Every morning, Aditya Sarda leaves his rented accommodation in New Jersey, US, and drives for about an hour in a friend’s car to reach, by 8.30 am, a construction site in Brooklyn, New York City, the Covid-19 hotspot in the US. The second-year student of masters in construction engineering and management at Stevens Institute of Technology is also an assistant project manager at the construction site of the Brooklyn high rise. Till May 11, the city had 335,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 21,478 deaths from the infection.
“If I am not working, I am not making money,” says Aditya, 24, who chose to stay on in the US after his college announced that classes will not be conducted on campus any longer, and will move online; he is scheduled to graduate from his two-year course at the end of May. “I now have a job, which means I can stay on in the US for up to three years after I graduate. If I went back to India, I would lose this job, and would not know if I could get another one in the US later.”
That is why, when the Indian government started repatriating Indians from the US on May 9—the first of the initial seven non-scheduled commercial flights took off from San Francisco—boarding one of those flights was not an option for Sarda. For the sake of a career in the construction industry in the US, he feels it is better to stay on in the US—the worst-hit country in the pandemic—despite his family’s pleas to take one of the repatriation flights and head home to Nagpur.
Denne historien er fra June 5, 2020-utgaven av Forbes India.
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Denne historien er fra June 5, 2020-utgaven av Forbes India.
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Home-Cooked Meal Is Now Greatly Valued
The pandemic has also brought with it an improved focus on hygiene, use of technology in dining, rise of cloud kitchens and resurgence in popularity of Indian ingredients
Paytm 3.0 - Reaching Near Breakeven In Two Years
As of 2020, Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s super app for financial services had run up losses in thousands of crores. Now, as digital payments gets yet another boost courtesy Covid-19, he’s hopeful of reaching near breakeven in two years
THE PANDEMIC HAS CAUSED WOMEN GREATER LABOUR PAIN
Covid-19 has shown that women are more likely to face the brunt of job losses than men, and find fewer opportunities when they want to resume. That apart, several have to deal with increased hours of unpaid work at home and even domestic abuse
LEADERSHIP WILL BE ABOUT SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE
Leaders must not only guard their teams first during a crisis, but also deal with stakeholders with respect and dignity. And apart from pursuing business goals, they should remain committed to our planet and the environment
PHILANTHROPY SHOULD BE HUMBLE, BUT NOT MODEST
Apart from building a flexible and resilient framework for the future, philanthropists, civil society and the government must work in tandem so that every rupee is absorbed on the ground
INTEGRATED HEALTH CARE, TECH WILL DISRUPT SECTOR
While clinical research will get a boost, having a skilled workforce and public spending on health care will be challenges in the near term
DIGITALISATION WILL HELP IN VALUE CREATION
As the pandemic brings technology and innovation to the core of business and daily life, the next decade will see about 150 million digital-first families in India
Industry 4.0: Climate Revolution?
Augmenting sustainability alongside digital capabilities is an economic, competitive and global opportunity for India’s businesses, but regulations need to reflect intent
EV Dream Still Miles Away
Electric vehicles have remained a buzzword in India for years. But not much has moved on ground due to high upfront costs, range anxiety and charging infrastructure
Living Waters
A virus has caused us to scramble for oxygen but our chokehold on the environment is slowly strangling the very waters that breathe life into us. The virus is a timely reminder: We are merely consumers, not producers of life’s breath on this planet
