EMBARK JAN 2022

EMBARK 2021

Conversations with entrepreneurs and students to let their thoughts out of quarantine

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IN THIS ISSUE EDITORIAL Dr. Prafulla Pawar

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Director SPPU School of Business

Dr. Surbhi Jain

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HOD, PUMBA

Dr. Rajesh Pahurkar

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Faculty Coordinator, ED Cell

Vaibhav Dhabale

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Coordinator, ED Cell

Alok Joshi Editor, EMBARK ’21

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IN THIS ISSUE INTERVIEWS Mr. Ashis Mukherjee

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VP & Global Head, Commercial Access Strategy and Pricing Biocon Biologics

Mr. Sachin Kumbhoje Co-founder and CEO OpEx Accelerator Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Karan Beri

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Executive Director, BUPL

Mr. Siddharth Deshmukh

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Founder Sportys and Arimaya Ventures

Capt. Venkat

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Founder, Faujnet

Ms. Richa Singh

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Founder, YourDost

Mr. Sanchek Pilane Founder & CEO, Exa Mobility

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IN THIS ISSUE… ARTICLES Reeling from the pandemic: the pharma industry

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Aishwarya Arora

The aggravated situation of informal workers in India during covid-19 pandemic

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Adya Upasana Routray

A time of cultural re-shaping

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Chinmay Gujarathi

Breakdown to Buildup

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Shweta Hasani

Global trade in Covid-19 pandemic Deep Arora

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EDITORIAL

DR. PRAFULLA PAWAR Director SPPU School of Business

Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA), Savitribai Phule Pune University firmly believes in giving the students every opportunity to showcase their talents and realize their dreams. Our students must be able to work hard in order to build and utilize their skills to grow in their respective careers.

The EMBARK magazine is an activity where students take charge to create, support, and grow the spirit of entrepreneurship within the student community, and learn about the world of business by reading inspirational stories from exceptional founders. It is a place for industry experts to share their insights and for students to study and present articles on the changes they see around them. I would like to congratulate the Entrepreneurship Development Cell on releasing another successful edition of EMBARK. I would like to appreciate the relentless efforts by Dr. Surbhi Jain, professor and HoD, and Dr. Rajesh Pahurkar, faculty coordinator of ED cell, along with all the members of ED cell who have made EMBARK successful through their contribution and dedication. I wish you all the very best for your future endeavors.

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DR. SURBHI JAIN Professor and Head of the Department, Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA)

The Department of Management Sciences, University of Pune has persevered through every crisis which is a testament to the strength of the administrators, faculty, and students. Working together and enabled by technology, the department has surmounted all barriers to excel at executing to its fullest potential. We hope to see our students reach the pinnacle of their professional career, guided by mentors and leaders within our network.

EMBARK chronicles the stories of entrepreneurs and leaders of industries to inspire the students to bring out the best in them. It is of paramount importance that we must not let geographical barriers impede the flow of information, and keeping true to this spirit EMBARK provides a platform for students to voice their views on topics they deem worthy.

I recognize the determination and efforts by Dr. Rajesh Pahurkar – the Faculty Coordinator for ED Cell, and I would like to show my appreciation to the Entrepreneurship Development Cell for another iteration of this magazine which continues to be a valuable resource for the student body. I wish the team the best of luck for the next stages of their journey.

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DR. RAJESH PAHURKAR Professor and Faculty Coordinator, Entrepreneurship Development Cell, Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA)

At the department of management sciences we try to cultivate the spirit of entrepreneurship by celebrating the founders and exalting their stories of success.

EMBARK provides a platform to focus our efforts to inculcate entrepreneurial education in students’ traditional curriculum to add more value.

Once the pandemic hit our nation, the systems in place were shocked into a reset.

In the chaos that ensued it was entrepreneurs who escalated into action and adapted to the new normal, while the rigid structures of the past system failed to cope up. This defines a tectonic shift for the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India and gives the opportunity for agile organizations to seize the market.

I congratulate the ED Cell members on publishing yet another edition of this magazine, and hope to see more students trying to forge their own path in the business world.

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VAIBHAV DHABALE Coordinator, Entrepreneurship Development Cell, Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA)

I congratulate Alok, Omkar and Team ED for being the pivotal elements in bringing this edition of EMBARK to you, and also take this opportunity to welcome the new students to the PUMBA family. EMBARK magazine is our contribution to back the spirit of entrepreneurship and help others seize the pearls of wisdom and business acumen from renowned leaders.

Disruption has become a norm in today's world. The pandemic has given rise to uncertainty and new trends. And yet we have seen the highest number of entrepreneurs with innovative ideas disrupting the market in India.

We at ED Cell aim to nurture this drive and encourage entrepreneurship among peers who share our vision. We strive to invigorate the zeal for startups among our colleagues by motivating them through a series of events and seminars with successful founders.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to our Head of Department, Dr. Surbhi Jain and our ED Cell Faculty Coordinator Dr. Rajesh Pahurkar for their constant support and guidance.

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ALOK JOSHI Editor, EMBARK ‘21 Entrepreneurship Development Cell, Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA)

Our interconnected world helped spread the virus across continents, but it also reinforced the connectivity of our minds across physical borders to allow ideas to spread even faster. These ideas coming in at light speed often overload our information diets. EMBARK is a humble effort by the ED cell to stand out as the signal within this noise and amplify the voices of those upholding the entrepreneurial spirit.

Entrepreneurship holds the promise to unlock employment generation, support wealth creation, and redesign outmoded systems. It is our duty to spread ideas, support ventures, and share stories that may help the next person generate value for themselves and their communities.

I would like to thank the Head of Department Dr. Surbhi Jain, and the Faculty Coordinator to ED Cell Dr. Rajesh Pahurkar for their valuable guidance and leadership throughout all the Cell activities and beyond.

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INTERVIEWS

MR. ASHIS MUKHERJEE VP & Global Head, Commercial Access Strategy and Pricing Biocon Biologics 6

As a professional, which skills helped you the most through the uncertainty of the pandemic?

2020 was a challenging year for me as I left Merck and joined Biocon Biologics in the middle of the pandemic. As a result, it was for the first time the induction was done virtually without any face-to-face meeting with key stakeholders and senior leadership team. Leading a team, working cross functionally and across geographies without ever meeting them was an interesting learning experience. My ability to connect with people quickly became a must have skill in this new way of working during this unusual time during pandemic. The second aspect was the cultural shift, after spending more than a decade in a large MNC and B2C commercial model to adapt in a new cultural environment, and orienting to the new B2B model was another challenge. Having worked as a leader in local, global and regional roles across the world has helped me to develop a strong learning quotient (LQ) which I could leverage while delivering results in a short period of time. The experience of working in a global role was useful to have the in-depth knowledge of various market archetypes, access barriers & drivers, pricing landscape, regulatory process etc. to formulate the access & pricing strategy for Biocon’s portfolio across the Emerging Markets.

through virtual coffee and one on ones. I believe this would build better equity with team members and the senior leadership. The other important aspect would be to be mindful of work life balance in this new way of working.

Virtual work has us overloaded with meetings and encroached on our personal space, leaving no time to pause and re-strategize. The third aspect would be to rely more on personal communication through calls than writing mails in the virtual world to drive the results on a tight timeline. Lastly I would underline the importance of investing time in bonding on non-work topics to create a culture of a safe environment to express your opinions without a fear of being judged.

What is your philosophy when working through challenges in your organization?

I always put a premium on authenticity, so “Authentic Leadership” is critical in a challenging business environment with presence across the globe. Being authentic and true to yourself builds trust with the people you work with, both inside and outside the organization. Although authenticity isn’t easy, as I have to be candidly transparent with every stakeholder, and work collaboratively across all the functions while being true to myself and others.

If you could travel back in time, what advice would you give to your younger self to thrive during the pandemic?

I’d say even if it’s virtual, try to make some time to get to know the people you work with

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Working in Pharmaceutical Companies for more than 2 decades, how do you feel the global pharma market has evolved, and what does the future hold?

It’s a great industry to work in, with a strong sense of purpose of helping save lives. The industry continues to spend significant resources to understand the unmet medical needs in multiple disease areas including rare diseases, accessibility of treatments to formulate the solutions. We foresee the utilization of biosimilars and generics to grow to increase affordability across the world. There will be more focus on R&D to look at different molecular pathways for target and discover newer breakthrough molecules such as immuno-oncology drugs in cancer therapy which will bring a paradigm change in the quality of therapy and survival.

What does leadership mean to you?

I firmly believe the most important aspect of leadership is to create a pipeline of leaders, and not just create more followers. Creating a safe environment, providing supportive coaching to develop the talents, inspire to create “passion for sea” are some of the key elements of my leadership mantras. Building a strong performance driven organization to imbibe “A bias for Action” is key to me as a leader, and also is a book by Sumantra Ghoshal by the same name that I would highly recommend for the future leaders.

You have a diverse experience in leadership roles, what different leadership skills were tested during these times?

In my experience, the ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds, establish a quick rapport, and earn their trust is necessary to building strong relationships. I had the opportunity to work with 3 culturally different organizations (French, American and British) and working across global, regional and local roles, the ability to adapt in the new organization was far more useful to me.

What hobbies do you indulge in which allow you to be better at your work life?

I enjoy reading, photography, long drives, and music. Apart from management books, I love to read history and science fiction which inspires my curiosity. I’m a very passionate wildlife and street photographer through which I try to capture a slice of life.

What are some of your tips for excellent remote working?

Here are some tips: Planning is key. Setting clear goals before you start the day and taking notes at the end of the day to introspect on what went well, and what needs a different approach allows you to benchmark your progress. This allows you to allocate time to think strategically, analyse the data, and to recalibrate your thought process.

Also in this era of remote work, it’s very important to plan one on one with key stakeholders via virtual coffee/happy hours with the team, with the videos on to better know each other and build trust and team spirit.

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What qualities do you think MBA graduates should develop to become a successful leader?

Here are the most critical ones to add VALUE we expect from an MBA Analytical skill – understand the real problem/business case, analyze the data (data doesn’t lie) to help to make the right strategic choice which is sustainable and profitable Ability to collaborate – working across functions seamlessly to move the project on a timeline Problem solving skill – breaking down a highly complex problem into smaller bit size, doing root cause analysis to plan the solutions Learning ability (LQ) – other than EQ, this skill is extremely critical in ever changing business environment Communication skill – ability to articulate clearly and succinctly the strategy to the team or senior leadership is another skill we always deprioritize MBAs from premier institutes such as PUMBA have a lot of value to add to any organization, by inculcating few skills that I feel are necessary for success. Analytical skills to understand real problems while knowing that the data doesn’t lie, and to make the right strategic choice.

Problem solving skills to understand and identify the root causes, and thinking from first principles. Having the learning ability to adapt in a volatile business environment and collaborate with people across functions. And lastly, communication skills to articulate strategies clearly and succinctly to the team or senior leadership is another skill we always deprioritize.

According to you, how has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the businesses?

As the healthcare system across all the countries in the world was overwhelmed while managing the huge burden of Covid patients, patients suffering from other chronic illnesses like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease (NCD), etc. got severely impacted. In the hospitals, most of the planned surgeries were postponed due to other priorities and the footfalls of such patients dropped dramatically leading to a gap in the care delivery. All of these impacted the business adversely during the first and the second wave. And not just in India, but the rest of the world had similar challenges as the countries prioritized the Covid care f in terms of delivery and resource allocation.

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MR. SACHIN KUMBHOJE Co-founder and CEO OpEx Accelerator Pvt. Ltd.

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Can you tell us in brief about your start-up, its values, vision, and mission?

OpEx Accelerator is the first startup accelerator from western Maharashtra which was in founded way back in 2016 with a sole goal in mind that is to solve India’s unemployment crises by leveling the rift between job creators and job seekers. OpEx is primarily involved in 2 different important areas, namely our startup accelerator: where we help in the growth and mentoring of early-stage and young Startups, and skill development: where we provide finest skilling and recruitment services in healthcare sector. Through both of these Initiatives our focus is on maximizing employment generation, and to imbibe professionals with valuable business and technical skills at the highest level.

Having an exceptional team as well as strong values, we are bound to grow in the future and scale to new heights. Our mission is the create a sustainable startup ecosystem in India by bringing the young generation together with world class class mentors who will drive them to create a startup in tier 2, tier 3 and rural parts of India coupled with the creation of skilled workforce through our skill development & skill facilitation services that will define the new India.

Can you tell us about yourself and what brought you here?

I’m a serial entrepreneur and startup ecosystem enabler based in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. I completed my graduation and post-graduation in pharmaceutical sciences and went on to secure my MBA in HR and personnel administration from Shivaji University Kolhapur.

I worked in different pharma MNCs before

deciding to become an educator. In 2016, after quitting my fulltime job of 6 years teaching in a pharmacy college, I went on to start ‘OpEx Accelerator Pvt. Ltd’. My efforts were compounded with invaluable help from my life partner & wife Mrs. Anjori Parandekar. We started with our startup and went onto achieve different milestones in skilling and building a startup ecosystem. Today, we have different ventures under OpEx such as Plan-B Digital Startup Media as well as an edtech startup, which is still in development phase. Currently, I’m also a member of ENRICH Startup Center in Andhra Pradesh, Innovation Cell Sanjay Ghodawat University, RIT, Islampur, IIC Government College of Pharmacy, Karad as well as Head of Incubation Cell, Chamber for Advancement of Small & Medium Businesses, and also the current director for Training and Operations at SIBIC Business Incubator at Kolhapur.

What made you venture into this industry?

My professional career began in pharmaceutical sciences, which is a major part of healthcare sector, and like many sectors is in dire need of continuous innovation. I observed that this sector is unorganized when it comes to recruitment & skilling as well as the gap between then job seekers and Job Providers was huge. Out of 100 graduates only 35 were employable as per Industry and professional expectations. I thought of putting some of my efforts into this and thus bring out a transformation among the students and help in eliminating the employment challenges that current organizations face. Furthermore, the region of Maharashtra is the slow-runner in startups and unique entrepreneurial endeavors.

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When I first came in contact with the Startup India Initiative, I thought, why not support this movement and thus bring in awareness and opportunities for the students and common folks with regards to startups.

What offerings do you provide to your customers and how does it help them?

OpEx offers diversified services in fields of Startups, Business & Skill Development arena.

OpEx provides services such as Business Development, Business Automation, Franchise Modelling, Lead Generation, Digital Marketing, Branding, Fundraising, Corporate Training, App and Website Development, Hiring and Recruitment Facilitation, Institutional Training (Entrepreneurship & Startups), Research Commercialization and Startup Event & Conferences, Cohort Program for Startups and Incubation Centre Management.

Through Skill Development, we offer Continuous Improvement Program, Industry Awareness Program, Industry Readiness Program, Online Courses, Recruitment Support, and Campus to Corporate Program.

cutting edge stories and articles from startup world. With the falling sales in mind in relation to Startups and Skilling, we went on step by step by providing our services to our clientele, one step at a time. Sustaining our workforce, sustaining our operations was very much critical but, the constant upgradation of online resources turned out to be the boon, as students and graduates always seek to learn new things and learnings from startups, entrepreneurship and from the pharmaceutical sciences (technical & professional skills) and this was never stopping at all.

What would be your strategic approach to scale your business in 2021 and beyond?

We are currently focusing on bringing maximum institutions under our fold to collaborate with our different initiatives. We are targeting the most deemed institutions who are still in the shadow space of entrepreneurship and thus foster the startup culture.

We will be focusing our way of bringing the skills to Students’ screens to make sure no one gets left behind. For this part, we are collaborating with maximum institutions from Pharmaceutical background pan-India.

How are you sustaining your business and ensuring the safety of your team during the pandemic?

When the pandemic first struck in March of 2020, we had to close down the services for time being in order to frame out the plan about what’s next, as this was the first experience for us to operate and keep running our startup through such calamity. We started with online skilling through various programs. We even started with our E-Magazine that brought

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MR. KARAN BERI Executive Director BUPL, FIELDKING

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When you were taking over the leadership role in your company, while coming from a completely different background, how was your experience in leading and managing the business and the employees through growth and crisis?

I would like to start by offering you a snippet of my college experience because I think that is more relevant and valuable to the students.

One thing is for sure that this pandemic is a black swan event which has pushed everyone to be agile, by force if not by choice. If I recall correctly, I have been practising this agility since the days I spent at PUMBA, where our course was still evolving back then. I had always dreamed of specialising in finance, but because our course was not so well structured at that point in time, the options in front of me were to accept the way it was or to knock every possible door and grab the best of the opportunity I had.

So I requested Supriya Patil ma’am and other speakers to bring a few external faculty for our course to enlighten us with the things we were missing out in our course. Looking back, that showed more leadership skill than I had initially thought of. Keeping up this initiative, I used to go to other courses in PUMBA and try to acquire as much knowledge as I could about any topic that interested me. There’s a quote in the movie “3 idiots” that I find quite relatable where the protagonist says that knowledge is being distributed everywhere, all you have to do is collect it. And that is what I did when I used to sit in lectures meant for other MBA courses, and that thirst for knowledge was the main ingredient for success early on in my career. I started my career in consulting by getting my first job in Avalon, Mumbai and worked there for nearly a year when the mortgage crisis hit the international markets

severely. Because our company handled mostly European clients, I was often not assigned any work, but instead of sitting on the bench I decided to make my time at Avalon worthwhile by unofficially getting involved in any project that was of interest to me. In consulting where you charge by the hour, I gave away my time for free hoping to learn valuable insights into the business world. I didn’t want to stagnate the momentum of my learning, and this helped me when I quit the job to join my family business.

Even though my forte was in finance and dealing with numbers, the wide variety of experience I gained during my job from marketing to operations to HR helped me become holistic in my approach towards business. My father often said that I took to business as fish takes to water. When I joined the company it was a relatively small operation and over the course of the next 4 years we took the company from 20 Cr. to 200 Cr. in sales. A major component of this hyper growth was our ability to establish our brand nationwide and expand internationally to over 106 countries in all 6 continents. This expansion allowed us to mitigate market fluctuations and make us less prone to economic shocks. We ran this 4 decade old company like a start up with agility and setting up systems and processes like ERP helped us sustain this hyper growth. During demonetization and introduction of GST we hit a rough patch along with the rest of the country, but being agile again helped us restructure and set out on the growth trajectory again quickly. This agility again helped us mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and in fact led us to grow even more, and now we are set to cross 500 Cr. which would not have been possible if not for the ownership of decisions and passion to work with our best foot forward.

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As an agile leader, how do you keep your employees motivated throughout the process?

If I were to talk from the perspective of Covid, just like everybody else my first reaction was to panic and lock myself in the house fearing for my family’s safety, but I soon realised the need for a plan of action so we got all the senior leadership together and started brainstorming various alternatives to deal with this disaster.

We knew we had to set an example for our employees and mitigate their fears, so we chose to stand by the pillars of transparency and strategic goal setting. Being a manufacturing company we have a lot of overheads, so the lockdown hit us hard and we had to differ salaries for all the employees to survive this downturn. But by doing so transparently and openly, making sure even the board of directors were taking the pay cuts, and conveying this in a clear and open manner paved the way to build trust within our employees. They understood and empathised with our decisions as we were being visible with our reasoning and not hiding anything to make sure everyone was on the same page. Another important decision we made to rally our employees was to align them with the core strategy of the company.

I’ve observed that people tend to relate more when you do clear goal setting and putting it in writing. Every year we make sure to do an annual planning cycle, where we carry out a 3 day workshop in January where people are given realistic and achievable benchmarks, but at the same time push them out of their comfort zone and into the stretch or fear zone which motivates them to grow. Lastly, we have a very robust reward and recognition program where we give financial rewards as well as badges of recognition to our most valuable and diligent employees to appreciate their efforts and motivate others to follow their example.

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MR. SIDDHARTH DESHMUKH Founder Sportys and Arimaya Ventures 16

Can you tell us about your early years and how you started off your career?

I’m born and brought up in Mumbai and came to Pune for my BCS from the University of Pune, Got my MBA IT from symbiosis in 2002, but at that time the dot com bubble had just burst and very few jobs were available so I decided to do something else. Proceeded to get my PGD-HR from SIBM Pune and got a job off campus at UTI bank which is known as axis bank today where I was one of the first thousand employees and remember celebrating the opening of our 10th ATM across India.

I further proceeded to get a diverse corporate experience working in a variety of roles at Persistent systems, Tech Mahindra, and Global Logic and then to Mindtree in the US. I realized I much more enjoyed the freedom of working in a smaller organization and being entrepreneurial.

I have been an athlete while growing up but couldn’t take it professionally. While training at Stanford campus for a duathlon, I saw a lot of university sports on campus and that caught my eye. I often call myself the 3 Fs: Failed athlete and Forced engineer, but also a Focused entrepreneur. And I took a plunge to quit my corporate life and get into my sporting journey.

I came back to India and started my own management consulting. With my background in management and business consulting with work in business development, I got to work with pro kabaddi league, ISL from the first year, Ultimate TT leagues, and a lot else, where I worked mainly on marketing, sponsorship, and use of technology. These were 3 easy ways to get into a system for which I was an outsider, and I understood very quickly that to be meaningful to anyone you either make them money or save them money. During that period,

I got a chance to work with the NBA team, Sacramento kings, for the tech section focusing on fan engagement. Post my fan engagement stint, I joined Rhiti sports as business head where I was fortunate to meet and manage MS Dhoni, and worked with Chennaiyian FC and CSK, etc.. Post that my entrepreneurial calling was still strong for me so I joined Khel Now as CEO, which is India’s largest football entertainment platform. I took it from 30k to 200k monthly active users and partnered with FIFA, ISL, iLeague etc. When I felt the challenges there were not growing with me, I worked with Genius Sports, world’s largest legal betting platform as their south Asia head. Currently heading APAC business for Fanisko as their fan engagement expert. I’m also a founding member of MBA sports management at symbiosis, and an investor in a few start-ups such as Goplay which works on community driven sports development. I’m on the board of Qatar sports tech, which is the world's first sports tech accelerator as well as I am the India ambassador at Global Sports Innovation Centre

by Microsoft.

How have you seen changes in the sports industry, and as a country how have we been looking at it?

How many people can say they worked in the sunrise industry? It was the internet in the 90s, banking and telecom in the early 2000s, and now its sports. We finished the Olympics with 7 medals, and the Paralympics with 19 medals, and this is a sign of times to come. The government is spending a lot, investments happening, and parents have started thinking of sports as a viable career for their kids.

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I’m doing my bit by getting money for sports, and spreading awareness through my YouTube channel “Sportsy Says”. Academics and sports have to have balance, and If PV Sindhu can get her MBA, what’s stopping you?

What would be your advice to sports entrepreneurs? How do sports and tech play together?

Tech growth in sports ranges from statistics, to fan engagement, to understanding player vitals.

Entrepreneurs need to understand there’s no such thing as a perfect product. Launch it, get feedback and improve. It’s about the agile methodology to be always experimenting, and don’t take your user for granted. No sports record is everlasting, similarly no product is going to be THE product for that market, and it’s always going to be evolving. At b2c level, the whole world is looking at India. Why is Manchester United wishing happy Holi and Baisakhi to fans? Because 1.3 billion potential fans are waiting to be won over.

How has lockdown impacted the industry and your start up as well?

My startup is a lockdown baby, it was started June 2020 after the pandemic began. Digital is the biggest opportunity, since the stadiums are empty so it’s the only touchpoint available.

Nobody is going to replace the physical part of sports, but that won’t stop the digital space from growing rapidly. More visibility will lead to more valuations. Covid is the great leveller, it happened to all 7 billion people at once, but it brought opportunities with it. Every CIO wanted to take their company digital and Covid finally made it happen. It fast tracked the adoption of

remote and distributed teams.

Can India dominate global sports and is the infrastructure up for the challenge?

Yes, why not. Even if every state adopts one sport and grows it, we have 29 states and 7 UTs, we can become a diverse superpower. Question is how many people are using the infrastructure. Did you know PCMC has the highest per capita sports fields in India? Not many people know that. So be the change you want to see in the world, go play, and if you feel the infra is lacking make sure the right authorities hear about it.

You graduated in 2002 right after the dot com bubble burst. Right now we are facing a similar situation due to Covid. What advice would you give to recent graduates?

I really feel sad for you guys, and I empathise.

Even when I graduated we at least we're on campus and had fun, the batch of 2020 will get their degrees without even seeing the campus.

This puts more responsibility on you to prove to the world that even though I’m the product of video conferencing, I’m still good enough to be there. For you guys, the jobs are there but the salary expectations have shifted. The companies have cut down on the costs and the market reflects that. My advice would be to grab every opportunity with both hands, and build your profile, and it will grow. Go digital, learn remote skills, take efforts to make yourself stand out. Trust the process and don’t victimise yourself.

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How do we speak in terms of Return on Investment and Marketing when it comes to sports?

You have to sell dreams. Every athlete dreams of winning it big in the Olympics. The bronze medallist is often happier than the silver medallist, because the silver medallist lost the match, while the bronze medallist won a medal.

It’s about perceptions. What sort of perception am I giving to the customer and investors, what’s my plan, am I bringing about change, etc. even if you’re working in big corporations, don’t let your entrepreneurial mind set. I think of entrepreneurship as a derivation of the Sanskrit word antarprerna, something that comes from within. Be your own start up and believe in yourself. Don’t get bogged down by jargon thrown at you, go with what your gut says, but always be ready to answer difficult questions.

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CAPT. VENKAT Founder Faujnet

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How was your transition from being in the Armed forces to being a civilian?

I was one of the few fortunate ones with no information-deficit. I had a business management background prior to joining forces and I was in regular touch with my friends who had set up businesses. Since I was mentally prepared, it was easy to transition from Military to civvie street

What are some traits from army that help in entrepreneurship that everyone should adopt?

Risk Management – Rather than taking blind risks, develop the intelligence to manage risks.

Working with different egos helps to adapt to any personality type and develop empathy.

Working under stress teaches you to stay calm in the most chaotic of situations. Always building and working with the team helps to not shoulder the responsibilities alone and to leverage everyone’s unique skills. Doing an After-Action-Report after every job – this helps to really strengthen learning from our mistakes and knowing what works and what doesn’t.

Hailing from an army background what inspired you to become an entrepreneur?

I was pained by the retirement / transition struggles of my senior officers and the men I commanded. I wanted to do something about it, but being in the uniform there is hardly that I could do in my personal capacity. I decided to leave and set up a firm that would help retiring soldiers find successful second careers.

What are the major challenges faced by veterans while transitioning to corporate sector?

Some problems that I’ve been able to identify are unclear chain of command, different promotion structure, Work not correlating to purpose, Employer’s military job knowledge deficit, Employer’s lack of clearly defined newhire processes for veterans and Employer misunderstanding of veteran compensation expectations.

Currently India is attracting FDI, which will ultimately increase the human resource demand, so how do you look at this opportunity?

Undoubtedly a big opportunity, unless we are in a position to leverage it. Our country has the potential to be economically competitive.

Your new venture xainik is in progress. What it is like setting up a startup vs back in 2009 when you found faujnet?

Back then hiring people was easy, technology was expensive. Now, Tech is highly affordable and hiring and retaining the right talent has become harder.

What are your plans to scale-up Xainik?

Xainik is built as the bridge between military and outside world, to solve the problems that others have not been able to. Xainik will remove the information divide and help every soldier and families get the best the world has to offer.

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What did you learned from the mistakes over the years?

Things that I would not like to repeat are: too much planning, ignoring the finances, building something few people want, failing to ask for help, and experimenting without research.

How do you plan to bring the people on Xainik app, post its launch? Can you share the tools you plan to use for promotion & appeal?

Our first area would be to get a million military users and families joining Xainik. A vast majority of primary military users of Xainik are not available on mainstream social platforms.

Digital platforms have minimal military touchpoints. To increase the efficiency of our online and offline campaigns, we plan to build a community of e-patriots who will help our message reach to the last mile soldiers.

Which ecosystems you are planning to bring forward for the current venture?

We will be working with government, VCs, industry bodies, educational bodies, and associations of every industry. We are building an ecosystem driven for soldiers and driven by soldiers.

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MS. RICHA SINGH Founder YourDOST

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Can you tell us about YourDOST and how has your journey led to it?

YourDOST is one of India’s first and largest emotional wellness organisations, working since 2014. We help corporations, universities and government organisations in building resilient communities by providing consulting methodology to build and execute their Emotional Wellness programs. We have partnered with more than 300 corporates and educational institutes including UpGrad, BlackBuck, IIT Madras and IIM Bangalore to name a few, and have counselled over 20 lakh Indians till date. We work with them through awareness modules, self-help tools, 1-on-1 counselling, intervention, and organisation level diagnostic and reporting.

How did you realise that you wanted to take an entrepreneurial path and what inspired you to develop this idea?

It all started with a very personal ordeal which made me prioritise taking action in emotional wellness space. Back in my college days, one of my friends in hostel was undergoing extreme stress due to pressure of placements, the fierce competition, and the stress of achieving exceptional success in life. Instead of consulting with the mental health professional available on campus, she chose to take the drastic measure of ending her own life. Dealing with the loss of a friend to such a preventable cause left an indelible mark on my psyche. When I started my professional life, my then colleague and now cofounder Puneet, and I noticed just how stress affected almost everyone around us. Yet people were very hesitant to consult with a professional namely due to the stigma and lack of awareness regarding mental health issues.

Looking back we never thought of this as an

entrepreneurial opportunity, but were more driven by the need to solve this problem. So we started speaking to a lot of people who had experienced counselling as well as the experts themselves. The collection of these anonymous stories became the origin of YourDOST, which today has evolved into a platform for people seeking professional help. Our mission is to become a holistic emotional wellness organisation working to help organisations take care of their communities’ well-being.

What difficulties/challenges did you overcome at the beginning of your journey?

One of the biggest challenges we faced and are still facing is the stigma attached to seeking professional help, even during desperate times due to the fear of judgement. We realised that technology could provide an anonymous, confidential and judgement-free platform. This way we could solve the issue of accessibility and availability of quality mental health care, thereby fighting the stigma associated with it.

The next challenge was the lack of our expertise. As an “outsider”, you bring a fresh perspective to counter biases that the members of the sector might carry. We received encouragement to build upon our idea, but there were many who didn’t share our beliefs.

The fact is that most disruptors have been “outsiders”, as exemplified by Practo where none of the founders are Doctors, yet they run a successful business. Being the pioneers in this field, we did not have a specific model to draw inspiration from. It required a lot of effort and research to get where we are today.

Another important challenge was access to good quality psychologists. Since we were not

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from a mental health background, it was initially difficult for us to get the best of the professionals for YourDOST. With the help of a group of qualified and experienced professionals we could set up proper protocols and mechanisms to provide quality service to users through our experts.

We also got a lot of push back because expert ratings and reviews provided by the users were publicly visible to everyone. We introduced ratings and reviews to increase the credibility of the service we provide and also have an objective review of the experts, while promoting transparency and accountability.

How have you incorporated the Covid-19 pandemic impact on mental well-being through YourDOST platform?

We observed that with the pandemic surfacing, the need for intervention for emotional wellness was gradually picking up steam and with telemedicine, help is just a few clicks away.

When it comes to digital platforms like YourDOST, the “new normal” has made it more socially acceptable to seek help by allowing for increased accessibility, availability, and anonymity. YourDOST alone saw a rise of 120% in the number of counselling sessions in its platform and this could be possible because of the digitalisation. Digital therapeutics is still in its nascent stage in the country and definitely holds immense potential in the long run. Being one of the pioneers in online counselling, it was easy for us to cater to the increasing demand and ensure easy accessibility and availability of experts round-the-clock through audio, video and even chat-based sessions. Apart from therapy, our platform includes a number of selfhelp resources and tests that can help people understand more about their emotional state.

We organised various webinars and campaigns for organisations to help them with stress management, adjusting to the new normal, and team support during pandemic, to name a few.

We also created and circulated self-help tools and resources on relaxation techniques, selfcare practises, building resilience, time management and productivity.

According to you, how important it is to be mentally strong today and maintain your emotional well-being?

Being mentally strong doesn’t mean to overtly show you are very strong while being vulnerable on the inside, nor does it mean to hide your emotions when you are in desperate need of help. In fact, emotional wellness means an ability to cope and be resilient. You can have your dark days, and that is quite normal.

However, one should develop a strong support system to anchor themselves so that you can bounce back and take control of your life through healthy coping mechanisms.

Emotional well-being defines an individual. An individual’s perception towards oneself and others, their relationships and their productivity is linked to emotional wellbeing. Stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, relationship issues, and poor work-life-balance impact one’s well-being to a point where they may find it difficult to function at their optimal level. Thus, it becomes extremely important to take care of one’s emotional health just as much as we prioritise our physical health.

If you have to give one piece of advice to our students aspiring to become entrepreneurs in this area, what would it be? And also, what will you suggest about using their time, relationships, and opportunities at college

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level to prepare for this kind of entrepreneurial career?

If I have to give one piece of advice to the students, I would say- believe in yourself. If you have an idea, believe in the fact that you can execute it. Other processes will automatically fall into place and you will gradually figure it out. Added to that I would also want to say that whatever you want to do, feel passionately about it. Do not fall into the trap of going with the trend, as trends will come and go. If you feel really passionate about a problem, you will definitely move mountains.

To answer the next question, my suggestion would be to explore more-both around you and about you. You never know what comes on your way so keep exploring. Do not just focus on your grades. Academics is definitely important but to an extent. Learn and grow your skills beyond your grades. In this way you will find out who you are and your passions. Network with people to know more about them. Do not just focus on your classmates or your friends.

This will give you a broader perspective towards life and will help you identify your passions.

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MR. SANCHEK PILANE Founder & CEO Exa Mobility

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What is Exa Mobility and how has your journey led to it?

Since school I was quite interested in the Energy sector so I enrolled in Mechanical Engineering, where I participated in multiple national level competitions in EV domain. This built me up as the right person at the right time to solve some of the problems in the Electrification of the transportation Industry, and thus Exa Mobility was born.

Exa is basically Mobility as a Service Platform and currently we are focusing on Electric Scooter Rentals for B2C as well as B2B Customers. We have around 100 Electric Scooters in our fleet right now and we are planning to reach a fleet size of 1000 Electric Scooters till March 2022. Down the line we want to scale with the Franchise Model and focus more on the Technology aspect rather than running the operations everywhere. Also, our long term vision is work in all 4 segments of Future of Mobility which are Electric, Connected, Shared and Autonomous.

Beginning in June 2018, we started with development of Electric Scooter for the general public. Soon afterwards we pivoted to Shared Mobility and continued with the R&D of the Electric Scooter, and alongside launched Rental Services under Exa Ride Brand Name. We developed a few road ready prototypes of fleet scooters seeing a lack of good quality in this segment, and are planning to commence mass production in the next few years once funding is secured.

As of now we purchase EVs from established OEMs and provide them as rental options for B2C and B2C customers under our Exa Ride Service for which we have received great response and demand. Riding this wave of customer satisfaction we plan to expand quite

aggressively across the country in upcoming years.

The EV sector is set for a boom, how do you plan to keep up with it?

We always welcome more and better EVs in the market as this enables us to add a wide variety of vehicles in our fleet which means more choices we can offer to our customers. It is good for us to diversify our fleet as we aim to target 70% of it to be deployed for B2B customers such as logistics and delivery companies, where there is an increasing demand to switch to cost-effective and carbon neutral delivery vehicles.

How do you plan to tackle the increasing number of competitors?

Competition is inevitable in a lucrative domain such as EV, but we plan to focus our efforts on what we do best, and our core value proposition which is to develop state of the art technology and dedicated service centres for a great user experience. Our plan includes scaling with an asset light model while onboarding multiple franchisees and channel partners to leverage our growth.

What are the major challenges facing the EV rental industry?

Being a start-up is a challenge in itself as we have to constantly raise capital to keep the company in its best shape. Banks have to catch up with the start-up funding mechanisms and still require collateral for loans, whereas private investors have been helpful in providing funds for the vehicles.

Customer learning and outdated mental models regarding rental vehicles are another barrier we face, where we must gain customer trust as a

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long term mobility partner rather than be seen as a single use transport and treat the vehicle carelessly. This shift in customer mentality is necessary for the vehicle renting industry to scale up in India.

Also, because the industry is still nascent, there are no electric two wheeler markets built for fleet operations, leading to problems like frequent maintenance, component failure, etc. which leads to down time of weeks and increases costs. Hence our focus is on developing better solutions in house and streamline the operations.

Any updates about the EV you’re planning to launch in 2023, and how do you plan to compete with the big brands?

We have learned a lot so far by making multiple prototypes of the Exa smart scooter, and are looking to raise a big funding round to make the model ready for manufacturing at scale. With separate models specifically designed for the logistics and consumer segment, we plan to offer these vehicles only through our fleet exclusively. This will give us an edge over big brands with established dealership networks and building the Exa smart scooter from ground up would provide customization for the B2B segment that no other OEMs offer. Also, being in the Mobility as a Service domain means we could partner with the established brands to become suppliers instead of competing with them. This win-win situation creates an incentive for us to work together with the manufacturers and make the most of our agility and technology paired with their capital and networks.

Do you think India's Infrastructure is ready to accommodate this massive mobility shift to EV? Not at all. In the past, the vehicles were not that smart so there was hardly any connection between transportation and Infrastructure. Only link that I can think of for these two industries is may be Traffic signals and road signs. But with Electric Mobility, a lot of things are possible such as V2X communication, ADAS enabled or even Autonomous Cars. So for a good transportation system, we will need good telecommunications systems ( 5G ), Energy delivery systems ( Fixed as well as Mobile Charging Systems ), Good Roads with proper safety systems to enable Autonomous or SemiAutonomous driving. So basically we will see a lot of things in Smart City and Smart Mobility overlapping with each other. All the stakeholders from Town planning to EV Manufacturers will be involved and working together in the future for making the Electric Mobility happen in future.

Will existing infrastructure be able to handle the increased demand for EVs? Sure, we believe that the infrastructure is growing fast enough to adapt to the ballooning market. Sure. We would be able to handle the increased demand without much problem.

Recent advances in Solar Panels have made renewable energy production quite easier and cost effective.

Also, the entire transportation industry (People + Goods) only accounts for 20-25% of total energy consumption of the country. So even if the entire Transportation sector is electrified in the next 10 years, there won't be much problem as we can easily manage the demand with Renewable energy.

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Things we will need to work on is Stability of the Power Grids. Unstable power supply and Power outages won't be good for EVs. One more point related to Charging Infra that I would like to add here is, most people think that Charging Infrastructure is the major hurdle for making EV happen, but I don't think it is that big a challenge. If you see the current Petrol pumps and IC Engine vehicles, then the "Well to Wheel" energy transition is quite complicated compared to EVs. Only thing that is required is standardization of the Charging protocols which need to be followed by each OEM. Then you will see more than required charging stations as many people are already eying for this space from Business point of view.

How being Generalist instead of Specialist helps you in Exa mobility?

By getting exposed to every domain from Engineering, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Operations, I can connect the dots quite easily and see the problem from a different and broader perspective and come up with a solution. Also, being Generalist helps me in getting associated with the right kind of domain Specialists whether its Employees, Consultants or Partners.

What tax and incentive schemes will governments use to spur EV adoption and build out of charging infrastructure in disadvantaged communities?

FAME-ll Subsidy is already there from the Central Government and many State Governments have come up with State Subsidies too. Also, GST on EVs is only 5%. So I think from the Government side there is sufficient Push. The Manufacturers, Startups, Mobility Companies and the public need to play their part now.

I think for disadvantaged communities, Governments and Banks can tie up with Fleet Operator Companies like us to provide these people with Monthly Subscription options rather than them owning the Asset as it involves huge capital investment for these people.

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ARTICLES

REELING FROM THE PANDEMIC: THE PHARMA INDUSTRY -Aishwarya Arora SY MBA PBT, Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA)

Entrepreneurs and the micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) sector account for about a third of India's gross domestic product (GDP). However, often due to lack of resources as compared to larger firms, the sector is particularly prone to disasters and calamities like the COVID-19 pandemic. All businesses throughout the world are reeling from the after-effects. Entrepreneurs are juggling a slew of interconnected challenges, including ensuring the safety of their staff and customers, bolstering capital and liquidity, reorienting operations, and navigating through convoluted government assistance programs.

One industry that has recently garnered a lot of attention owing to the pandemic is the pharmaceutical industry. These dire times have led to significant business revelations for the post-pandemic era, including new ideas on digital transformation, the future of labor, transparency, and sustainability. Collaboration with creative western medicine corporations to scale up production of sought-after vaccines and Covid treatments for many portions of the global market has been one technique adopted by a multitude of Indian entrepreneurs during these times. COVID-19 was a watershed point in the pharmaceutical business. It has compelled businesses to rethink their business practices on various levels. It pushed India to reassess its

current position in the global pharmaceutical industry, look into ways to consolidate and strengthen its position in light of geopolitical and economic shifts, and achieve selfsufficiency as a globally competitive pharmaceutical industry with innovation as a guiding principle for future growth. Before this anomaly created immense disruptions leading to several ramifications shaking our foundations, adoption of digital transformation in the pharmaceutical sector was already underway. The industry needs to take advantage of digital's real-time data gathering capabilities, including more holistic, patientcentric value into customized products and services. The pandemic created certain constraints on the healthcare budgets, compelling the pharmaceutical companies to rethink creatively and flexibly about accommodating new challenges such as work from home, reallocation of funds and resources, bottlenecks in the supply-chain, significant delays in clinical-trial recruitment, travel bans, and a closer scrutiny of drug reimbursement in their business models. At the same time, this digitalization has paved way for the emergence of Artificial Intelligence which has aided in providing benefits ranging from patient screening and record management to early detection of diseases. The Indian

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entrepreneurship ecosystem's endurance and sturdiness during the outbreak, along with embracing and adapting new trends and technologies, would be major drivers of India's aspiration to soon become a sustainable and inclusive USD 5 trillion economy.

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THE AGGRAVATED SITUATION OF INFORMAL WORKERS IN INDIA DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC -Adya Upasana Routray SY, M.A. Philosophy, University of Delhi, New Delhi Email- adyaguguly98@gmail.com

India despite being on an ambitious path of achieving economic growth still continues to have a large share of informal workers in the world. India has an estimated 450 million informal workers that makes up around 90% of its total workforce. The condition of these low skilled workers is vulnerable right from beginning when they decide to work for miserly wages. Their situation is further aggravated without any job security and social protection.

Government schemes and labour codes often fail to extend to the vast majority of informal sector workers predominant in rural areas including migrant workers, self-employed workers, home-based workers and other vulnerable groups. The situation went downhill with the onset of pandemic. Informal workers have been worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic because of having seasonal nature of employment and absence of any formal employer-employee relation. This bars them out from receiving any social security. Further lack of awareness about the virus and lack of access to protective equipment resulted in increased vulnerability of informal workers to the Covid-19 virus. Similarly, unsanitary living conditions and overcrowding of houses during

lockdowns resulted in the worst hit of the pandemic on the informal workforce and their families. Migrant labourers on road and shutting down of business: Oxfam report states that 75% of the jobs lost in 2020 were from informal sector mostly small traders and daily wage labourers. These vulnerabilities became more visible when the entire country went under a lockdown. The lockdown resulted in a nationwide migrant crisis in which without any clear communication and subsequent increased social tension, the migrant labourers who lost their jobs were left to fend for themselves. This was followed by a scenario where millions of workers were on roads trying to walk back home, hundreds of kilometres away.

Since these informal sector workers have meagre savings, in the face of the pandemic, most of the informal workers without any choice left were forced to use their insignificant business capital for consumption. This led to shutting down their business. At same time the workforce released from formal firms got absorbed in the informal workforce resulting in increase in informalization.

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Vicious cycle of poverty and debt: The hand to mouth nature of informal employment creates a vicious cycle of poverty that traps the informal workers and their families. They find themselves in a situation where any loss of income directly affects the consumption levels. Without any formal job security or any social protection, these workers often take debt from informal money lenders.

To pay the debt back they keep on taking further debt resulting in a never-ending debt cycle. The loss of their livelihoods because of the pandemic pushed them on streets where they fought dual battle of survival both against virus and poverty. According to the International Labour Organisation, the economic crisis and livelihood losses during Covid-19 can result into approximately 400 million people sliding back into poverty. The drastic decline in employment and income led to a surge in food insecurity. Disruption of public services including nutrition-related services- midday meals, in particular, were discontinued since schools and childcare centres were closed in most states for a large part of 2020. Informal workers and their families were among the most affected because of these disruptions. Logistical challenges created by the pandemic in supply chain further compounded the problem.

Women in Informal sector taking the hit of pandemic: Informal sector also has a gender undertone.

Majority of Indian women in paid jobs are in informal sector. According to International Labour Organisation, 81.8 percent of women's employment in India is concentrated in the informal economy. These women are involved in work which lack social security and decent working condition. And whenever there is a

crisis, women among other marginalised group are always in the frontline taking down the pressure. Thousands of domestic helps, majority of whom were women lost their jobs because of the lockdown and even though the lockdown is over yet the women working in informal sector are having tough times in getting work because of unwillingness among households in hiring helps citing to sanitary reasons and restriction on their finances as an aftereffect of the economic crisis because of the pandemic. Pre-existing gender inequalities got exacerbated with the ongoing pandemic. This terrible situation became extremely hard with increased demands on women to provide unpaid care to the sick, the elderly and young children during the health emergency and prolonged lock-downs. With schools and childcare centres shut for over a year now, the challenges are manifold.

Need of the hour: Addressing these issues of informal sector require a multi-pronged strategy, simultaneously focusing on establishing clear and effective communication, provision of immediate financial support and expansion of health protection alongside institutional measures to strengthen the sector in the longterm. The first step in this direction can be to reinvigorate informal enterprises with the primary objective of providing immediate financial support to informal enterprises and create a growth trajectory for future.

To address the plight of informal workers there is a need of measures that collectively aim to provide income & food security to informal workers, which indirectly fill the social security gap present in the current setup of informal economy. Here some of the pre-existing

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government schemes can come into help. Like Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) which aims to provide free food by acting in concert with the Public Distribution System (PDS) to provide food rations to 80 crore beneficiaries registered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). Similarly, there is Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) under which now covers more than 27 crore people and is used as a tool to provide employment to migrant workers returning from cities. Streamlining these already existing policies to accommodate the rising demand of the informal sector is the need of the hour.

Similarly, there are policies that can actually help the informal sector workers in resuming their life and work post pandemic. For example, One Nation One Ration Card that aims at creating technology systems, which will be used for enabling migrants to access Public Distribution System (Ration) from any Fair Price Shop in India will come to a great rescue for migrant labourers. Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) for Migrant Workers/Urban Poor under PMAY can provide ease of living at affordable rent for homeless people and workers who lost their livelihoods. Special Credit Facility for Street Vendors scheme aims to facilitate easy access to formal loans (up to Rs. 10000) for street vendors.

Way ahead: As we see the multidimensional effects of the Covid-19 pandemic including loss of jobs, increasing poverty, gender divide, lack of nutrition and health security, indebtedness among the informal sector workers and their families clearly have the potentiality of causing them irreparable damage and sealing their

future in vicious cycle of never-ending problems. The current situation demands a comprehensive plan and roadmap to address the worsening condition of informal workers in the backdrop of pandemic. Developing a national database of unorganised workers in this direction is the need of the hour. Achieving Universal healthcare should be objective of the government under which mandatory health insurance should be provided to informal workers. Employment opportunities can be enhanced by leveraging investments into the traditional sectors, strengthening the ‘Make in India’ mission and providing financial support for enhancing local and pan-India employment opportunities. Further planning towards formalisation of workforce, improving livelihood mechanisms and stimulating social security measures can be a major driving force to mitigate the Covid-19 impacts on Informal sector workforce.

References: Chatterjee Mirai. COVID-19 has devastated India's self-employed women. Here's how to support them. World Economic Forum-My forum.

2021 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/wo men-in-indias-informal-economy-are-bearingthe-brunt-of-covid/ Dreze Jean. Somanchi Anmol. The Covid-19 crisis and food security. Ideas for India. https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/povertyinequality/the-covid-19-crisis-and-foodsecurity.html Employment of Women. Ministry of Labour and Employment. Press Information Bureau release.

2021

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A TIME OF CULTURAL RE-SHAPING -Chinmay Gujarathi

A strategic shift in paradigm is always prefer over the revolution of systems. Covid19 is the best case in point. A century old corporate culture has been shifted in just nine months and it has brought us where we were heading in the following decade.

In a report published in 2021 by Great Place to Work, a Global authority on workplace culture, top ten heroic organizations that demonstrated exceptional concern for their employees and communities during a historically difficult period are Cisco, Salesforce, Hilton, Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., Rocket companies, UKG, Texas Health Resources, Camden Property Trust, Capital One financial, American Express.[2][3] These companies could prove themselves in these toughest phase because the management could dare to experiment what best fits for our employees to keep them strong both mentally & physically.

As an entrepreneurial mind-set, the first priority of any start up is to ramp up the business ideologies of the products or services in the marketplace and to get the funding from top VC’s. The pandemic has redefined this type of mind-set and refocused by adding a new aspect of “employee first culture”.

Yelp data indicates that 60% of businesses have permanently closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.[1] In the wake of this pandemic, many new and established businesses have been destroyed, and one major cause for concern is the lack of a strong corporate culture.

According to Forbes report, the most difficult aspect of growing any business is informing people that you exist.[6] The energy soul of any start-up are its employee who subtly do branding of company in the initial & in the long run as well.[4][7] For a start-up to be successful, it needs a team of talented employees, and to gauge it ahead, an entrepreneur mind-set must have people skill first.[5] Covid19 has shifted the trend patterns in the job market line up from compensation, ping-pong tables or the top perks to a culture, flexibility, and value propositions that emphasize the requirements of the people.

Start-ups that are short on talent need not only use technology, but should make the most of it in order to hire and retain top employees. Years ago, when "Apple" was just starting out in the big business arena, it was on the edge of going bankrupt. Steve Jobs, the company's founder and former CEO, had been fired at the time.

This was followed by significant challenges like poor sales, management issues.

Exact after a decade when turmoil started the company has decided to bring back Steve Jobs & some of employees who have been fired to recover the company. Steve said, he was amazed that at the toughest time, the corporation still had some of its most talented employees. Bringing back most of its employee, Apple could manage during those tough times & then the company never looked back.[9] In the Big Billion Start-up: The Untold Flipkart

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Story, Author Mihir Dalal has very well covered the endowment of talented building blocks of a start-up culture, A must read to catch in & out of Indian Internet start-up ecosystem.[10] Open communication, a transparent company culture, and specific goals and objectives are all features of successful start-ups.[8] Even constructive criticism is welcomed in these environments, since it helps employee feel valued. As a result, Covid19 is now a cornerstone of the acculturation process. Startups and businesses that have been able to demonstrate their commitment to their employees during these difficult times have subsequently outperformed.

“Employee empowerment” is a must if you want to build the next great company culture.

7. https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog /talent-acquisition/employer-branding 8. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/390026 9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5f8bqYYw ps&t=175s 10. https://www.firstpost.com/art-andculture/mihir-dalals-big-billion-startup-theuntold-flipkart-story-wins-2020-gaja-capitalbusiness-book-prize-9226021.html

References: 1. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/16/yelpdata-shows-60percent-of-business-closuresdue-to-the-coronavirus-pandemic-are-nowpermanent.html 2. https://www.greatplacetowork.com/bestcompanies-to-work-for 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyoXVi4vh 0o&t=602s 4. https://hbr.org/2019/07/the-soul-of-a-startup 5. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/e ntrepreneurial-mindset 6. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/01/ 08/the-most-difficult-part-of-starting-abusiness-letting-people-know-your-companyexists/?sh=99567a740ba1

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BREAKDOWN TO BUILDUP -Shweta Hasani SY MBA PBT, Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA)

“If you tune it so that you have zero chance of failure, you usually also have zero chance of success.”

- Reid Hoffman, Co-founder of LinkedIn

Growing up, we have all heard the adage, “Failures are the stepping stones to success”, but how relevant is this statement in today’s entrepreneurial world where we have more than 500 million entrepreneurs, all competing in a rat race, which is keen on incorporating imaginative, experimental and pristine participants, throughout its course; where every city block is an abode for a budding entrepreneur; where the conception has to be flawless and the implementation, veracious?Sagas of icons such as Walt Disney, Milton Hershey and Arianna Huffington suggest the statement to be golden. It’s their journeys, along with a consortium of others, that imbibe a sense of realism even in the face of setbacks.

It’s their expedition that paves a way for the youth of today, to untether themselves from the shackles of their debacles.

Arianna Huffington’s, now renowned second book, After Reason, was dismissed by 36 different publishers before getting the seal of approval, however, it was her tenaciousness that kept her going amidst her crisis. Hershey’s, the chocolate that we have all come to know and love, finds’ its foundation in Milton

Hershey’s determination, who encountered the shutdown of two of his business ventures, before going on to build his massive empire.

Likewise, Walt Disney, who is often known for his creative dexterity, was laid off from his then job, for not being “creative enough.” Despite that, we now know him as the creative genius who gave the world an animated touch, the man behind every kid’s fairytale story, the man who teaches children to dream even before they can comprehend what dreaming is.

Time and again, we find inspiration in the stories of legends like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, J.K. Rowling, Brian Chesky, James Dyson and several others, who have amassed colossal success. But these luminaries share more than just their success, they all underwent monumental hardships and learnt lessons through their repudiations. Had they stopped at the glimpse of their first failure, the world would have been a different place to live in.

Similarly, even with the rat race that our entrepreneurial world is a part of, it is vital that one must not fear failures or shy away from taking risks due to perceived setbacks, because Robert F. Kennedy once said, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

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GLOBAL TRADE IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC -Deep Arora

In an unprecedented destabilization of the global economy and world trade, production and consumption have been cut around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to deal with this crisis effectively, timely, accurate information is essential. World trade is experiencing an unprecedented level of crisis in 2020-2021 because of border restrictions and closures, a sharp drop in foreign direct investment (FDI), and other capital flows. As a result of this, millions of people have been infected, crippling economic activity

The global recession brought about by COVID19 has disrupted transformation and economic growth in countries all over the world, endangering societies and people's livelihoods.

The transmission of goods and individuals across borders has always been essential to international trade and investment. As physical proximity between producers and consumers is essential for many types of trade in services, direct contact is an important aspect of establishing cooperation in international trade

"Economy is present only where there is efficiency."

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commercial goods. Governments throughout the world have imposed travel restrictions and social isolation solutions in order to protect public health, they have led to serious impacts on mobility, movement, and cross-border trade. The pandemic has highlighted the more significant and important role that mobility plays in international trade.

Travel and transportation costs A recommendation by the World Health Organization (WHO) was announced on January 1, 2020, imposing travel restrictions in countries affected by public health emergencies, as well as warning against the economic consequences of COVID-19. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the restrictions on exposure and social isolation have significantly affected the trade in tourism commodities, particularly transport costs and international trade. WTO statistics indicate that costs of trade have increased by 50 percent due to the severe impact of COVID-19, according to a study by the WTO for 2020-2021. This

represents only a 10 to 15 percent increase in costs, compared with previous crises. Whether it's manufacturers or global trade, this is a huge challenge. Travel and transportation costs are a significant component of trade costs in all sectors. Foreign trade costs include freight, diplomatic business travel, and shipping time.

A report by the WTO showed that transportation costs account for 33% of trade costs. The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruptions to international trade. A lack of transport is among the most significant issues affecting supply chain management. As a result of border closures and travel restrictions against COVID-19 in developing countries, transportation efficiency decreased by 30% from 2020 to 2021 when compared to the same period a year earlier. Transportation services, including sea, road, air and rail have been severely affected. Several aspects of the transport sector were significantly impacted by COVID-19, including individual travel and diplomacy.

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Disruptions to business and individual travel The importance of interpersonal communication in business travel stems from this foundation for current and future relationships, which is essential for global trade business. A smooth-running international trade is also dependent on individual work, but under the influence of COVID-19, specific activities of individual workers, as well as close industry-to-industry contacts, are paralyzed.

The WTO statistics report shows that 80% of all travel and business activities are affected by COVID-19, and thus, face-to-face meetings are critical in business dealings and decision-making.

There are many companies and managers who would not sign contracts without meeting face-toface. COVID-19 is therefore likely to have a significant impact on travel and work involving personal interaction. This problem will be solved based on the level of information and communication technology (ICT) and the infrastructure needs of each country, as ICT networks will also be experiencing more traffic.

Creating partnerships and generating business opportunities can still be achieved best through personal and business travel. In contrast, the disruptions and restrictions in travel caused by COVID-19 have in travel caused by COVID-19 have

contributed to the global economic crisis and impacted millions of lives due to an increase in travel and transport costs that led to an increase in consumers' expenditures. Both personal and business travel are restricted under COVID-19.

The COVID-19 crisis disrupted international air travel, causing major outages at tourist sites & attractions, festivals and events to be postponed or cancelled, and restrictions on gatherings in many countries caused by the suspension of international aviation. It is estimated that tourism contributed 10% to economic output globally and accounted for 1/4 of all new jobs in the past five years. Tourism contributes more than a third of the GDP in many developing economies, as shown by some South Asian and Central American economies. Tourism suffered an unprecedented crisis following the COVID-19 pandemic. For countries whose economies are dependent on tourism, the tourism industry recorded its worst results in March 2020 in terms of tourist arrivals and profits. In Vanuatu, for example, tourism accounts for 40% of GDP, according to a report by the National Tourism Administration in April 2020. As a result of COVID-19, tourism will suffer a very severe impact for some time to come, according to the WTO report.

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Different trade cost policies Global trade costs still include trade policy barriers, regulatory differences and crossborder transport costs, and these include both tariff and non-tariff measures, temporary trade barriers, etc.

In addition, strong social control has led to negative supply and demand shocks, and the pace of economic recession in 2020 was faster than that of 2008–2009. It is still unclear whether the COVID-19 epidemic will end, but governments are seeking ways to counter it, including developing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like breathing apparatus and respirators. A further concern is the export restrictions on COVID-19. Other policy differences have contributed to trade costs, including non-tariff controls, restrictions on cross-border commerce, documentation requirements, and compliance requirements, according to the WTO report, by the end of April 2020, 74 economies will have banned or restricted exports. It has also been demonstrated that restrictions on visas have a

negative impact on trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), inhibiting trade in the international trading environment. As an example, unilateral border restrictions are estimated to reduce bilateral trade by 19% and FDI by 25%. However, WTO has also recognized the importance of responding to the pandemic, as measures to do so are extremely urgent.

According to the WTO, global trade is expected to decline by 32% in 2020-2021 due to the direct effects of the pandemic, which depletes both supply and demand. While the WTO anticipates future higher trade costs to result from restrictions on different policies, it does not agree. In addition, the WTO indicated that government policy options can reduce or increase the uncertainty of trade policy in shaping future trade costs.

Impact on inflation

In recent months, an increase in the cost of shipping containers has caused inflation in major economies to accelerate. More than 50% of the

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cost of shipping a container from East Asia to the West Coast of the United States has increased since April. During the same period, the cost of shipping a container from East Asia to Europe increased by about 75%. The Baltic Dry Index (BDI), one of the most popular measures of the cost of shipping non-liquid bulk commodities, has reached its highest levels since before the global financial crisis of 2008-09. This year's increase began when it appeared that the global economy would begin making a turnaround.

Nevertheless, the current outbreak could ultimately lower shipping costs. Thus, if the outbreak has a negative impact on employment, it could slow demand growth in major markets.

Additionally, the outbreak has already caused havoc in factories in Asia. As a result, shipping availability may be reduced. This could result in an increase in prices of goods in short supply, but a decrease in shipping costs. The future cannot yet be predicted with certainty.

trade policy, and health determinants and health inequalities. Deliberations should be transparent, using participatory trade governance structures that include health experts, and with meaningful public participation. Otherwise, health risks will continue to grow. Following the collapse of the global economy and trade, governments and institutions are now focusing on preparing for post-pandemic recovery. During this period of recovery, there exists a valuable opportunity to reform trade agreements and ensure healthy and sustainable lives for all - something governments committed to doing when they signed up to the increasingly fragile UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Billions of lives and livelihoods around the world are now at stake, and we cannot waste this opportunity.

Conclusion With the outbreak of COVID-19, countries' travel restrictions resulted in a sharp rise in trade costs due to differences in transport costs, an uncertain economic policy, and disruption of individual travel as well as national policies in response to the outbreak. Combined, the COVID-19 epidemic has boosted trade costs in the form of trade protectionism, transportation costs, tariff hikes, and volatile trade policies, eroding investment activity and consumer demand, and reducing global trade growth. Using trade instruments in the future to mitigate the health effects of the COVID-19 trade collapse will require taking into account the complex relationship between trade,

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