make your words likable and agreeable with your audiences. Don’t change the truth. Change your thinking and your words! Rakesh Godhwani has authored 3 books and teaches persuasive communication at IIM Bangalore. Views are his personal. You can reach him at https://rakeshgodhwani.wordpress.com or @godhwani
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I want recognition that continuing some lives is emotionally and financially unaffordable in some cases. I expect the law to be pragmatic, says Ranjeev C Dubey The path to hell, when not paved with good intentions, is still generally wrapped in a great deal of moral sermonizing. This is above all true of the recently resurrected euthanasia debate on TV and in print media. Somehow, the preserve-life-at-any-cost argument has drowned out every other viewpoint in a deluge of righteous rhetoric. Lost in all this is one fundamental question: is the right to continue a life quite the same thing as securing a life worth living for those we force to continue to live? To revisit the root of the controversy, India had no law on Euthanasia till Ms. Pinki Virani moved the Supreme Court asking that King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai stop ‘force feeding’ Aruna Shanbag who had then been in coma for 36 years. Aruna Shanbag, a rape victim, had been strangled with a chain while being sodomized. The oxygen supply cut off, Aruna’s brain had shut down permanently. Virani asked that Aruna be allowed to die in peace and dignity. The Mumbai Municipal Corporation and the Dean of KEM Hospital both begged to differ.Ranjeev C DubeyInevitably, the ball came to rest at the door of the Supreme Court. In Aruna Shanbaug v Union of India [AIR2011SC1290], the Supreme Court recognised a clear distinction between ‘active’ and ‘passive’ euthanasia and proceeded on the basis that ‘active euthanasia’ was not on the table for debate at all. It looked at legislation across the globe and noted that passive euthanasia was legal in a whole host of countries, amongst them, Ireland, United States, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Luxemburg and Belgium. As a general proposition, it all came down to informed consent. If a patient asked that his life be ended, the law had to be certain that he understood the choice he was making. Accordingly, the Supreme Court tried to find a solution suitable to ‘Indian conditions’, whatever that means. The Supreme Court therefore ruled that the decision must be taken by either the patient, or his or her spouse or close relative. If no close relative were to be found, a body of persons acting as next friend or a doctor attending the patient could take the decision so long as it was bona fide and in the best interest of the patient. Second, the Supreme Court ruled that a High Court order was mandatory. It held that when presented with such a petition, the High Court was required to appoint a team of doctors (comprising of a neurologist, a psychiatrist and a physician) to report to the court, issue notices to government as well as close relatives of the patients and hear them all before allowing the euthanasia plea to be implemented. As far as I am concerned, this is very far from a satisfactory situation. On the very principle of it, I like a law that leaves citizens free to do or not do something based on clean legal principles, rules and guidelines. I didn’t like the license permit quota raj of approvals, of hiring lobbyists and making applications and incurring costs and fixing petty bureaucracy to process the applications. Similarly I don’t think citizens should need court permission to die, if they want to, or lawyers to process their permissions. Our courts are overflowing with cases they have no hope of deciding for decades. The last thing we need is for courts to actually become administrators and perform the roles of supervisory boards of hospitals granting approval to medical decisions. That is not my only objection. Second, the right to life must include the right to not live. I’ve had two aunts who declined all medical assistance after they learnt their situation was terminal. They withdrew from all society and then basically waited to die. Their deaths were not pretty, not by a long shot, and they were coherent to the very end. If they had been given a choice, I suspect both would have at some point chosen a quick exit over the prolonged painful lingering decline they suffered. Active euthanasia may be culturally alien to some of us but any debate premised on a sense of humanity must dwell on the inhumanity of asking a fellow human being to suffer just because a doctor, or a relative, is too squeamish to end a life when asked to do so. Bear also in mind that there is something deeply problematic about the distinction between active and passive euthanasia. If withdrawing life support or medication makes euthanasia passive, what about withdrawing food, or better still withdrawing water? A healthy person denied water may not live for much longer than 5 days. If you will forgive the insensitivity, there is always a passive euthanasia solution for every situation. If you think about it, this kind of euthanasia is not culturally alien to us either. Jain monks still starve themselves to death, and to no one’s disquiet. The real difficulty here is that it is not merely the terminal who need help to secure an easy exit. Medical sciences are already at a point where life can be prolonged indefinitely, even though an acceptable quality of life can’t be secured. What you have then is a severely disabled person who barely functions, but is perfectly functional in the sense that the digestive system works, end to end, but maybe not so much else. I’ve had an uncle who lived more or less in a coma for some eight years after he had his stroke, severely stretching family resources. The ensuing budgetary constraints meant that the children could not get the education they deserved, bringing relations within the family to point break. He died without ever ‘regaining consciousnesses. Which cannon of humanity justified the price the family pays for the choice they were not allowed to make? The cynic would argue that for the law, the right to life includes the right to make those who love you miserable. Which brings us to patients who find themselves in hospital, surviving only because the laws says the machines must not be switched off except by a court order. That may not be what the relatives are told. Still the fact remains that at the end of the day, for so long as there is someone to pay the bills, a hospital may add Rs. 50,000 to its top line for everyday a court takes to decide a euthanasia case. Courts take years to decide anything at all. The idea that our sense of humanity and our compassion should transform seamlessly into shareholders value is deeply disturbing. Confronted with this reality, I ask myself what do I expect from the law? The first thing I don’t expect is elevated moral obscurantism. I ask for recognition that the right to life is thus transformed by the pressure of the marketplace into corporate bottom lines and ESOPs. I want recognition that continuing some lives is emotionally and financially unaffordable in some cases. I expect the law to be pragmatic. It comes down to common sense, the right to choice and the ubiquitous questions around informed consent. If I want to die, or I am too far gone to tell but rational well-wishers around me think I should, then hey, it was a great ride while it lasted! Why cling to the ephemeral? (Ranjeev C Dubey, the author is managing partner of the Gurgaon-based corporate law firm N South. He is the author of “Winning Legal Wars” and “Bullshit Quotient: Decoding India’s corporate, social and legal Fine Print”). He can be contacted at rcd@nsouthlaw.com or ranjeevdubey@hotmail.com).
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These days, the technology that has made Internet possible reminds me of the Coca-Cola bottle that was thrown out of an airplane in the South African movie "Gods Must Be Crazy". Joe C MathewWell, the story goes like this: The empty bottle, which fell unbroken, opened up a world of possibilities to the tribal people who were living a contented life somewhere in the Kalahari Desert. They had never seen a bottle before. So, the foreign element, which came from the skies were looked at with suspicion to begin with, considered as God sent later, and became an essential part of anything and everything that they did - a toy, a musical instrument, a craft tool and whatnot, - in the days that followed. My first encounter with this technological "Coke bottle" happened some 20 years ago, when my neighbour aunt, who had a son based out of the United States of America, shared the thrill and bewilderment of sending "emails" at the click of a button and getting "instant" replies. Within no time, live online chats - written, voice and finally video- made emails look snail mails to her. Ever since the network of computer systems connected us across the world, the "God sent" technology has remained ubiquitous, tightening its grip, utility and control over our lives, thoughts and actions each passing day. From a society that got introduced to the utility of Internet, we are fast becoming an Internet society. And as the Kalahari tribe did in the movie, we are keen finding new uses for the technology every moment. The BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi rode to power on the back of technology. The ruling coalition intends to stay on power by introducing Internet-based systems to change the way Indian citizens live and work. Internet is the key to the government's electronic delivery of services like e-health, e-education, e-mandis, e-taxes, e-courts, e-jails and e-prosecution. The government's flagship programme Digital India talks about technology for farming, technology for security, financial inclusion, trade promotion, etc. Let me quote the official projection: By 2019, the government wants broadband connectivity in 250,000 villages, universal phone connectivity, 400,000 public Internet access points and 250,000 wi-fi enabled schools. It wants at least 10 crore jobs to be created through such technological interventions by this time and turn India as a leader in information technology use in services - health, education, banking, and wants its citizens to be digitally empowered through public cloud and internet access. In "Gods must be Crazy", its director Jamie Uys, wraps up the entire enthusiasm for the newly-discovered tool of universal utility in the initial few scenes itself. The movie begins to take a different path as the tribal leader Xi decides to get rid of the "Coke bottle", in spite of all its virtues, as it spoils the tranquillity that prevailed in his village. Like Uys' Coke bottle, Internet technology has also started creating troubles for our "tribal" chieftains. Terrorism has attained new dimensions during the Internet era. The Wikileaks episode has created headaches to national leaders in several countries. If Lalit Modi's tweets are giving sleepless nights to the political elite in India, call it a "Coke bottle" effect. The advantage, connectivity brings in, however, far exceeds, its problems, at least, for now. That's perhaps the only reason why I have just downloaded an android App to facilitate my movement in Nashik, the temple town, where hundreds of pilgrims are gathering who seek the God's blessings by being part of the ongoing Kumbh Mela. Whether technology is going to be the manna for all our governance bottlenecks or not, it's going to be a technology enabled holy dip for me this time, for sure.
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