COVID-19 has come in the time of extreme difficulty to our Indian economy and to our society. We are on the verge of breaking out from the ever growing systematic mandate issues (forced lockdowns and mandatory permissions to use public roads and transports for essential goods) that were quite common to us in the last couple of weeks.
For example, following social distancing and making changes to our daily diet that in some regards have made one’s to be careful of their immune system. Soon, we will be forced to understand that we are not islands living in separate places and marooned by thoughts and hunger, but a society which wishes to come out of this successfully in the next coming months. But, as a thought experiment let us see India in the coming few months from now. July 2020.
Imagine its 27th July 2020. Things are back to normal. We can meet face to face. Travel is possible. Marriage functions are virtual or having large absenteeism. Fandom for movie stars with First Day First Show (FDFS) is easy to buy. But things have changed. COVID-19 has forever changed the experience of being a customer, employee, citizen and human.
What will have changed in the way we think? How will that affect the way we design, communicate, build and run the experiences that people need and want? The answers to these questions will lie in the way people react and how individuals, families and social groups respond to the situation happening now.
Indian behaviours that are shaping our future
An essential first step is to understand the likely implications of COVID-19 on Indian behaviours then start to respond, today on 27th July 2020.
01 Decision making and resolution of though
We Indians are known to be huggers for every occasion. We have never said no to hug. We show affection and we can never force someone to distance themselves from a friendly or fond hug is something like a misnomer in our society. Indian films have shown enough embraces between a girl and a boy but when it comes to parents and elders hugging a relative, it becomes only dramatic when it is shown with guitar, violin music or successful tears.
But, It is July 2020, We have made changes to gathering in the public spaces. Malls are no longer crowded due to fear of viral contraction. Marriages are simple these days. Hand Sanitizers are a common thing found in the people’s vicinity. Even astrologers are not much looked upon to see the venue and time for marriages it is now based on the app data of infectious cluster (in google maps as it is a default feature soon to be added in May 2020) and recent info on the people’s travel history (Both Apple and Google are working together to make this as norm on every phone). People have made sure to be updated by the changes. In fact, the average age of Indian society is 29. This makes India the most announced and informed society compared to the other countries in the world. Many purchases are being postponed. All of this will make risk less tolerable and the familiar more valuable.
The erosion of confidence will make trust way more important than ever before. This will necessitate a “trust multiplier”—action that, to be effective, rebuilds trust quickly and credibly. Focus will be on confidence-building through every channel. Justifiable optimism will sell well. All of this may change the nature of what we regard as premium products and services.
02 Games and Activities
Information Technology (IT) has been with us since the great computer revolution that gripped the 29 year young Indian Society. Of all the top millennials and the 90s Kid in the block, the words “system” or “games” mean only things done virtually.
IT corridor and IT Expressway have been synonymous with the enforced shift during the worst of the pandemic to virtual working, consuming and socializing (in further distance) which will fuel a massive and further shift to virtual activity for anything and EVERYTHING.
It will affect ways of communicating across learning, working, transacting and consuming. This will impact on EVERYONE.
Adoption of digital by those yet to do so will be accelerated and a reduction of the obstacles to going virtual for any sort of experience will be required. Winners will be those who test and explore all of the associated creative possibilities. Anything that can be done virtually will be.
03 Health care and Vitamin-M
Imagine the amount of time, we Indians have used the general medical apps in the Play Store and App Store to find recommendations for quick health check-up for our parents and our little ones.( Not a single one of you reading this would have gone to check number of apps in medical use in your smartphone, since you know the answer is already none) Or even the “family Doctor” who somehow is related to us for the last 4 generations either due to him/her being our next door neighbour or the doctor having the track record of never having seen any fatality in their known peers. Highly Unlikely, right!!??
We People are concluding now that Indian system (Grandma’s recipe) is far better to counteract with the little ailment in the society long gone like common cold, fever and flu. We as of July 2020, no longer believe that they cannot rely on existing health structures but, nonetheless, want all the help they can get, in every aspect of their lives. Health experiences will be in demand and, vice versa, health should be considered in every experience. There is also a new trend for e-Health.
Vitamin-M is Vitamin-Money. We have become accustomed to forego alcohol consumption in the last 3 months that the lockdown has given a major influx of withdrawal effects in the regular boozers. Money gets invested in essential healthcare and the norm of the society becomes “earning is the best remedy” to the time invested to the money invested in creating new and meaningful experiences rather than imagining the booze in hand and wasting time on it.
04 Social Distancing and connected by Internet Age
Self-Isolation is something not so common to us,Indians. We have never lived in mountains or river valleys in the last half century. We are known to be living in the most crowded and densely populated cities in the world like Delhi,Mumbai,Chennai. In fact the density index or people per square kilometre is highest when it comes to India. Mumbai has the highest in some off-beat slum areas close to 2,70,000 people in Dharavi.
Everyone being told to self-isolate means a return to home as the epicenter of life and experience. At the height of the crisis, many social workers have known to have less sanitation and free space to co-exist. After, this pattern will endure with meaningfulness and comfort carrying a price premium beyond the understanding of the elite migration workers such as 90s Kids and Metro boomers who came into existence some 30 years back and they pride themselves as Delhiwala, Mumbaikars and Chennaiates. Just imagine all the 3 metros mentioned here were fishing villages or king’s dharbar some few centuries back.
There will be a rise in home spending, on the home and made at home as people will stay more local at their long distant community in the coming years such as 2021 and 2022. Desire for distancing from metro cities, along with opportunities for those with creative strategies to enable it, will move centre-stage like content creators and digital artists. Winners will be those who zero their sights on the home with garden and peacock dancing in the backyards will soon become reality at their native places far from the once bustling city..
The Internet will also play a huge role in this. We are almost 90% covered by Electricity in India. Based on Statistics, our internet consumption has also quadrupled in the last 5 years. How cool it will be to have a retreat in the office time to just have online meetings every few days and doing the work in leisure at home. 5G can be a technology term but imagine homes with people around you. Forget the crowded metro platforms and imagine having the cool wind, non-polluted air in the face.
Final Thoughts
We have now come to the stage that Americans may have the money but they have the incompetent president, who doesn’t know how to pronounce half the medical terms like Hydroxy-Chloroquine. (to be deleted)
where we Indians have become dependent on experts and strong government recommendation—plus executive powers to start resolving the pandemic backed by citizen compliance, which lends real weight to central authority of Indian Constitution. Countries like Italy, England, Spain and many countries have been eroded recently in popular culture and the containment of COVID-19 infection among the community transfer have become questionable. If Indian government gets their handling of the crisis broadly right, expect top-down control to be back in fashion; if not, the reverse towards the economy.
A reinvention of authority is likely after the effect of travel limitations, self-isolation and lockdown officially mandated by state and central governments. Greater acceptance for the role of government and companies in society, and the importance of collective behaviour, may occur.
Along with that, India will become a societal change as a superpower in the next foreseeable future. I truly believe that one man’s dream of the future India is near and becoming a dream come true. His words have resonated in the thought of every Indian in the last decade due to his sheer commitment to imparting knowledge to the children and he alone became the supreme leader of the masses in eloquently seeing the future India. It is now 5 years since he left the dream of India. It was 27th July 2015, the last day Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, had his last day of speech in front of all the students. Exactly 5 years before which we started this thought experiment in this blog post on living through this crisis.
On 27th July 2015, Kalam travelled to Shillong to deliver a lecture on "Creating a Livable Planet Earth" at the Indian Institute of Management,Shillong. While climbing a flight of stairs, he experienced some discomfort, but was able to enter the auditorium after a brief rest. At around 6:35 p.m. IST, only five minutes into his lecture, he collapsed. He was rushed to the nearby Bethany Hospital in a critical condition; upon arrival, he lacked a pulse or any other signs of life. Despite being placed in the intensive care unit, Kalam was confirmed dead of a sudden cardiac arrest at 7:45 p.m IST.
