DECIDING HOW TODAY WILL BE VIEWED IN HISTORY

 

Background   

Defence ministers, do address the press. But the one on 14th of June 2022 will remain indelibly etched in history of modern India. The RM, flanked by his service chiefs unveiled the new recruitment policy for ‘Personnel Below Officer Rank’ (PBOR) of the Indian defence forces. They named it ‘Agnipath’ (the path of fire) and called those to be recruited under this scheme ‘Agni Veer’ (fiery warriors). It is claimed to be the boldest and most transformative intervention the Indian defence forces has ever had in its lifetime. 

Officially, it is claimed that the scheme would achieve “National Integration providing equal opportunity” and nation building nation “through empowered disciplined youth with military ethos in civil society”. For the Army it is supposed to “improve battle preparedness through transformative evolution”, select the best “with rigorous and transparent selection process”, achieve “youthful profile through optimal balance of youth and experience”, and help Army become tech savvy through “induction (of individuals) from technical institutes”. Quantitatively put, lower the age profile of the Indian army. 

There are six specific promised takeaways for individuals. Barely put, the scheme envisages recruiting 46,000 youth between the years 17 1/2 to 21 every year to the defence forces for a period of 4 years on a “customised” monthly compensation of Rs 30,000 in the first year, Rs 33,000 in the second, Rs 36,500 in the third and Rs 40,000 in the fourth year. 30% of it will be retained by government to be returned to the individual at the end of the four year term with equal contribution from it along with interests, totaling to 10.04 Lakhs (excluding interests) as Seva Nidhi package. On completion of the term, 25% Agni Veers would be retained based on merit and others released, into a eagerly waiting civic society ready to absorb them and give them a great start to a second innings in life.

Rosy in deed. 

A very attractive package especially considering the current unemployment rate. The youth should have lapped it up. However, as soon as the scheme was unveiled, all hell broke loose. Regardless of opinions, the Government is adamant in seeing Agnipath through the ‘Agni Pareeksha’ (Trial by Fire).  

Ripples  

The political and social environment of the country has not remained same ever since. Opposition called it murder of democracy because the government did not consult them on such a far reaching reform. With a brutal majority in executive, niceties were not required. When opposition representatives became loud on prime time discussions, they were met with even louder shriller government supporters, drowning reasons in din. 

Many veterans were aghast because, they believed that Agnipath sounds the death knell for Indian army, destroying the ethos and culture evolved over times and many an adversity. Most of them went public, in print, visual and social media against the scheme. Few applauded the scheme and called it yet another masterstroke and claimed it to be the timeliest intervention capable of creating tech-savvy, efficient lean mean defense forces, capable of handling future military challenges. Never has the veteran community been so vociferous against a government scheme that affected the forces yet felt so inconsequential. Never has the veteran community been so divided professionally and politically. 

No one seemed to give any credence or attention to either opposition parties or veterans who disagreed. 

But it was different when the youth rose in opposition. The government clearly had not anticipated the scale and intensity of nationwide agitation youth would launch. They decided to take matters into their hands. Their ire, was targeted against public property, laying it waste, vandalized destroyed or burnt.  Agnipath protests spread and raged across states, literally setting streets on fire.  

No amount of injustice real or perceived can justify or condone violence of any sort. For a country that won its independence through nonviolence or ahimsa, this was a stark departure from the most powerful weapon of Indianness. The violence and manner of protest adopted need to be condemned in the strongest possible manner. Action deemed appropriate must be taken against the perpetrators of violence. Some state Governments had earlier shown that it is capable of instant retribution but that resolve seemed to be missing in handling Agnipath protests.   

The government immediately announced a slew of measures to allay fears of the youth and make it more attractive, despite its claim of deep research over all the aspects of the scheme. It included one-time age relaxation, higher insurance cover and reservations in other government jobs. 

The official attempting to be as convincing as a convinced can be, clarified that these measures were not a consequence of the violent protests but we're already in the pipeline. He also categorically stated that the scheme will not be rolled-back. Soon, industrialists, industries and state governments joined the bandwagon with post contract job offers.    

Contest or Comply  

Change is the only constant in life. But change, especially those with long term ramifications, must not be undertaken just for the sake of change. Contesting change merely for the sake of opposing or just because it questions status quo isn't productive. Unquestioningly complying with anything pushed down from top, in the name of change, also does not augur well for progressive civic societies. Change must be for valid reasons. With no options other than complying, one has to comply and bear the consequence, good bad or ugly. 

Yet, the proposed scheme can certainly be dissected objectively to be understood from differing perspectives, even if it may not end up of being any use.   

Profile Correction  

One of the major takeaways from the scheme, it is claimed, is that it will, in few years, lower the age profile of the army from the existing average above 30. Prima facie it looks true too. 

But is it?  If yes; how? If No; why? 

To statistically reduce age profile of a sample under study, there is only one sure way. Increase the numbers in lower age group and decrease the numbers in higher age group. Isn’t that what Agnipath is doing?  No.

It quantitatively reduces induction, from 60,000 to 46,000 every year.  Moreover, the rate of attrition at the lower age group is designed to be 75% as against 5% normal attrition at at the top. Thus, as the ‘oldies’ wither away slower in comparison to the Agni veers, the age profile will NOT reduce dramatically as picturised. In absolute terms, keeping the current figures as the constituents, it will be only in 2042, twenty years from now, that Agni veers constitute over 50% of the force.  

 

{Caveat - The figures 46,000 as annual intake of Agni veers as well as the attrition rate of 5% considered for old school combatants are as on date. when these figures change, much like the EMI and term of loans change with change in interest rates, the figures for manpower will change too.}

By that time, at the rate now decided, 9, 66,000 youth would have joined the scheme from which 5, 86,500 would have been asked to leave, a whopping attrition of 60.71% at the bottom. The existing regular combatants at 5% attrition would have shrunk from 10,65,150 to 3,81,841 a reduction of 6,83,309 combatants putting it at 64.2%. By that time the youngest Agni veer joining the forces now, if he or she decides to stay, would be 37.5 years. 

Are we merely creating a turbulent vortex at the bottom that offers no credible advantage?  Have planners missed the real math? 

NO. The math is different. In long term perspective, age profile will slowly reduce due to the attrition at the top through releases but mostly through reduced induction of regular combatants and the high turnover of Agni veers. Essentially unnoticed, there is a significant overall reduction of force strength.

Yes; Agnipath essentially extinguishes the existing vacancy and restricts future intake to 46,000 a year. Dramatic short term take-away and infinitesimal erosion over long term.  But, what is wrong in reducing army strength?  

Doctrinal Diktats  

Many influencers feel that Indian army is too big, unwieldy and needs to be trimmed. How this opinion has taken roots in the society and on whose behest is unknown. This narrative has garnered traction enough to be considered an unquestionable imperative. If nothing else, Agnipath certainly addresses this concern. But there is a flipside and a grave one too!  

Size of a country’s defense forces and how it should be equipped is dictated by threats it perceives and how it plans to deal with it. Most countries document it in their national security doctrine. There is no information in the public domain to suggest that India has such a doctrine. In the absence of such a document-stipulated force level, numbers could remain subjective and ambiguous. Considering our friendly neighbourhood what should be India's force levels?   

Numbers  

According to information available, India has an authorized army strength of over 12 lakhs. The attrition rate of the Indian army under normal circumstances is about 5% and therefore the annual recruitment intake is about 60,000 balancing attritions with accretions. However, depending on actuals, figures get corrected. Every year depending on the adjusted requirement, vacancies are allotted to states depending on its Male Recruitable Population (MRP). With induction of female PBOR appropriate modifications would have been done.    

The current sanctioned strength of Indian Army is believed to be 12, 23,380. How we arrived at this figure, is not available in the public domain. Certainly, we can presume that it is based on the deployment requirements of Northern, Eastern and Western borders as also for counter- insurgency. NOT one man can be added without approval of the government and government approvals irrespective of who helmed it, was never easy. 

In 2019, India had only 11, 85,150 PBOR. Recruitments did not happen during the two COVID years, accumulating a deficiency of approximately 1, 20,000. Taking all that into account, the strength of PBOR in Indian army now is only about 10, 65,150, already deficient by 1, 58,230.   

It has been announced that, henceforth all recruitments to Defence Forces will be only through Agnipath. This will further increase the deficiency every year by 14,000. Yes; every year! So in ten years (by 2032), even if nobody retires from army, the strength will automatically deplete by 1, 40,000 more bringing down the strength to 8, 71,893. 

Considering inherent attritions even at 5% to the existing cadre, numerical strength of Army will fall to 8,70,357 by 2032 and to 7,42,249 in 2042, out of which 3,62,749 could be 'old school' combatants and 3,79,500 would be the Agni Veer category. The senior most amongst them would have 16 years’ service, barring the four year contract period. Stretching it theoretically a bit more, the last of the old school combatants would have left Army in 2062 having attained the age of 60 and four years later the Army would reach the theoretical maximum strength of 6, 55,500! 

Given the geographical diversity of India and the military challenges it faces, in addition to the widespread deployment now obtaining, the questions that we should be asking ourselves are: -  

What should be the strength of the defence forces and how should it be equipped to be a credible deterrent? 

Have we drawn up a national security doctrine?  

Are we visualizing significant reduction in external threats? 

Have we finalised an approach that reduces military manpower from the exiting 12 lakhs to about six lakhs and yet ensure national security?   

Diplomacy is a great mode of power projection. We have very articulate  effective and highly respected diplomats to represent us abroad. However suave, articulate and efficient be diplomats, their bargaining strength depends on the ability of the country's military, back home, to project and deliver decisions when and where required.   

What does this year on year reduction mean to us?

Fiscal Savings?? 

Penny-wise  

One of the reasons believed to have fuelled this master stroke, is that bulk of the defense allocation is consumed as pay, allowances and pensions leaving pittance for modernization.   

It is said, that a lie repeated a hundred times ends up being the truth. This seems to be the case here too. A large chunk of the allocations for pay and pensions actually goes to civilians drawing from the defense estimate. The fact remains that the lesser non-uniformed chunk consumes more of the pay and pension chunk.  

That apart, there is a cost that the country must incur for its security. Cost cutting is important. Even If the economy is ailing, should sacrificing sovereignty be the first choice?    

Tech Savvy Army   

One of the declared aims of Agnipath is to make Indian army tech savvy by ‘harnessing benefits of skill India by induction from technical institutes’. If this is translated to recruitment QR, only those who have got some ‘Skill-India’ certification and are piped through a recognised ‘technical Institute’ can find their way in! If implemented, it could exclude millions of otherwise eligible youths from being enrolled. Certainly, the slogan couldn’t be meaning what it says!  

Just being acquainted with technology in a ‘Skill-India programme’ outside the military domain doesn't make a person fit enough to handle military technology. Competency to handle militarized technology and acquire mastery over it to achieve combat aims is a long way of, far beyond the glitz and glamour of catchy slogans, unless we equate video games to military actions. What is important is to induct weapon systems that use the latest military technologies, the fastest possible. Yes; it costs. Survival demands investments.  

Once individuals are inducted into the forces, it has inherent competencies to impart the required training so as to make combatants competent enough to achieve operational aims.  

Agnipath essentially doesn’t deliver on this aim too. 

Future of the Unselected  

Agnipath essentially sowed uncertainty amongst the youth. Youth in lakhs had undergone various tests and were waiting to be called for the written examination for recruitment. With one stroke of a pen, all their efforts over the last few years were wiped out. Anger was the response. Reasons that triggered spontaneous unrests across the country needs to be understood.  

A job with the defense forces offers great amount of security. Pride and dignity the uniform provides and the romanticism associated with it apart, job security it provides is what attracts the not-so studious and academically bright youngsters mostly from villages flocking to join the armed forces. Take that away, a job in uniform loses all its attractiveness. Agnipath precisely did that.  

A lot has been said about the financial package the scheme offers. People seemed to have read through the fine print. People also realised that the ‘huge amount’ of Rs 11.71 Lakhs, promised as severance package, is half their own contribution and its interest, much like a contributory scheme.   

Promises! 

A number of guarantees of job offers suddenly came from all over. 

People seem to attach little credibility to promises of lateral induction into other police organizations and reservation in jobs in the central and state governments. There is a specific chapter titled “Lateral Movement of defence Force personnel” in the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission. How much of these have fructified is a question those making guarantees now must ask. The number of vacancies for ex-servicemen lying unfilled across the country and in many states could jolt conscience if there is any.

 

The last nail on the coffin of credibility was driven when the highest court while hearing the case on OROP said that “A minister's statement given during a budget speech is not enforceable”. If that is the legal position on statements made by the government on the floor of the house, what credibility can one assign to open air proclamations?  

May be, a concerted drive can be undertaken even now to restore what was lost.

Emotional Industrialists

Industrialists with large followers on social media took to emotional posts and tweets promising jobs. Some industries also suddenly sprung up promising jobs to Agni Veers after four years. They may do good to themselves and their conscience if they review what they have done over the last decade or more to alleviate unemployment amongst young veterans coming out after 15-20 years of color service. It isn’t late still to make amends. 

Gullible people may appear; gullible they may not be.  

For & Against  

Many reasons have been put forth in support and against the proposed scheme. Proponents of the scheme have given examples of conscription across the world as against the form of recruitment in the country. Flaws in that argument have been in public domain. Some veterans have highlighted the serious damage it could inflict on operational efficiency, tactical cohesion and the much-revered regimentation. For every point in support of the scheme there are equally compelling reasons against it. Some critics have gone to the extent of comparing customs and traditions of Indian Army with remnants of British Raj and the insistence to hold on to them as colonial hangover. Contesting such arguments gives ignorance a place on the high table.   

Some veterans have gone to the extent to saying that the government has promulgated the scheme and there is no going back and therefore it must be tried out. Under the given circumstance, is there another option? 

Yes; we may save a lot of money in pay and allowances in the next five years or even a decade. But if it weakens the very sovereignty of the country would that be acceptable?  That is for those in power to ask. That is for each citizens to contemplate. 

Forward 

Even well thought-out initiatives have bitten dust. Certainly most ill-conceived ones have played havoc and wreaked terrible consequence. History hosts both differently. These are times when everyone everywhere is re-examining and rewriting history to suit contemporary socio-political needs. Those who scripted events then, we now know as history, are not around to explain what actually happened, why and how. 

Agnipath is certainly a significant event in the history of Indian Military. 

How it will be perceived when it becomes history is not for us to decide. Yes; we can now decide what comes out of it in the near future.

. 

Beware! You Could be Cordyceped

 Mystery Of The Long Horned Ants

The forest hides a lot even from the most prying eyes. Most of what we get to see in it is fleeting; what is not fleeting may just be a snapshot and not the full picture. The truth of the forest, a mystery! Today, let us unravel one; the Mystery of the Long Horned Ants!

Each plant species has perfected the art of propagation. When it is season, flowering plants bloom and the forest becomes awash with pollen clouds, each grain in the cloud hoping to find a suitable recipient. Most, not reaching intended locations dry up and die.

A fungus called Ophiocordyceps also sends out spores. Ants are no strangers to the forest. They come out from their colonies to forage. In millions, they crawl all over. Spores of Ophiocordyceps fall on plants, animals and the forest floor. It could also land on ants or they while crawling around could come in contact with it.  

Harmless incident? No; because they are the intended recipient!

If a carpenter ant (camponotus) and a spore gets together, the game changes. As soon as contact is made, the spores drive roots into the hapless host and takes control over its behaviour. Enslaved by the fungus, the afflicted ant has to find a place that offers the right amount of sunlight, temperature and humidity to help the fungus grow; and then in a bizarre final act, gets into a death bite at that precise location ensuring life for its guest. The spore grows into a fungi from the dead ant’s body to spew out spores, infecting another set of ants. The cycle continues. Colonies of ants could get wiped out like this in one season.

Genus Specific

There are more than 400 different species of Cordyceps, each targeting specific species of ants, dragonflies, cockroach, aphids and beetles etc. The story is all similar; the guest enslaves the host and controls its behaviour and eventually kills it.

The process is characterized by the presence of a parasite or parasitoid, a host willingly or unwillingly promoting its growth and at its cost and peril. Often the infection is genus specific.

If you think that this macabre story is confined only to forests or to species other than human beings, you can’t be more wrong. It is played out in and around us, our homes, places of work and in societies we live in. There are many an agent, targeting individuals, groups, sects and other such identities. Don't believe it?

Afflicted Individuals

When it comes to Homo sapiens, individuals are prone to being afflicted by one or multiple agents. Such afflictions are not race or gender specific. Some could be severely debilitating, adversely affecting our personal behaviour and social skills. Few could be even life threatening.

Many amongst us are corrupt. Degree and type notwithstanding, corruption inflicts personal and social costs. Though corruption has almost become a norm, many remorselessly indulge in it. Yet, there still remains an innate fear of being caught. For a few, ‘fear of being caught’ drives its roots and modifies their behaviour. Like the dictated move and death bite of the carpenter ant, the individual is consumed by suspicion. They see shadows even in bright light. Many of them withdraw into shells to shield themselves from prying eyes and leading questions for fear of being exposed. Some become introverted and become conspicuous by their acts, others compulsive liars and few both.

Behaviour and response to situations of many amongst us are driven by mistrust or distrust[1]. Caution is an existential virtue, but when that is fuelled by distrust it can spiral out badly. Such people over time become social misfits, subjects of scorn and eventually force themselves into their own shells and turn recluses.

It is just not only about the corrupt, timid or compulsive liars. There are many others who are similarly afflicted. Fear, guilt, apprehension, anxiety, insecurity, suspicion, greed, melancholy and so many such others; are just names of different genus that have the potential of commanding our minds and modifying our behaviour once they find space with us to rest and root. The most dangerous of all is being infected with a corrosive ideology.

 

Parasitoid

Unlike the empire of the sub-sapiens, we actually could make our infection look wanted. It could even get us inducted into groups we want. Once infected these people actually go around actively seeking to infect others. They are even willing to consume themselves in the process. Anyone opposed to that ideology is considered a threat and is treated appropriately.   That is when it becomes dangerous to societies. Fanaticism emerge like wise. 

 

Infected groups

The holocaust was the culmination of such a spore, rooting in one individual, spreading into others and then infecting the group prompting them to collectively prey on another group. It was not an isolated incident and not one of the past. Every day, across the world there are clouds of such spores of exclusionism infecting localities and regions.

Like Cordyceps, they need hosts and find ingenious ways to create divisions within a population that was otherwise living peacefully. As intensity of affliction increases, lies and falsehood spread at astronomical speeds. Having reached threshold levels, law of the jungle prevails over civility.  Everything that happens, however detached, gets connected and viewed through the spore’s perspective. A narrative is born! Then it is propagated and allowed to gain momentum. Once it attains the momentum threshold, it then catapults on its own with authenticity that truth commands. Social media plays catalyst. Disaster unfolds, slowly first, surely later.

 

Escape?

Insects, cursed merely by coincidence of presence in the area, have no way of shaking the spore away. It is doomed as soon as it comes in contact with the spore! They just can’t reason it out. What about us?

We are not as helpless. We can prevent the spore form driving in roots. It all depends on how well and how ready we are, as individuals or groups to reason it out.

What happens when a people lose sense of rationality?

 

[1] Mistrust and distrust are often considered synonyms but mistrust is a general sense of unease toward someone or something while distrust is usually based on experiences or information. Unfortunately like egg and chicken which manifests first in an individual is hard to decide. Often a learnt behavior both compulsively add to each other

Milk Negativity for Gains

 

Exhortations

The most repeated exhortation in motivational and corporate training circuits is about remaining positive’ irrespective of circumstances. Having been on the circuit, I have done it, many times over.  But talks about positivity is meaningless unless we understand negativity, its contours and content and context.

Negativity is everywhere. Overt or covert in application, crass or sophisticated in execution, words or deeds its manifestation, its existence recognised within or experienced from outside, negativity comes in countless shades and has little in common to call as character. Inseparable companion for some, identity for few, fuel for aggression or weapon of defense for many, we encounter negativity in some form every day.

Interestingly, people reeking of negativity complain most about others’ negativity.

 

Power of Negativity

I realised the power of ‘negativity’, first time in the mathematics class. We were attempting to solve a linear equation. When answers were called in, we found ourselves in two camps. All of us noticed the negative sign but most of us ignored its implications and turned in wrong. The vigilant few who recognised its power took appropriate steps turned in right.

Life is like that; you ignore negativity to your peril. It is omnipresent. Success and happiness to a large extent depends on how well, one can recognise and manage negativity in life’s equations. Unmanaged, it can be overwhelming. Negativity can impact personal life, as also play significant roles in shaping social issues and its outcomes.

Irrespective of its nature and purpose, negativity commences with and from individuals. Whether it is out of an inherent psychological disorder and consequent delinquent compulsions or as an element of purpose, it needs perpetrators and victims; person, persons or groups. Easily weaponised, it can vitiate even the most pristine and benign of environments.

Negativity, becomes a weapon of menacing potency, only if it finds conducive mediums and through them attain the threshold kinetic energy. It is true for individuals, groups, organisations and society.

Weaponising Negativity

Most of us, if not all, suffer from bouts of negativity. It is a natural survival kit that warns us of threats. It kick-starts instincts to survive adversities. Apprehension and anxiety we experience are negativity elements, but extremely useful survival tools. But when negativity persists and becomes the identity and predominant trait of an individual, it is a problem.  Individuals become negative mostly out of unaddressed inadequacies.

Negative outlook, in most cases, is a carryover of abusive childhood, intense physical or psychological trauma suffered anytime in life or flawed upbringing. From the cause and effect perspective, negativity comes from deep sense of insecurity. Responses may vary.

Negative individuals tend to see threat where none exists. Even in the best of situations they can create monsters, play spoilsport, experience discrimination, imagine apocalypse and seed and spread disharmony where such eventualities are otherwise impossible. Some of them do it deliberately and others do it by compulsion. Low on self-esteem,  most of them unsocial and at times anti-social, some withdraw into shells they create, few turn quarrelsome and violent but most are content being selfish and manipulative; and seem to gain immense pleasure even from small acts of disturbances they cause. Mistrust and being untrustworthy are sure signs of deep-rooted negativity. Education, economic status, job profiles or place in the social ladder don’t matter.  Apparently leading normal lives and earning livelihoods, they infect the environment they live in.

Look around; one may find such people.

Negative people seldom recognise their plight. Most of them live in denial, oblivious to their own misery and the misery they spread. Few weaponise it to achieve short-term objectives oblivious to long-term losses.  When others are inconvenienced because of them, they become convinced of the effectiveness of their strategy, only to compound their illness further. Those who can, avoid them and those who can’t, suffer fait accompli.

 

Harvest From Negative Narratives

Negativity is contagious and easily spreads through association. It is the most effective means to get messages across big audiences.

It is natural to view existential threats with apprehension. If such a narrative is created and propagated, it spreads and grips the community. Each individual, if not extremely diligent, by instinct becomes a medium and diligence is a rarity.  More the mediums, more virulent becomes negative narratives. Initially only a few may add content but as is wont, mass gets added arithmetically in the beginning, geometrically then and imaginatively exponential thereafter. 

There are people who thrive milking negativity. Many politicians and religious teachers, world over, exploit their ‘subjects’ deliberately injecting negativity. When the group is fed narratives of an impending doom, mostly conjured and propped up with lies dressed as truth, the threat looks real. The group, then naturally listens. Those who bite the bait not only believe in the ‘negative’ but go around baiting others. World across, the wily have come to power using this magic formula.  

Once ‘we’ and ‘they’ are defined, minds become fertile grounds for negativity. Almost all contemporary political campaigns across the world effectively uses negativity to garner votes. Social media proliferation is a boon for virulent spread of such narratives. Spreading fear about after-life consequences or threat from other religions or even sects within, some religious leaders harvest money, fame and power from negativity.  Growth of most cults, if mapped, often reveal underlying threads of ‘negative’ narratives

Group-negativity, initially is confined to words. However it soon turns into deeds and left unmanaged become reprisals against the ‘other’. The silent many who remained content being spectators sooner than later become participants and perpetrators. The holocaust is a grim reminder to humanity of what negative narratives can yield but time seems to have numbed our senses.

Ironic but true; though negativity starts when objective logic fails, its only logical reasoning that can put an end to negativity. Unfortunately, reasoning dies a few deaths with those taken in by negativity. It is not only the illiterate, ignorant poor that make the gullible crowd but even educated well-placed individuals stream-in, “ever hearing but never understanding”, “ever seeing but never perceiving”.

Is there a way out of the marauding negativity?

 

The Equation

Constructing cause and effect equations to understand situations help deal with negativity. But people drowned in negativity seldom see the life-rope. Persistent chipping away at the causative factors does help but negatives have a strange overpowering presence.

A blot on a clean apparel, however small catches the eye first.  Despite the large clean canvas around the blot often refuses to let the eyes go. Notional or imaginary losses have the same impact. Having made riches off paltry investments, people fret about the falling stock indices. Industrialists, taking their own lives having suffered losses, would not have thought even once about the growth they charted their way up and the huge growth possibilities ahead. Engrossed in the web of negativity they spin about themselves, they distance themselves from any meaningful help only to be fatally consumed.

It is absolutely normal, to feel the burden of negativity. It is good to be aware of the negative within. Willingness to accept its presence within and address it helps us turn in right at the end of the linear equation. Ability to identify negativity outside increases the probability of successfully negotiating it.

The equation is simple, straight and linear. Whoever has eyes, let them see!