Who's is this Bruce Lee fan?

 

He's no black-belter, though a big fan of Bruce Lee. 

Like the rest of 1956-borners, he too idolized the karate king. 

The year: 1973. Enter The Dragon was the rage in those days of single-screen culture. 

Posing with Karate stick was an adrenalin-pumping chore. You don't have to be a karate kid to handle one to pose for photo opportunity. Karate sticks are known as Nunchucks, a traditional Okinawan weapon consisting of two sticks connected at one end with a short chain or cord/rope.

Our man under the radar for the next episode of ON THE OTHER SIDE blog series coming soon caught hold of one nunchucks while in college. 

He penned his maiden poem in Hindi in class 4 and continued to pour his heart out both in Hindi and English as he grew.

In class 8, he switched to English medium after spending a few months and invested in books in Hindi when he realized he could not pursue his chosen engineering career if he were to continue his dalliance with his mother tongue: Hindi. 

Pulp fiction greats such as James Hadley Chase, Irving Wallace, and Harold Wilson kept him thrall in his impressionable youthful era. 

Guess who this transporter is?

COMING SOON  the second personality in the new "ON THE OTHER SIDE" series. 

Watch out

MEANWHILE, check out the inaugural ON THE OTHER SIDE series personality.

Limited Choices & Dwindling Customer Delight

 

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

The era of choice for anything and everything at the lowest price point is coming to an end, maybe. Thanks to the Covid-induced supply chain disruption. Customer delight, as we comprehend, is evaporating, courtesy of the outsourcing manufacturing model.

Transportation cost — be it air, road, rail, or sea — is the most significant dampener. Port congestion, paucity of truck drivers, to be specific, have a significant impact on keeping the price point lower. In addition, the significant dependence on China for goods — both consumer and industrial — is spooky. What was touted as the most considerable advantage once upon a time, viz., China, as the world’s manufacturing hub, is turning into a Frankenstein?

All said and done, the sea route is the cheapest even now on a comparative basis vis-a-vis cargo movement by air. But the difference has narrowed down. Any day, a cargo vessel capacity by sea is humungous compared to cargo planes. As a result, the per-unit cost of any item moved goes up. Over the past two years, the cost of a 40-feet container zoomed by 12 times (see graph). Reason: the demand-supply mismatch.

Container vessels are waiting for berths at ports in a long queue. Those who have managed to find a berth face labor and equipment shortages; by the way, not all cranes are deployed, and those working are not functional 24x7 due to Covid. The Covid fear coupled with the unemployment insurance by governments is keeping the port workers at home. After all, health is wealth.

Assuming containers are unloaded, the movement by trucks poses the following challenge due to the lack of drivers. Trucks can’t move on their own. So supermarkets/Hypermarkets catering to the consumers are offering astronomical wages for truck drivers to move stuff from shipyards to their respective warehouses so their shelves will not remain empty and their business can go on.

Bear in mind that at every level, there is a higher payout: higher container charges, port handling charges, trucking rates, driver rates, and whatnot. Who is going to bear the cost? Pass on is the route. There is no other option.

On the other hand, producers, sensing the logistical challenges, are trimming their production matrix to ensure only selected items are produced. There is less challenge in the entire value chain of procurement, production, and distribution to that extent. In the bargain, the choice for consumers gets truncated. And, the delight too.

Just not the choice. Even price pressure very much raises its ugly head. Rising price levels or inflation is inevitable. Containing inflation through monetary policy initiatives would drive up the cost of borrowing and thus affect investment. As it is, investment is not happening. Public pronouncements do not automatically translate into the actual fund flow, which takes time pending formality completion Paperwork. Fiscal measures to stimulate the economy cannot go on forever. When to stop is keeping the central bankers and rulers in a tight spot. Tapering is the mantra they are chanting.

Consumer delight, in the absence of choice and lower price tag, is history. Until the advent of covid, none heard or worried about the ubiquitous supply chain. Today, it is on the lips of all: haves and have-nots equally.

Well, the drama is not over. The covid has not been tamed totally. Vaccination hesitancy is still ruling the roost in several parts of the world, and therefore, the pandemic persists, claiming lives or affecting productivity through workforce shortage at several production sites.

Will normalcy return as was experienced in the pre-Covid times? There are no clear answers. Instead, we hear of another catch-phrase: new normal. Meanwhile, speculation is rife that the crisis will linger for the next 3–4 years. Does it mean the world is inching towards de-globalization and trying to reduce its collective dependence on the Land of Dragon? The desire is there, but the actual task is the timeline. Doable, yes. How soon is the question? Well, that’s another story.

The Man from Mulund or Milan?

He’s tall. Handsome. No wonder Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra once told him onstage that the transport industry’s gain is the fashion industry’s loss. That eye-candy, Chirag Katira was. Young and snappy. The word “debonair” fits him to the T: confident, stylish, and charming. One can add more quality to this list: daring.

The six-foot-something second-generation fleet owning transporter, weighing 79 kilos, was born (February 28, 1990) four days after Amitabh Bachchan’s superhit Agneepath release in Mumbai. This scion of the original Kutchi khandaan smashes away the conventional image of Indian transporter viz., low profile, shy, and less cosmopolitan. He is different, as Pankaj Kapoor used to tell Jaaved Jaffrey in the classic Maggi Hot & Sour Tomato Chilli Sauce TV commercial in the 1990s!

Two images of this non-graduate caught my attention: one of him posing somewhere in the Mediterranian with two wine bottles in hand in a hairless chest-revealing jazzy shirt. Bubbly with the unseen sparkling spirit in both hands on a bobbing boat deck, he was. His honeymoon trip, yes it was. Another is several visuals of this gangly young scion of Shree Nasik Goods Transport Co Private Limited toying with venomous snakes of various sizes and hues with no trepidation. In his teens, perhaps. “Me, animal lover,” he avers over the phone from Mumbai.

I called and asked: Is he ready for a reveal-all, non-business chat for a monogram? He greenlighted without batting an eyelid.

“I am a back-bencher always and passed out with 37% and college was never in my radar,” opens up Chirag. He pilfered Four Square cigarettes and sometimes a few rupees for chilling out with friends from his father. Later, he would give up smoking, like his dad. He is spiritual yes, religious not; and a vipassana practitioner with regular visits to Igatpuri.

Singer? The bathroom type in Hindi songs mostly. Kirtan is something he loves. One can hear some soft instrumental in the background while we converse. Owns an Audi RS 7 but cherishes Wagon R due to parking challenges in Mumbai. He still had the Chevrolet Cruise dad gifted in 2011. Yet, he loves cycling and does 6–7km daily with his foldable Rs..26,000 non-motorized two-wheelers.

But for the ice-cream outing with his fashion-designer biwi Rivina to Powai post-dinner some times in Audi or his wife’s Ciaz, he rarely gets a chance to drive office-hardly 200metre away from home in the Mumbai suburb. He’s chauffeur-driven.

Khichdi is this pure vegetarian’s favorite dish. Not even eggs. He imbibes strawberry or chocolate-flavored ice-creams out of love for his wife at Powai parlors or craving pav bhaji at Bade Miyan, Colaba. Strange for a perpetual sweety-toothed Gujarati. Green vegetables, no-no. “I can make pav bhaji!,” boasts the Sanjay Dutt fan and his favorite ghana: you’ve guessed it right, “Nayak mein hoon, kal nayak nahi”! What’s his dial tone? None.

Birthday celebrations are always held at his family bungalow in Nashik in the company of his cousins: half a dozen, at the last count. The Mumbai-Nasik stretch (NH3) is his regular long track. Sure, these parties “spirited” for Chirag, who had begun with Rs.100 bottled beer when his pocket money did not exceed Rs.700 a month in his high school days. Wine and vodka are okay but always in moderation. Does he smoke? Once or twice a month. Not a regular type, courtesy biwi pressure!

Is he single and ready to mingle? A stupid question. Ravina already snatched him on labor day, May 1, May 2018. Anything special about marrying on May Day? “Several family weddings had happened on May 1May 1. Me too,” he tells me. So, where did he escort his biwi for his honeymoon?

“Twenty eight days, we were on a road trip covering 2200km from Spain to Portugal,” he informs. Switzerland, Portugal, and Thailand are other destinations he had spent time on. Does he dance? “After two pegs!” pat comes the reply. I forgot to ask him whether Ravina designs his wardrobe too. Never mind, there is always the next time when we meet in person.

By the way, his wardrobe gets refilled every two years. Raymond’s suitings only. No readymade. Bespoken always. White and light blue as business-wear and sab-kuch for casual-wear. Twenty pairs of shoes — from Hush Puppies to Prada, a gift from his sweetheart! — occupy his footwear rack.

Rarely have I come across transporters sporting unique hairstyles. Chirag is an exception. Is it a short spiky hairstyle, with hair brushed to one side, spiked using a quality gel, and parted neatly to look clean and cool? Or is blown black, wherein the hair is blown, combed back with the sides parted and fading into the region just around the ears? Or is it the undercut tapers with fade, one of the latest and popular hairstyles? The hair on the top is styled with pomp, and the sides undercut and fade to make men look masculine? Does his hairstyle attract extra attention when he walks into business meetings in the company of more sedate and elderly colleagues? Diplomatically he answers with a silent smile.

What’s a man with Chirag’s panache without body markings? I mean, tattoos. At the last count, there were 26, he confirms. This tryst with tattoos began at the age of 17.

King of the forest, the lion, and the clever wolf occupy his chest. Why? Because “they work in groups, never solo. I come from a joint family,” reasons the Piscean. Unity is strength, no doubt. The universal five elements are etched on his back as a crown. I wonder whether any part of his body that is not tatoo-ed?

Nothing is permanent, and everything passes, he philosophizes. Aggressive like lions. Clever like wolves. Grounded yet with belief in ancient wisdom. Modern, yet, a believer in panch bhuta: water, fire, earth, air, and akasha. Unique cocktail.

Oh, man! Anand Mahindra was spot on. Chirag ought to be in Milan, the fashionistas’ den, not Mulund, the dour Mumbai suburb!

—

DEAR READERS,

You will agree that it is tough to capture the entire essence of any personality in an 800-word blog. Luckily, the subject (Chirag Katira) has shared a shipload of input of enormous interest. Keeping this in mind, we will be bringing a Monogram on him with more exciting details. This Monogram will be released on February 28, 2022, coinciding with his birthday. Stay tuned. — Konsultramesh

Wanted: Prashant Kishor!

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

Within hours after Mumbai-based fleet owning, the second generation transporter Ashok Goyal of BLR Logistics tweeted questioning the stone-deaf silence of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre by not listening to their genuine grievances, the Prime Minister was in confabulation with the transport lobby group: the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) and the All India Transporters' Welfare Association (AITWA). Coincidence? Sheer luck? Whatever. A moment to cherish for transport fraternity.

A small clarification. This was not an exclusive gathering between these two lobby groups and the Chief Executive of the Republic of India. They were part of various stakeholders invited by the Logistics Division in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry government to discuss ways and means to achieve the US$400bn export target this fiscal (before March 31, 2022). 

Obviously, the task of cutting logistics cost hinges to an extent on transport vertical. Therefore, the invite. Products can be manufactured for export. Ships may sail from ports for far off destinations. But these forex-fetching products have to be carted to the ports. Rail is certainly a possibility. But limited in scope. Road Transport, for long or short or first mile or last mile, is inevitable. There lies the rationale behind the invite to transport bodies. 

Punch pleased, they  would have been. Recognition is a big thing for anyone. Particularly, those who feel they have been alienated or sidelined for long.  

Both were in their respective dens: Delhi for AIMTC and Mumbai for AITWA and the interaction was via video-conferencing. Remote interaction, courtesy Covid. 

Had this PM interaction with stakeholders been arranged well in advance and, notably, in the pre-Covid era, will these two groups have sat together in a single venue? I doubt. 

A bit of history worth recalling...

AIMTC has a long history, dating back to its origin in the Pre-Independence era when transporters gathered on the Mall Road in Simla, Himachal, the summer capital for Her Majesty's babus managing India to represent their case to the authorities.   The body was created on the spot because the British babu refused to entertain them individually and asked them to "represent collectively".  AITWA, on the other hand, is an offshoot of AIMTC, born several decades  later to include several stakeholders in the transport segment whose interests, it felt, were not articulated and taken up for discussion with policymakers. 

By the by, AITWA members are also AIMTC members, the Big Brother.  They are not on the same page in many areas and therefore, lacks coordination in their dealings with the mandarins in the Indian bureaucracy at the Federal level. 

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Drivers' health is a serious issue. 

Their number is in the millions. So a huge target group. Stakeholders engage in perfunctory health checks via periodic camps. The seriousness of drivers' health by the interested parties can be gauged from the fact 99% of the trucks carry no First Aid Box, though it is a punishable offense under the CMVR norms! Who cares!  .....

Read More

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Indian babus learned one big lesson from their British master tutors. Divide and rule. Taking advantage of the AIMTC-AITWA difference in their approach to problem-solving, the govt plays and challenges are seldom addressed. One key differentiator between these two: AIMTC does not rule out chakka jam/work stoppage during every President's term to highlight their concerns. AITWA is on the opposite side. It abhors strikes and prefers discussions over disruption. 

The laundry list of transport segment woes is long. Highways and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, the line minister, has rebuffed the transport lobby through his non-interaction with them throughout Covid. However, he had ample time for various other stakeholders. That's the clear message that he has no love lost for the transport fraternity. Why? Worth pondering.

Is the multiplicity of lobby groups a disadvantage? It ought not to be. Look at the industry lobby groups: FICCI, Assocham, and CII at the national level. These lobbyists are never at loggerheads with each other - openly or otherwise. Perhaps this has got to do with their organizational setup. Professionals, not industrialists/businessmen members, "run" these organizations. The transport lobby groups offer a different glimpse. 

"Unity is strength" is the slogan transporters mouth quite often. Do they practice? No. Their common target: the government from the policy perspective. If they can present a combined front and approach the government as a single body with well-documented data, will they be heard? It is worth considering. 

Take, for instance, the parallel on the political front. The Opposition has a single target: the Narendra Modi government. Are they not "exploring" a combined political front to take Modi head-on? 

Keeping the General Elections 2024, political parties, pursuing diverse ideologies, are confabulating a joint Opposition. Prashant Kishor, the independent political strategy with a track record in helping Modi in 2014 and Mamata Banerjee this year to win the political battle, is again on center stage. 

He may be the glue to "unite" the Opposition and that will be a formidable political battle vis-a-vis the Modi government in 2024. 

Well, is there a Prashant Kishor lurking to unite the transport lobby groups: especially AIMTC and AITWA, and ensure the likes of Gadkari begin to display some "respect" and "listen" to them directly? 

"Yes, that would be a welcome step!," concedes Ashok Goyal. 

How good exosuits are inside warehouses?

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

The invasion of technology in everyday life is inevitable, notwithstanding rising concerns over humans surrendering their freedom and turn into the unique "useless class" as described by Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari.

On the logistics front, particularly in the distribution arena, Amazon needs to be credited for being the Big Elephant that created a storm over the inhuman treatment of the workforce at its fulfillment centers - a critical wing of logistics. Zillions of words have been written on this issue with Amazon's focus. That's on one side.

Fatigue and the resultant accidents inside fulfillment centers are part and parcel of warehouses. Amazon has a dubious distinction on this score. Lifting, carrying from shelves to the conveyor belts, or loading and unloading at the docks warrant heavy physical activity and much of these chores can be automated. That's what Amazon implementing most successfully. Otherwise, it would not be the cynosure of all eyes across the world where it is the byword for superfast service and in the bargain made a killing during the Covid era when the entire world is in shutdown mode, thus compelling the seven billion populace in every part of the world to opt for online purchase of everything including the essentials. 

Such happenings create new business opportunities. Can these challenges be tackled using technology? Well, it is happening. A Netherlands-based company has stepped in with exosuits. Warehouse workers strap these suits to "help ease the strain of lifting heavy boxes all day" reports the Wall Street Journal.  (suibscription required)

A lot of research in biomechanics is happening. "Our long-term goal is to create a portable wearable robot that assists the wearer during walking and can reduce their metabolic expenditure compared to regular walking. To work toward these goals, we have proposed a new paradigm in assistive device design which we call soft clothing-like "exosuits", write .... Alan Asbeck, Stefano De Rossi, Ignacio Galiana, Ye Deng, and Conor J Walsh, members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in a paper submitted to Harvard Biodesign Lab (HBL) whose tagline reads, "Augmenting and restoring human performance". 

 According to these research scholars, these devices use textiles to interface to the body, and apply joint torques via tensile forces over the outside of the body n parallel with the muscles, utilizing the bone structure to support compressive loads.

HBL claims exosuits enjoy several advantages: "the wearer's joints are unconstrained by external rigid structures, and the worn part of the suit is extremely light. These properties minimize the suit's unintentional interference with the body's natural biomechanics and allow for more synergistic interaction with the wearer.

Significantly, Ignacio Galiana is the CEO at Verve Motion that enabled ADUSA to roll out pilots. 

Verve Motion claims that its exosuits reduce strain by 30-40%. Certainly, these extra fittings will not eliminate the strain, fatigue, and therefore injuries at the workplace. The opinion is divided over the effectiveness of such technological equipment.

While there is extensive work on the analysis of the effects of wearing a soft exosuit on the kinematics, energetics, and muscular activation during walking [33], the authors are unaware of comparable studies on movements of the upper limbs, whose variety of volitional motions is fundamentally different from the rhythmic nature of walking, say researchers Michele Xiloyannis, Domenico Chiaradia, Antonio Frisoli and Lorenzo Masia in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.

Adds they: "Understanding how these devices affect the physiology and mechanics of human movements is fundamental for quantifying their benefits and drawbacks, assessing their suitability for different applications, and guiding a continuous data-driven design refinement."

Are these pieces of equipment, cosmetic or genuine? A long-term thorough study of workers using these exosuits is needed. 

Jeff Bezos, the James Bond villain!

 

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

Guess who is the biggest anti-hero in the eyes of the United States?

Xi Jinping of China? No.

Vladimir Putin of Russia? No.

Then?

Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Yes, it's him. His birth name: Jeffrey Preston Bezos. 

Don't believe it? You better. 

His wealth is estimated at US$190billion as of now. And his company is worth US$1.65trillion. Just half a trillion away from Apple with US$2.16trillion, but much closer to Microsoft's US$1.9trillion. 

Amazon is omnipresent. As an ordinary citizen, one is exposed to this global e-com giant daily. Neither the Chinese ruler nor his Russian counterpart draws so much mega public attention. No doubt, they are as Omnipotent as Bezos is. 

When you're that powerful, though not a political busybody or heavyweight still at the receiving end of an attack, it needs a close look. A fortnight after Bezos passed on the baton of Amazon to his successor and began preparing his space odyssey, The New York Times ran a massive frontpage lead story (half of page one, right under the masthead and two full broadsheet pages inside with photos, graphs, etc), "The Amazon That Customers Don't See: Profits Soared, but Pandemic Exposed Flaws in Its Employment Machine". 

The title says it all. Anything to do with the Amazon boss owning the rival publication, The Washington Post? Unclear but debatable. The message is clear: His wealth building and occupying one of the top slots among the world's biggest billionaires through Amazon - particularly during the pandemic has not gone down well with the denizens of Uncle Sam. 

In yet another dispatch, published early June this year, NYT hinted at a strong lobby scuttled the passage of tightening Amazon's business practices that are alleged to be helping Chinese merchants. Expectedly, Amazon denied these allegations. Significantly, the Times analysis singled out Bezos-owned The Post's own exposes of such malpractices indulged by unscrupulous elements on the Amazon marketplace. Again, Amazon removed such listings after the airing of such complaints. Yes, Amazon is doubly cautious. 

For a moment, ignore the Times' attack on Amazon. The Oscar best picture award of 2020 went to Nomadland. The film is cosmetic in the sense that it did not capture what Jessica Bruder wrote in her book in 2017 by the same name on which the movie was shot. 

Bruder writes: "An Amazon recruiting handout warns CamperForce candidates that they should be ready to lift to fifty pounds at a time, in an environment where the temperature may sometimes exceed 90 degrees. ... In a closed, worker-run Facebook group called Amazon CamperForce Community, one woman talked about losing 25 pounds during her three months n the job. Another replied: "It's easy to lose weight by walking a half marathon every day. Bonus: you're too tired to eat!" A third worker boasted of walking 547 miles in 10 weeks of work. He was later topped by another, who posed a Fitbit log showing 820 miles in twelve and a half weeks." 

Cruel is an understatement. Of course, the movie shot inside an Amazon fulfillment center is glossy where it shows the lead character working inside the warehouse. No wonder, the Bezos company greenlighted the shooting. By the way, soon after the shooting, it increased the hourly wages! Why no clue! 

Across the Atlantic, Financial Times' Management Editor Andrew Hill, reviewing Brad Stone's new book Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire published in 2021 says: "For many critics, Bezos is the real-life equivalent of a Bond villain."  

While in London, let us hop over to The Guardian, the left-leaning daily. It ran a damning piece soon after Bezos announced that he would be stepping down in June by Mark Connell, a big fanboy of Amazon.com. 

He writes: "My relationship with this company is an extremely vexed one. I think of myself as a socialist, but my purchase history leaves me no choice but to also think of myself as a loyal customer of Amazon.com.  The way that Amazon does business - its pressuring of suppliers, its systematic annihilation of retail competitors, its incessant harvesting of its customers’ data, its treatment of its own workers as little better than machines – is, of course, inseparable from the personal wealth of its founder, Jeff Bezos..."

Amazon bashing seems to be the flavor. One more book is out. Alec MacGillis is out with  Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America. His focus is on Amazon's gargantuan desire to meet customer satisfaction in whichever way possible. So, delivery through his Fulfillment centers forms the core of this book. 

Anecdotal narration is the key feature of good storytellers. The prose is never dull because the reader relates easily to the subject. So, MacGillis begins thus:

"Hector Tore worked overnights, four nights a week, typically from 7.15 pm to 7.15 am. He worked all over the warehouse - stacking boxes in outbound trailers, loading packages onto pallets, and inducting envelopes and packages, which meant standing at the conveyor belts for the entire shift (there were no chairs on the warehouse floor) and transferring hundreds of items per hour from one carousel to another while turning them right side up so that scanners could read their codes...

He lifted a lot of boxes, some as heavy as fifty pounds - the challenge wasn't so much the weight as that you couldn't really tell, based on size, whether a box was going to be heavy or not when you went to pick it up. Your body and your mind never knew what to expect. He wore a back brace for a while, but it would get so hot that he felt like he was being cooked. His elbow tendinitis flared up. He often walked more than a dozen miles per shift, according to his Fitbit - he thought the device must be wrong and got a new pedometer, but it said the same thing. He put on a topical numbing cream before he goes to work, took ibuprofen pills while he was at work, and, when he got home, stood on ice packs, put ice on his elbow, and soaked his feet in Epsom salts. He switched shoes often to spread the impact across the sole."

Connell summarises his critique thus: 

"It’s tempting to argue that Amazon’s true innovation has been the ruthless exploitation of human labor in service of speed and efficiency, but that’s really only part of the picture: the aim is removing humans – with their need for toilet breaks, their stubborn insistence on sleeping, their tendency to unionize – as much as possible from the equation; the grim specifics of the labor conditions are only ever a byproduct of that aim. 

This has been an aim of capitalism since at least as far back as Henry Ford, and in an obvious sense, it’s precisely the dynamic you experience every time you wind up with unexpected items in the bagging area at Tesco. As usual with Amazon, it’s not that something new is happening – it’s that an old thing is happening with unprecedented force, speed, and efficiency." 

Now that, there is a new tenant at the White House, what is in store for Bezos? 

US President Joe Biden's pro-labor credentials are no secret. During the run-up to the Presidential Election 2020, Amazon's Alabama warehouse workers' desire to explore unionizing through a postal ballot got Biden's blessings. He tweeted his support: "Unions lift workers, both union and non-union, but especially Black and Brown workers. There should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda..." Biden did not name Amazon directly but said "workers in Alabama". Sufficient hint for his discerning Twitter followers and the US media lapped it up. It is altogether a different story that Amazon won that race against its employees at Alabama. "

Well, the Biden administration has not lowered its arsenals to take the Big Tech which includes Amazon among others such as Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. Amid the Covid19 shutdown, the US government released a 449-page confirmation of Lina Khan, an arch critic of Amazon's monopolistic practices, as the Commissioner of the Fair Trade Commission in mid-June, is a pointer that the world's richest man cannot fly away from Planet Earth. 

It is worth noting what the above report said its findings.  "The companies investigated by the Subcommittee - Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google - have captured control over key channels of distribution and have come to function as gatekeepers. Just a decade into the future, 30% of the world's Gross economic output may lie with these firms and just a handful of others.

Turning to Amazon, the Report says that "although Amazon is frequently described as controlling about 40% of US online retail sales, this market share is likely understated and estimates of about 50% or higher are more credible.

Amazon has engaged in extensive anticompetitive conduct in its treatment of third-party sellers. Publicly, Amazon describes third-party sellers as "partners" but internal documents show that behind closed doors, the company refers to them as "internal competitors". Its dual role as an operator of its marketplace that hosts third-party sellers, and a seller in that same marketplace, creates an inherent conflict of interest.

The above sentiments are collective thoughts of the committee. The US-based Pakistani academic's own views on Amazon are crystal clear. In her 96-page report, "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox" Lina Khan without mincing words captures the true character of Amazon. 

"Current law underappreciates the risk of predatory pricing and how integration across distinct business lines may prove anticompetitive. These concerns are heightened in the context of online platforms for two reasons: First, the economics of platform markets incentivize the pursuit of growth over profits, a strategy that investors have rewarded. Under these conditions, predatory pricing becomes highly rational - even as existing doctrine treats it as irrational. Second, because online platforms serve as critical intermediaries, integrating across business lines positions these platforms to control the ess3e3ntial infrastructure on which their rivals depend. This dual role also enables a platform to exploit information collected on companies using its services to undermine them as competitors."

Crystal clear it is where her sympathies lie. Now as FTC Commissioner, she will be spearheading antitrust reforms, and the BigTech in general and Amazon, in particular, have to get ready to brace the storm. 

Does it mean the end of Amazon? 

Not at all. 

Ask a simple question: What is Amazon: a retailer, marketing platform, a delivery, and logistics network, a payment service a credit lender, an auction house, a major book publisher, a producer of television and films, a fashion designer, a hardware manufacturer and a leading host of cloud server space? 

Well, these are Lina Khan's original questions that led her to write her 2017 'Paradox" paper. Now, she is in a position to facilitate finding an answer. Not to be forgotten is the collective lobby muscle of GAFA: Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon. Given the bipartisan endorsement of Khan's anointment paves way for a change - cataclysmic or normal, one has to wait and watch.

Khan's induction, opines Simon Dukes, the Technology Business Editor of  The Times of London, that "it is a signal of intent form Biden. Khan is an intellectual firebrand who advocates the break-up of Google, Amazon, and Facebook. She won't have a direct role in writing policy, but the antitrust agency will adopt a more muscular approach to Silicon Valley under her leadership." 

Truly a nightmarish period ahead. Today's FTC has a 3-2 majority of Democrat nominees, who are on the same page on this critical issue. Biden has to ensure his fresh nomination to replace one of three Democrats on FTC has to pass through the tough Senate approval so that GAFA displays proper competitive tendencies. 

Biden is keen on halting the alleged abuse of corporate power. Tim Wu, another Silicon Valley critic and from Columbia Law School is already in the White House advising the President on technology and competition policy. Tim Wu is another big votary to break up monopolies. One of his key recommendation is to examine corporate conduct whether it promotes or suppresses competition instead of buying the cliched "consumer welfare" argument. GAFA fits the bill perfectly.  He points out in his 2018 best seller The Curse of Business that unless pushed, large corporations do not innovate

GAFA will survive. Rather flourish. When was the last time you rushed to your library to check out something? Zilch because there is a Google search. Who does not aspire to own an Apple item: iPad, iPhone, iwatch, Mac, though prohibitively expensive? One goes to place of worship occasionally. Many almost reside on Facebook 24x7x365. Less said about Amazon, the better. 

So their future is bright because the world will be hosting a tech-friendly population. Luddites will vanish gradually. Are not we hearing a lot about artificial intelligence, machine learning, algorithm, etc?

Perhaps Bezos, the strategist, knows his onions better. When the situation is getting hotter day by day, he has opted out to explore the space. To compete with the likes of Elon Musk, Richard Branson etc. After all, time is the healer and nobody can predict 2024 and beyond: will the labor-friendly Democrats continue to rule or the pro-BigTech Republicans return? For the time being, the Amazon boss has pressed the "Pause" button.  The legal fraternity advising the BigTech is heading for a heavy workload. The youngest FTC Commissioner ever to occupy the hot seat has set the ball rolling. More billable work which no lawyer/solicitor will detest. 

Slave Trade, A Lucrative Business-1

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

In mid-May 2021, the King of Netherlands Willem-Alexander threw his weight behind an exhibition in Amsterdam. Opening of exhibitions by the Royalty  or powers that be anywhere in the world does not raise eyebrows. But the Dutch King's action was an atonement for the crime the Dutch wholeheartedly committed in 17th century. The crime: slavery. That too neck deep. 

Significantly, the Netherlands is split into those who prefer the Dutch should apologise for its wrongdoings 400 years ago and those who say, "Nee" ("No" in Dutch). King has done it already. Not the political parties: ruling or otherwise.Like the British, the French and the Portuguese even Dutch nursed global ambitions. Taking a cue from the British which created the British East India Company advocating global trade in 1600, the Dutch followed suit two years later with its own edition of Dutch East India Company. Of course, its focus was on Indonesia in the east and Latin America, the Caribbean to its west. 

Human trafficking or slave trade was a lucrative business in ancient time. History is full of details. Talking about the Netherland's own interest in this business, it is catalogued that Dutch traders shipped over 600,000 Africans to north and South America and between 660,000 and 1.1 million people around the Indian ocean. 

The exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, currently open, showcases 140 objects, ranging from two Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn portraits of married and lavishly wealthy owners of enslaved people to a display of ankle chains, examines 10 lives caught up in the Dutch slave trade between the early 17th century and 1863, when the practice was finally made illegal in Suriname and the Antilles.

Just not Rembrandt (1606-69) alone. Hendrik van der Burch (1627-64), a Rembrandt's contemporary, through his The Card Players (see painting alongside) captures the presence of a young black slave kid serving the players, thus registering the prevalence of Dutch employing slaves brought from Africa for work in the 17th century.

It is worthwhile to listen to what Timothy Brook wrote about this painter and this painting in his 2009 classic Vermeet's Hat, Indira's Net and the Dawn of Globalisation: 

"... Van der Burch shows that  Africans had been coming in small numbers to Europe since the 15th century, but their numbers were increasing noticeably in the Low Countries in the 17th century. Africans arrived as sailors, laborers and servants in the port cities of Antwerp and Amsterdam but most of all as slaves. ... Van der Burch was not the exception among Dutch painters in including a black servant in his painting. Many Dutch artists painted Africans, usually within domestic settings, indicating that these slaves were not kept apart from the white families that owned them. In fact, those who owned black child servants (and they are usually boys) wanted to show off what they possessed. It was not unlike having an artist put a favourite Chinese vase into the painting you commissioned. It signalled your wealth, your good bourgeois taste and ... your superiority". 

Dutch deployed ships to transport slaves. Thanks to Dutch historian Mark Ponte, the deployment of Beeckestijn has to come to light linking with slave trade. He writes: "The only known contemporaneous drawing of a Dutch West India Company slave ship from the early 1700s in which more than 1,000 people died has been identified and is being exhibited as part of a wider attempt by the city of Amsterdam to reckon with its past. The Beeckestijn transported about 4,600 slaves from the African west coast to the Dutch colonies of Suriname and St Eustatius over seven voyages to South America and the Caribbean between 1722 and 1736. At least 1,000 slaves died on board."

It took 30 more years than the British for the Netherlands to abolish colonial slavery in 1863. The Dutch golden age that put Amsterdam at the heart of global economic system owes to wealth from colonies from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Slave trade contribution to this wealth generation was mammoth. 
A lot  more can be told the Dutch slave trade. But let's move on to explore other practitioners and victims as well.  
Here's an interesting passage from the Cambridge History of Iran Volume 4 (1975). "During the course of the 3rd-9th century, the military basis of the Abbasid caliphate was completely transformed. Instead of relying n their Khurasanian guards, or on the remnants of an even earlier system, that of the militia of Arab warriors, the Caliphs came to depend almost wholly on "slave troops". These included such varied races as Arabs, Berbers, black Sudanese, Balkan Slavs, Greeks, Armenians and Iranians, but Turks from Central Asia were the most prominent of all. Much of the economic prosperity of the Samanid state was  built on the slave trade across its territories, for the demand for Turkish slaves was insatiable"...

Let's dive deep in the next dispatch. Stay tuned.

More to come...

What will Rambo do when petrol hits Rs.100/litre?

Ramesh Kumar From Greater Noida

"When did you last fill up the tank?" asked  my #BetterHalf as I motored into the BP Ecotech 12 retail fuel outlet bang opposite my home, a few hours before Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das released his monthly bulletin on May 17, 2021. 

A fortnight ago, I responded based on my PatyTM  statement. On May 3, it was for Rs.1100. The amount remained the same this time (17 May) also, though I was unsure of volume because of price adjustment at regular intervals. 

My  driving is restricted to just a kilometre for  the purpose of escorting Rambo out for his morning ablutions around 0900 hours. It is a daily routine. Unchanged for several months ever since the residents of my housing complex began "targeting" pet owners on alleged despoiling charges. For information, there are two dozen pets in this 1500 plus flat complex. 

 Notwithstanding the fact that all pets are led outside the gates for you know what daily.  More than once by many. 

Rambo and BH we go out where he gets fresh air and does his essential chore and BH completes her daily quota of 10000 steps -  particularly the pending portion.

Another reason for my driving is to take Rambo to his vet, again 500 metres both ways. Once in 10 days. Not to be missed is the desire to keep the Renault engine in working condition. 

Maximum 1.5 km a day multiplied by 14 days. That's around 21 km per fortnight. Or approximately Rs.50 per day on fuel alone. 

As is wont developed over the years, I checked the RBI website to the Monthly report. Nothing better than hearing from the horse's mouth, instead of the cut-and-paste "By a Correspondent" item - be it on page one or business pages.

Governor sounded optimistic that the April 2021 performance was better compared to the previous year same time. Bound to be because we are "lockdowned" and there was no economic activity. There were challenges even for the movement of essentials by trucks. 

"Oh My God, we are spending Rs.50/daily for Rambo's bowel movement," quipped BH. I guffawed. Actually, none of this minded that expense. That gave an excuse to step out of the self-imposed isolation from our living quarters for less than an hour. Fresh air among tree lined and 100% empty service lane. 

"I saw two birds this morning in the park. Rare. Never seen them before", added she. Look, here's an indirect benefit, courtesy Rambo's outing! Upset she was nevertheless because before she could flip her handset into camera mode, the nameless avian flew away. There is always the next time!

I usually carry two phone. One in camera/video mode always and another one for listening purpose. Who knows when the camera/video may be needed!

... 

"Do you think Rs.100/litre for petrol is a reality?" she asked. It is already in some parts of India. Not yet in NCR. 

That triggered me to scan for the fuel commentary in the RBI Monthly Bulletin. 

It is no secret that India is self sufficient in oil and its import dependency is huge. "The recent rise in crude prices following the OPEC+ decision to cut production, has lent impetus to India's oil import basket diversification. India has successfully diverted away from OPEC countries towards non-OPEC producers of crude in recent years," said the Bulletin. 

Import Basket diversification! Wow... Does it mean the worry over Rs.100/litre is hyped up? Keeping fingers crossed.

Anyhow, began looking at the chart.  Between 2017-18 and 2021-21 (upto Feb), the import of crude oil from non OPEC has risen from 25.6% to 36.7%. Good. Put it differently, India is importing 63 per cent from OPEC today as against 74.4 in 2017-18. 

Who are contributing to India's desire to reduce dependence on Saudi? Take a look at this graph.

Uncle Joe Biden of the United States. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Emir of Qatar. Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico. 

Significantly, there is some misalignment between India and Saudi on the crude oil front. With Saudi refused the world's third largest importer's demand not to cut oil production, India has gone in for buying Norwegian product: 4 million barrels is on its way to Indian refiners. IOC is expecting 2 million barrels from North Sea in May and June. Brazilian Tupi oil of one million barrel sold by Shell is on its way to Indian shores, according to a latest Observer Research Foundation bulletin.

Climate activism is a noteworthy trend to chase. Major global oil explorers are downsizing their oil explorations for the conventional non-renewal energy onshore and onshore. An equally strong lobby is at work advocating that pension funds that have sunken huge dollops of money into stocks should be concerned more about Milton Friedman's shareholder interest primacy. 

Rambo is unconcerned about these developments,  as of now. It cares two hoots for for Saudi or Biden's return to the Paris Accord membership, and leading upfront the movement to promote electric transition to reduce greenhouse gas emission levels. 

BH or self is not Rambo. Therefore we are concerned. The transition to electric mode which will reduce the crude import may be decades away as far as India concerned. Again, the chances of GST Council watering down the two-thirds tax burden in oil pricing imposed and collected by central and state governments is doubtful as no state would like to lose out easy milch cow viz., tax on fuel. 

So the Rs.100/litre petrol cannot be ruled out. If it transpires, I have a few options: one less fuel consumption. Because the society guys are unlikely to relent. Saudi may. Not my society guys.