The Indian paradox
conundrums & bargaining chips
Welcome to The Chief Brief. Every Sunday, I spotlight global, diverse, and innovative female leaders, and the news influencing them to change the world. The CB curates news from around the world, breaks down the story, and helps you connect with the women making news! It is my first step in a passion project to build a globally connected community of women leaders.
Happy Sunday!
Let’s talk about
The great Indian paradox
When I wrote about my worry two Sundays ago that crowded unmasked election rallies, and the two million strong Kumbh Mela was going to lead to disaster in India, I had hoped to be proven wrong. But science rarely is. Even as we’re bombarded globally with desperate stories of sourcing oxygen, pictures and statistics of India’s dying, my family and friends are living the nightmare of India’s Covid cases reaching eyewatering, global records - 400,000 cases a day, and that’s the ones we know about. The idea sold by the country’s government that Indians were less susceptible to death by Covid, repeated ad nauseam in 2020 by friends has dissipated.
Paradox creation
Almost half of India’s population is under the age of 19. The urban poor are mostly young and less obese, therefore with a lesser risk of severe Covid or death. We know last year’s wave mostly hit the urban poor (cases that we know about). They worked through the lockdown, unlike the more well heeled who could afford to isolate. The vulnerable elderly mostly seem to fall in the latter category. That meant those with the highest risk of dying made up very few of India’s cases. Reported positive cases seemed manageable, and death rates were low compared to the western hemisphere, which has a higher percentage of elderly people in its population.
Some studies exploring the paradox pointed to these demographics as an explanation of the disparity. Others pointed to the abundant Vitamin D in India’s climate, and immune systems accustomed to severe viruses. Thus was born the idea of an Indian paradox. That paradox allowed the Modi government to literally drop masks, conduct crowded rallies and festivals.
What’s changed?
While many are contemplating the possible depletion of antibodies from the first wave as a cause, there are, and continue to be big gaps in India’s data. Asymptomatic young carriers, others with no access to testing, the many who attended rallies and festivals literally disappearing, and the underreporting of deaths. Death certificates seem rarely to carry the cause, and the diverging data from hospitals versus crematoriums and cemeteries are glaring. Data from rural areas, where the majority of India’s population lives was, and continues to be almost non-existent. People are just dying at home.
Most Indians also live in generational families. My own friends reverted to a relatively normal life after India’s 2020 lockdown. Flights were taken, family gatherings restarted, large weddings hosted, offices visited, and dinner parties were back. But many also spoke worryingly about crowded festivals and rallies, social distancing being forgotten, and people no longer wearing masks. When March 2021 rolled around, unsurprisingly reported cases surged. These younger family members had brought the virus into their homes, where the most vulnerable lived.
But even now, as we see pictures of the Indian skies darkening with smoke from funeral pyres, the positive case to death ratio still seems very skewed (see the graphic above). Are demographics still at play? Is incomplete data a factor? Does there really exist a paradox in India? Are mortality rates going to catch up to cases? Did the government ignore scientific calls? India’s scientists are now appealing to the government to release all the data they may have, which hasn’t been shared openly before. For them it’s the only way to create a roadmap to end this tragedy.
What’s different this time?
In this wave worryingly, the mutated virus seems to be making younger patients seriously ill. It’s also made its way into more affluent homes, where the elderly live. But the humanitarian crisis in India is still less about the virus. Most families are seeing their loved ones die, not because of the severity of Covid cases but a healthcare system that has been decimated and flattened. There are no hospital beds or oxygen. This despite warnings of shortages from the Prime Minister’s own Covid response team, and leading healthcare providers as far back as April 2020. Today, while the government continues to allow elections, the lack of heeding of that warning, and of any buildup of medical infrastructure needed to save lives, is glaring.
As I write this, my 71 year old mother has put herself in self-imposed isolation, and my young niece and nephew have isolated themselves to help care for her, and their other grandparents. Since the government isn’t imposing a lockdown, self imposed closures have meant the businesses of my sister and friends are on pause. My WhatsApp has blown up with group texts from around the country sharing oxygen, blood and hospital bed availability, as has my Instagram. Even friends with significant monetary resources or any “influence” in the healthcare sector say, they can’t access medical care for loved ones. And what about vaccines? I’ve been told quite frankly, forget about that now! There are none available.
India is today the story of a devoted son, or daughter fighting for their parents’ lives. Of a loving spouse, caring grandchildren, and brave grandparents. It is a story of corporates setting up private Covid treatment facilities in their own offices. It is now a battle to survive. ‘Atma Nirbhar’ (Self Reliance) is what India’s Prime Minister asked of his people. He seems to have meant it, even in life or death situations.
If you’d like to help
If you’d prefer to help those making a real impact on the ground - these organisations have been vetted by the Alumni Association of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), India’s top management school. You can find the list of organisations they are supporting here.
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Policy matters
Inadequate climate laws
Germany’s constitutional court has declared a 2019 climate law as ‘inadequate.’ The court’s ruling declared the current law as violating the freedoms of younger generations by pushing the bulk of emissions reductions needed to meet the Paris Accord post 2030. Germany must now adapt its climate laws by the end of next year. Luisa Neubauer, (the most prominent activist of German’s Fridays for Future climate movement who filed the suit) declared it a win for the battle to declare climate justice a fundamental right. Read more here.
Menopause policy
The Greater London Authority (GLA) is negotiating the introduction of a ‘menopause policy’ to support employees going through menopause. If approved, it will include training for line managers creation of a staff network, and signposting for external support and awareness training programs. Read more here.
Ending trade stand-offs
Katherine Tai wants to resolve the U.S. trade spat with the EU and the U.K., which began under Donald Trump’s watch. The U.S. Section 232 tariffs on European steel and aluminium continue to provoke EU retaliatory tariffs on U.S. whiskey and other goods. The U.S. Trade Representative this week indicated she was hopeful for a workaround. But added a caveat that any solution would need to address global excess capacity in the metals. Read more here.
5 days on the job
Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) regulation is topic du jour across the world. But U.S. regulators are finding that enforcement might be a bigger headache than expected. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) enforcement head had to resign after just five days on the job. Alex Oh, the female Asian American to lead the SEC’s enforcement division had potential conflicts of interest created by her previous work. She defended many of the companies under question, as a lawyer. Read more here.
Tech stuff
Grab the value
SPACs. They’re really testing regulators in the U.S. But Grab’s got a bigger challenge. Asia’s largest ride hailing and delivery firm merged with a SPAC backed by Silicon Valley investor Altimeter Capital Management earlier this month. The entity’s listing would value it at over $4 billion dollars. Once it lists, founders Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling’s ability to maintain that value will be critical. It will be the litmus test for other firms in Asia eyeing the SPAC path. Read more here.
Darktrace soars
Everyone held their breath for the debut of Darktrace on the London Stock Exchange this past week. Deliveroo’s dismal performance wasn’t far off in memory, nor was the hit the company’s valuation took after investor Mike Lynch’s close ties to the British cybersecurity firm were revealed. But CEO Poppy Gustafsson could breathe a sigh of relief on Friday. The stock surged 40% on conditional trading, raising its valuation from £1.7bn to almost £2.4bn. Read more here.
Music to Spotify’s ears
Apple’s in trouble in Europe for the first time. Margrethe Vestager’s team in the European Commission has accused the company of distorting competition in the music streaming market. The EU could potentially impose a fine of up to 10% of Apple's global turnover - as much as $27 billion (though it never has gone the whole hog before). Apple found itself in trouble with the European Commission after Sweden’s Spotify complained the U.S. tech giant unfairly restricted rivals. This isn’t the first time Spotify and Apple have battled it out. Read more here.
Business not as usual
In the money
General motors made Time 100’s Most Influential Companies list this week. CEO Mary Barra was rewarded for her work to make that happen with a pay hike! She made $23.7 million in 2020. That’s double the salary of Ford CEO James Farley. You go girl! Read more here.
Corporate drug split
Emma Walmsley is busy focussing on splitting U.K. drug maker Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) into two. GSK’s CEO will share more details on June 23rd, after the company came under scrutiny for lagging behind competitors in the Covid vaccine race. Reports of U.S. activist investor Elliott building up a significant stake, is pushing that decision too. The plan is to split the business into Over The Counter, and another for prescription drugs and vaccines. Read more here.
Banking on Santander
Banco Santander has done rather well in the first quarter, Covid be damned! First quarter underlying profit was €2.138 billion, up from €377 million a year earlier. The numbers were driven by record earnings in the US and strong growth in the UK. Revenues increased 8%, Capital Ratios were up to 12.3% (above its 11-12% target), and credit quality for the bank continues to improve. The bank’s chairman Ana Botin attributed it all to Santander’s customer focus and diversification. The bank is now on the hunt for a new U.K. boss. Read more here.
Beauty’s sustainability conundrum
Beauty brands are not immune to the calls for cleaning up the industry’s massive waste problem, estimated at 120 billion units of packaging every year. Every small and big brand has jumped on the bandwagon of promising recyclable, reusable, or compostable packaging. But some packaging is almost impossible to replace because of the chemistry of the product itself. To truly address the waste issue the industry is going to need to reverse decades of consumer behaviour. Read more here.
Where are the women?
Japan’s newest foreign CEO, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp Jean-Marc Gilson is no newbie to Japanese business. And he just took over the 90 year old chemical giant. But the lack of women in management still threw him for a loop. “I’ve been to 25, 30, 40 meetings so far, and I have yet to see one woman from a management position in any of these meetings. I was amazed,” he said. Jean-Marc says since there is no government intervention to make it happen, he will actively promote women internally who have equal skills as any candidate. Read more here.
Multichoice for Africans
MultiChoice is Africa’s largest pay-TV group. It’s got big plans to give Netflix a run for its money. The company plans to invest heavily in producing its own local content for its online platform Showmax, which is available in 46 African countries, along with Britain and France. Last year, Showmax launched 6 new original productions and announced it would charge 20% less for single mobile access, to ensure its content was equitably available. Read more here.
Have you met
Yolisa Phahle, the Queen of entertaining Africa
Yolisa Phahle is CEO of General Entertainment for MultiChoice Group Africa. She oversees the channel acquisition, channel production, sales and distribution, and local production for the group. A successful British-South African musician, she switched to a management role by moving to South Africa in 2005, and taking on M-Net’s Channel 0. She successfully turned it into Africa’s leading music channel, before moving to her role at MultiChoice.
Caught my eye
Bargaining chip
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s trauma in the proxy fight between Iran and the West seems never ending. Iranian courts have sentenced her to a further year in prison (she has already served 6 years), and a one-year travel ban after being found guilty of propaganda against the regime. The U.K. government in the meantime has said it will redouble efforts to free her.
You can too! Tweet action on social media with #FreeNazanin & sign the petition! Read more here.
South Africa’s Graft-Mama
Zandile Gumede is a prominent leader of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC). She also stands accused of being one of the party’s most dishonest. Her corruption trial in June will see her face charges of siphoning hundreds of millions of rands of tax payer money, though a complex corruption racket in the Durban Solid Waste organisation. But despite calls for her to be removed she’s been reinstated by the ANC as a member of the legislative assembly, and this week she made it clear she won’t step aside from being nominated ANC regional char in KawZulu-Natal (a southeastern province of South Africa) either. Read more here.
Be a sport
Coaching Calls
Fighting Tigers
U.S. Women’s College Basketball is seeing a coaching shake up. Hall of Famer and star coach Kim Mulkey is moving on after building Baylor Lady Bears into a force to reckon with. She is headed back to her home state of Louisiana, replacing Nikki Fargas as Louisiana State University’s Fighting Tigers’ head coach. Read more here.
Lyon’s new look
Sonia Bompastor is the new coach of French women's league champions Lyon. Sonia has won 156 caps for France, will be the first woman to coach the team that has dominated European women's club football in recent years. Read more here.
Beauty of sponsorship
Lebanese American Toni Breidinger is shattering stereotypes of Arab Americans and women, setting records as one of the winningest female race car drivers. She’s now rolling up to the Talledega speedway with a Huda Beauty emblazoned race car and a lipstick decal to boot. Looks like Nascar sponsorship isn’t a boys game anymore. Read more here.
Must Watch
I’m not sure what that was though..
The 93rd academy awards, the Oscars this year got unanimous reviews. Weird, awkward, WTAF were some of the adjectives in use. Awkward seat placements, bad lighting, airhorns post acceptance speeches, awkward acceptance rules, (Anthony Hopkins giving his Best Actor acceptance elsewhere the next day), abrupt endings, it was all just plain strange. But, it was a diverse list of winners, I’ll give the Academy that one good change they finally made.
It was a good day to be part of Nomadland’s crew! Chloé Zhao got Best Director. This win though seemed perennially caveated in the media as the first win by a woman of colour. Why they simply couldn’t say Chinese/Asian American is beyond me. China in the meantime, black-balled Chloé on Weibo, for her previous comments about the Communist Party.
Nomadland won Best Picture.
Nomadland’s Frances McDormand got Best Actress.
Emerald Fennel became the first woman to win Best Original Screenplay in 13 years.
Mia Neal and Kamika Wilson were the first Black-led team to win Best Hair and Makeup.
Yuh-Jung Youn is #goals!
But for me the uplifting moment of the evening was Yuh-Jung Youn who became the first Asian woman to win Best Supporting Actress since 1957 for her role in the much talked about film, Minari!
Her acceptance speech was a hilarious lesson in not taking Hollywood too seriously, and being unabashedly yourself! Watch!
Artsy stuff
Marilyn Manson’s in serious trouble
Manson has been sued, along with former manager Tony Ciulla by Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco. In a suit file on Friday, she has alleged Manson raped and sexually battered her. She also claims that Ciulla and his company violated human trafficking laws by bringing her to London from L.A. under false pretences - a music video and movie that was never made. Read more here.
Almost time to soak in some culture!
Italy Reopening - After a year of lockdowns, Italy’s museums flung open their doors this past week. The cautious reopening saw visitors wait for opening times at Rome’s Capitoline Museum to be the first inside. Read more here.
Vatican Reopening- The Vatican museums will reopen on May 3rd.
France Reopening - French museums are set to open on May 19th. Art dealers say it is still not soon enough. Read more here.
U.K. Reopening - Natural History Museum will reopen on May 17th, Museum of London & Museum of London Docklands will reopen on May 19th and the Florence Nightingale Museum reopens on June 5th.
A major new exhibition shining a spotlight on four female artists will be a star attraction at Laing Art Gallery when it emerges from lockdown on May 17th.
Sunday Long Read
Robots are animals, not humans
Humans are strange. Despite working with animals for a millennia, we seem obsessed with comparing robots to ourselves. With Artificial Intelligence (AI) being developed at lightening speed, it is important to put it into perspective. Research specialist at MIT Media Lab and the author of ‘The New Breed’ Kate Darling argues, robots in our society, are more animal than human. Read her fantastically thought out explanation here.