More women in the workforce 👩💻
Trains, tea, online beer and gender-parity to jump start your day.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
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So let’s go ahead and get started:
Stock market summary:
US - S&P 500 up 0.018% 🔼
India - Sensex down 0.26% 🔽
Choo Choo Goes The Corona Train 🚂
In India, trains have been a staple mode of transport for over 167 years. Trains unite us, divide us, connect us, feed us, get us places, and play a central role in holding the nation’s economy together.
After Coronavirus had brought almost all major modes of passenger transportation to a standstill, the Indian Railways has now decided to restart passenger trains operations from Tuesday, May 12.
Since the shut down mid-March, Railways had only been operating freight services to keep the movement of essential commodities humming. Not to forget, the noble yet controversial ‘Shramik’ trains ferrying stranded migrants to their hometowns were operational as well.
With coronavirus cases topping 70,000 in India (following the highest single day bump), and with most states still in Orange and Red zones, one can’t help wonder how exactly does the government plan on managing the reopening of railways without worsening the situation any further?
Here are some of the precautions the government is planning on taking:
Railways to initially start with 15 pairs of trains
Online bookings started on May 11 @ 4PM, through the IRCTC website
Trains to run at full capacity
Mandatory face-masks for all passengers
Passengers will be screened for symptoms of coronavirus at the station and only people deemed safe will be allowed to board
No blankets, And no pantry services will be provided (what!)
Sidenote - Wish we could cancel out 2020 from the calendar. Would love to pretend this year never happened 😒
Alcohol Is One Call Away…🍺
Several small businesses saw a gut wrenching decline in sales when the pandemic struck. Among those hurt were obviously liquor shops. In a blanket ban on booze dens and restaurants, these businesses were among the worst hit as lockdowns extend into over 45 days. Some however were swift enough to embrace home delivery and managed to offset a substantial amount of damage.
With the reopening of liquor stores on May 4, there was a surge in alcohol demand with people coming out to buy alcohol and flouting social distancing norms, which eventually led the authorities to reverse decisions in some places and again close shops.
Many states saw prices being jacked up artificially. To avoid this, the liquor industry along with restaurants and bars have urged the government to permit home delivery of alcohol, saying that this will not only help maintain social distancing but also help out sectors that are affected due to the coronavirus to contain the spread at liquor shops.
Soon, the All India Brewers Association has suggested creating a special license for private ecommerce companies to enable online buys.
The liquor industry contributes Rs. 2.5 Lakh Crore revenue each year to the state governments. In the last 45 days alone, States have lost revenue of around Rs. 2,500 Crore - or about 1% of the total annual sales.
Also, funnily consumer interest in buying alcohol online is at an all time high in India on Google Search. Sense a nice business idea? 🤭
How To Achieve Some Tranquilitea?
I was inspired by this story and thought of sharing it here.
The startup game was not new to Payal Mittal Agarwal, she was successfully running a restaurant and a play school. Once during a trip to Europe she happened to meet a woman from Slovenia who although had never been to India had a collection of around 200 different varieties of Indian teas.
Indians consume tea all the time and still suffer from acidity and heartburn, mainly because tea in India is not consumed in the right way (yep, apparently there is a right way). Fascinated by the Slovenian women's tea collection, Payal joined a tea factory owner, who was looking to start a chain of tea boutique in India, to learn all about the tea market and its trade.
In about 10 months from the start of the venture she exhibited at an international tea fair in china. This exposure made her realize the importance of tea and she made it her mission to popularize tea for its medicinal and healing properties, by starting her third venture- Tranquilitea, which has led to the brand ChaiOm which is producing India's rich tea. To this day the startup offers about 100 different blends of teas.
The Gurugram based entrepreneur sources raw materials from tea gardens in Darjeeling or middle men who sell in bulk. Today Tranquilitea clocks a revenue of Rs. 2 Crore annually. But the startup has had to pay a very heavy price amidst the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus, with only few people available to work, the production and supply chain has been disrupted. Read more about them here.
Tweet of the day-
One of the much debated coronavirus outcomes has been around the shift to working-from-home. Globally, as millions of employees attend to their duties from home, everyone is left wondering if this will mean a permanent shift to how human beings work.
Knowledge workers - primarily corporate employees, engineers, physicians, architects - you name it, are enthused by the prospects of working from anywhere as modern computing systems enable seamless connectivity and round the clock availability.
One apparent advantage of this shift is what it means for India’s women. It is no secret that women on an average are subject to more friction when stepping out the door in our society. Working women of the household are often burdened by the undue strain of domestic work. Young women are often subjected to conservative limits. All of this creates an invisible hurdle that multiplies to hold back women’s full participation in our economy.
As of today, the women employment stats are honestly quite dismal:
The workforce in India is 78.6% men and 23.6% women. WTF? 🤐
Rural women leave the workforce at a faster face than urban women
Women make only 60% of what men make in India for the same amount of work
Increasing women’s labor force participation by 10 percentage points could add $770 billion to India’s GDP by 2025
Now imagine the things that could be simplified and accelerated in terms of improving these numbers when women (who are more than capable and educated already) can seamlessly and flexibly contribute their potential from the comforts of their home.
The future isn’t here yet, but we can most definitely acknowledge the potential.
Hope you took a thing or two away from today’s edition. 😀
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You go, gurllll. 👸🏻
Proud of you bru ❤️