IILM Notes 4th November 2021
We wish you all a very happy and joy filled Diwali!
Today, the 4th of November marks the 97th Birth Anniversary of our Founder, Dr Kulwant Rai. On this occasion, we repost the 2013 IILM Founders Day special lecture, delivered by Professor G. Venkatraman, former Vice Chancellor of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning.
The subject of his lecture was “Values and Society– Challenges of the Modern Age”. Professor Venkataraman discussed the challenges being faced by a modern society and articulated them through the lenses of nature and physics. Today as we join conversations on environment and sustainability, the theme for Dr Venkatraman’s lecture becomes even more relevant.
Values and Society- Challenges of the Modern Age
Highlights from the function: IILM Founder’s Day Memorial Lecture 2013
COP26
The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference has brought together world leaders and activists from nearly 200 countries to review the progress on climate change. What is COP26, why is it important, and what should we expect? The World Economic Forum looks at the key issues at the Glasgow climate summit where world leaders need to show how we can achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and avert climate catastrophe. COP26: What to expect from the Climate Change SummThe COP26 summit will attempt to complete the rules to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement – which aims to limit global warming to 1.5º C above pre-industrial times – and secure more ambitious commitments from countries to meet its targets. Underpinning progress on both issues is money. Climate finance refers to money that richer nations give to poorer nations to help them cut their own emissions and adapt to the deadly storms, rising seas, and droughts worsened by global warming. So far, the money hasn’t arrived. Why Climate Finance Could Make or Break the COP26 Summit
Climate change and inequality are threatening our very existence. For a better future, business must step up. McKinsey Global Publishing’s Raju Narisetti chats with Paul Polman, the cofounder and chair of IMAGINE and former CEO of Unilever. In Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, Polman and coauthor Andrew Winston, a sustainable-business guru, argue that to deliver the scale of change and transformation the world so desperately needs, companies must become “net positive” by giving more to the world than they take. An edited version of the conversation – Business as a force for good
While many consumer goods companies have made solid gains towards promoting sustainability through such moves as reducing their carbon footprint and water usage, relatively few have made sustainability a major part of their brands. In a survey of senior executives of large consumer goods companies, 100% of participants said they made sustainability a priority and are devoting more time to achieving it, but only 21% of the companies are on track to deliver on their commitments. Sustainable products and services can be challenging to develop and their value isn’t always obvious to customers. Overcoming 3 hurdles to building sustainable products and brands
Biotechnology
As consumers demand more environmentally friendly practices from companies and brands, sustainability has become a buzzword in the food industry. The most common pledges go from reducing food waste, supporting regenerative farming, cutting animal proteins consumption, and more generally reducing carbon emissions. Yet, still too rarely do companies actually take any tangible action on packaging. Why? Well, because it’s very hard. How mushrooms, microorganisms could transform food packaging | World Economic Forum
Health and Family
Climate anxiety is real, and its effects on children’s mental health are devastating. If there was any lingering doubt, it was put to rest by a recent survey of 10,000 young people across 10 countries between the ages of 16 and 25. We have to talk to children about these frightening things that are going on in the world, but we have to find ways to do that that helps them understand what’s going on and not feel alone. How To Talk To Your Kids About Climate Change
Technology
Manufacturing organizations are under pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in response to climate change concerns and stakeholder pressure while also managing other material sustainability issues. Bettina Tratz-Ryan, VP Analyst at Gartner highlights how CIOs can use data to support corporate sustainability strategies. Gartner: How can CIOs use technology to create and accelerate sustainability strategies?
Law
The Supreme Court’s order in the Pegasus case, delivered last Wednesday, is a judicial landmark. This ranks along with important, recent judgements like the 2013 Lalita Kumari case which made the filing of an FIR mandatory when a cognizable office is reported, the 2018 Navtej Singh case which legalised the rights of the LGBTQ community and the 2017 Puttaswamy case which recognised privacy as a fundamental right of a citizen.
Landmark Pegasus Verdict: Acknowledging citizens’ right, warning State over surveillance
In the end…
“If music be the food of love, play on…”
Shakespeare’s plays and poems collectively give voice to an incredibly diverse set of views about music, including views about music’s nature, its historical origins, its effects on living and nonliving things, its moral status, and above all its meaning (or lack of meaning). In large part, this variety of ideas stems from the fact that music itself appears in a wide range of academic fields and cultural contexts in Renaissance Europe. Music was a regular field of study in European schools and universities, where it was typically treated as a mathematical subject—because of the quantifiable nature of harmonic relationships—and grouped with arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. Shakespeare and Music
