<ul><li> Social media platforms in India, like Facebook and its offshoot WhatsApp, Google’s YouTube, Twitter, and others now face a new set of rules and regulation set to be enforced after mid-May.</li><li>The Indian government has laid rules for a physical presence, monitoring of harmful content, tracking down the first originator of mischief, and the voluntary verification of users.</li><li>Here are the five most important things you need to know about India’s new IT Rules for social media platforms.</li><li>The article has been written by Tanu Banerjee, Ishan Johri and Garima Kedia from Khaitan &amp; Co.</li></ul>The Indian government has come up with a new set of rules and regulations to regulate social media platforms, messaging services, OTT platforms and news portals. These regulations are called the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/facebook-and-twitter-have-a-ton-of-new-rules-to-abide-by-in-india-whatsapp-may-find-itself-in-the-toughest-spot-of-all/articleshow/81208643.cms">Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (Rules). </a> These Rules will require compliance even by foreign tech-giants operating in India such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Amazon etc. The growth of digital media in India has largely been fuelled by a moderate regulatory framework in India until now. However, given the growing concerns around the information and content available over social media and OTT platforms, domestic and foreign, detailed regulations for digital media from the Government were imminent. For social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and others, the Rules focus on issues like fake news, fake user accounts and monitoring of illegal content by platforms. Greater compliances are placed on social media platforms with larger user base. A key provision specific to messaging services is the requirement to identify the originator of messages in case of mischief. Significant social media intermediaries — more on behaviour than stats Social media platforms with minimum 50 lakh registered users are classified as significant social media intermediaries and are subject to maximum compliances. However, the Government may require any other social media platform to also comply with rules applicable to significant social media intermediaries if services of such platform create a material risk to the sovereignty or integrity of India. While the actual implementation of this remains to be seen, at this juncture it appears that purely as a result of user behaviour, even smaller social media platforms could be brought under the ambit of stricter compliances under the rules. If you are doing business in India, you need to be setup in India All significant social media intermediaries are required to appoint: <ul><li>a Chief Compliance Officer</li><li>a Nodal Contact Person</li><li>and, a Resident Grievance Officer</li></ul>Each of the above are required to be Indian residents. The Rules also necessitate significant social media intermediaries to have a physical contact address in India. This mandatory physical presence in India will have significant implications for foreign players in terms of setting up infrastructure and deployment of resources and taxation. However, absence of a registration or a mandatory licensing framework for digital media businesses, will hopefully continue to garner interest from foreign players to set up operations in India. Active monitoring of harmful content — shifting the responsibility to ‘intermediaries’ In a departure from the previously applicable Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011 (2011 Rules), significant social media intermediaries are now required to endeavour to deploy technology-based measures, including automated tools to identify information that depicts rape, child sexual abuse or conduct, or information that has previously been removed. The rules also require maintenance of appropriate human oversight, and periodic review of automated tools. Such active monitoring by intermediaries dilutes the safe harbour protection that was available to intermediaries under the 2011 Rules. Verification of users — security or risk to privacy? Significant social media intermediaries are to provide a mechanism for verification of user accounts, e.g. through mobile numbers. Verified users are to be identified by a demonstrable mark such as a tick or dot. Though such verification by users is voluntary, it may still be a setback for user privacy. A platform’s use of personal information provided by users is subject to the platform’s privacy policy, to which users typically have no option but to consent. User information provided for verification will simply become part of the data under the privacy policy that platforms are entitled to collect and use. Identification of ‘first originator’ of Information Messaging services (with more than 50 lakh users) will be required to enable identification of the first originator of information if required by a court order or an order of the Government under Section 69 of the IT Act. Such identification of a user <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/whatsapp-signal-and-telegram-face-a-catch-22-situation-as-indias-new-social-media-rules-threaten-encryption/articleshow/81221070.cms">brings into question the end-to-end encryption offered by services</a> such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, etc.; and whether identifying a user as the “first originator” of mischievous information accurately is practically possible for a platform. *Tanu Banerjee is a partner, Ishan Johri is a senior associate and Garima Kedia is an associate at law firm Khaitan &amp; Co. Views expressed here are personal. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/whatsapp-signal-and-telegram-face-a-catch-22-situation-as-indias-new-social-media-rules-threaten-encryption/articleshow/81221070.cms">Whatsapp, Signal and Telegram face a catch-22 situation as India’s new social media rules threaten encryption</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/facebook-and-twitter-have-a-ton-of-new-rules-to-abide-by-in-india-whatsapp-may-find-itself-in-the-toughest-spot-of-all/articleshow/81208643.cms">Facebook and Twitter have a ton of new rules to abide by in India ⁠— WhatsApp may find itself in the toughest spot of all</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/indian-government-assumes-the-right-to-block-digital-news-content-along-with-a-new-set-of-regulations/articleshow/81209053.cms">Indian government assumes the right to block digital news content along with a new set of regulations</a>

India’s new rules for Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms explained in five points

<ul><li>Job creation will not just help solve widening inequalities but also help the Indian economy address the problem of weak domestic demand.</li><li>A big part of this is in creating better paying employment for those at the bottom of the pyramid who are engaged in low paid informal work arrangements.</li><li>This can be done by boosting <keyword id="92538" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="MNREGA">MNREGA</keyword> allocation, creating productive job opportunities in the manufacturing sector by leveraging the PLI scheme and providing support to micro and small enterprises.</li></ul>It is now abundantly clear that a disproportionate burden of the COVID-19 shock has been borne by those at the lower end of the income distribution. Especially for those engaged in informal work arrangements. As we lay out a roadmap of revival and recovery for the Indian economy in the budget, we need to focus on creating productive employment opportunities that provide decent wages and offer some degree of job security for wage earners and self-employed. <div type="image" title="Rural wage growth has flattened(1)" msid="80561918" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Rural wage growth &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> This is important, not just to address widening inequalities, but also to overcome the problem of inadequate aggregate demand. Reviving domestic demand emanating from those at the lower end of the income distribution — who have a higher marginal propensity to consume — will play a vital role in spurring private investment which has been steadily declining over the last decade and has fallen to 27.6% of GDP. Much of the focus thus far has been on addressing supply-side bottlenecks and structural factors that have impeded private investment, but now greater attention needs to be paid to the demand side factors. This will require a mix of various strategies. MNREGA needs more funds and higher wages To begin with, there is a need to increase the budgetary allocation for National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), the one programme which has worked as an effective countercyclical automatic stabilizer during the COVID-19 crisis. In 2020-21, the budgetary allocation for MNREGA was ₹61,500 crores. Subsequently, an additional ₹40,000 crores were allocated under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat programme. <div type="image" title="MNREGA allocation" msid="80562411" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;MNREGA allocation&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> This allocation needs to be significantly enhanced as demand for MNREGA works is rising rapidly and several states are falling short of funds to provide work. Additionally, the government would do well to increase the number of working days offered under the programme from 100 to 150 days — as permitted under the architecture of the programme. Further, given that MNREGA wage rates of at least 17 of the 21 major states are even lower than the state minimum wage for agriculture, there is a need to bring the former in line with the latter. This will help fuel rural demand, from those at the bottom of the distribution. <div type="image" title="MNREGA_edited" msid="80566452" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Workers protesting for more work days under MNREGA and other demands in Patna&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Government needs to create more productive job opportunities Concomitantly, the imperative of accelerating the pace of productive job opportunities, in particular, in the manufacturing sector cannot be overemphasized. The government has announced a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme amounting to ₹ 2 lakh crores — approximately 1% of GDP — over the next five years covering 14 sectors. To get the maximum bang for the buck, it might be worth considering linking these incentives not just to firms' production but also to employment creation on the firms’ payroll. This could potentially give a huge boost to productive job creation. <div type="javascript" title="Custom" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vOHRa9vcoAI" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>]]></cdata></div> However, it needs to be recognized that such incentives alone cannot give an impetus to manufacturing production and employment. As India returns to a strategy of import substitution, many of the firms availing these incentives are likely to find it difficult to integrate in global value chains and procure reasonably priced imported inputs, thereby hurting their competitiveness. For the success of PLI and for an export promotion strategy, there needs to be serious rethink on the increase in import duties which we have witnessed in the budget over the last three years. Smaller businesses should not be ignored While the PLI scheme focuses on large formal enterprises, it is important to note that the firm landscape is dominated by micro and small enterprises which have struggled to remain afloat during this period. Several of these enterprises are in the informal sector and have been unable to access the credit support offered by the government thus far. It would be worthwhile putting in place an enterprise support scheme for informal sector firms that can provide them some immediate relief. <div type="javascript" title="Custom" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WVt_NsIxIrA" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>]]></cdata></div> Undeniably, this is a challenging task given that these firms are not registered. We would need to find creative ways of supporting informal enterprises through financial and monetary measures such as reducing their operating costs by offering waivers or deferred payments for public services such as electricity, water or rent. In the medium term, however, it is important to focus on enhancing productivity of informal enterprises which will in turn enable an organic process of formalization. This will require providing customized technical and business skills, financial services, enterprise support and training to better compete in the markets. <div type="image" title="snapshot-1611900385290" msid="80562704" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Employment across India&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The provision of local infrastructure facilities that cater to the specific needs of the local enterprises and clusters also plays a vital role in not just enhancing the productive capacity of informal enterprises but also in boosting employment creation in local communities in the short-term. While the budget is likely to focus on infrastructure creation to boost employment, it is important to note that big ticket infrastructural projects have a long gestation period and are capital intensive. They alone may not generate the desired employment benefits in the short run. Therefore, it would be prudent to also pursue more modest smaller projects at the local level to generate stronger multiplier effects in the local economy. The budget will expectedly lay out several measures to boost growth. However, it is imperative that maximisation of employment, and not just maximisation of GDP take centre stage in the budget. Growth estimates from the second quarter for FY 2020-21 suggest that the recovery witnessed by the Indian economy is being led by profits and not wages. However, this incipient recovery cannot be sustained unless higher profits lead to higher investment demand. The state of the labour market, both in the formal and informal sector, will play a crucial role in driving domestic demand and thereby private investment. *The author is a Senior Fellow at ICRIER. Views expressed here are personal. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/glee-s-t-january-2021-gst-collection-may-have-beat-the-december-record/articleshow/80512714.cms">Glee.S.T! January 2021 GST collection may have beat the December record</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/prime-minister-narendra-modi-signals-big-defence-budget-allocation-for-make-in-india/articleshow/80511082.cms">India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi may just have signalled a big allocation for defence equipment manufacturing, 3 days before the budget</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/india-needs-to-add-massive-amount-of-solar-and-wind-power-capacity-this-year-to-meet-its-first-target/articleshow/80496138.cms">India needs to add massive amount of solar and wind power capacity this year to meet its first target</a>

India needs more ‘productive’ jobs and higher wages to address its demand problem

<ul><li>An increase in the health and family welfare budget by at least 50% at the state and central level is imperative.</li><li>We currently have only one Auxiliary Nurse Midwife for a population of 5,000 or five villages.</li><li>India urgently needs a robust public health management cadre on the lines of IAS and IPS etc.</li></ul>The dwindling number of COVID-19 cases per day is, undoubtedly, excellent news for India. Plus, the vaccination drive is on, which will aid in building herd immunity and protecting the most vulnerable. If we can expand the vaccination drive rapidly, there will be no chance of a second wave in India and COVID-19 will be finished by summer. The question now is what can we learn from the pandemic and how can we consolidate these public health gains via this year's budget. An increase in the health and family welfare budget by at least 50% at the state and central level is imperative. Our aim should be to reach 3% of GDP for health from the current 1.2% or so in the next five years. Most of this money should strengthen primary care at the village level and improve public health services. As a public health expert, here’s my wishlist for the <keyword id="8420431" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="budget-2021">budget 2021</keyword>. <div type="image" title="Quote002 (1)" msid="80551267" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Dr.Dileep Mavalankar&amp;#39;s wishlist for the budget 2021&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> 1. Government's commitment to one qualified primary care nurse per village Currently, we have one Auxiliary Nurse Midwife for a population of 5,000 or five villages. We have recently added a Community Health Officer (CHO) at this level who is a nurse Ayurveda doctor trained for a further six months. India is producing enough nurses to staff all of its villages with at least one nurse. Appointing one nurse per village will ensure around the clock presence of a primary healthcare provider in each village. For context, China did this in the 1970s, Bangladesh in the 1980s and Nepal also has a similar provision. An ASHA worker per village is not enough – she is a partly-paid volunteer. We desperately need preventive and curative care professionals at the village level. The cost will be around ₹25,000 per nurse per month in 500,000 villages which come to ₹15,000 crore annually. The implementation can be phased, and the state and central govt can share the cost. But it is an essential move so that villagers can receive services of vital healthcare at their doorstep. 2. Strengthen primary care centres (PHC) and urban health centres with public health officers' appointment Currently, we have medical officers with MBBS degrees for primary care centres. However, there are many places where MBBS doctors are not available, and the posts lay vacant. More than half of the work of PHCs is to manage public health programs such as immunization, maternal and child health, environmental sanitation, malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases, surveillance and monitoring of diseases and epidemics etc. For such public health program management, a clinical doctor is not essential or desirable. A public health officer with a Master of Public Health degree is sufficient. So the suggestion is to have a post of public health officers at each PHC besides a medical officer. For the whole of India, we will need 30,000 such public health officers. At an average salary of ₹55,000 per month, this will cost the government about ₹1980 crore. The benefits will be immense. All national public health programs will be managed better – with better quality, coverage and outcomes. Moreover, the MBBS medical officer can fully devote his or her time to clinical medical services to providing good quality clinical care that is currently unavailable since they spend more than half of their time in public health programs. This will also boost the medical officers' morale as they are not trained to do public health work that they have to do in a PHC. 3. Instituting a public health management central services cadre To plan, organize and monitor our public health actions, including for diseases like COVID-19, India urgently needs a robust public health management cadre on the lines of IAS, IPS, IFS and other central services. Each district should have five to seven such centrally selected public health cadre post officers with similar posts at state and national level. They should have pay and other facilities in lines with other central services. Currently, the district, taluka and city-level public health posts are filled variably by medical doctors, specialists and some non-doctors due to unclear recruitment and promotions rules in various public health departments of states and cities. Even at the national level, there are very few public health officers. The entire pandemic was managed by generalist administrators and specialist medical doctors without much input from public health experts and infectious diseases or epidemiology experts. For a national public health cadre, India will need a minimum of five officers per district, which will come to 3,695 officers for district level. We need to add about 1000 officers at the state and city level, and the total will come to 4,695 officers. At an average salary of ₹1,50,000 per month, such cadre at the national level will cost about ₹845 crore per year. Such cadre will improve public health management at ground level in each district and city. 4. Strengthen public health institutes that are not AIIMS The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is not a public health institute; it is a medical care apex institute, and their advice on how to care for coronavirus patients may be the best. However, we rarely heard the voices from experts from All Indian Institute of Hygiene and Public health (AIIHPH) or National Center for Communicable diseases (NCDC), or an additional director general of public health in India or any of the states during the pandemic. We also hear from cardiologists and pathologies from the private sector, but from very few public health experts. There is no doubt that IAS officers are essential for inter-sectoral administrative actions on a large scale, which are needed during major catastrophes. But the technical strategies for controlling an epidemic is the job of epidemiologists and public health officers. We hope that through this budget the government will plan to improve our institutions dedicated to public health like NCDC, AIIHPH, Indian Institutes of Public Health and other schools of public health and public health divisions in the ministry of health. A provision of ₹2000 crore to strengthen public health institutions and division in the country should be made in the budget. If implemented in this budget, these suggestions will go a long way to strengthen our medical care and public health system in the country. This will reduce the possibility of future pandemics and increase our ability to deal with it in a better manner. Due to the pandemic, the economic and social loss should make the policymakers willing to invest in public health in this and subsequent budgets. *The author is the Director of Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar. Views expressed here are personal. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/glee-s-t-january-2021-gst-collection-may-have-beat-the-december-record/articleshow/80512714.cms">Glee.S.T! January 2021 GST collection may have beat the December record</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/prime-minister-narendra-modi-signals-big-defence-budget-allocation-for-make-in-india/articleshow/80511082.cms">India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi may just have signalled a big allocation for defence equipment manufacturing, 3 days before the budget</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/india-needs-to-add-massive-amount-of-solar-and-wind-power-capacity-this-year-to-meet-its-first-target/articleshow/80496138.cms">India needs to add massive amount of solar and wind power capacity this year to meet its first target</a>

A public health expert shares a ₹20,000 crore plan to improve India’s health infrastructure including a dedicated cadre

<ul><li>Finance Minister <keyword id="129243" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nirmala-Sitharaman">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword> will be presenting the Union <keyword id="6358021" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="budget">Budget</keyword> amidst unprecedented circumstances. </li><li>The digital progress made in health and education has not reached everyone and the gaps need to be fixed. </li><li>The COVID-19 pandemic has also posed a risk to the battle against malnourishment and food coupons may be a way out.</li></ul>There are high expectations from the <keyword id="8420431" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="budget-2021">Budget 2021</keyword>, which comes about a year after India recorded its first confirmed COVID-19 case. With the pandemic severely disrupting business as usual, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the Union Budget amidst unprecedented circumstances. The crisis has opened up opportunities in education and health but the new ideas have not been able to cross the social fault lines of an unequal society. So, it may be time to bridge those divides with innovative programmes like food coupons for the malnourished, and spending money to ensure that no one is left behind in all the digital progress made in health and education. The pandemic has underscored the importance of social sector schemes It is not all about challenges. The “new normal” has also created opportunities to build back better. One such opportunity is to prioritise and invest in what has traditionally been considered “social sectors”. One hopes that the pandemic has demonstrated beyond doubt that these so-called social sectors are, in fact, critical for economic progress and workforce productivity as well. Of course, the budget is not the only window of opportunity for the government to implement measures for strengthening these sectors but to the extent that the budget signals priorities and sets the tone at the highest levels, it is crucial that areas like health, nutrition, education and gender equality feature prominently. The budget must increase allocation for health as well as promote telehealth While India has fared much better on COVID-19 management than most would expect, the outbreak has also shone a spotlight on the underlying gaps and inequities in the health system in terms of access to and quality of physical infrastructure, human resources as well as drugs and medical devices. Further, the lockdown, which was a necessary response for gearing up the health system to respond to COVID-19, resulted in disruptions to some essential services in areas like maternal and child health, tuberculosis, and non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiac ailments and chronic kidney disease. India is committed to ramping up its spending on health to 2.5% of GDP by 2025 as per the National Health Policy, 2017. However, in the post-COVID scenario, the government might need to consider achieving this level of spending on health before 2025. <img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/wFzun6tXdChh0CLSr-INfR_uOKrfJFh4xH_a2O4l7nDAW2wYukcnFUDVeECa9lV7gKk22mt3y8e5ak8ufcQw5XVQdoa3sPha4UKv17LGd_WL4Oy729m4R8llXIWSWGxqmKy3aySi" /> This will not only enable India to build a strong and resilient public health system to address the ongoing challenges faced by the population more effectively and equitably but will also ensure that the country is better prepared for such disease outbreaks in the future. A timely increase in spending is necessary to equip the already stretched health sector to cope with new and additional challenges posed by the pandemic, including a rise in mental health and stress-related issues. Further, the budget must emphasise initiatives for making full use of the opportunities that have emerged during the COVID era, most notably the adoption of digital health interventions, like telemedicine. The Indian government released the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines in March 2020 to enable access to remote healthcare consultations. By early December 2020, over 1 million teleconsultations had taken place through e-Sanjeevani, the Government’s telemedicine service, across 550 districts in the country. A survey of 800 physicians conducted by Boston Consulting Group between March-May, 2020, revealed a trend of accelerated digital adoption, with 85% of clinicians using digital platforms and telemedicine during the lockdown period. <img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/NhgVFFo9Yz1_TCI4y9pvOeypGQDDJzwRGu9hUqA21mwNnzSR9GZexuneWU7wa-YzP_C8_5qo_kilwhUYMD6xIx1BF119oqPpk0cqS22hCHJHyL7WZTaaFzzgZDAlXzIy7AL0DiC0" /> Going forward, there is tremendous scope to expand telemedicine services to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities as well as rural areas, where the unmet need for access to quality healthcare is the highest. Nutrition sector Nutrition is another sector which has suffered from disruptions to essential services like mid-day meals in schools and hot, cooked meals in Anganwadi Centres, on account of the pandemic. <div type="image" title="anganwadi" msid="80477523" hostid="261"></div> For instance, under normal circumstances, 1.3 million Anganwadi Centres provide supplementary food to pregnant and lactating mothers as part of the Integrated Child Development Scheme. Adverse effects on livelihoods further exacerbate food and nutrition insecurity. Besides restoring programmes delivering essential nutrition services fully, the budget could also consider food purchasing assistance (in the form of coupons) for people from low-income backgrounds. Budget must provide the infrastructure needed for the have-nots to access online education In 2020, the government released the National Education Policy outlining several ambitious measures for transforming the education sector. It is crucial that the Budget supports the implementation of these interventions with the requisite financial allocations, in line with the overall plan to increase public spending on education to 6% of GDP from the current approximately 4.6%. Specifically, to tackle the challenges posed by COVID-19, it is essential to ensure adequate funds for enabling schools across the country to reopen with the necessary water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in place. <div type="image" title="classroom" msid="80477582" hostid="261"></div> Additionally, steps need to be taken to bridge the digital divide. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), ownership of smartphones in student households increased significantly between 2018 and 2020. However, the report noted that only one-third of school children were pursuing online education. Thus, while COVID-19 has undoubtedly given a fillip to the use of technology, it has also widened the digital divide, with students from underprivileged families finding it challenging to participate in online classes or access digital content. There is, therefore, a case for the budget to make a provision, perhaps in the form of a dedicated fund, for promoting manufacturing of equipment like tablets and providing an enabling digital ecosystem targeted at students who are currently getting left behind. The pandemic has hurt women the most both in terms of life and livelihood Finally, across sectors, COVID has worsened gender inequality in much of the world. Research conducted by Azim Premji University suggests that the work participation rate for Indian women reduced to 5.8% in August 2020 from 9.15% in December 2019. Women have also had to bear a disproportionate burden of caregiving during the pandemic. Contraceptive supply chains have suffered from disruptions, which could lead to an increase in the number of unwanted pregnancies as well as sexually transmitted diseases. Further, due to the confinement during the lockdown period, job losses, and absence of the usual support networks like Self-Help Groups (SHGs), instances of domestic violence are also believed to have increased over the last several months. <img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/3M2mpvZK3RfGKNZOQl-E6ZZXycI-46-Z26ccYcZNcSFWslTVv-fDYCcMIqiqPLBexYn06QxVEESsEdiJOgSooGQyDlyDHp8z7-Aam9x4v5N6MzrhQyJ_PFjQEIiD4p6Sx8q78zxd" /> Additionally, economic distress could lead to parents making choices about sending only male children to school, perpetuating intergenerational inequalities with respect to the education of girls. Restoring existing health, nutrition, and social safety programmes for girls and women in their entirety must therefore be a top priority. As of July 2020, there were around 66 Lakh SHGs formed under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission with over 70 million women members. This network of SHGs should be strengthened through credit linkages and access to digital literacy and tools to create suitable economic opportunities for women. Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author.

From food coupons to a fund to provide laptops and tablets to the poor⁠— NITI Aayog’s public policy analyst has a wishlist too

<ul><li>While Finance Minister <keyword id="129243" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nirmala-Sitharaman">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword> will push large corporations to ‘Make in India’, it is also an opportunity to remind them that they should make FOR India.</li><li>It is time to move the mindset of the big players from associating this market with cheaper products and instead, bring products that are of great value to Indians. </li><li>Some of the biggest corporations in the world struggle in India because their products were developed, at a higher cost, with another set of consumers in mind.</li></ul>It is <keyword id="6358021" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="budget">budget</keyword> time. While Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will push large corporations to ‘Make in India’, it is also an opportunity to remind them that they should make FOR India as well. It is the time to move the mindset of the big players from associating this market with cheaper products and instead, bring products that are of great value &amp; relevance to the highly value conscious Indian consumers. Some of the multi-billion dollar corporations in the world⁠— even market leaders in their own segment⁠— struggle in emerging markets like India because their products were developed, at a higher cost, with another set of consumers in mind. They could definitely learn from the success of Chinese smartphone makers like Xiaomi and technology platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix that had to come up with new models for the Indian audience. Here’s a look at some examples of globally leading brands not making a mark in India or other emerging markets Luxottica dominates the global eyewear market with an estimated global market share of 85% and annual revenue of $19 billion. In India, however, the firm lays claim to only 15% of the market. Stanley Black and Decker had $14 billion in global revenue last year, yet only $67 million of that (less than 1%) was in India. These are world class companies with some of the brightest minds in the world. They didn’t become the 800-pound gorillas of their respective industries by chance. But they stumble when they come to emerging markets, and they are not the only ones. Over the past decades, we have observed an interesting phenomenon across industries. And, in each case, the story is surprisingly similar. These market-leading firms start with their own geographies and spend years building an amazing, high-performance product to delight their customers. They spend time to really understand the customers’ needs and to improve their product, often by adding in new benefits and new features. As the product improves, the level of customer delight rises and, often, so does the cost. Next, they target emerging markets. They analyze the market and realize that their pricing is higher, often by a magnitude, than incumbents in the market. They know their product is better. They then do the natural thing – reduce some features and benefits until the cost comes down. To a point, where selling it makes economic sense. They, then, go to market in a big way by setting up an office, hiring a team, conducting marketing campaigns, and signing distribution deals. They have some success with the upper-income segment, but the mass ignores them. As a result, these companies are never able to command the kind of market share that they enjoyed in their own markets. They try all sorts of marketing techniques, but nothing works. What did they miss? As is often the answer, the problem lies in a lack of understanding of the customer. In this case, these companies fail to adequately understand the behaviors, motivations, and aspirations of the mass customers in the frontier markets. Instead, as discussed earlier, these firms decide to take out a bunch of features along with the associated costs. But what they fail to realize is that the customer’s jobs-to-be-done haven’t changed, nor how she/he wants to satisfy them. The difference is that this new customer has a lower ability to pay. She/he still wants all the features – each and every feature. That’s an important point. De-featuring is fundamentally flawed because it eliminates features. The customer never said she/he wants fewer features; just that she/he is not willing to pay as much. The Chinese and Indian smartphone manufacturers have understood these consumers really well and have experienced huge success as a result. They understood that their consumers want the form factor, touch screen, applications, and cameras that are available in more expensive phones. They also understood the financial constraints that these consumers face. Only then did they design their products. And when their customers saw value, they paid for it. In fact, they paid more than expected - often a full month’s salary for a single phone. Take another look at the Math <img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/q3cLk-RsI-UOf7RiHaZssqT_fBmU6Z_3Uee8j0PABwryXsWVPxlDhOukJ11wtaaqOjHPxkrhqN3hryKiv3ABdq9I62dquiooaYDEeqBQmTMB8_L0qQnPPHYL9_0zFhCTeW20hwRzQNfYwbMGAA" /> Consider the above graphic. For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume that each unit of performance equates to $1 in cost. Starting with an original product that has a performance level of 50, there are two ways to cut the performance level to 30. One can either remove 2 of the 5 features or decrease the performance of all 5 features to 60% of their original level. It’s often easier to take the first approach and therein lies in the mistake. The mass consumer in these markets, like consumers everywhere, wants all 5 features. Instead of its home country, if the company had developed the product for the masses in emerging markets from ground up, they would have hit the pinnacle earlier at an aggregate performance level of 30. The product would still have each and every feature, but at a lower level of performance and a lower price. That’s an important difference. The usual approach to cost reduction is to remove features, when, in fact, customers want all the features. It’s just that these customers are value conscious and their ability to pay is lower. It’s not about de-featuring, it’s about right-featuring. The smartphone manufacturers discussed earlier strive to hit only a 6 out of 10 in terms of performance but that’s all the consumers want. What they don’t want to do is to give up a feature. They don’t want to sacrifice the ability to take a photograph or listen to music. Like consumers in the developed world, they want it all. The Indian movie industry, Bollywood, has also figured this out where the majority of the movies target the masses. Each movie is more than 3 hours long and packs in every theme imaginable – romance, drama, action. And don’t forget the songs and dance sequences. From the outside in, the global audience may look at it with curiosity because these movies are far from a ten on ten but then again, the industry is not aiming for that. It’s aiming for a 6/10, where it tries to cater to the diverse taste of a middle class family, who is willing to shell out the money but want to ensure that every family member is satisfied at a decent level for the price they paid for the movie. The question then isn’t how we can de-feature. Instead, it’s how we can right-feature and explore what our version of a 6/10 will be. Authors: Dheeraj Batra is the Founder &amp; CEO of Propel Labs, a strategy &amp; innovation consultancy that helps large corporations in building the next generation of growth businesses in the frontier markets. Dheeraj was a management consultant and an executive advisor at leading firms including EY, IDEO, and Innosight. He co-founded the award-winning health care financing company, Arogya Finance. He is also an advisor to the GPH board on innovation at J&amp;J. Dheeraj holds an MBA from the Wharton Business School and BS in Computer Science &amp; Finance from the University of Maryland. Vijay Raju is the Co-Founder of Propel Labs, where he works with global corporations on strategy and innovation focused on frontier markets. Prior to this, Vijay was the Head of Strategy, World Economic Forum Members, Venture Director at Clay Christensen’s Innosight and Technical Director at Crest Animation Studios. Vijay is a Global Leadership Fellow of the World Economic Forum with a Masters in Global Leadership from INSEAD, Wharton, Columbia, London Business School and CEIBS (China). Vijay holds an MBA from International University of Japan and a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from India. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/defense/news/us-new-president-joe-biden-will-oppose-new-delhis-5-5-billion-deal-with-russia-for-the-s-400-missile-as-per-washington-d-c-based-expert/articleshow/80382062.cms">INTERVIEW: Joe Biden may be as harsh as Donald Trump if India insists on buying S-400 missiles from Russia, says a Washington D.C-based expert</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/sensex-crossed-the-50000-mark-for-the-first-time-ever-amid-a-global-stock-market-rally/articleshow/80379030.cms">Sensex breaches the historic 50,000 mark as Joe Biden's swearing in triggers a cheer in Indian markets</a>

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