WFH IMPERATIVE, NOT PERK

VERY few years, India is ambushed by the same emergency. Crude prices spike. The rupee wobbles. Petrol stations see long lines. Panic spreads.

- CHANDRASEKHAR SRIPADA

VERY few years, India is ambushed by the same emergency. Crude prices spike. The rupee wobbles. Petrol stations see long lines. Panic spreads. Governments scramble—subsidies, price controls, urgent diplomatic calls to Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. And then, when the pressure eases, we return to business as usual and await the next fire. Trying to solve this problem only from the supply side is not a great idea. We need to look at demand. Among the many ways to manage it is reducing fuel consumption for the office commute. The pandemic recently forced the world’s largest social experiment and proved that a significant slice of the workforce could operate productively from home. Despite that evidence and lived experience, we have not converted experience into policy.

Digitally savvy India is uniquely positioned to treat remote work as a national strategy for creating inclusive, enabling employment.