Synthetic biology is being used to develop sugar substitutes and zero-calorie alternatives. Many agri products like Indigo are being replaced by advances in synthetic biology. Soil microbes are being studied for their genomes and are being sequenced economically. It is possible by low-cost DNA sequencing technology. Some natural molecules can be replicated. Pichia Pastoris produces haeme molecules to resemble the taste and aroma of animal blood. It could lead to vegan hamburgers. In evolution, certain paths take millions of years. Biologists now could accelerate this process to find alternatives. Petrochemistry is not suitable to environment. Synthetic biology could give us new alternatives without affecting the environment. It could lead to the concept of Industry 5.0. There could be a Synbio-as-a-service.
General Marketing
ASCI Guidelines for Influencer Marketing
Since ASCI has already issued guidelines that influencers must use tags like an advertisement, ad, sponsored, collaboration, partnership, employee, free gift etc., it is difficult to have a wider reach with these tags. Thus when branded content is put, it affects the reach. Influencer marketing took off because of the editorial touch and feel it had. These tags make it look like advertorials. After the implementation of the ASCI guidelines, influencer marketing becomes outright advertising. Consumers welcome organic stuff. Henceforth, branded content must be made more and more creative. The ratio between the paid posts and organic content was 40:60, which could be changed to 30:70. Branded posts must be made more entertaining. The reliance will be on the creativity of the content.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing. It involves endorsements and product placement from influencers, people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field.
In this social media marketing, there are endorsements and product mentions from influencers. This word ‘influencer’ came to be used in 2020. Several people make a living as influencers. Are they really admirers of the products? Or are they paid to do so?
Internet in general and social media in particular has blurred the distinction between editorial and advertising to begin with, almost a decade back and mommy bloggers exerted influence on communication. That led FTC to enact a law in 2012 asking them to declare the compensation received at the beginning of the blog. They talked about diapers and P&G supplied lots of them the following day. The law is applicable to bloggers and not other influencers.
Mainstream media news outlets make money from sponsors.
The onus is placed on influencer to make the disclosure via a hashtag.
However, we should also consider whether the public cares. The disclosures are not heeded. They are in fine print or in fast talk. These are overlooked. The attention is drawn to the material with glamour and excitement penned by a celebrity and life style icon.
In the long run, disclosure is in the interest of the brand as well as the influencer.
ASCI’s Guidelines for Social Media Influencer Marketing
In May 2021, ASCI has issued final guidelines for influencer marketing, three months after sharing its draft guidelines. Influencers must label branded posts, or else both parties are accountable. The disclosure label should be clear, identifiable and prominent. The guidelines also define influencers and what establishes a connect between the influencer and advertiser. It identifies the words permissible to call it a sponsored post.
It advises the influencers to satisfy themselves that the advertiser is in a position to substantiate the claims made in the advertisement.
ASCI will detect the violations by using AI-based tools.
Influencers feel that mostly the advertisers are responsible for being reluctant to put disclosure labels.
ASCI is a self-regulatory body. The guidelines are not legally binding. It can guide and mediate, but it cannot compel.
Rethinking Competitive Advantage
Bezos of Amazon once expressed that some companies may not have one single advantage and hence weave a rope of many small advantages.
Rethinking Competitive Advantage is a handbook written by Ram Chavan and Geri Willigan. Here they identify six new rules for competition in the digital age.
Among these rules, two that feature prominently are personalised customer experiences at scale and using data and algorithms to build robust digital platforms.
Traditional competitive advantages persist — brand reputation, patents and proprietary technology.
The new criteria have been discovered by accident. Facebook, Apple and MS chiefs have allowed technology, imagination and intuition to guide them.
Funding creates an edge for digital companies. Competitive landscape has changed which calls for new kind of leadership. Let us call it digital leadership. Traditional businesses are being transformed into digital businesses. Here even a young leader, without experience, can emerge as a leader.
Pharmacopoeias
About 20 countries have Pharmacopoeias out of the 200 countries. They operate with varying degrees of autonomy with their regulatory agencies. Many are part of the government, and work in close association with their regulatory agency, e.g. Japan, China, Brazil, Mexico and the Russian Federation. The European Pharmacopoeia in Europe is elaborated by the European Pharmacopoeia Commission, which draws its membership from the countries participating in the Council of Europe (and not the European Union). The British Pharmacopoeia may be able to remain in the Council of Europe. The US Pharmacopoeial Convention operates as a private non-profit body in the US (separate from the FDA). The USP was created in 1820 whereas the FDA was created in the early 20th Century. Pharmacopoeias began working together in harmony in the early 1990s.
Global Consultancy Model Changes
McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Deloitte interact with the top management including the CEOs of multi-national organisations to formulate the strategy of their business. Indian IT organisations have strived to get into the up stream consultancy business.
Mostly consultants draw up a technology strategy and hand it over to IT services companies for implementation. Clients keep struggling with the strategy and business in a digital environment. Customers and employees expect company apps to work on their smart phones as smoothly as Facebook or Instagram
The global consulting model could be disrupted by a ‘continuous transformation’ approach. Here the consultant drives business strategy as an insider, taking along the organisation. It is inside-out transformation. It takes the organisation with you rather than some one from outside trying to change things. TCS is trying to gain more and more acceptance of this revolutionary continuous transformation, inside-out organic model.
Here the consultant owns the entire cycle from consulting to implementation and managing technologies for clients.
Wipro has acquired Capco, a London based company that offers not just consultancy but also implements it and manages the entire technology chain for banking clients globally.
Education and Private Education
In India, there are 943 universities which fall into four categories — central universities, state universities, private universities and deemed universities. Of the total number of universities, 435 are state universities, 385 are private universities, 46 are central universities and 127 are deemed universities. In addition, there are 23 IITs, 19 IIMs, 31 NITs, 18 IIITs and five ISERs. In Maharashtra, we have one central university, 17 state universities, 18 private universities and 22 deemed universities.
It is expected that 6 per cent of GDP should be spent on education. However, currently education is allotted 3 to 3.5 per cent of GDP. And the amount allotted to higher education is just 0.6 per cent. As a result, there is opportunity for privatisation of education. The then Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri Vasant Dada Patil in 1983 decided to privatise professional education to curtail flow of students from Maharashtra to Karnataka.
After liberalisation in 1991, the Govt. decided to start private universities. Some institutes providing quality education must be given deemed university status. The clause 3 of the University Grants Act stated the same thing. Thus in Maharashtra, Symbiosis, Bharati and D.Y. Patil universities appeared as deemed universities. Even state government passed special legislation to set up private universities. There are 18 such universities in Maharashtra. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are the two states having most private universities.
Drug Regulation in India
India’s regulation of drugs and cosmetics is a parallel set up at the central and state level — we have the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) and State Drugs Control Departments (SDCDs). Such a dual system has its demerits. There is overlapping and there is no uniformity in interpretation and implementation of the Act. Ideally, there should be a single monitoring system.
The CDSCO acts as the Central Licensing Approving Authority for grant or renewal of licenses of blood banks, drug testing labs, vaccines, medical devices, sera, large volume parenterals and new drugs. The inspection is joint inspection. The report is given to the State Licensing Authority. It grants or renews the license. It is forwarded upwards to DCGI for ratification.
There is joint inspection for granting certificates to exporters. The testing samples drawn by central officers are sent to central testing labs and by the state officers to the state testing labs.
Capacity is assessed by joint inspection. CDSCO functions as a co-ordinating authority with states. Prior to granting of licenses in Form 28, 28 A. 28B, 28D or 28DA, there is joint inspection. In a proposed amendment to the Act, it is suggested that license in respect of 17 categories of drugs will be taken up by CDSCO. In respect of other categories of drugs, the powers vest with the state authorities.
There are two wings in the regulatory authorities — enforcement wing and laboratory wing. In enforcement wings, the functionaries are Drugs Controller General (India), Joint Drugs Controller (India), Deputy Drugs Controller (India), Assistant Drugs Controller (India) and Drug Inspector (India). In the lab wing, there is Principal Scientific Officer equivalent to Joint Drugs Controller, Chief Scientific Officer equivalent to Dy. Drugs Controller, Scientific Officer or Government Analyst equivalent to Assistant Drugs Controller and Junior Scientific Officers equivalent to Drug Inspector.
The organisation has five broad functions — enforcement and new drugs, import-export, pharmacovigilance and blood bank, lab and intelligence, HR and admn. medical services each headed by Joint Drugs Controllers. These report to DCGI who in turn reports to the Government. All of these are assisted by deputies and assistants at the middle level. At the bottom of the pyramid, we have drug inspectors and junior scientific officers.
Ideally, the central and state authorities should merge into one drug regulatory system. It will enable effective implementation of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
Wage Code
The government has issued Code on Wages, 2019. It has subsumed four laws — the Minimum Wages Act, the Payment of Bonus Act, the Equal Remuneration Act and the Payment of Wages Act. The Code was introduced in parliament to simplify labour laws and amend them. The idea is to facilitate the ease with which business can be done.
It is to be understood that an employee under the Code in Sect 2 (k) includes managerial and administrative employees. However, the code also defines ‘worker’. In Sec 2 (z), it excludes managerial and administrative staff. The Draft Code has framed rules leading to the conclusion that minimum wages would be fixed for workers who are categorised as skilled, semiskilled and unskilled. There is a category of highly skilled too. A list of jobs has been given which have been put into different skill categories. No mention has been made of managerial and administrative staff. Thus it is obvious that the provisions of fixing minimum wages are not applicable to the category of managerial and administrative staff.
Sect 14 provides for an overtime to an employee who is paid minimum wages by the hour, by the day, or by such a longer wage period as prescribed.
In Schedule E, there is reference to manual and menial nature of work. Thus OT is not paid to managerial and administrative employees under the Code.
Under Section 72 of the Code, wages must be paid to employees within two days from the date of ouster of an employee from the company. There was similar provision under the Factories Act, 1948 and the Payment of Wages Act, 1936. These two have been repealed.
The payment of Bonus Act has a wage limit for Bonus payment. Those who earned up to Rs. 21000 were eligible to receive bonus. The Code has a similar provision.
There is a new definition of wages. It is necessary to consider 50 per cent of gross salary — basic plus DA while ascertaining wages. Sect 2 (Y) of the c
Code defines wages and includes basic plus DA plus retaining allowance. It excludes bonus, conveyance allowance, PF/Pension contribution, special expenses, HRA, remuneration payable under settlement or the order of Tribunal, OT, Commission etc. If the exclusions are more than 50 per cent of gross remuneration, then a percentage of remuneration that is more than 50 per cent will be added to the wages.
The Code provides for coverage of contract labour supplier and a contractor for contract of works.