He is restless about addressing poverty and inequality in the socio-economic space ushering-in measures for empowerment of the underprivileged and has been keen to see a process of development evolve across the world – and more so in nations where the teeming millions are barely able to harness their human potentials. He feels each country confronting poverty must invest on priority in ‘Human Capital’ and render them gainfully employed. Employment must be in the organized sector and not a measure of underemployment as we invariably experience mostly in South Asia and Africa. This, in process, enriches the respective nations in place, who stand to gain on taxes and in many indirect ways as it leads into enlarged markets, trade, services & industry, enlarged tax net on economic activity, inter alia. It, in fact, has a multiplier effect. An investment made on a household can be paid back soon once organized sector employment is in place. He vociferously wishes to reach out to policy makers as thus: “It is actually a bad business sense on the part of governments not to invest in human resources. Compassion, per se, is not solicited – even a business oriented initiative is bound to empower, so why not engage? In fact, it assumes a win-win dispensation for all stakeholders!

Gainful employment-generation needs to be a primary initiative coupled with ‘extension of social security’ until such time that empowerment is achieved for each household. There is so much in store with the initiative envisioned as that of putting the unemployed milieu productively on the barren lands, as an example, across the world with resources and technology – not as a sop, but on a business model wherein the investor duly has one’s share of earnings – whether in the form of interest or profits.

Herein, it’s imperative to consider that nations in the developed world invariably have only a marginal GDP growth today and opportunity as fresh investments are very meager, and banks are flush with resources - waiting to employ those gainfully, but what a pity that those who are starving for resources (in the underdeveloped world) have no sight of it! One wonders how and why the developed world does not take cognizance of the fact that by empowering the poor today (who by World Bank estimates count hundreds of millions) they are enriching themselves – first by finding application to their unutilized resources; second, by finding compensation for their technology in agriculture, agro-forestry, mining, industry and other arenas; third, in carving a huge additional market for their industry as the billion-plus arrive into the mainstream of markets, and so on..

There can be a huge economic surge brought to the lives of the impoverished in Africa, South Asia or anywhere for that matter, where ironically, human resources are invariably under-utilized (a poise of joblessness) despite there being huge unutilized land resources.This poise of “opted poverty” is not very difficult to address as otherwise assumed, and there is a huge transformation waiting to happen at the bottom of the pyramid leading towards transformation for the billion-plus milieu who would lead fulfilling lives with human potentials duly met – bidding adieu to hunger and misery, they will emerge as a food bank to the world. Others may work in factories and subsequently in the services domain.For want of education, certainly, the service industry at the initial stage will be a bit of an unachievable milestone for them – but nonetheless, thanks to the hard work they will put in, they will move on to see their children embrace the bounty of the knowledge society - or call it the knowledge economy.

They will become proud participants of the KPO regime raking in fortunes their parents would not have hitherto envisaged, opening up new vistas.What is in store, in fact, is a win-win dispensation. While the poor in these continents will transform their lives remarkably, the developed world will benefit manifold, also. Today, most of the developed countries are registering a static GDP, with almost no year-on-year growth and their industries are starving for markets. Their banks are flush with liquidity as confronted with a poise of “low growth”.Now, once the poor at large transform their economic poise, duly empowered, they come in as a sizable added-market for the developed world that have hitherto not seen the potential at the bottom of the pyramid as articulated by Prof C K Prahlad, the indomitable management wizard.The new-found market comes facile in the hands of the developed nations who will only need to take two primary initiatives in their transformation:

* Synchronizing HR and land resources in the addressed region
* Making some investments along with the job of synchronization (needless to say that the investments duly attract interest, profits et al). In fact, there may not even be a need for them to invest as a sheer guarantee from them would see financial institutions making a beeline here!

There is a poise of restlessness to see transformation of the poor happen. One cannot comprehend how such poverty has been allowed to exist despite all the means and measures available with the developed world to facilitate a change.

Investments made in HR bring in such tremendous returns and it looks absolutely unwise to let status quo remain. The “Pay-Back” period is abysmally low, yet, if governments do not invest in Human Capital, it is a huge pity!”

Shyam is also working on measures to address one of the most critical challenges confronting mankind – as that of “Climate Change”. Herein he has a vision of being able to sequester the colossal tens of billion tons of Co2 every year, and at the same time, address poverty at large (including creating jobs for all the unemployed). What comes as a bonus is a huge spurt to the global economy and environment. The earth stands to be transformed into an absolute green edifice employing the 2500 redundant C130 Hercules aircrafts, each of which can at an average drop 900,000 seeds in a day. His detailed research and analysis on this is likely to be published by January 2021.