Seasonal Magazine - Andhra GIS 2023

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John Antony

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BIG TECH’S BIG THEFT

THE WORLD IS GOING GAGA OVER CHATGPT, THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BASED CHATBOT DEVELOPED BY OPENAI, FOR ITS STUNNING CAPABILITIES. BUT WHAT IS THE REALITY?

There is a word that is almost used as a synonym for ‘innovation’, ever since the startup culture caught on. Yes, it is ‘disruption’ itself, and how it came to be a positive word despite its quite negative meaning is a feat that only Big Tech could manage on this planet.

It is said that angel investors and venture capitalists have made disruption an important yardstick while assessing the ‘innovative potential’ and ‘scalability’ of startups. For a startup idea to click bigtime it should ideally disrupt the lives of the incumbent players and the people they employ. But of course, all for the common good.

Maximum the disruptive potential, maximum will be the scalability. The logic? It is quite simple to understand, and can be explained with two real world examples. Uber has to first disrupt the lives of millions of cab drivers across the world, so that this huge segment will have no option but to enrol for Uber. Or Oyo has to disrupt the lives of lakhs of hotels and lodges, so that they will have no option but to enlist themselves for Oyo. But all for the common good.

In olden days when more commonsense prevailed, people would have cried foul that these are nothing but the forcible creation of monopolies, and invited regulatory action. But it doesn’t happen these days, as seemingly there will be ready competitors too, though in reality there will be only one major competitor emerging - an Ola for an Uber or a Swiggy for a Zomato - which makes them powerful duopolies, but which is enough to keep regulators at bay. Again, all for the common good.

What is this kind of disruption really? It is nothing but violent theft, if not looting by broad daylight. To understand this, you should speak to the millions of cab drivers and small hotel owners who were ‘forcibly’ enrolled by these tech aggregators and later left in the lurch. One silver lining amidst this grim scenario is how more and more restaurant owners are now coming out of the shackles of the food delivery aggregators.

But all these hard facts about these disruptive tech aggregators were mentioned here to just show what poor lambs they are compared with the really Big Tech firms, which have been carrying on a grand theft at a much grander scale for decades now.

Remember the time when hundreds of thousands of text bloggers used to live off advertising programs like AdSense? But then Google introduced the innovation of showing snippets from the web pages in the search result itself, which meant that only if the snippets failed to satisfy a reader, will they need to go to a webpage. And Google continued to strengthen the snippets with more and more features,

like the current almost endless Q&A style, which makes sure that no one will find any need to visit the source web pages. But remember, all for the common good.

Wikipedia is another seemingly harmless operation that has amassed other people’s content and made it their own, even while not paying a dime to the content creators. Of course, you will get a citation to your webpage if you are lucky - as per the whims and fancies of that wiki page’s editor - but which is a citation that delivers poor to no value to the content creator. But can you complain? Of course not, as it is for the common good.

Now, artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT take this kind of content theft to an unprecedented scale. ChatGPT being very efficient at understanding user queries as well as in generating answers in its own words, is leaving no trail even of its large-scale theft! High quality content creators who have painstakingly created complex and knowledge-class content are suddenly at the mercy of this AI beast. But no complaints, as it is all for our common good.

ChatGPT’s cousin in graphics and design, DALL-E, by OpenAI itself, is similarly being flagged by artists and designers across the world, as their works are being taken without permission or credit and made into DALL-E’s intelligent creation.

One may ask that can’t the content creators prevent this from happening? Oh, yes, they can, but for that a content creator will have to ‘opt-out’ of all such programs one by one - from Google, from Wikipedia, from ChatGPT, from the upcoming Google Bard, and another dozen such grand theft AI schemes coming their way. By default we all have been forcibly ‘optedin’ into these services. Big Tech reserves such big rights for themselves. All for our common good.

In case you didn’t know it yet, even before ChatGPT recently launched a professional account that costs a hefty $42 dollar a month per user, they have been valued at $29 billion dollars, which is one of the fastest accelerations in value creation ever in this planet’s history.

It is high time that ‘disruption’ is restored to its correct meaning in the English language. At least that, for our real common, collective good.

John Antony

CONTENTS

ALL ROADS LEAD TO VIZAG NOW

More than 2500 business and diplomatic delegates from the world over are expected for Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy’s dream Global Investors Summit for his beloved Andhra Pradesh. No ambition is too high for the mega AP GIS 2023 as the invitee list includes global biggies like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos & Tim Cook. While their attendance is not highly probable even if a US state is hosting such an event, the very fact that AP had the ambition to invite them shows the scale at which the young and dynamic CM of Andhra Pradesh is acting. At the same time, Jagan Mohan Reddy is never one to inflate the might of the investment proposals expected, and has kept it at a surprisingly low and refreshing Rs. 1.85 lakh crore. While this figure is likely to be.....

THE ANCIENT WISDOM OF STOICISM FOR OVERCOMING MODERN CHALLENGES

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HOW THE JAPANESE ETHOS OF WABI SABI CAN HELP YOU

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WHY UNION BANK IS FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS

The Union Bank stock which had already been on an upswing since July, recently shifted to overdrive after the second quarter results were announced. The recent vertical climb was of course prompted by the overall good numbers recorded by the bank in Q2, but there is also more to it than catches the eye. For instance, under its new MD & CEO A Manimekhalai, who took charge only in June this year, Union Bank has outperformed the entire banking system’s credit growth..

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BANK OF BARODA IS BANKING SECTOR’S SILENT OUTPERFORMER

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HOW TO FIND YOUR LOST KEY, LIKE HOW A NAVY FINDS A LOST SUBMARINE

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GIVE DIGI YATRA A CHANCE

No matter how repugnant a technology might sound at first blush, I must try it out myself before forming a firm opinion

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR CONCENTRATION & ATTENTION?

THE MAGIC OF COMPOUNDING: WHY SMALL STEPS LEAD TO BIG GAINS

Compounding isn’t just useful in finance. It is a principle that applies to all of life. Brad Stulberg researches and writes on sustainable excellence and wellbeing, explains its magical

Is modern life ruining our powers of concentration? Is the ping of a text stealing our focus or do we just lack willpower? And could mindless scrolling ever be good for our brains?

WHY YOU OFTEN NEED TO BE UNHAPPY TO BE SUCCESSFUL

If you make happiness your primary goal, you might miss out on success as well as the challenges that give life meaning. In 2007, a group of researchers began testing a concept that seems, at first blush,

10 PROVEN WAYS TO LEARN FASTER, FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS ALIKE

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ALL ROADS LEAD T

More than 2500 business and diplomatic delegates from the world over are expected for Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy’s dream Global Investors Summit for his beloved Andhra Pradesh. No ambition is too high for the mega AP GIS 2023 as the invitee list includes global biggies like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos & Tim Cook. While their attendance is not highly probable even if a US state is hosting such an event, the very fact that AP had the ambition to invite them shows the scale at which the young and dynamic CM of Andhra Pradesh is acting. At the same time, Jagan Mohan Reddy is never one to inflate the might of the investment proposals expected, and has kept it at a surprisingly low and refreshing Rs. 1.85 lakh crore. While this figure is likely to be surpassed by a huge margin, CM Jagan’s focus for GIS 2023 is sharp and revolves around 13 most promising sectors in the state. And even above that is his plans for Visakhapatnam, the state’s commercial capital that the CM prefers to be the political capital too. Andhra’s plans for Vizag is nothing short of building it up as a world-class metro city that can rival Bengaluru, Chennai or Hyderabad.

Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy has been working round the clock for ensuring the success of the upcoming Andhra Pradesh Global Investors Summit 2023, scheduled for March 3 & 4 at Visakhapatnam. Close on the heels of the highly successful New Delhi roadshow for the event, that CM had personally led, he has unleashed a slew of initiatives for increasing the momentum even more in the run up to the event.

Under the Chief Minister’s direction, the Andhra Pradesh State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) has recently cleared investment proposals worth Rs. 1,44,000 crores in the state. This figure assumes significance as the state’s investment target for the GIS 2023 has been kept at Rs. 1,85,000 crore, and this shows that despite what his detractors say about the economic situation of the state, Andhra Pradesh has no trouble in attracting major investments, whether there is a GIS or not.

However, a Global Investors Summit, especially in the scale that CM Jagan is planning will definitely help much more than routine investments pouring into the state, in many ways. For one, AP GIS 2023 has 13 focus areas that are most promising for Andhra.

These designated focus sectors for GIS 2023 are Aerospace & Defence, Agriculture & Food Processing, Automobile & Electric Vehicles, Electronics & IT, Healthcare & Medical Equipment, Industrial & Logistics Infrastructure, MSME, Startups & Innovation, Petroleum & Petrochemicals, Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences, Renewable Energy, Skill Development & Education, Textiles & Apparel, and Tourism & Hospitality.

While it is customary now for almost all statelevel investment summits to designate such focus sectors, in the case of Andhra Pradesh, the state seems to have done its homework well in this regard. Under CM’s guidance, the state has already made it a point to personally invite the

13 Central Ministers who are handling these crucial growth sectors at Delhi.

Such steps Jagan has taken despite the growing animosity between his ruling YSRCP and BJP. While they were traditional allies, with Jagan enjoying a personal rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi too, in recent months both parties have been at loggerheads over many issues. However, the pragmatist in Jagan knows that such fights are inevitable as BJP tries to carve its own space in the new Andhra which is dominated by traditional rivals YSRCP and Telugu Desam Party.

Jagan is focused and astute enough to do what is best for the state, and has invited PM Modi himself to inaugurate the AP GIS 2023. In another example of not picking up unnecessary fights with Centre and the ruling BJP, Jagan had warmly welcomed the new Andhra Pradesh Governor S Abdul Nazeer, whose appointment had courted some controversy with opposition parties in India crying foul about it, as he was recently serving in the Supreme Court as a judge. Such pragmatic steps help CM Jagan stay focused on the more important issues for Andhra. For instance, while clearing the Rs. 1.44 lakh crore worth of investment proposals in the state recently, the CM had directed officials to ensure that 75% of jobs in those proposed projects are given to local residents.

Such a step is vital for bringing development into every nook and corner of the state, not to speak about the different cities vying to be the capital of the state,

Jagan Mohan Reddy Chief Minister

or for economic prominence, like Amaravati, Vijayawada, Vizag and Kurnool. Under CM Jagan’s guidance, the state is all set to launch a new industrial policy soon, which will walk the tightrope of ensuring ease of business as well as employee welfare.

The host city of AP GIS 2023, Visakhapatnam, is the second largest city on India’s east coast, after Chennai. This has helped Andhra in projecting itself as India’s window to South East Asia, which is a core theme of GIS 2023. All roads will lead to Visakhapatnam during March 3 & 4, as CM Jagan will lead in showcasing the state’s success in attracting high profile investments, and especially its surging rise in the Ease of Doing Business indices.

It is usual for India’s various states to host similar Global Investors Summits, away from their capital cities, and preferably in their economic or financial capitals. Andhra Pradesh too is not toeing a different line, as Visakhapatnam or Vizag as it is affectionately called, is indeed Andhra’s largest city and de facto economic capital, after its erstwhile capital Hyderabad became a part of neighbouring Telangana when it was carved out from Andhra 9 years back.

But this time around, CM Jagan Reddy is doing it with a significant difference. In a recent curtain raiser to the global event, Chief Minister Jagan had also announced that Vizag is also destined to be Andhra Pradesh’s new capital city. This has been widely hailed by most sections of India Inc. as Vizag indeed has several aces up its sleeve, compared with the current capital Amaravati which is really a new city.

Though his plan for a decentralized threecapital-city formula, with Vizag as executive capital, Amaravati as legislative capital and Kurnool as judicial capital has run into rough weather, Jagan has shown much boldness with his recent announcement that Vizag will indeed be Andhra’s new capital.

This kind of decisiveness from the CM breaks the years-long stalemate in the state after losing Hyderabad, and will definitely position Vizag as something similar to Bengaluru which is neighbouring Karnataka’s both political and economic capital. No other city in Karnataka comes anywhere near Bengaluru in prospects,

and this same model can be a huge success in Andhra too if Vizag is made the capital city.

CM Jagan Reddy has also made it clear that the prospects of Vizag will be the chief attraction during the upcoming Global Investors Summit. Vizag has many unique claims to its fame, apart from being Andhra’s largest city and Indian east coast’s second largest. It is the largest city by population too and therefore Andhra’s biggest consumer and labour market.

It is the only city in India with two major ports. Vizag is also the headquarters of India’s Eastern Naval Command which gives it a head up on attracting defence businesses. Major Indian and international business groups including Cadbury India, Kia of Korea, Saint-Gobain, Toray of Japan, Everton Tea India, Apache & Hilltop of Taiwan and several others have come forward recently to applaud Andhra’s edge in ease of doing business.

CM Jagan has also been determined to ensure that the poor performers from among his party rank and file are to be replaced with promising new leaders. A major overhaul of YSRCP is expected anytime now - nicknamed Jagan’s hitlist - that will replace some non-performing

ministers and MLA from the key posts they handle now. For identifying such poor performers, CM is said to be relying on the state’s own intelligence mechanism as well as independent sources like Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC).

With the state scheduled to go for polls next year, the success of GIS 2023 and his administration in general is critical for Jagan to return to power and continue his socio-economic reforms for Andhra. Towards this, he has already indicated that only high performers or the winning horses will be given tickets to contest in the polls, in which rival TDP is expected to put up a stiff fight to come back to power.

Ministers and MLAs are also being assessed also for their participation in the noted program ‘Gadapa Gadapaku Prabhutvam’, which was about spending time in bettering the governance. Also, preference is being given for those party workers who are willing to be ‘Gruha Sarathulu’ or door-to-door campaigners for the party and government.

They will be given special training, and soon after the GIS 2023, YSRCP is all set to launch their poll-bound program, ‘Jagan is Our Future’, which will explain door-to-door how the CM’s initiatives

including the GIS have been delivering big for the state.

CM Jagan Reddy is also launching a new civic grievance platform named ‘Jaganannaku Chebudam’ which stands for ‘Let’s Talk to Jagan’. The CM has already indicated the length to which he is willing to travel for its success when he said that no complainant would be left unhappy at the end of the process.

Every complaint and civic grievance must be resolved within the stipulated deadline, under this initiative. ‘Jaganannaku Chebudam’ is expected to consolidate Jagan’s major wins so far among the public as it is aimed at addressing civic grievances at mandal, divisional and district level. The programme is being designed in such a way that people should feel that their grievances have been resolved as it has reached CM Jagan.

Separate teams for the tracking of complaints, project management, audit and analysis are being appointed to handle the programme. A major innovation that has been brought to the system is ensuring accountability. Under this, field officers cannot merely pass on the matter to senior officials and senior officials cannot keep referring the matter back to field officials. The administration at some point should find a solution to the grievance and close the petition to the satisfaction of the complainant.

Such innovations spring directly from Jagan’s handson and compassionate leadership. The CM was dissatisfied with the current redressal mechanism, Spandana, in which around 50% of cases were not being resolved effectively or in time. In discussions to create the new system, Jagan had exhorted the district collectors to resolve people’s pending issues with a personal touch, good judgement, helpful interpretation of the rules and the right spirit.

Under CM Jagan’s visionary leadership, Andhra has also chalked out an ambitious plan to emerge once again as a powerhouse in the IT sector, where it once had the uniquely successful destination of Hyderabad. Jagan’s new plan for the IT sector is to attract more IT companies into the state during this GIS by projecting and facilitating three new IT industry corridors - Visakhapatnam-Chennai, HyderabadBengaluru, and Bengaluru-Chennai - all of which passes much through the state.

1) The foundation stone of YSR Steel Corporation Ltd has been laid, which will be an enterprise to manufacture high-grade steel products with a capacity of up to 3.3 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA). It will take advantage of its closeness to major auto and industrial hubs, proximity to raw material sources, and connectivity by road, rail, sea, and air. It will drive the region’s growth by providing direct and indirect employment opportunities for over 25,000 people.

2 ) Since steel making is a CO2 emission intensive process, new technologies like Hydrogen are in the process of consideration in the commercial operations in the state. Government will actively support the technology providers to develop and establish the low carbon steel making in the state. Government also is actively pursuing the natural gas pipeline projects of the state, which

will enable the steel industry to adopt the latest technologies and reduce the carbon footprint.

3) Since Andhra Pradesh ranks high in production of grains such as Rice and Maize,the governmentis pushing for the production of ethanol in the state and towards this has identified Ethanol Manufacturing as one of the priority sectors. The Government of Andhra Pradesh intends to provide best-in-class support for ethanol production including an Ethanol

Production Policy and this will provide vast employment to local, women and skilled workers.

4 ) The government of Andhra Pradesh is now placing significant thrust on the adoption of sustainable green measures across industries in the state. Common facilities like Waste water treatment, Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) etc. would be setup in new APIIC Industrial parks.

5) The Andhra government is setting up 26 secondary food processing units, one in each parliamentary constituency, with an investment of Rs.3500 Cr, holding potential to create direct employment to 10,000 people and indirect employment to 23,000 people.

6) The government is developing 9 new fishing harbors in two phases with an outlay of approx. Rs 4,000 Cr of investment. These facilities will benefit 60,000 fishermen directly and will create additional employment of 35,000 from allied activities such as ice plants, cold storages, preprocessing, fish transport, marketing which will be operationalized by 2023-24 in a phased manner.

7) The AP Government is planning to develop Andhra Pradesh into a logistics hub not only for India but

also targeting the entire South Asia, just like how the city-state of Singapore, has emerged as a logistics hub due to its favorable policy structure, use of IT, skilled manpower and standards for logistics and warehousing.

8) Airports are given special thrust inAP and the current developments are greenfield airports

at Bhogapuram Visakhapatnam

model. The Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy Kurnool Airport has already been developed and inaugurated. Also being planned is an Aerotropolis where infrastructure, land use, and economy are centered on an airport and necessary studies at now being undertaken for the Kurnool Airport, to cater to the technical infrastructure

/ Vizianagaram and Dagadharti at Nellore on PPP

needs of the Orvakallu Mega Industrial Hub region.

9) A Dedicated Freight Corridor of 1,080 kms between Vijayawada –Kharagpur section will provide connectivity to Visakhapatnam, Gangavaram, Kakinada, Krishnapatnam and Machilipatnam ports in Andhra Pradesh, ensuring faster movement of goods and capacity enhancement in the oversaturated sections of the railway network. Another 890 rkm (Route Kilometer) North South sub-corridor Vijayawada- Vijayawada-NagpurItarsi (Madhya Pradesh) route.

10) Under CM Jagan, the state has also been ranked as the top state in the country for the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ by the Government of India,

offering a robust industrial infrastructure, first-class connectivity and skilled workforce, making it a globally competitive investment destination.

11 ) A multi-faceted business enablement centre, christened as “YSR AP One” is being developed which will be a one stop shop offering business/ and investor support services.

12) Unlike under earlier regimes, the Jagan government has organized an unprecedented number of industrial interactions, that include over 200+ CEO, Embassy, and Inbound delegation interactions, 50+ Sector-specific roadshows and 15 Ministerial-led national and international investment roadshows since 2019-20, including a highly

successful one in Dubai during Dubai Expo 2020.

13) Exports are faring well under the Jagan government, with total exports from Andhra Pradesh in 2021-22 being Rs. 1,57,398 Cr ($ 19 Bn USD) with a growth rate of 13% CAGR during the last three years. The major exports from the State are Drugs & Pharmaceuticals, Marine products, Agriculture produce, and Agro- based products, Handicrafts, and Engineering products.

14) AP’s new industrial policy by the Jagan government is a major pull towards the state. The core theme of the industrial policy of Andhra Pradesh is to provide support to industries across the business value chain – from approvals to setup & going beyond setup, supporting operations & scaling up. We would like to mention some salient features of the policy :

15) AP’s MSME ReStart Package has been a big breakthrough in the sector with its release of industrial incentives for revival. This was done factoring the hardships faced by the MSMEs during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Rs 962.42 Crore ‘ReSTART’ Package in May 2020 had helped about 8,000 MSMEs to restart their operations.

IT CAN SOMETIMES FEEL AS THOUGH WE LIVE IN UNIQUELY DIFFICULT TIMES. ZENO OF CITIUM DEVELOPED STOICISM TO TEACH HOW TO FACE SUCH CHALLENGES. LATER STOIC PHILOSOPHERS OFFERED PERTINENT ADVICE ON HOW TO ADJUST OUR PERCEPTION AROUND STRUGGLES AND LIVE A FULFILLING LIFE.

Wars, disease, economic upheavals, and political strife dominate news headlines. Traditions, once the terra firma of our lives, have split along cultural fault lines and are shifting widely. And the lessons imparted to us by our parents seem completely out of touch with the challenges we face daily. In short, there seems to be much cause for sadness, despondence, and being overwhelmed by life.

We are not special in this regard, though. Our modern circumstances may be idiomatic — Plato worried over the harms of pervasive poetry; not social media would have thrown him for a loop — but strife and struggle have been universals of human history. Every generation has had to endure both to various degrees.

Amid those struggles, our ancestors developed and refined a variety of traditions to help them persevere, and we can draw on those traditions to give us a leg up in facing our contemporary challenges. These traditions include the religious doctrine of Buddhism from India, the philosophy of Chinese Taoism, the humanism of the European Enlightenment, and the topic of today’s article, the Stoicism of Hellenistic Greece.

Zeno of Citium founded Stoicism in the 3rd century BC. He lived in Athens and lectured in the open market at a place called the stoa poikile — literally “painted porch” and Stoicism’s namesake. That’s important for understanding Zeno’s philosophy because this period of history represented a time of profound change and unrest.

In 323 BC, Alexander the Great died without an obvious heir, leaving his kingdom to be fought over and subsequently carved up by his generals. As a result, the Greek poleis became subsumed by larger political entities run by professional bureaucrats. Where once Greek freemen operated in democratic city-states, they were now entangled in large, more impersonal empires.

In the words of Chloè Valdary, founder of Theory of Enchantment, it was an era of “existential homelessness,” and many

Greeks found themselves saddled with traditions and a worldview that no longer matched the social and political disorder surrounding them.

Within that existential despair, Stoicism developed as a unified philosophy that sought to understand the essence of knowledge and the natural order of the cosmos. From that pursuit, the Stoics derived an ethic that, in the words of philosopher Simon Blackburn, focused on self-sufficiency, benevolent calm, and a near-indifference to pain, poverty, and death. This would in turn lead to happiness (in the eudaimonic sense of the word).

As Stoicism moved from the Hellenistic period into the Roman world, its ethics took center stage, becoming the reason

for the philosophy. It centered on how the practice of virtue could be applied to everyday living through sound judgment, proper character, and the rejection of vice. It does this by considering where we should and shouldn’t place our efforts. Today, that emphasis on engaging with everyday life has seen Stoicism revived as a kind of practical philosophy. It draws strongly from Stoicism’s later Roman practitioners and is often used in tandem with other strategies for coping and emotional regulation.

As such, you can use the quotes below without having to dust off earlier Stoic concepts like the phantasia kataleptikç or the logos spermatikos. (So no worries if you haven’t brushed up on your ancient Greek.)

“Things do not touch the soul, for they are external and remain immovable.”Marcus

Aurelius.

As Valdary noted in an interview: “Stoicism is all about getting us in [the] right relationship with the things that we can control and we can’t control.”

For example, Zeno’s Greek contemporaries couldn’t control Alexander the Great’s death or the ensuing social upheaval. Such things, as Aurelius put it, should be considered external and immovable. They do not touch a person’s soul because where someone lacks control, they also lack responsibility.

By worrying needlessly over what we aren’t responsible for, we distract

ourselves from the things we can control. And if we can’t control such events, then why should they cause us undue suffering? If we aren’t responsible for something, why should it affect our happiness and fulfillment?

In the same section of Meditations (Book IV), Aurelius also warns that the world is always changing, and we can’t stop that from happening. We can only influence how we think and react to that change. As he writes, “The universe is transformation: life is opinion.”

“For as wood is the material of the carpenter, bronze that of the statuary, just so each man’s own life is the subject-matter of the art of living.” –Epictetus.

Now, Aurelius doesn’t mean we should live lives as moral recluses in total passivity. Far from it. We can (and should) strive to enrich our lives and the world in virtuous ways. The Stoics did this themselves when they taught their philosophy.

However, we need to understand where our control lies, and that responsibility is primarily with ourselves. Just as a carpenter shapes wood, Epictetus writes, so too are we responsible for the art of living. That art includes how we respond to our thoughts, our emotions, and the world outside of us.

In particular, this quote comes from a moment in The Discourses where Epictetus is consulting a man whose brother is upset with him. Like a true Stoic, Epictetus’s advice is for the man to tend to his emotional state and act according to his governing principles.

As for the brother: “Bring him to me, and I will talk to him,” Epictetus said, “but I have nothing to say to you on the subject of his anger.”

“We suffer more often in the imagination than in reality.” – Seneca

When our minds are filled with those “external” and “immovable” qualities of life, we often catastrophize more than is appropriate.

We exaggerate how bad a sickness is by doom-scrolling through Google results before visiting the doctor. We pronounce that the world is going to hell

whenever an election doesn’t swing our party’s way. And we anticipate that a difficult conversation will be the end of our friendship. None of which, according to Seneca, is helpful in the least.

In Letters of a Stoic (Epistle XIII), the Stoic philosopher advises his interlocutor, Lucilius, that such catastrophizing does no good. It only makes us unhappy before the crisis, assuming the crisis comes at all. Instead, we should reign in our mind’s calamitous predictions and handle what’s before us with the proper care and attention.

Aurelius backs up Seneca on this point. As he notes in The Meditations (Book II), “Those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must, of necessity, be unhappy.”

Neither Seneca nor Aurelius are saying you’ll never feel pain, sorry, stress, anger, or a host of other unwelcome emotions. Outside events, as well as our internal struggles, will still give rise to these feelings naturally. They are part of the materials of the art of living, too. Rather, they teach us to not let our emotions grow strong enough to overwhelm us or blind us to reason. Better to understand the source of the emotion and treat it with the proper care than to continue suffering in the mind.

“What do you think that Hercules would have been if there had not been such a lion, and hydra, and stag, and boar, and certain unjust and bestial men, whom Hercules used to drive away and clear out?” - Epictetus.

Epictetus teaches that while difficult times are often, well, difficult, they can also be a means toward growth and selfimprovement. In The Discourses (Book I), he exemplifies this in the example of Hercules. Had Hercules not undergone his 12 labors, Epictetus contends, he would not have become the legendary Hercules. He would have wallowed his life away dreaming instead.

One can say the same of the Greeks during the Hellenistic period. While it was a time of immense social and political tumult, it was also a cultural renaissance that birthed new ways of thinking and expression.

New forms of art, music, and literature emerged. Science and invention reached new heights under thinkers such as Euclid and Archimedes. And alongside Stoicism, the era gave birth to the philosophies of Epicureanism and Neoplatonism as well.

Modern science backs up Epictetus’s claim. According to Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at Yale University, research shows that the most meaningful jobs aren’t the most luxurious, highest paying, or those of the highest status. Instead, they are jobs that involve struggle and difficulty, such as being an education or medical professional.

“I think that the way people think about a meaningful life is that it requires some degree of suffering,” Bloom said in an interview. “That suffering could be physical pain. It could be difficult; it could be worrying. It could be the possibility of failure. But stripped of that, the experience isn’t meaningful. We need pain and suffering to have rich and happy lives.”

With that said, Bloom and Epictetus both put caveats on this dictum. Epictetus warns that a person shouldn’t go searching for lions and hydras simply to introduce suffering to their lives. Similarly, Bloom distinguishes between

“chosen suffering” (such as exercise) and “unchosen suffering” (such as chronic pain from disease).

But we shouldn’t turn away from suffering simply because it’s difficult, painful, or includes the possibility of failure as many of life’s great achievements can be found within that struggle.

“The first thing which philosophy undertakes to give is fellow-feeling with all men; in other words, sympathy and sociability.” – Seneca

So far, we’ve looked at how the Stoics taught individuals to approach difficult times. That may make it seem as though Stoicism is some kind of proto-libertarian philosophy. Just take care of yourself and let the rest of the world take care of itself.

That characterization, while common, is also misleading. As this quote from Seneca’s letters (Epistle V) makes clear, Stoicism advises us to be there for others, and the way we can do that is through sympathy and companionship.

Consider friendship. In Epistle IX, Seneca writes: “For what purpose, then, do I make a man my friend? In order to have someone for whom I may die, whom I may follow into exile, against whose

death I may stake my own life, and pay the pledge, too.”

For Seneca, a friend isn’t someone who can come to the rescue and solve your problems for you. Like Epictetus with his angry brothers, Seneca can’t save his friend from exile or death. He can’t change a friend’s mind or live his life for him. Nor would Seneca expect a friend to take responsibility for his problems or emotions either.

Instead, a friend is someone whom we experience the shared experiences of life with. They can make the good times better, but they also stand by us during life’s struggles. They can listen to our ideas and point out our blind spots. Their compassion can help us cope with life’s losses.

In other words, simply through sympathy and companionship, a friend becomes a source of immense strength that helps us along our individual paths. And that can be true of any relationship. “Compassion is about learning how to be with ourselves and our fellow humans in their suffering,” Valdery said. “Stoicism is as much about having compassion for others as selfcompassion on our individual journeys toward fulfillment and happiness.”

(Credit: Kevin Dickinson for Big Think)

he Union Budget for 2023-24, presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament saw a significant increase in the amount of public funds set aside for capital expenditure.

As Ms Sitharaman pointed out, this was the third successive Budget with a major scale-up in government capital expenditure. Of the Rs 10 trillion set aside for this, more than half will go to the transport sector. And around half of that — about Rs 2.4 trillion — will go to the Indian Railways in particular, taking its capital expenditure to Rs 2.6 trillion for the year. The government is to be commended for its sustained emphasis on infrastructure spending in its Budgets and by correctly identifying the problem of underinvestment that has plagued many of India’s core infrastructure sectors, especially transport.

The Indian Railways, the workhorse of connectivity in the country and the backbone of its industrial economy, has been a particular target for underinvestment and thus it is excellent

news that this trend has reversed. There are multiple ways in which this money could be used within the railways. The Budget numbers indicate, for example, that Rs 30,000 crore has been set aside for the doubling of tracks, and that was less than Rs 9,000 crore in 2021-22. Further, Rs 32,000 crore is to be spent on new tracks, and that is about a 50 per cent increase from two years ago. Almost Rs 40,000 crore is to go into rolling stock, which received just Rs 8,000 crore in last year’s Budget. And Rs 8,000 crore has been earmarked specifically for electrification.

These are big numbers, and reasonable questions can be asked about the railways’ absorption and implementation capacity over the next year for this expanded capital budget. There are, however, even longer-term questions that must be asked. While capital investment in the railways is overdue, it must be accompanied with a plan that makes such ongoing capex financially sustainable. This cannot be a one-time effort, but equally this level of support from the Union Budget cannot always be expected, given that the government will need to consolidate its overall fiscal position in the coming years. Therefore,

work must begin now on understanding how to make the railways earn enough to generate meaningful surpluses to invest in its own improvements. This will require tariff reform, and the end to the massive cross-subsidisation through freight costs of passenger travel. The latter must, in effect, be made sustainable if not profitable in order to ensure that any returns from freight service can be ploughed back into system management and improvements.

Naturally this will not easily happen under the current system of management. Therefore, alongside financial reform, administrative reform and greater independence from political control must also be a priority. The government’s focus on infrastructure and the railways in particular is valuable and should be welcomed, but it cannot stop merely at budgetary allocation. Reforming processes and creating independent centres of power that have the ability and authority to set tariffs are a necessary additional step if the current vast investment in the network is to pay off over time and not be wasted.

DECODING THE HYPE ABOUT AI AND CHATGPT

JULIA ANGWIN.

The clever AI chat program has captured the imagination of the public for its ability to generate poems and essays instantaneously, its ability to mimic different writing styles, and its ability to pass some law and business school exams.

Teachers are worried students will use it to cheat in class (New York City public schools have already banned it). Writers are worried it will take their jobs (BuzzFeed and CNET have already started using AI to create content). The Atlantic declared that it could “destabilize white-collar work.” Venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky called it a “pocket nuclear bomb” and chastised its makers for launching it on an unprepared society. Even the CEO of the company that makes ChatGPT, Sam Altman, has been telling the media that the worst-case scenario for AI could mean “lights out for all of us.”

But others say the hype is overblown. Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, told reporters ChatGPT was “nothing revolutionary.” University of Washington computational linguistics professor Emily Bender warns that “the idea of an all-knowing computer program comes from science fiction and should stay there.”

So, how worried should we be? For an informed perspective, I turned to Princeton computer science professor Arvind Narayanan, who is currently cowriting a book on “AI snake oil.” In 2019, Narayanan gave a talk at MIT called “How to recognize AI snake oil” that laid out a taxonomy of AI from legitimate to dubious. To his surprise, his obscure academic talk went viral, and his slide deck was downloaded tens of thousands of times; his accompanying tweets were viewed more than two million times.

Narayanan then teamed up with one of his students, Sayash Kapoor, to expand the AI taxonomy into a book. Last year, the pair released a list of 18 common pitfalls committed by journalists covering AI. (Near the top of the list: illustrating AI articles with cute robot pictures. The reason: anthropomorphizing AI incorrectly implies that it has the potential to act as an agent in the real world.)

A CONVERSATION WITH ARVIND NARAYANAN BY

IF YOU HAVE BEEN READING ALL THE HYPE ABOUT THE LATEST ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CHATBOT, CHATGPT, YOU MIGHT BE EXCUSED FOR THINKING THAT THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH.

Narayanan is also a co-author of a textbook on fairness and machine learning and led the Princeton Web Transparency and Accountability Project to uncover how companies collect and use personal information. He is a recipient of the White House’s Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Our conversation, edited for brevity and clarity, is below.

Angwin: You have called Angwin: You have called Angwin: You have called Angwin: You have called Angwin: You have called ChatGPT a “bullshit generator.” ChatGPT a “bullshit generator.” ChatGPT a “bullshit generator.” ChatGPT a “bullshit generator.” ChatGPT a “bullshit generator.” Can you explain what you mean? Can you explain what you mean? Can you explain what you mean? Can you explain what you mean?

Narayanan: Sayash Kapoor and I call it a bullshit generator, as have others as well. We mean this not in a normative sense but in a relatively precise sense. We mean that it is trained to produce plausible text. It is very good at being persuasive, but it’s not trained to produce true statements. It often produces true statements as a side effect of being plausible and persuasive, but that is not the goal.

This actually matches what the philosopher Harry Frankfurt has called bullshit, which is speech that is intended to persuade without regard for the truth. A human bullshitter doesn’t care if what they’re saying is true or not; they have certain ends in mind. As long as they persuade, those ends are met. Effectively, that is what ChatGPT is doing. It is trying to be persuasive, and it has no way to know for sure whether the statements it makes are true or not.

Angwin: What are you most Angwin: What are Angwin: What are you most Angwin: What are Angwin: worried about with ChatGPT? worried about with ChatGPT? worried about with ChatGPT? worried about with ChatGPT? ChatGPT?

Narayanan: There are very clear, dangerous cases of misinformation we need to be worried about. For example,

people using it as a learning tool and accidentally learning wrong information, or students writing essays using ChatGPT when they’re assigned homework. I learned recently that CNET has been, for several months now, using these generative AI tools to write articles. Even though they claimed that the human editors had rigorously factchecked them, it turns out that’s not been the case. CNET has been publishing articles written by AI without proper disclosure, as many as 75 articles, and some turned out to have errors that a human writer would most likely not have made. This was not a case of malice, but this is the kind of

danger that we should be more worried about where people are turning to it because of the practical constraints they face. When you combine that with the fact that the tool doesn’t have a good notion of truth, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Angwin: You have developed a have developed a Angwin: You have developed a have developed a a taxonomy of AI where you of AI where you AI describe different types of different types of describe different types of different types of technologies that all fall under that technologies that all fall under that this umbrella of AI. Can you tell this of AI. Can you tell this umbrella of AI. Can you tell this of AI. Can you tell this umbrella of AI. Can you tell us where ChatGPT fits into this where ChatGPT fits into us where ChatGPT fits into this where ChatGPT fits into us where ChatGPT fits into this taxonomy? taxonomy?

Narayanan: ChatGPT is part of the generative AI category. Technologically, it’s pretty similar to text-to-image models, like DALL-E [which creates images based on text instructions from a user]. They are related to AI that’s used for perception tasks. This type of AI uses what’s called deep learning models. About a decade ago, computer vision technologies started to get good at distinguishing between a cat and a dog, something people can do very easily.

What’s been different in the last five years is that, because of a new technology called transformers and other related technologies, computers have gotten good at reversing the perception task of identifying a cat or dog. This means that,

given text prompts, they can actually generate a plausible image of a cat or a dog or even fanciful things like an astronaut riding a horse. The same thing is happening with text: Not only are models taking a piece of text and classifying it, but given a prompt, these models can essentially run classification in reverse and produce plausible text that might fit into the category given.

Angwin: Another category of AI Angwin: category of AI Angwin: Another category of AI Angwin: category of AI Angwin: Another category of AI you discuss is automating you discuss automating you discuss is automating you discuss automating you discuss is automating judgment. Can you tell us what judgment. Can tell us judgment. Can you tell us what judgment. Can tell us judgment. us this includes? this includes? this includes? this includes?

Narayanan: I think the best example of automating judgment is content moderation on social media. It is clearly imperfect; there have been so many notable failures of content moderation, many with deadly consequences. Social media has been used to incite violence, even perhaps genocidal violence in many parts of the world, including in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Ethiopia. These were all failures of content moderation, including content moderation AI.

However things are improving. It is possible, at least to some degree, to take the work of human content moderators and train models to make those judgments about whether an image represents nudity or hate speech. There will always be inherent limitations, but content moderation is a dreadful job. It’s a job that’s filled with the trauma of looking at images of gore and

beheadings and all kinds of horrible things day in and day out. If AI can minimize the human labor, that’s a good thing.

I think there are certain aspects of the content moderation process that should not be automated. Deciding the line between acceptable and unacceptable speech is time-consuming. It’s messy. It needs to involve input from civil society. It’s constantly shifting and culturespecific. And it needs to be done for every possible type of speech. Because of all that, AI has no role here.

Angwin: Another category of AI category AI Angwin: Another category of AI category AI that you describe is one that aims that you describe is that to predict social outcomes. You to predict social outcomes. social are skeptical of this type of AI. are skeptical this type of AI. Why? Why?

Narayanan: This is the kind of AI where decision-makers predict what someone might do in the future and use that to make decisions about them, often to preclude certain paths. It’s used in hiring, it’s famously used in criminal-risk prediction. It’s also used in contexts where the intent is to help someone. For example, this person is at risk of dropping out of college; let’s intervene and suggest that they switch to a different major. What all of these have in common is statistical predictions based on rough patterns and correlations in the data about what a person might do. These predictions are then used to some degree to make decisions about them, and in many cases, deny them certain opportunities, limit their autonomy, and

take away the opportunity for them to prove themselves and show they’re not defined by statistical patterns. There are many fundamental reasons why we might want to consider most of these AI applications to be illegitimate and morally impermissible.

When an intervention is made based on a prediction, we need to ask, “Is that the best decision we can make? Or is the best decision one that doesn’t correspond to a prediction at all?” For instance, in the criminal-risk prediction scenario, the decision that we make based on predictions is to deny bail or parole, but if we move out of the predictive setting, we might ask, “What is the best way to rehabilitate this person into society and decrease the chance that they will commit another crime?” It opens up the possibility of a much wider set of interventions.

Angwin: Some people are Angwin: Some are Angwin: Some people are Angwin: Some are are warning of a ChatGPT warning of a ChatGPT warning of a ChatGPT warning of a ChatGPT “doomsday,” with lost jobs and jobs and the devaluing of knowledge. of knowledge. knowledge. What is your take? What your take? your

Narayanan: Assume that some of the wildest predictions about ChatGPT are true and it will automate entire job categories. By way of analogy, think about the most profound information technology developments of the last few decades, like the internet and smartphones. They have reshaped entire industries, but we’ve learned to live with them. Some jobs have gotten more efficient. Some jobs have been automated, so people have retrained themselves, or shifted careers. There are some harmful effects of these technologies, but we’re learning to regulate them.

Even with something as profound as the internet or search engines or smartphones, it’s turned out to be an adaptation, where we maximize the benefits and try to minimize the risks, rather than some kind of revolution. I don’t think large language models are even on that scale. There can potentially be massive shifts, benefits, and risks in many industries, but I cannot see a scenario where this is a “sky is falling” kind of issue.

(Credit: The MarkUp)

By Rahul Mattan

GIVE DIGI YATRA A CHANCE

NO MATTER HOW REPUGNANT A TECHNOLOGY

I strongly believe that no matter how repugnant a technology might sound at first blush, I must try it out myself before forming a firm opinion. When I don’t, I find that my implicit biases colour my judgment, sometimes to the point where I assume the worst before giving it a chance. As a commentator on the impact of technology on society, I can hardly express an opinion without experiencing it first hand.

It was in that spirit of experimentation that I signed up to Digi Yatra, the government’s new biometric access system for air travel, despite protestations from every privacy bone in my body over the risk of handing over facial data. I had to make a day trip to Delhi for a conference, and, given the horror stories about the interminable queues at Terminal 3, I was hoping that Digi Yatra would improve the odds of my making the return flight on time.

Onboarding was relatively easy, although it takes a bit of effort to set up the Digi Yatra app. You need to first allow the application to take a photograph of you, using your phone’s selfie camera. This is the image that will identify you at the airport, so try and make sure it is clear and well lit. Once you have done this, you need to add your identity information to Digi Yatra. If, like me, you already have the DigiLocker app installed on your phone with your Aadhaar details updated, all you need to do is connect Digi Yatra to your DigiLocker app and authorize it transfer your Aadhaar information. From start to finish, it took me all of 5 minutes to complete this initial set-up process. And since this is a one-time set-up process, I will never have to bother with it again. Now all you need to do just before you travel, is share the specific details of your

flight with the airport so that it can identify you when you show up. To do this, you first add information about your flight to a digital wallet on the app. This is easy enough, as the Digi Yatra app can scan the QR code of your boarding pass and automatically extract the relevant flight information that needs to be stored in the wallet. You can do this up to 24 hours in advance, but no later than 2 hours before your flight is scheduled to depart; you have to share the information in your

Digi Yatra wallet with the airport so that your face biometrics and associated travel information is uploaded onto the airport’s Biometric Boarding Processing System (BBPS).

Much of the opposition to Digi Yatra has been on privacy grounds. Civil society activists are concerned about the use of facial recognition technology and the fact that if we allow our photograph to be uploaded onto Digi Yatra servers, it will inevitably be used to track us wherever we go.

This fear is misplaced for two reasons. In the first place, if it is government access to your photograph that you are worried about, I am sorry to break this to you, but that ship has already sailed. For the

MIGHT SOUND AT FIRST BLUSH, I MUST TRY IT OUT MYSELF BEFORE FORMING A FIRM OPINION

100 million of us who have passports and the 1.35 billion of us have who have Aadhaar cards, our photograph is already with the government in one database or another. It is not clear how Digi Yatra is going to make this situation any worse.

But perhaps most importantly, Digi Yatra has been designed to keep your personal data on your device as far as possible. This includes, most importantly for the purposes of this discussion, the photograph you took when you first set the app up. That photo is never shared as is. Instead, it is first converted into a digital template that extracts a set of unique data points and stores it in a specified format. These data points are what is used to identify whether the person in front of the onsite scanner is you or not. It is impossible to use this data to generate a photograph of you and so the fact that it is being shared has very little privacy significance.

This is all that is transferred to the airport BBPS when you share your travel information, and it is against this biometric template that the airport identifies you as you pass through its various checkpoints. And then, 24 hours after your flight departs, all this data is purged from the airport systems. This is privacy by design. At every stage, the app makes every effort to use

only as much information as is necessary to achieve its stated purpose, and no more. And once that purpose is served, all the data is deleted. The only place where it remains is on your device, which is under your control. You can, if you choose, simply delete the app and all the data that it has collected.

As it happened, the conference I was supposed to be speaking at was running late even before I arrived. When our turn came to speak, the audience must have really enjoyed what we had to say because there were more questions than anyone could have anticipated. By the time I left the venue and got into my cab, I knew that there was every likelihood that I was going to miss my flight. Not only did I have the dreaded T3 queues to get past, now I also had to contend with New Delhi’s utterly unpredictable mid-evening traffic snarls.

Despite the best efforts of Baljeet, my taxi driver, by the time I got to Delhi airport, I had just 40 minutes left to make it to the boarding gate. I took one look at the long queues at the entrance and knew that if, for any reason my Digi Yatra didn’t work in this instance, there was no way I would make my flight. I took a deep breath and scanned my boarding pass and looked at the camera, till it snapped a picture and turned green. I was through.

Ten minutes later, I was in my seat on the aircraft.

APPLE STARTS FIRING HUNDREDS OF THIRD-PARTY CONTRACTORS: REPORT

Apple, which has been the only major technology firm to avoid the recent wave of mass layoffs, has reportedly started firing hundreds of third-party contractors. "Instead of waiting for contracts that are typically renewed every 12 to 15 months to expire, Apple is firing contractors outright," New York Post reported. The move has been reportedly implemented to cut costs.

VERY LONG CHAT SESSIONS CAN CONFUSE BING'S AI MODEL: MICROSOFT

Microsoft has said that "very long chat sessions" on AI-powered Bing search engine "can confuse" the AI model. "In long...chat sessions of 15 or more questions, Bing can become repetitive or be prompted/provoked to give responses that aren't necessarily helpful," Microsoft said. "We may...add a tool so [users] can more easily refresh the context" of a chat session, it added.

GOOGLE CEO ASKS STAFF TO SPEND 2-4 HRS/DAY TESTING CHATBOT: REPORT

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has reportedly asked employees to spend two to four hours every day helping test the company's AI chatbot 'Bard'. As per Business Insider, Google already has thousands of external and internal testers using Bard and submitting feedback regarding the quality of its responses. This comes after Bard provided an incorrect response during its unveiling last week.

By K P Krishnan

G20 & RULES-BASED ORDER

THE PRESIDENCY OF G20 SHOULD BE USED BY INDIA TO ARGUE FOR GLOBALISATION AND A RULES-BASED GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

A major problem that is now roiling the global economy is the rising levels of protectionism and industrial policy. India has been a great beneficiary of globalisation, but has (so far) taken a back seat, with the leadership role on these issues provided by advanced economies. When advanced economies are not working for globalisation like they used to, there is an important possibility for India to play a leadership role, through all levers of state power, including the G20.

While the Indian state has often dragged its feet on international integration, a careful examination of the progress in the post-1991 period shows the immense importance of globalisation. The Indian economy is now undergirded by gigantic resource flows, of the order of nearly $1 trillion each on the capital and current accounts per year.

Consider the IT industry. IT is now the

biggest industry in India. It was made possible by foreign technology, foreign companies building captive operations in India, Indian companies receiving foreign equity capital, and of course Indian companies getting foreign customers. Every part of the journey of India’s most important industry was made through intense engagement with the world. Indeed, the journey to success in IT for India was all about removing barriers to engagement with the world. These facts show India’s interest in globalisation. Indian interests are fostered by a more open world order, in which global companies are freer to make foreign direct investments (FDI) into India, where foreign capital more readily flows into India, and where foreign customers are comfortable giving critical technology tasks to Indian companies. As an example, the upsurge of “data nationalism” all over the world, where governments try to block off foreigners

from operating in the local IT sector, is both a zero-sum game and against India’s interests.

Many features of the world economy are now running in the opposite direction. The US has passed the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science (CHIPS) Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which will provide hundreds of billions of dollars to domestic semiconductor, energy and battery industries. The Economist quotes the UN, which finds that more than 100 countries, accounting for over 90 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), have initiated “industrial policy” measures, and also investment screening and export controls as strategic measures aimed at political rivals.

India has also done similar things. The production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme was launched by the Government of India in 2020 to help make India a manufacturing and export

hub. Eligible participants receive incentives (4-6 per cent of production value) for five years, conditional on annual investment and production value targets. This is a costly path for India, given the extreme shortage of fiscal resources for the core state functions of building public goods like security, judiciary as also redistributive programmes aiming at the most vulnerable.

Technology policy in India has drifted into data nationalism, and initiatives, such as Unified Payments Interface, were built by blocking foreign companies from competing in Indian payments. It is in India’s interest if a country like, say, Brazil will have a free and open world where Indian IT firms are first class participants, as opposed to policy frameworks in Brazil that favour data nationalism, which engage in “data is crude oil” analogies.

This calls for strategic thinking on the questions of globalisation and industrial policy. For decades, India gained from globalisation even though the Indian government engaged in solidarity with the third world, and tried to impede the process of globalisation. The revolution in the Indian economy from 1991 onwards could not have been possible without the world of globalisation that

was largely built by the West. The single big number that should play on our mind is the total proceeds from goods and services exports in India, which now stands at a full trillion dollars per year. Globalisation has served India well. The political environment in the world around globalisation has changed. The advanced economies are less inclined than before, to expend political capital in favour of globalisation. And, India’s clout has gone up. Now it is time for the Indian state to understand the best interests of the people of India, and pick up this mantle. Critics could argue that the West is engaging in industrial policy and protectionism as a consequence of China and Russia breaking international rules. The shape of this “third globalisation” could perhaps be full globalisation between democracies and caution when dealing with undemocratic countries. Global security considerations would need to be accommodated in this new form of globalisation.

The G20 was founded in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis as a forum for the finance ministers and central bank governors to discuss global economic and financial issues. It was upgraded to the level of heads of state/government in the wake of the global financial crisis of

2008. These 20 countries add up to twothirds of the world population, threefourths of global trade, and almost 85 per cent of global GDP. The G20 has soft power in shaping global thinking on the optimal behaviour of governments and groupings of governments. During the Indian G20 presidency, the Indian government has an enhanced role in shaping the agenda and outcomes of G20.

Our prime minister is an important voice in the world today. He has publicly stated often that serious reforms and change happen not because of government actions alone but when these ideas become people movements, “jan-aandholans” in his words. In line with this thinking, the government has constituted 11 G20 engagement groups in important sectors with state government, private sector, academia and civil society representatives. So the machinery required to convert these ideas into mass movements is in place.

This is the time for India the Vishwa Guru to show the world the path. Guru in its original Sanskrit phrase means more than just a teacher. It means an exemplar in life, an inspirational source. It is time for the Guru to remind the world of the way forward, and walk the talk.

MADHYA PRADESH TO FASTTRACK GIS 2023 INVESTMENT PROPOSALS

With the Global Investors Summit 2023 proving to be a major success by way of global participation and solid investment proposals, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is leading the Madhya Pradesh Government from the frontline in facilitating the implementation of the various investment proposals that were signed during the summit and in the runup to it. The immediate objective that CM Chouhan has set before the state is to leverage the Rs. 15.50 lakh crore investments signed up during GIS 2023 to transform MP into a 550 billion economy by 2026.

he two-day MP GIS 2023 event that was held in Indore during January 11 & 12 witnessed truly global participation with representatives and business leaders from 84 countries attending it. As many as 10 nations were official partner countries for the event, including Japan, Canada, Neitherland, Guyana, Mauritius, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Surinam, Panama & Fiji.

Top ranking participants in MP GIS 2023 included Presidents of two countries, and Ambassadors, Consulate Generals & Deputy Chiefs of Mission of 35 countries. On the business side, around 450 international business delegates including CXO level corporate leaders and around 400 global buyers & sellers participated in the event.

Heavy participation was witnessed from various geographies, including European Union and Africa,

with the delegates of India Africa Trade Council participating actively. There was also a high level of participation by Non Resident Indians (NRIs) in the event, partly due to the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas being held in Indore, just prior to the investment meet.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan directly reviewed the outcome and further follow-up from the GIS 2023 and has taken several decisions for fast tracking the implementation of the various investment proposals. Under these guidelines, Madhya Pradesh’s plug and play facility will be further strengthened, while no permission will be required for setting up projects in identified and notified industrial areas.

Inspection too will be waived for a period of three years in Madhya Pradesh. The state’s single window clearance system will continue to work as a separate facility. CM Chouhan also made it clear that his hugely successful initiative of meeting with investors on every

Monday is to be continued, while weekly review would be done for the follow-up of all the recent investment proposals.

Madhya Pradesh’s Department of Industrial Policy and Investment Promotion has been designated by the CM as the nodal department for doing the follow-up on all MP GIS 2023 proposals, while the individual department level reviews will also be done periodically. During the review meeting, the CM noted that the event saw hitherto unseen enthusiasm among investors, and congratulated all the officers concerned and exhorted them to make sure that GIS 2023 continues to be the rising sun in the state’s future prospects.

Madhya Pradesh’s strategy of playing to its strengths seems to have delivered big for the state in MP GIS 2023. Under CM Chouhan’s guidance, the summit had given priority to sectors in which MP has significant strengths including agriculture, food processing, textiles, pharmaceuticals, logistics, automobile, renewable energy and IT. The plug and play facility that was already available to the IT & ITES sector, is now being extended to the garments sector.

The state received investment proposals worth Rs.15.50 lakh crore during GIS 2023, and the sector-wise split-up has been Rs. 6 lakh crore in renewable energy, Rs. 2.80 lakh crore in urban infrastructure, Rs. 1 lakh crore in agriculture and food processing, Rs.1 lakh crore in mineral based industries, Rs. 78,000 crore in IT & electronics sectors, Rs. 77,000 crore in chemicals & petroleum, and Rs. 71,000 crore in the services sector. Of these, the urban infrastructure projects alone have the potential of creating over 4 lakh jobs.

The Chief Minister has announced that the near term target for the state would be to make itself a 550 billion economy by 2026. With a population of 8.5 crore citizens, CM Chouhan has explained that it is very much possible, if their 17 crore hands contribute something worthwhile to the state in their own capacity, even if it

is just planting a sapling for the future.

Madhya Pradesh indeed is a state with staggering potential. MP is in the very heartland of India, and the 2nd largest state in India by area. Economically, it is one of the fastest growing states with annual GSDP growth of over 8% CAGR over the last decade. Madhya Pradesh Government has worked diligently over the past decade to develop the state as an industrial hub and promote it as a high potential investment destination.

During the last five years alone, the state government has made an investment of more than $15.4 billion for creating advanced support infrastructure. The state enjoys excellent connectivity to India’s largest cities and markets including New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Kolkata, by air, road and rail.

The state has an extensive road and rail network, with 2,30,000 km of roads, including over 40 national highways, and over 550 daily trains passing through the state. The state is also connected to all major metro cities by air. To leverage its central and strategic location and overcome the challenges of being a landlocked economy the state has developed 7 Inland Container Depots (ICDs) and is also developing Multi Modal Logistics Parks (MMLPs).

Madhya Pradesh Government has made ready over 95 sprawling industrial parks that offer ready industrial infrastructure, complete with online and GIS based land allotment. The state government’s ease of business services have caught the attention of global investors in GIS 2023, as over 45 services and approvals from 12 departments are provided to investors within 30 days of application through a single window clearance system.

SCIENTISTS LEARN SURPRISING SECRETS OF MAKING CONCRETE THAT LASTS THOUSANDS OF YEARS FROM ROME'S PANTHEON. MIT EXPERTS HAVE UNCOVERED THE ROMAN RECIPE FOR SELF-REPAIRING CEMENT — WHICH COULD MASSIVELY REDUCE THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF THE MATERIAL TODAY.

ome’s Pantheon stands defiant 2,000 years after it was built, its marble floors sheltered under the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome. For decades, researchers have probed samples from Roman concrete structures—tombs, breakwaters, aqueducts, and wharves—to find out why these ancient buildings endure when modern concrete may crumble after only a few decades.

In a recent study, scientists have got closer to the answer—and their findings could reverberate long into the future. Not only is Roman concrete exponentially more durable than modern concrete, but it can also repair itself. Creating a modern equivalent that lasts longer than existing materials could reduce climate emissions and become a key component of resilient infrastructure, like seawalls. Currently, concrete is second only to water as the world’s most consumed material, and making it accounts for about 7 percent of global emissions.

“We are dealing with extremely complex material,” says Admir Masic, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who led this new research on Roman concrete. “To kind of reverseengineer or understand the original way these civilizations made this material is just a nightmare.”

Until now, efforts to explain the longevity of Roman concrete have pointed to its

use of volcanic tephra—the fragments of rock emitted in an eruption—mined in the Naples area and shipped to construction sites throughout the sprawling Roman empire. But Masic and his MIT colleagues, along with researchers from Harvard and laboratories in Italy and Switzerland, suggest another reason: heat. Using a number of different scanning techniques, they examined a sample from a city wall in Privernum, a 2,000-year-old archaeological site near Rome, focusing on millimeter-scale white chunks running through the sample, called lime clasts. These are not found in modern concrete.

“Every wall made out of Roman concrete will have these inclusions,” Masic says, who in the past has looked at structures across Israel, North Africa, Italy, France, and Spain. Previously the lime clasts were thought to be a product of not mixing the concrete properly, Masic explains. But the team’s scanning revealed that the clasts were formed at extremely high temperatures, and are made from various forms of calcium

“WE ARE DEALING WITH EXTREMELY COMPLEX MATERIAL,” SAYS ADMIR MASIC, A RESEARCHER AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY WHO LED THIS NEW RESEARCH ON ROMAN CONCRETE. “

carbonate. They contain a kind of calcium that Masic’s team theorized could heal cracks by reacting with water, creating a solution that recrystallizes in fissures to fill them in. That calcium, he says, could be the “missing link” explaining the material’s durability.

The question, then, was where the necessary heat came from to make those clasts. It had been thought that Roman concrete was created by combining water with a calcium compound called slaked lime. But what if the Romans used lime in a more reactive form, called quicklime, Masic wondered. When mixed with water, quicklime reacts and produces heat.

To test the theory, his team created concrete both with and without quicklime. They then cracked the blocks they had created and ran water through the fissures. Only the cracks in the concrete made with quicklime closed up—they had found the recipe for the self-repairing material.

Patents have now been secured by MIT. Masic says a company will begin producing what he calls Roman-inspired concrete by year’s end. “Translating this knowledge of the ancient world into modern applications, I think that’s the next step,” he says. “These cracks are healed in two to three weeks using ingredients that are readily available and, most importantly, cheap.”

Masic’s paper is the latest in a string of

investigations into Roman concrete. Last year, he published research with Marie Jackson, a researcher at the University of Utah, that examined the 70-foot-tall tomb of first-century Roman noblewoman Caecilia Metella on the Appian Way, an ancient Roman road that runs across Italy. Their investigation revealed that the particular formation of Roman concrete used in the tomb interacts with rainwater and groundwater, becoming more resilient over time.

And in earlier work, Jackson and her colleagues produced an exact replica of a similar concrete, used 1,900 years ago to build the Markets of Trajan in Rome, and developed an innovative fracture test to better measure its resilience, showing that it is far less brittle than modern concrete. Jackson also studied cores drilled from concrete in Roman harbors, determining that seawater moving through the concrete reacts with it to create new minerals that make the concrete more cohesive and resilient over time.

Jackson has some concerns about Masic’s new paper, however. The sample it analyzed is undated, and it

contains sand instead of the volcanic tephra typically used—the sample therefore isn’t representative of Roman concrete, she says. In response, Masic says his team plans to analyze other sites “to confirm our hypothesis” that the Romans used quicklime in their concrete recipe—known as hot mixing. Masic’s team also wants to look in more detail at the influence hot mixing had on how the Romans built their structures.

So has Masic actually solved the mystery of how Roman concrete was made? “Who knows?” he says. “What I do know is we were able to translate some of these concepts into the real world. That’s what really excites me the most.” There’s the potential now to build better concrete, regardless of whether it is strictly “Roman” or not.

This recipe and process were lost over a millennium ago. No similar concrete existed until Joseph Aspdin of Great Britain took out a patent in 1824 for a material produced from a mixture of limestone and clay. He called it Portland cement because it resembled Portland stone, a limestone used for building in England.

Modern concrete is made from fragments

of rock combined with Portland cement—a mixture of limestone, clay or shale, and other ingredients ground and burned at 1,450 degrees Celsius (2,642 degrees Fahrenheit). That process creates an enormous amount of greenhouse gas and leaves you with concrete that’s not durable, degrading sometimes in as little as 50 years, especially in marine environments. Roman concrete, in comparison, is strong, requiring no steel reinforcing it, unlike its modern counterpart. And it’s relatively cheap.

Concrete infrastructure today, such as roads, cost six to 10 times their initial price when factoring in repairs over their lifespan, says Joseph King, who recently left his position as a program director at the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-e), where he created and ran the cement program. So extending the life of concrete made today, even by just a few times its life expectancy, would dramatically reduce demand and lower greenhouse emissions. “When you lay a new freeway, a pothole shows up every three years,” King says. “If you now only have to fill your potholes every 10 years or 20 years, it’s a better material.” Having concrete that survives for 2,000 years isn’t necessary to make a big difference.

On this front, Masic’s and Jackson’s labs are working with entrepreneurs interested in bringing their versions of Roman concrete to market. Jackson’s team, for instance, has collaborated with an industry partner to create a synthetic version of the volcanic tephra the Romans mined, because of the tremendous volume that will be needed.

After years and years of pursuing an answer, Jackson is happy the quest is generating interest. “What’s really important and valuable is that the topic of Roman concrete is now in the media,” she says. “This is an incredibly sophisticated and complex material. The people who made it were so brilliant, and so precise in what they did, that it has taken us 15 years of work to decipher much of this. And we are humbled by how much more we have to learn.”

(Credit: Jim Morrison for Wired)

MUCH LIKE HOW THE AAP GOVERNMENT WAS A REFRESHING CHANGE IN THE STATE WHEN IT CAME TO POWER 10 MONTHS BACK, THE FIRST INVESTORS SUMMIT UNDER CHIEF MINISTER BHAGWANT MANN’S LEADERSHIP ALSO PROVED TO BE A BIG REFRESHING CHANGE.

FIFTH PROGRESSIVE PUNJAB INVESTORS SUMMIT

It was the fifth time that Punjab went for its investors summit. But the 5th edition of the Progressive Punjab Investors Summit was the first time this event was held under the AAP government that was voted to power almost a year back.

The two-day event held on February 22 & 23 at Indian School of Business campus in Mohali, has proved to be a major success and will undoubtedly go a long way in the economic progress of Punjab in the coming years and decades.

Just like how the Chief Minister had promised that the pre-event investment flow was only a premonsoon shower and that a full-fledged monsoon awaited the state during the event, there was a deluge of proposals in all sectors that matter for the state like manufacturing, textiles, agriculture, food processing and more.

The summit includes well-structured exhibitions on the achievements and potential of various sectors in the state including Textiles, IT, ESDM & Startups, Healthcare, Green Energy & Sustainability, Tourism & Hospitality, and Entertainment.

Altogether, it was a well-planned event, and the hard work that the CM did and led his team to do were evident throughout the event.No effort was

spared in making fool-proof arrangements and it came in handy as several global delegates of VIP stature attended the event.

Under CM’s direct directive, the top-level officers also made sure that Punjab’s entrepreneurs were facilitated in groups as well as in one-to-one meetings with the visiting international experts and delegates. The entire team can be proud of the event as the Brand Punjab was upheld throughout the event as per CM’s wish.

His team takes up such suggestions earnestly as the Chief Minister himself had made it a point to lead from the frontlines by meeting industry leaders during his visits to various cities, including Bangalore, Mumbai & Hyderabad, to seek investment in the state.

He seems to have made a special rapport with the Telengana CM during his visit. Apart from learning about Telengana’s success spree in attracting massive investments, CM Mann also made it a point to study about the state’s noted irrigation reforms, which will come in handy for him while leading his state which still has a sizeable agrarian economy.

PUNJAB HAS RECENTLY BEEN SELECTED AS A ‘TOP ACHIEVER’ IN THE ‘EASE OF DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA’ INDEX.

During the first 11 months of his rule as the Punjab Chief Minister, Bhagwant Mann had led the state in attracting Rs. 38,175 crore in new investments with a potential to create 2.43 lakh jobs. While this is similar in scale to other best performing states in India, CM Mann’s achievement is noted for its geographic inclusivity, well balanced growth across buzzing sectors, employment generation, and above all its transparency.

The young and dynamic chief minister had recently come out with the finer details of the investments so far attracted under his rule. The real estate, housing and infrastructure sector has received investment proposals worth Rs. 11,853 crore, which will generate 1.22 lakh jobs.

In the manufacturing sector, which is a traditional stronghold of the state, investment proposals worth Rs. 5,981 crore have been committed and will generate 39,952 jobs. Alloy steel and steel sector has attracted investments of Rs. 3,889 crore and will be creating 9,257 jobs.

DURING THE FIRST 11 MONTHS OF HIS RULE AS THE PUNJAB CHIEF MINISTER, BHAGWANT MANN HAS LED THE STATE IN ATTRACTING RS. 38,175 CRORE IN NEW INVESTMENTS WITH A POTENTIAL TO CREATE 2.43 LAKH JOBS.

Another buzzing sector of the state is textiles, technical textiles, apparels & made-up sector which has firmed up investments worth Rs. 3,305 crore and comes with a commitment of creating 13,753 jobs.

The state which is most famous for agriculture will see its agri, food processing and beverages sector attracting investments worth Rs. 2,854 core that will provide 16,638 jobs. The remaining investments worth Rs. 2157 crore is from the healthcare sector which will generate 4,510 jobs.

The new projects will also take investments into every nook and corner of Punjab, and not just in its largest cities like Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar & Patiala. For instance, Mohali has attracted investments worth Rs. 9,794 crore which will generate 68,061 jobs, while Ropar has bagged investments worth Rs. 9,319 crore that will deliver 3,172 jobs.

While his detractors were surprised by CM Bhagwant Mann’s achievement of attracting Rs. 38,175 crore in new investments so far with a potential to create 2.43 lakh jobs, this former actor, comedian & satirist has asserted that this is just the beginning.

Even his enemies would have to grudgingly agree as the state has recently been selected as a ‘Top Achiever’ in the ‘Ease of Doing Business in India’ index.

During the first eleven months of its rule, the AAP Government has been successful in giving government jobs to over 26,000 people in the state. The focus that CM Bhagwant Mann has on employment generation is seen also in his other welfare measures.

Recently, he had led an initiative to shut down several toll plazas on Punjab’s highways that have been keeping on collecting tolls for several years now. According to the CM, this will amount to more than Rs. 10 lakhs in daily savings for the people of Punjab.

And keeping true to his AAP roots, CM Mann had earlier overseen the launch of 500 Mohalla Clinics in Amritsar. Mohalla Clinics that offer free or heavily subsidized treatments to the people has been a trump card of AAP in Delhi, where it first stormed to power in India.

He has also shown his unique nationalistic trait when he categorically made it clear that Punjab won’t be doing any new business initiatives with Pakistan, come what may. The reason the Chief Minister cited for it was quite persuasive - that

Pakistan was daily trying to push massive quantities of narcotic drugs into his state.

Indeed, in recent years, Punjab has been reeling from an onslaught of drugs, and this is the first time a Chief Minister has unequivocally taken such a massive stand against India’s troublemaking neighbour, with whom the state has a long and treacherous border.

The CM has also been lobbying hard with the Central Government for meeting his state’s vital needs. Coal, for instance, is an industrial fuel that Punjab is heavily dependent upon, and the timely access to coal supply has been an Achilles heel in Punjab’s development.

After studying this issue in-depth recently, the CM has now demanded for trains to be allotted to Punjab for ferrying coal into the state in a timely manner, which is a facility that many other states in India enjoy with regard to coal.

Under the leadership of Bhagwant Mann, several poll promises like free electricity, Aam Aadmi Clinic, farmer welfare, international training to teachers, reasonable and affordable sand for construction, employment opportunities for youth, ensuring the dignity of martyrs and ensuring corruption free governance have been implemented, during the 11 months it has been in office.

UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF BHAGWANT MANN, SEVERAL POLL PROMISES INCLUDING FREE ELECTRICITY, AAM AADMI CLINICS ETC HAVE BEEN DELIVERED WITHIN THE 11 MONTHS THE AAP GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN IN OFFICE.

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR

H H H H How does it feel inside your head? Turn your attention inwards. Maybe you’re daydreaming, allowing your mind to wander. Or maybe it feels sharp and alert. Maybe your thoughts are forging freely ahead, a sign that you have achieved the fabled state of “flow”. More likely, however, your brain feels like a browser with too many tabs open. From the widespread reports of a post-pandemic “brain fog” and the books on “deep work” and “stolen focus” topping bestseller lists, to the soaring diagnoses of ADHD in adults and children, it seems we are increasingly concerned by our ability to pay attention.

Early last year, the Centre for Attention Studies at King’s College London found that 49% of 2,000 adults surveyed felt their attention span was shorter than it

used to be. Almost as many (47%) agreed that “‘deep thinking’ has become a thing of the past”. These are generalisations and impossible to quantify – we have no consistent measure of attention or deep thinking, let alone of contrasting those through history with today’s. But the response proves that we at least perceive there’s a problem.

I have been feeling the same myself. Last year, writing – my job for more than a decade – started to feel more laborious. Unrelated to the complexity of the task, I found it hard to manage my time, or structure an argument, or see how one thought followed another. Directing my attention felt outside my grasp. I confessed to a friend that I had been Googling the symptoms of ADHD, increasingly convinced I would receive a

diagnosis. Or maybe, he replied, kindly, my struggle had more to do with spending upwards of eight hours a day staring at screens, without real breaks, for weeks at a time. Maybe the mental strain I was feeling was not a sign of executive dysfunction, but an apt response.

“I’ve studied hundreds of people over the decades, and many, many people report feeling distracted and having a loss of control,” says cognitive psychologist Gloria Mark over Zoom. “But not everybody,” she adds. A professor of informatics at the University of California, Mark has been researching humancomputer interaction and technology’s effects on our day-to-day lives since the mid 1990s. Now, in her first book Attention Span: Finding Focus for a Fulfilling Life, Mark brings together her findings for a lay audience, and the results are star-

IS MODERN LIFE RUINING OUR POWERS OF CONCENTRATION? IS THE PING OF A TEXT STEALING OUR FOCUS OR DO WE JUST LACK WILLPOWER? AND COULD MINDLESS SCROLLING EVER BE GOOD FOR OUR BRAINS?

tling. It’s not as simple as flow good, screens bad. Most strikingly, it is not even the case that we should necessarily be striving to focus at all.

Broadly speaking, there are two schools of thought on attention. The first argues that we haven’t lost our ability to focus, it has been wrested, even “stolen”, from us by technology. In this view we’re little more than lab rats lured by notifications and algorithms, pings and dings in a large-scale social experiment. We may develop strategies for resisting those dopamine dispensers, such as blocking software or switching to a “brick phone”. But the game is rigged against us.

Those in the second camp may scoff at this: they maintain that most of our struggles with focus are more to do with self-control. There is no notification that can distract us unless we are on some level willing to be distracted. Even the notion of a “shorter attention span” may provoke scepticism. Instead, could it be that you’re just not that motivated? Whichever worldview you subscribe to – that our attention has been hijacked by our devices, or by our lack of self-discipline – they share an element of fatalism: there is either little you can do, or you’re just not doing enough.

Mark believes that neither of these views is quite right. In Attention Span she dismantles common misconceptions about our attention, among them that we should always be striving to focus when at work on our computers, and that the mindless scrolling we do on screens is counterproductive. The reality is more nuanced, says Mark – but our digital lives have evolved so fast, we have found ourselves struggling to keep up or safeguard ourselves.

“That’s why I think we’ve got to this point, where we’re having such a hard time controlling our attention, because we haven’t figured out yet how we can integrate this technology in our lives, and use it wisely.”

Mark has been studying distraction since 2004, when she carried out the first of her studies on “knowledge workers” (who work primarily with computers). Shadowing them with a stopwatch, she logged how long they spent on one ac-

tivity (opening their email) before switching to another (making a call). It was painstaking work – “like watching paint dry”, one of her participants said selfeffacingly, of their own routine – but effectively illustrated how our attention roamed about, often with no obvious prompt.

The results showed that people shifted their attention, on average, every three minutes or so (including to interact with colleagues). When restricted to just computer activity, it was about 30 seconds quicker. At the time this seemed unfathomably fast, says Mark, but it was nothing compared to what was to come. With developments in tracking technology in the 2010s, Mark was able to repeat the study with greater precision, amassing thousands of hours of observation. In 2012, the average time spent on any screen before switching was down to 74 seconds. Since then it has declined even further. Research by Mark and others from 2016 to 2021 put it relatively consistently at just 47 seconds –“crazily short”, she says.

The result holds true regardless of job or age (though Mark studied all adults; distraction in developing minds is even less known). “Simply put,” Mark concludes in her book, “our personal use of technologies affects our ability to pay attention.” Those in the first camp might feel validated by this. But, Mark cautions, it’s not a straightforward tradeoff. “There are so many things in our culture and society that collude to make us distracted –it’s more than just targeted algorithms.”

In film and TV, for example, shot lengths have been getting pacier over decades, potentially influencing our own processing and behaviour in ways we may not be aware of. On social media, we consume and produce content in bite-size chunks, at a frenetic pace. “We are creating the culture,” says Mark. “Our attention spans have shaped the media, and the media in turn is shaping our attention.”

Further complicating the issue is that, though the world at large might seek to distract us, we are not equally susceptible. “There’s aspects of our individual natures – it’s more than just a lack of willpower,” she says. Personality plays a

part in how we use the internet, and what for. Some people find it easier than others to recover from interruptions, making them more effective multitaskers. Others are innately predisposed towards self-regulation. “If they go to social media, they are pretty good at getting themselves back on track,” says Mark.

For some, individual traits coalesce with context to create a perfect storm of distraction. Mark’s research found the higher a person scores in neuroticism and urgency tests, the shorter their attention span. “It doesn’t mean you can’t change – but you’ll have a harder time than others.” Mark’s own doctor confessed to an extreme strategy for writing a grant application: to book a round-trip plane journey from California to Washington DC, and write on the plane, literally rising above earthly distractions. “I couldn’t believe it,” she says. “He said he has to change his environment. He has to put himself in a place where he can’t get access to the internet – and apparently he’s got the money to do it.”

The very design of the internet mirrors how we think, explaining how we can lose hours down a rabbit hole on YouTube or Wikipedia. “In terms of a semantic network, we think naturally in terms of associations, and the internet just aligns with that so well,” says Mark. Stress and exhaustion further exacerbate the problem, diminishing our ability to resist temptation. It means the line between free will and conditioning has blurred: we might genuinely want to learn more, or we might be impulsively clicking on links. Either way, our curiosity is aroused and – with the next video or webpage –rewarded, perpetuating the cycle.

The many influences Mark identifies on our attention – individual, social, environmental, technological – emphasises not only the scale of the challenge, but the limits of zeroing in on any one of them for a potential solution. Distraction isn’t a tech problem, or a people problem – it’s both, inextricably intertwined. Indeed, one of Mark’s most disquieting findings is that we have become so accustomed to being interrupted, we do it to ourselves. Mark found that email trumped social media as a source of interruptions, with study participants checking their inboxes an average of 77

times daily (one checked 374 times). But most concerning was that 41% were doing so of their own accord, without external triggers. It’s proof that even if we turn off notifications, we can’t escape those internal triggers.

“We have these 47-second attention spans, and we maintain them by interrupting ourselves,” Mark says. “I feel it myself, this tension that builds up so that I have to change my screen – go to a new site, or social media, or whatever.” Accordingly, the salve often proposed for fragmented focus is flow, the psychological state of being so engrossed in your work that you lose track of time, and even the outside world. Mark has extensive experience of flow, though not in her scientific career. Before she did a master’s degree in statistics, paving the way for her to pursue psychology and computer usage, Mark studied fine art, specialising in abstract expressionism.

She abandoned her dreams of being an artist in the face of the economic reality – but years later, those hours spent in flow, painting and drawing, and thinking laterally proved valuable in her scientific research. What she discovered is that most knowledge work requires analytical thinking that precludes us from getting swept away. “You see a lot of people claim that when you’re working on your computers and in your everyday life, you can get into flow, but it’s very much about the nature of the work. Working on a spreadsheet or writing a report – it’s not conducive.” In fact, flow depends on a certain level of challenge, whereby we feel pleasurably engaged and extended, making us happy, but also causing low-level stress. “It’s a myth that we should be continually focused – it’s too stressful,” says Mark.

Equally, though mindless digital diversions like playing Candy Crush or even scrolling social media might seem like exactly the kind of time-wasting that we should be striving to avoid, it actually serves a valuable function, says Mark. That kind of easy, rote activity is not only enjoyable, it replenishes our cognitive resources, necessary for us to be productive later on.

The fact that flow is not only rare, but draining; and that taking a break to scroll

a different screen or play a game on your phone can be restorative, is proof of the need for nuance. The moralising over productivity and screentime is unhelpful when it comes to finding solutions –but highly profitable as the boom in (useless) blue-light glasses and “distractionfree” tech goes to show.

Last year, writer Johann Hari’s book Stolen Focus, decrying the “huge invasive forces” corroding our concentration and championing flow as a solution, was a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. Stolen Focus concludes by calling for an urgent societal “movement to reclaim our minds” – and, in the meantime chase that flow state. (Hari himself took a months-long “digital detox” on Cape Cod.)

Like others, Mark has “concerns” about Hari’s “one-sided” argument and research. It is no more possible for us to sustain focus all day than it is for us to lift weights nonstop, she says – yet that is exactly what many of us expect of ourselves, at the expense of our own wellbeing. The problem is felt well beyond the small segment of the population with ADHD, says Mark. “People are saying we have this ‘epidemic of ADHD’, but we should hold back on making that claim.” More research is needed into any relation between ADHD and use of personal devices – but it may be that people are simply exhausted and trying, and failing to focus.

Much advice sidesteps this self-assessment through the use of productivity software that restricts access to social media. But this, says Mark, undermines our autonomy. “Especially the cold-turkey approach, it takes agency away from people – like having training wheels on your bike, and you never learn to ride the bike.”

In Attention Span, Mark makes the case for a new, evidence-based approach to attention, one that works with our techriddled modern world and tendencies towards distraction, instead of trying to squeeze the genie back in the bottle. “We are stuck with technology, we can’t give it up, so let’s not even talk about that – but we can use it in an intelligent way, to find the benefits.” Rather than aspiring towards flow, or always being

focused, Mark suggests we should aim for a “balance of attentional states” that reflects our natural circadian rhythms.

Identifying your individual chronotype – whether you work better early, late or are a moderate type; sometimes split into lions, bears, dolphins and wolves – can help you to structure your day for ease, Mark says. “It’s a matter of understanding when you’re at your peak, when you’ve got the capacity to do hard work, to be creative – and to understand when you don’t.”

She and I are both “bears”, so are most productive in daylight, between 10am and 2pm – when lions are winding down, and dolphins and wolves are getting started. By becoming aware of those precious peaks, Mark says, we can protect that window for work requiring creativity or concentration – not “wasting” them on email. She has learned to do it herself. “I used to get totally exhausted. At the end of the day, my brain was just fried… I learned to pull back and take a break.”

Now, for her downtime, Mark will schedule undemanding admin – or revive with a walk around the block, or by playing an online word game. “I realised that I had been under so much stress for a very long time,” she says.

At the societal level, Mark supports “right to disconnect” laws to combat email overload, but says the cultural shift may have to come first. She suggests cultivating “meta-awareness” of our own attention – whether we have resources to burn, or need to refuel – and engagement with tech. “If you end up going to social media, keep yourself in the present by asking: ‘Am I still getting value out of being here?’” If not, and you’re feeling increasingly drained or, conversely, refreshed, “then leave,” Mark says. It is a more pragmatic – and even, dare I say, empowering – outlook on our technological future than many. “I am very optimistic that we can take control, and change the way things are,” agrees Mark. But the first step is accepting that our attention, like our time, is finite – and that we can choose how we spend it.

(By Elle Hunt, based on the new book, Attention Span: Finding Focus for a Fulfilling Life, by Dr Gloria Mark.)

THE ROCK BUILDS THOSE MASSIVE MUSCLES BY NEGATIVE OR ECCENTRIC EXERCISES

THE ROCK SWEARS BY ONE TIME-SAVING EXERCISE — AND SCIENTISTS JUST SHOWED IT CAN HELP YOU BUILD MUSCLE SUPER FAST.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson uses eccentric exercise to build muscle, his strength coach says. It involves lengthening muscles under tension, such as when you lower a weight (called a negative rep). Eccentric exercises can build strength and more muscle in less time, research suggests.

Don't just focus on lifting weights — lowering them may help you build as much muscle in half the time, a new study suggests.

Researchers from Edith Cowen University in Australia tested different types of dumbbell exercises on a group of 53 university students over 10 training sessions in five weeks.

They found that the most efficient way to build strength and muscle was focusing on the lowering portion of exercise — known as "eccentric contraction," or putting tension on muscles as they lengthen.

Their findings won't come as a surprise to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who is one of many elite athletes to swear by eccentric exercise. This specific move was a crucial part of The Rock's Black Adam workouts to take his fitness to the next level, his strength and conditioning coach Dave Rienzi told Insider. According to the study, published recently in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, participants who did eccentric exercise had the same strength gains, and more muscle growth, but did half the amount of reps, compared to their peers who did more typical exercise (raising and lowering weights).

"This latest study shows we can be far more efficient in the time we spend exercising and still see significant results by focusing on eccentric muscle contractions," Ken Nosaka, co-author of the study and professor of exercise and sports science at Edith Cowen University, said in a press release.

Most traditional exercises also include a concentric contraction, which involves shortening the muscle, often by lifting a weight.

Concentric exercise has benefits for improving strength and endurance, so doing both types of exercise (concentric and eccentric) can help you be a wellrounded athlete, says Chris Travis, owner and coach at Seattle Strength and Performance.

You can do eccentric versions of exercises with dumbbells, a barbell, kettlebells, or body weight too. An eccentric exercise involves controlling a weight while lowering it, sometimes called a negative rep.

Examples of eccentric exercises with body weight include, climbing down stairs, creating a tempo by counting to five as you lower into a squat or lunge, slowly descending from the top of a pullup, lowering yourself to the bottom position of a push-up. Interestingly, multiple studies have shown that climbing down stairs is moore beneficial than climbing up stairs!

If you're using weights, Nosaka recommended using both arms to lift a weight, and then using a single arm to lower it for exercises like a shoulder press, bicep curl, or overhead extension. Gym machines like knee extensions and leg curls can help you use a similar technique for lower body gains, he said. One advantage of eccentric exercise is that it can be safe for beginners and helps develop good form and prevent injury, according to Travis.

"We do a lot of eccentric work because it builds muscle really well and we do it in a way that people who are starting in strength training aren't moving too quickly and are understanding the range of motion," he said.

But they're just as good for seasoned athletes, The Rock's strength coach Rienzi previously told Insider.

"I love negatives. The mental thing with negatives is you're thinking about controlling the weight, or fighting the weight on the way down. You're exerting more effort," he said. "It's one of the most effective techniques in my opinion."

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