Will Cyrus Mistry's death lead to road safety communication

https://www.mxmindia.com/2022/09/can-the-tragic-death-of-cyrus-mistry-be-a-gamechanger-in-the-way-we-look-at-driving-and-safety-rules/

I do not believe in coincidences, but last Sunday evening, I had stumbled upon a report by the Ministry of Transport on road accidents in India for the year 2020. As I was glancing through the same, my phone flashed the news of the tragic death of Cyrus Mistry in a road accident, near Mumbai.

 

The report was for 2020 and it had some chilling statistics. Even though the report boasted of a decline in road accidents by 18% and a decline of almost 13% in number of people killed in road accidents (not to forget that 2020 was the year of lockdown and restricted travel and road commerce), the absolute numbers were mindblowing. More than 3.66 lakhs reported accidents. More than 1.2 lakhs fatal accidents. More than 55% of the accidents happened on national and state highways and, hold your breath, 65% of accidents happened on stretches of straight roads. The report mentions a mix of traffic rules violations, driving without valid driving license and non-use of safety devices as the main reasons for road accidents.

 

This was startling for me. Does a valid licence holder in India, know more than a non-driving licence holder? What extra or more safety precaution does a valid licence holder is aware of, or takes? My contention is actually the opposite. A valid licence holder thinks that s/he is now the king of the road and has the licence to do anything s/he pleases.

 

And then came the news that the vehicle of Mr Mistry was over-speeding. That it tried to overtake another vehicle from the wrong side. That the passengers at the back were not wearing seat belts. I am sure that the person driving the vehicle had a valid driving licence. But that person, it seems, was flouting traffic rules and the passengers at the back were not using safety measures. If some of the most distinguished, well-educated people in India were responsible for such oversights then imagine the behaviour of the more common man.

 

And now ask yourself. How many road safety rules are you aware of? Did you pass an oral test about driving rules when you got your licence? Was there an oral test at all? Were you given any rule book? Do you know the speed limits on the roads you frequently use? Can you understand road signs?

 

Do you know how to use a traffic circle? When to enter it? Do you know that even when you change lanes you should signal the same? Have you heard of a blind spot which even a side rear view mirror cannot cover? What is the rule for joining the traffic from a side road? Do you know that you cannot stop or park your vehicle near a crossing or a turn or a bend in the road?

 

These were some of the questions that I faced when I went for my driving tests abroad. In fact, I was not even allowed to take a test till I went through more than 30 driving classes and attended sessions on driving rules. This is after I had been driving in India for more than 12 years. And I was failed five times before I was deemed ready to drive on the roads.

 

So, do not feel guilty if you do not know the answers to above questions. Because driving licence in India means testing the ability to drive engaging gears. Often you need not even have that capability. Yes, I have heard that things are changing. Automated tests which have no human interference or influence and which lay a strong emphasis on you understanding rules have started in key cities. But let us not forget that currently most of the drivers on road just know the basics of driving from point A to B. Period. The first step in reducing road accidents is in educating the current drivers about the driving and safety rules.

 

Do not also feel guilty because my practical experience shows that even the traffic police are not well versed in traffic rules. They look at some basic violations like overspeeding, wrong side driving, driving under influence of alcohol, helmets, three to a two wheeler, registration of vehicles and maybe one or two more.

 

So, in a country where increase in sale of vehicles is a benchmark of economic growth; where the transport ministry is claiming to build 100 kms of roads per day, isn’t it high time that all drivers are given a crash course (pun unintended) in safe driving and driving rules? For, if I am not even aware that what I am doing is wrong, how can I correct it?

 

No, I am not talking about public service advertisements. Nor am I talking about some government drive of distributing leaflets or sending SMSs. I think that the communication industry along with the transport ministry must work out a comprehensive road rules and road safety education programme targeting all licence holders. Two-wheeler drivers, private vehicle drivers, heavy vehicle drivers, everyone must be sensitised to road rules. Call in all license holders for a programme. It may be voluntary but if the compliance is low then it needs to be enforced. If they do not attend even after three notices, cancel their licence. In the past, we have very successfully carried out literacy and adult literacy programmes. These were done when technological advances and innovations were nowhere at the level of toady. And these had good measure of success. So, why not a road rules and safety communication programme? The economic loss to the country in terms of road accidents is in billions of dollars per year. If a communication drive can reduce that, if it can reduce fatalities, then it’s not such a crazy idea at all.

 

In a country, where we are willing to debate and maybe enforce some sort of population control measures, isn’t it time to think of a traffic safety and traffic rules education plan at a countrywide level? If we are determined to phase out carbon emission vehicles by 2040 then why can’t we look at increasing road safety, increasing awareness of road rules?

 

Minister Mr Nitin Gadkari has taken some bold and revolutionary steps in road and surface transport. Is he willing to pick up this gauntlet?

 

Vikas Mehta is a senior business and marketing strategy consultant and educator. He is based in Dehradun. This column will appear every other Tuesday. His views here are personal

 

9/11 personal memory

 9/11 was a seminal moment for our generation.  Terrorism, Al Qaida became buzzwords for all that could go wrong with the world. And most of us have some memories of that day.

My memory actually is from 3-4 weeks later. I was based in Jakarta then and had to travel to Argentina for a client’s global conference. Before that there was a small matter of our office senior management conference in Perth. So, my final travel plan was somewhat bizarre. I had to travel from Perth to Sydney. From there to Buenos Aires by Qantas for a conference which was for exactly one day. For the return leg my option was to stay in Buenos Aires for 2-3 more days as the only direct flight was a bi weekly flight or fly out to Miami. From Miami to LA and then take a Qantas LA to Sydney flight. Since my brother in law and sister in law were both in LA I decided on the second option. 

The inbound leg to Buenos Aires was uneventful except for a horrible jet lag. When you exit a place at 10 in the morning and reach your destination after about 12-13 hours and it’s 12 noon the same day, the jetlag can be very pronounced.

The next day the conference got over at around 4 and I trudged to the airport to catch an American Airlines flight to Miami around 8-9 pm. This was the time when the Anthrax envelopes sent to some senators office in US had caused the death of 4-5 people and the Anthrax scare had been reported from Buenos Aires also. The office of one of US leading newspaper there had also received Anthrax laced envelope.

Security at the airport was tight and we had to disembark twice with a fully body and luggage search even before we reached the airport. Anyways, mercifully the flight was on time and soon one entered into fitful sleep for the 8-9 hours duration of the flight. 

One of the perk of flying business class is the fact that one can be amongst the first to disembark and get ahead in the immigration queue. So, around 5:30 in the morning a very sleepy yours truly presented himself to an immigration officer. 

My visa was 3-4 years old as I had travelled to the US from Egypt so I was not particularly bothered. And all the scary US immigration stories were still some months away. 

The immigration official flipped through my passports (expired passports had valid visas which were attached to the current passport) and then with a straight face asked me where I was coming from. Buenos Aires, I replied sullenly. After asking me the purpose of my short visit to Buenos Aires, he asked me about my country of residence. Indonesia, I shot back getting a bit irritated. With a straight face he put his next question. And your visa is issued in Egypt? Of course, I replied. Any issues? I just wanted to get over this, go to the lounge, take a shower and catch the connecting flight to LA. 

The official was now all business. He peered at me and snarled, yes. And asked me to step aside. Almost from nowhere two fully armed officials arrived and escorted me to a small room. A very senior looking official started asking me the same questions again.

Even though my sleep had vanished I still couldn’t make a connection. Till I was confronted with his view point. I was coming from a country which had an anthrax attack case. I was residing in the worlds largest Muslim populated country and my visa was from the land of Mohammed Atta and some of his companions. 

The penny finally dropped.

Now, I was a bit apprehensive but the gravity of the situation had not sunk in. Please understand this was in mid October, just a few weeks after 9/11 when the scale and extent of US response to the attacks was still not clear. 

I produced papers to show my conference invite. I showed them my passports which stated my religion as Hindu. But that was not enough. They wanted to know why the circuitous route back to Indonesia. I mentioned that I wanted to meet my BIL and SIL in LA. Big deal, they said. Why the urgency to meet them? That too since it was the in laws? I very truthfully explained to them our Indian culture of not missing an opportunity to meet wife’s brother and sister to ensure peace and harmony in the household. And for good measure I also added that since my BIL had moved to the US more than a decade and half ago,  much before I met and married his sister, I had met him only once and therefore did not want to miss an opportunity to catch up with him again. 

In hindsight all this sounds lame. What was I thinking? How could such stories convince terrorism scarred immigration or I do not know which department officials? 

But something clicked. The senior guy asked me my BIL’s phone number. I gladly gave it. LA is 3 hours behind Miami. By then it was past 6 local time, so, around 3 am in LA. I was now hoping for a quick resolution and taking a shower. 

The officer called the number and at the second attempt a very groggy BIL picked up the phone. The officer hardly introduced himself and demanded to know if my BIL knew a certain Mr. Mehta from India.

As I have said earlier, I barely knew my BIL. He in turn knew much less about me, he couldn’t even come down for the wedding. So when the question of knowing a Mr. Mehta was put forward he immediately denied it. 

I couldn’t hear the conversation but the expression on the officer’s face said it all. Tell him my name is Vikas, I yelled. And I yelled again. Mercifully, my BIL heard me and he quickly interjected to identify me. A few more questions about where was I based and where I was coming from cleared all the doubts that the officer had.

I guess I also got lucky. Since all this happened in the chaotic times immediately after 9/11, when SOPs maybe were still being drafted and laws were being still tinkered with to give more power to the officials, some old fashioned investigation had got me off the hook.

The official saw my return ticket, noted down some details and voila my passport was stamped. I stumbled out of the room, all dreams of visiting the lounge having evaporated, I went to my gate to catch the connecting flight. Promising to give my full family history to my BIL.

Later, when I read about the travails of many due to racial or religious profiling, I realised how lucky I was. Today, we chortle about the incident as a joke, in the family.  But I realise that I could have become an unfortunate sideshow of 9/11. As many unfortunately, had. 

Service sector MSMEs and their importance to small town economy

There has been lot of talk about the need for an urgent relief package for MSME in the COVID scenario. With around 63.4 million units throughout the geographical expanse of the country, MSMEs contribute around 6.11% of the manufacturing GDP and 24.63% of the GDP from service activities as well as 33.4% of India's manufacturing output.
The point to be noted here is that besides manufacturing, there is a huge contribution of MSME’s to the service sector also. Let’s therefore focus on the small non essential retailer and the institutional government supplier. For small towns like Dehradun, these service sector MSMEs are the backbone of the local economy.
For the non essential retailer it’s been a triple whammy. No revenue as the shop is shut, no relief on fixed costs like rent and employee and bank EMI’s to be paid. And since these shops are non essentials there is no guarantee that post lockdown the customers will come in as before. Think retailers like garments or fashion or opticals or even food. And for many of them there is existing stock that has been bought but is now lying shut. That has to maintained. All this adds to the cost, while the revenue has totally bottomed out.
It is therefore worthwhile that the government thinks of a relief package for this segment. Can their rents be waived off or better still can the government pay for the rents, as for some of the landlords these rents are the only source of income. And any money in the system is better than no money. Can the bank EMI’s be waived off for 2-3 moths? Not just a moratorium which anyways is of not much use as interest is being charged on the moratorium period leading to a bigger payout at the end.
The supplier who answers government tenders to supply various services and equipment is in a similar financial crunch. When the lockdown was announced, end march, various government departments were issuing orders so as to prevent lapsing of last financial year’s budgets. The whole process came to an abrupt standstill and then to save money many orders were cancelled. In many cases the suppliers had already bought the equipment and have now an inventory which they have to pay for with no hope for any compensation. And the future looks equally grim with talks of government cutting budgets given the predicted fall in revenue collections. So, the banks are well within their rights to refuse these MSME traders working capital loans and even recall the loans. And if budget cuts materialise the things could get worse for them as small towns like Dehradun have hardly any corporates which will make up for the loss of government budgets.
It is therefore in the interest of small town economies like Doon that the government looks at not just the manufacturing MSMEs but also the service sector MSMEs and comes out with a separate relief package for them.

Economic reality post COVID 19

Over the last few weeks I have read many articles about how things will change post COVID. WFH will become a norm. Deglobalisation, with many companies and industries moving out of China to closer home, maybe to India. How technology will become more dominant etc.

While I disagree with some of the above I think our economic focus currently should be not lofty or too far fetched but rooted in reality and now. And the reality about our country is that it is the farming, vast skilled and unskilled labour and the service sector which needs to be reenergised, rebooted and sustained. 

Farming sector: We are in the thick of Rabi crop harvesting. Three areas of focus need to be 1) adequacy of labour to harvest 2) Storage and transport 3) Selling of the harvest. With labour force under lockdown or gone back home, 1 is an issue. We have always had inadequate storage so with no transportation allowed this problem with intensify. Mandis are working haphazardly so selling of the harvest is a big issue.

The repercussions of failing to focus on above three will be heavy. There could be food shortages and high prices. Plus farmers will have much less income so not only will rural India be distressed and have much less purchasing power, even the sowing of Kharif crop may take a hit.

Skilled and unskilled labour: This includes permanent factory staff, temp staff and then the migrant labour. While the skilled labour may have it fine after the lockdown most production facilities depend a lot on unskilled or temp labour too. These may not be easily available as they have either gone back home or are totally new so will have to be taught some basics. Their output could be much slower.

Service sector; Broadly I am including things like IT, Hotels, Tourism, Cab services, Food services, e-commerce, Banking, Financial etc. The good news is that technology has already helped these industries a lot. But most of them are still depending upon migrant labour. Ola and Uber have about 60% of their drivers who are migrants. If they have gone back, they will not come back soon. They will have tried to find some work in their home town or village and will be loathe to come back to face EMIs for their vehicles. If they don’t, the companies will have to find new drivers, work with the banks to transfer loans at attractive rates, or banks face higher NPAs. And that’s one sector. 

Summer is one of the biggest tourism season. That’s done and dusted this year. So what happens to hotels, restaurants, tour guides, cabs & bus drivers, hawkers, local souvenir shops, even to the local toll and GST collection? 

E-commerce will survive but their costs will increase. At least for 6 months anti virus measures and some form of social distancing will have to be maintained. That would also mean POD will become scarce. So less people may use e-commerce. And of course the availability of delivery boys will be a concern. 

I hear some stories about how the IT sector is already in dumps as call centres had to be shut down and outsourcing contracts were lost or have been foreclosed. Force majure could be the bane of the IT industry.

Lot of small business in service sector like barber and salon shops, the roadside mechanic shops, non essential shops selling stuff like electrical, electronic, plumbing, showrooms etc will face a double whammy of no revenue and the liability of rents for almost 6-7 weeks. Plus what happens to their labour? They have either gone back or one has paid their salaries to hold them back , which adds to the liability column.

The maid, the driver, the auto rickshaw driver, the labourer, what is their fate? They are the the cogs which keep the wheels of a city running. If we lose them even for a month or two after the lockdown the urban economy will falter. You can WFH but will the laptop repair or the wifi router shop be open? Or if your mobile breaks down?

My take is that if we can currently focus on saving and rebuilding the above then we may be much better off than talking about WFH or Deglobalisation. That to me frankly, is just a bonus. My worry is that will the basic survive? 

Post COVID 19- Not much will change

There have been many articles and sentiments expressed about business and work life post Coronavirus crisis. I would like to touch upon two points being debated. 

1) WFH will become the new norm. I beg to differ. At least in India it will not. Some reasons. For one WFH is a senior management luxury with people living in 3-4 BR homes and study areas. For the ordinary staff, sales force, customer service, call centres, lower management home means at best a 2BR space with parents and family to share the space. For the junior staff, the new recruits, first jobber it is worse. Rented shared rooms. For them an AC office with your own workstation is a luxury, an escape from the cacophony and drudgery at home. And I am not even getting into irregular power supply,  tech support, bandwidth issues etc with people spread all over towns and issues. Some have spoken about how rentals can be saved etc. But my guess is that investment into technology which is spread out and it’s maintenance will be a serious cost centre if WFH has to be the norm.

2) Deglobalisation. According to reports many US and Japanese companies are planning on pulling out of China and going home. Indeed Japan has set aside $ 2.5 billion for Japanese countries to come home from China. But the fundamental thing is that everyone is in business. And profits will continue to be the prime motive for any business. China has everything going in terms of systems, infrastructure, government backing. They will act quickly and offer better financial incentives, subsidies, tax relatives. Ultimately only a trickle will happen out of China. There will be no exodus. 

Make the plastic and waste burning bans inclusive

Of late the city of Doon is talking about two bans. Plastic ban and banning burning of waste. Both valid and desperately required. With the ban the discourse shifts to its implementation which undoubtedly is poor. The problem is that the discourse needs to shift to why should the ban not be followed by all voluntarily and why should there be the need to enforce it with checks, raids, fines etc.

The main issue about the bans is lack of inclusiveness. It is very easy for the affluent citizens to give up plastic in favour of more expensive alternatives. Similarly waste segregation and disposal is not a problem for the well heeled. But take a look at the vast majority of Doonites and you will immediately understand why the ban is not accepted voluntarily. And let me immediately debunk the myth that the not so well off do not understand the problems of plastic and burning. They do but do they have an alternative? Have we thought of these bans from the viewpoint of vast majority and tried to make them inclusive.

What does a family who save some money to celebrate the birthday of their child do? Not buy plastic cup, plate but buy alternative stuff which could be more expensive or more difficult and too time consuming to handle? And what is the alternative that is cheap and easily available? Is it there? Does the family even know about it? What does the same family do when they are asked to segregate waste? Buy three bins? And then also worry about disposal as there is no efficient disposal system? First find a kabadiwallah who buys plastic or tetrapacks. Then worry about composting the kitchen waste? And there is no guarantee that the nagar nigam will collect the non recyclable waste from him regularly. Now tell me is that an ideal situation for the vast majority of our residents who have more important matters like daily livelihood and who therefore deprioritise plastic ban or waste segregation?  

The bans are required but these must be accompanied by inclusive measures. Provide plastic alternatives which are cheap and widely available. Provide efficient waste collection system. Mobilise the ragpickers ward wise to collect recyclables from household on a daily basis. Let every citizen or household not get into composting but get composting pits built ward wise or get compostable materials picked up as separate trash and get delivered to industries that need compost. Let NGOs work with nagar nigam for efficient removal of the same. Let nagar nigam build an efficient system to collect non recyclable waste everyday from each household. The aim has to be to make the ban voluntarily and not forceful implementaion

Do we protest too much?

No sooner than the ban on plastic was announced in Uttarakhand, various traders & merchants started opposing it. The RTO proposed strict safety rules for auto rickshaws and vans carrying school children. Not only the autorickshaw owners & unions protested against it but so did the parents. The High Court finally ordered a time bound anti encroachment drive. Not only our elected representatives opposed it but the government brought in a new rule, trying to keep the huge numbers of encroachers on our rivers out of the court order. Now an old ruling of compulsory wearing of helmets for pillion riders is going to be implemented and the protests have again started.

Maybe we suffer from a disease called “protestitis”. As a society we seem to be becoming more of protestors than of implementors. Without any doubt the essence of democracy is the right of every viewpoint to be heard. But democracy also means rising above selfish viewpoint and look at the good of the society as a whole. At the moment this is the one thing missing from our thinking. But what surprises me more is our inability to rise beyond our selfish interests. I would have thought that parents should be happy that the authorities are trying to ensure the safety of their children’s transport. But the idea of the transporters raising the charges maybe have the parents worried more than the safety of the child. Or the fact that plastic is endangering our future is less intimidating than the thought of we becoming more industrious and use recycleable alternatives.

I also suspect that we are still grappling with the Raj hangover. It has been hard wired into our brains that authority is bad. They cannot do anything good. We must look at them suspiciously. We fail to understand that it is we ourselves who have voted those who are in power. So now let us allow them to do their jobs too. Analyse their actions, scrutinise their deeds, ask questions. Protest. But do not let our narrow vested interests rise above those of the society as a whole.

Or is it our “chalta hai” attitude? Do we really think that our children are being transported safely at the moment? Not many accidents have happened does not mean many may not happen. Is the convenience of plastic more important than the future of our existence? Are helmets and the lives of our loved ones less important than the thought of buying another helmet. Why should even one death occour because of not wearing a helmet? Why should we see our nallahs and rivers and animals being choked with plastic? Just because it has been happening and we have been living with it?

We should be complimenting the courts, the RTO and other authorities who are taking some tough measures. We want our state, our country to be the best? Then let’s rise above our selfish agendas and get into action mode. Let’s ditch our chalta hai attitude and usher in change.