The lovely tale of Liquor
during Lockdown and before
At every stage, addiction is driven by one of the most powerful, mysterious, and
vital forces of human existence. What drives addiction is longing —
a longing not just of brain, belly, or loins but finally of the heart.
Cornelius Platinga
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The use of alcohol in India for drinking purposes dates back to somewhere between 3000 and 2000 BC. An alcoholic beverage called Sura which was distilled from the rice was popular at that time in India for common men to unwind at the end of a stressful day. . Yet the first mention of Alcohol appears in Rig Veda (1700BC). It mentions intoxicants like soma and prahamana. Although the soma plant might not exist today, it was famous for delivering a euphoric high. It was also recorded in the Samhita, the medical compendium of Sushruta that he who drinks soma will not age and will be impervious to fire, poison, or weapon attack. The sweet juice of Soma was also said to help establish a connection with the gods. Such was the popularity of alcohol. Initially used for medicinal purposes, with time it evolved and became the beverage that brought life to social gatherings, and eventually consuming alcohol has become a habit for many.
With such a rich history of not just humans but also of the gods,
what is a worldwide pandemic to stop anybody from drinking?
. . .
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According to a report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2018, an average Indian drinks approximately 5.7 liters of alcohol every year. In a population of casual and excessive drinkers, with the shutters of liquor stores down, it must have been extremely difficult for “certain” people to survive lockdown. In the first two phases of lockdown, the desperation had quadrupled prices of alcohol in the Grey Market of India. Also, According to Google Trends, online searches for “how to make alcohol at home” peaked in India during the fourth week of March, which was the same when the lockdown was announced. As a consequence, a few people died drinking home-brewed liquor. People committed suicide due to alcohol withdrawal syndrome. Owing to the worsening situation and to reboot the economy, some states decided to open licensed liquor stores in the third phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic lockdown in India. This decision was the worst best decision the state governments could take. The kilometer-long queues in front of liquor stores were evidence that a pandemic can turn your life upside down yet your relationship with alcohol cannot move an inch.
The love in the hearts of those who are addicted was explicit. We might have seen addiction, we might have witnessed desperation but what happened in the month of May was madness, not just in terms of the way people pounced but also in the way the government earned. According to a report by Hindustan Times, on the first day of the third phase of Lockdown, the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh recorded a sale of over Rs 100 Crore from liquor. On the second day of the reopening of Liquor stores, Karnataka reported sales of 197 crores in a single day which was the largest ever. Eventually, the prices of Liquor were hiked to 100% to discourage people from drinking.
. . .
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There was a special corona fee that was imposed in Delhi by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. A 70% corona fee was imposed in Delhi, yet the sales did not drop. The entire situation was a disaster for the law enforcement officers, social distancing was easily abandoned and a basic code of conduct was happily violated. Despite the chaos created, the states continued to collect revenues. Home delivery of alcohol was allowed in Maharashtra and e-tokens were sold in Delhi.
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Demand for liquor is inelastic which means that
the sale of alcohol is not much responsive to change in prices.
In general, since alcohol policy is a state subject in India, revenue from Liquor is a cash cow for state governments. In 2018 and 2019, four states collectively collected about 20,000 crores in taxes from the sale of liquor. As much as the state earns from the sale of Liquor it is undoubtedly, a threat to the Economy. Consumption of alcohol has dire health consequences. When a person consumes an alcoholic beverage, there is a rise in BAC because of which there is a gradual and progressive loss of driving ability because of an increase in reaction time, overconfidence, degraded muscle coordination, impaired concentration, and decreased auditory and visual acuity. This is known as drunken driving. (V. M. Anantha Eashwar, 2020) Drunken driving is the third biggest cause of road accidents and over speeding in India. Road accidents are not it; alcoholism causes sleep problems, heart, and liver issues. Also, it is not about an individual’s life, it ruins the lives of all people concerned.
Addiction also causes economic loss. In 2000, Vivek Benegal and his team assessed 113 patients admitted to a special de-addiction service for alcohol dependence. They found that
the average individual earned a mean of ₹1,661 but
spent ₹1,938 per month on alcohol, incurring high debt.
They also found that 95% did not work for about 14 days in a month. They concluded that it led to a loss of ₹13,823 per person per year in terms of foregone productivity. A more recent study, Health Impact and Economic Burden of Alcohol Consumption in India, led by Gaurav Jyani, concluded that alcohol-attributable deaths would lead to a loss of 258 million life-years between 2011 and 2050. The study placed the economic burden on the health system at $48.11 billion, and the societal burden (including health costs, productivity loss, and so on) at $1,867 billion. “This amounts to an average loss of 1.45% of the gross domestic product (GDP) per year to the Indian economy,” the study said. (Mint, 2020)
Setho ka Gaon
With each passing day, the ‘curtain of separation’ weighs down on the women of Afghanistan, paving the way for tyranny to thrive.
Arth
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Green Business Ideas: How can startups help save our environment?
Introduction
Through the means of an extensive digital and technical revolution that has gradually permeated into the fledging entrepreneurial scene, which has slowly but steadily churned dollar billionaires and unicorn start-ups, the push for green tech and establishing corporate responsibility towards ecological subsistence is becoming the norm, either through the means of capitalising upon the opportunities arising from the grave and real risks of environmental degradation by innovative technologies that aim to nullify the effects of conventional methods of energy generation and consumption dealing with a variety of issues ranging from air purification, water filtration, desalination of cultivable soil, afforestation, etc. or through sector-disruptive techniques focused on shifting patterns of resources dependence and extraction towards a more renewable future, via large scale adoption of the latest of solar, hydro, wind, and associated sources of energy synthesis on an individual consumer and micro-level basis. These methods, in tandem with cooperation of a eco-sensitive governmental initiative and large companies, shall provide a dual-pronged approach towards the ultimate fulfilment of making commercial concerns commensurate with their duties of maintaining green businesses.
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A Start-up's Role
The utility of start-ups in the corporate sustainability movement is distinctly that of a vanguard, in that their comparatively smaller scope and capital enables them to undertake quick-decision making and take first-mover advantage on developing opportunities arising in the market, as the inertia and compliancy typically depicted by large companies in the frame of 'business as usual' gravely prohibits them from displaying dynamism in their actions, thereby enabling the former constituent initiatives to individually strife for conservatism as a foundational objective whose cumulative effects in correcting ecological malpractices shall effectively aggregate to an extent far greater than just a mega corporation's gradual transition to a greener era. This is supported by the knowledge that start-ups are high growth prospects, and if managed appropriately, can be an exemplary representation against pre-conceived notions that presume that business and social responsibility are counterintuitive, but are now, in fact, complementary.
Changing perceptions
Despite conservative investors' reluctant sentiments in indulging and trusting Green tech., an idea still in its infancy, with established instances and case studies of angel funds parked in novel progressive companies failing to become cash positive before wrapping operations, it has fortunately not deterred bootstrapping from entrepreneurs, coming up with minimum viable products and prototypes emphasising on the social marketing philosophy of production, i.e., maximising consumer satisfaction in the utility of their products while also subordinating long-term eco-societal issues in their process of their marketing management, with a shift in business administration standards and attitudes in regards to an organisation's roles and ethical accountability in the preservation of a common global ecosystem, a thought which has been championed by the latest generation of managers and leaders.
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Brand positioning
Furthermore, the implementation of new eco-sensitive techniques can't be brought about consumer involvement, with Green Inc. focusing on taking maximalist approach in appealing at the grassroots levels, establishing their social and brand identities on carbon-neutrality, ethical conduct regarding environmental protection guidelines, shifting to organically sourced resource extraction, as well as with principles of social justice, fair wages, and egalitarian human resource management policies to pivot their public relations to attract and tap into a nascent growing market of environmentally-conscious customers and retailers who are willing to shoulder and incur the increased costs arising from such far-thinking operations, as seen in the continually expanding demand for organic farm produce, despite its inflationary trends over the last few years.
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Financial Accountability
However, the imperative lies on the financial and accounting departments of such start-ups to modify their profit-maximising stance by looking beyond their economic or organisational concerns to the concept of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach, which is more conductive to modern business in that not only recognises profitability and growth but social requirements, i.e., employee welfare and self-actualisation, and environmental demands, prioritising minimising of resources wastage and its subsequent safe disposal. Therefore, adoption of accounting standards and business models along the veins of such an objective, alongside legal transparency, third-party auditing, and an emphasis on fair trade and philanthropic contributions should facilitate the diversification of the purpose of business, past simply shareholder wealth maximisation.
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Opportunities Aplenty
The inadequacies of the existing governmental infrastructure in regards to ecological preservation, visible in its short-staffed, poorly funded and ill-equipped recycling departments and municipal solid waste management systems ad well as its abhorrent inability to control e-waste may seem like a crisis-inducing situation to most, but also serves as an excellent opening for private entrepreneurial action through clean technologies and green projects which fill in the gaping holes in the national structure, providing ingenious solutions based on localised problems free from the constraints of bureaucratic stooges and officials and cooperating with the disappointed stakeholders which not only allows them to discharge civic duties but also generate a reasonable amount of profits by capitalising on wasted refuse that otherwise would have only contributed to the bludgeoning problem of land and water degradation which is already straining the environment's absorptive capacity. Truly, an example of "One man's trash is another man's treasure."
Conclusion
It is unquestionably certain that the future of business is to be defined predominantly by social entrepreneurship and green projects, with the exponential growth of alternative sources of funds and positive consumer trends acting as a tailwind on which start-ups and companies alike are shifting in-house strategies to adapt to the changing times, emphasising on instituting noticeable real-time ecological impact rather than engage in 'greenwashing', i.e., a practice of companies fraudulently displaying their products and ethics as ecologically sustainable.
Therefore, the resolution of colouring the corporate world green through unique business ideas and establishing standards of self-vigilance and audit in regard to long-term responsibility now lies in the competent and gifted hands of adept entrepreneurs and investors, who must follow in the footsteps of established and well-esteemed brands like Power Ledger, Bakeys, Freitag, Snact, and millions of other unheard names across the globe in striving in making economical synonymous with ecological.
Shrish Dhuria
Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College
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