Ganesh Chaturthi

5 Austin South Asian | September 2021 Helping Small Businesses Thrive In Today’s Digital World

Small businesses were hit particularly hard by the pandemic, with nearly 10 million American small businesses closing their doors at least temporarily over the past 15 months.

Despite an uncertain economy, small business owners were resilient, creative and agile, shifting their business models to take advantage of e-commerce, many for the first time.

Before COVID-19, more than one in three small businesses had never reported a digital sale. Today, nearly seven out of eight small businesses are selling goods and services online. For the millions of resilient small businesses still operating, the mass move to online and mobile shopping ushers in a new era of opportunity. At the same time, additional resources will be needed to support them.

“For over a year, small businesses have faced one unimaginable challenge after another,” says Mike Katz, executive vice president, TMobile for Business. “At a time when mobile connectivity and internet access are required to advertise services, sell products and interact with customers, no small business should be without these necessary resources.”

Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi (ISO: Gaṇeśa Chaturthī), also known as Vinayaka Chaturti (Vināyaka Chaturthī), or Vinayaka Chaviti (Vināyaka Chavirtī) is a Hindu festival celebrating the arrival of Ganesh to earth from Kailash Parvat with his mother Goddess Parvati/Gauri.

The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesh clay idols privately in homes and publicly by Shri Bal Gangadhar Tilak popularly known as Lokmanya Tilak in Pune in the year 1893 on elaborate pandals (temporary stages). Observations include chanting of Vedic hymns and Hindu texts such as, prayers and vrata (fasting).

Offerings and prasāda from the daily prayers, that are distributed from the pandal to the community, include sweets such as modaka as it is believed to be a favourite of Lord Ganesh.

The festival ends on the tenth day after start, when the idol is carried in a public procession with music and group chanting, then immersed in a nearby body of water such as a river or sea. In Mumbai alone, around 150,000 statues are immersed annually. Thereafter the clay idol dissolves and Ganesh is believed to return to Mount Kailash to Parvati and Shiva.

The festival celebrates Lord Ganesh as the God of New Beginnings and the Remover of Obstacles as well as the god of wisdom and intelligence and is observed throughout India, especially in the states such as Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu. and by the Hindu diaspora elsewhere such as in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, other parts of the Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa United States, and Europe. In the Gregorian calendar, Ganesh Chaturthi falls between 22 August and 20 September every year.

At public venues, along with the reading of texts and group feasting, athletic and martial arts competitions are also held.

The primary sweet dish during the festival is Modak (modak in Marathi and Konkani, modakam or kudumu in Telugu, modaka or kadubu in Kannada, kozhakatta or modakkam in Malayalam and kozhukattai or modagam in Tamil).

A modak is a dumpling made from rice or wheat flour, stuffed with grated coconut, [jaggery], dried fruits and other condiments and steamed or fried. Another popular sweet dish is the karanji (karjikai in Kannada), similar to modak in composition and taste but in a semicircular shape.

This sweet meal is called Nevri in Goa and is synonymous with Ganesh festival amongst the Goans and the Konkani diaspora.

In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana modak, laddu, vundrallu (steamed, coarsely ground riceflour balls), panakam (a jaggery-, black pepper- and cardamom-flavoured drink), vadapappu (soaked moong lentils) and chalividi (a cooked rice flour and jaggery mixture) are offered to Ganesh.

These offerings are known as naivedya, and a plate of modak traditionally holds 21 pieces of the sweet. In Goa, modak and a Goan version of idli (sanna) is popular.

Panchakajjaya is an offering made to Lord Ganesh during this festival in parts of Karnataka. It is a mixture of desiccated coconut, roasted Bengal gram powder, sugar, ghee, and sesame.

Different versions of panchakajjaya are made. Roasted Bengal gram, green gram, roasted chana dal (putani) or aval can be used. To help fuel the resurgence of small business, T-Mobile is offering the following solutions and benefits, available today:

• New smartphone plans. Staying viable in a mobile-first world requires affordable connectivity. To that end, T-Mobile is offering new smartphone plans purpose-built for business. Every plan includes unlimited talk, text, and data over America’s largest, fastest, and most reliable 5G network, and highspeed mobile hotspot data to power whole teams on-the-go.

• High-speed internet. As bad as broadband access can be for consumers who must deal with high-prices and sparse competition, it’s often actually worse for small businesses. Many business plans from traditional ISPs deliver the same service levels as residential plans, but for often twice the price. Small Business Internet from T-Mobile delivers fast, reliable connectivity without annual contracts or costly surprises, along with tech support from dedicated experts.

• Digital outreach. Today, two-thirds of Facebook users visit a local business page at least once weekly. In a world that packed a decade of digital transformation into the last year, it often takes digital savvy and the ability to reach customers online to succeed.

Through a new program, Facebook Advertising on Us, small businesses can receive up to three one-on-one consultations with a Facebook Marketing Expert, along with educational resources. Plus, every small business on T-Mobile with three or more lines can get $200 in digital advertising to market their company on Facebook and Instagram.

“By pairing fast, reliable internet with digital tools, training and marketing support, we can help small businesses connect with their communities,” says Mark D’Arcy, Facebook vice president of Global Business Marketing.

For additional resources, visit t-mobile.com/ opportunity. To access a growing library of new original content on entrepreneurship, visit t-mobile.com/business/magenta-edge.

Small businesses are critical to the prosperity of local communities and the economy at-large. Thanks to new resources, they’ll be equipped to take advantage of the opportunities that exist in today’s digital world. (StatePoint)