10-04-20
It is getting near certain, that lock
down will not be over on 15th April. Depending on how the administration
advices the politicos, the stringency of enforcement with either go up or down.
The data must be scary for the politicos to wanting to continue the lockdown and
not worry about the impending doom in industry.
More important at this time is to keep
the supply chains open (sadly shutting down again) for perishable food &
other consumables. In past we went from local decentralized to Govt mandated centralization
and now wishing that we had a decentralized system. Its another case that centralized
system never worked optimally in best of the time but made market intervention
possible for our Statist apparatus. With decimation of local markets by various
APMC acts, weakening of local financiers (Adatiya) and then at last delivery by
Ecommerce model obsession weakening local shop keepers our bills are coming home
now. A detailed study of our various acts of omission in this field can help anyone
on what not do while scaling up distribution. Admittedly not everything we did
was Bad, remember Amul which changed the milk business in country (the model got
replicated with varied degree of success across the various states). So, while
other things may not be available please be assured that milk will be available
and so will be other stuff from dairy. And this is equally a story of die-hard entrepreneurs
who complement these large efforts with their own enterprise. On twitter some
folks are remembering Dr. Kurian (founder of Amul) and wishing we find one like
him to do similar things for vegetables and other perishables. An effort as big
as Amul or even bigger is required grounds up in short to medium term to solve
this frequently haranguing supply chain and within the viability for participants.
Other wise will continue to lurch from one shortage to another in localized or national
levels.
Keeping the food chain humming will be
in my view biggest challenge for the Govt for next few weeks to manage I.E other
than Covid. Not getting food will turn even the normally acquiescent middle class
also annoyed with system.
Similar disturbances in the supply chain
are happening in other countries and they are also grappling to make these
large complex systems run as nimble smart systems. This will take time but some
adroit foot work from the farmers and local markets can sole the problem. But
then some one needs to communicate with them, we are so used to talking down to
them that this will also take time.
Lets hope for best and hope for the
best. Now that we are more or less
assured of another 15 days of work from home, its time to move on things more interesting
then lock down. Yes its central to our living these days but we can always
broaden subjects to cover and ponder over.
Here are few urls which may be on interest
to you in this lockdown.
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