New year 2022 witnessed sudden surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant. The sudden rise in the cases across the world showed that Corona is not yet over. Living in the COVID-19 era has seen various changes throughout the world since the outbreak of the virus. With over 360 million cases reported so far and over 5.5 million deaths across the globe, Corona virus had created startling impact on the lives of many.
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Worldwide, total number of cases reported on 21st January 2021 was 37,74,254 which is the highest no of cases reported on single day since COVID made its debut. In fact, for the past 10 days, the total no of cases reported worldwide is over 3 million per day. However, death toll is less than second wave, as of now. USA has reported more than 500,000 cases per day for almost a month now whereas United Kingdom is also witnessing around 100,000 cases on daily basis. France reported over 500,000 cases on 25th January 2021, the highest no of cases reported on single day since the outbreak of the virus.
As far is India is concerned, the total number of cases reported on daily basis is over 250,000 since 14th January 2021 whereas no of deaths on daily basis is less than 1000. Highest no of cases reported in India during third wave is 347,254 which was reported on 20th January 2021. The active cases in India have gone over 2.2 million. Whether this is the peak or peak is yet to come? Some studies states that peak has not yet arrived. Also, the no of hospitalization is less so far in third wave but whether it will be less in coming months? One study shows that the third wave may witness more lethal cases in March to May 2021.
Let us look how quickly the cases in India has increased based on the cases reported on daily basis.
The above statistics indicate how rapid is the spread of corona in India. The positivity rate in India is over 19% now. This raises one important question, is Community spread of Corona started?
Initially, major cities like Mumbai/New Delhi and other metro cities witnessed rapid surge in Corona cases in third wave. Although, the no of cases reported in major cities has dropped but the overall cases throughout the country remains a concern due to high positivity rate.
In a recent weekly bulletin published by INSACOG on 10th January 2022, mentions that Omicron is now spreading through community transmission. In the third year of COVID era, India has acknowledged of community transmission. The spread is expected due to internal transmission, not from foreign travellers. The threat level in India is ‘high” and remains unchanged, the INSACOG report said. The said INSACOG weekly bulletin can be viewed at https://dbtindia.gov.in/sites/default/files/INSACOG%20WEEKLY%20BULLETIN%2010-01-2022.pdf
PC: Google
Community transmission is a stage where it becomes difficult to establish, if not impossible, who is passing the infection to whom. In simple terms, it is a stage where it becomes difficult to establish the chain of infections, or determine who infected whom. This has implications for deciding containment strategies and response measures to deal with the epidemic.
What does it mean to have community transmission? This is a matter of concern for everyone as the threat level is “high” and hospitalization may increase in near future. It is of utmost importance that we should stay safe keeping social distancing norms.
As the fight with Corona is still going on, a collective effort is required to win…Stay healthy… Stay safe…
Finance is an important part in life. Everyone wants to be financially independent. What should be done to be financially independent? What are the skills needed to be financially independent? Why there are so many poor people in world? Why middle-class remain middle-class? Such kind of questions must have arrived to many at various point in life. Finding answers to such questions is can be difficult. But there is a book on personal finance which discusses such questions and provide answers. The Book titled, Rich Dad Poor Dad, written by Robert T. Kyosaki is a worth read which provides answers to such questions and at the same time gives the other way of thinking. This post provides review of that book.
About the Author
Robert T. Kiyosaki is best known as the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad (1997). He was born on 8th April 1947 and is an American businessman and author. He is an entrepreneur, educator and investor who believes the world needs more entrepreneurs who will create jobs. With perspectives on money and investing that often contradict conventional wisdom, Robert Kiyosaki has earned an international reputation for straight talk, irreverence, and courage and has become a passionate and outspoken advocate for financial education.
Robert T. Kiyosaki
His point of view is that “old” advice- go to college, get a good job, save money, get out of debt, invest for the long term, and diversify – has become obsolete advice in today’s fast-paced information age. His Rich Dad philosophies and messages challenge the status quo. His teachings encourage people to become financially educated and to take an active role in investing for their future.
He has authored several books. Some of his notable books includes:
Cashflow Quadrant (2000)
Rich Dad’s Before You Quit Your Job (2005)
An unfair advantage (2011)
FAKE: Fake Money, Fake Teachers, Fake Assets: How Lies Are Making the Poor and Middle Class Poorer (2019) etc.
About the Book
This book is considered one of the best books on personal finance. The book boldly advocates the need to have financial literacy. According to the author, people should be financially literate which in turn make them financially intelligent. Lack of financial intelligence is the main cause of poor or middle class to remain poor or middle class.
The book is written in the form of stories which Robert Kiyosaki learnt from his rich dad and poor dad. He considers his friend, Mike’s father, rich dad and his own dad, poor dad. The book is a summary of teachings which he learnt from his rich dad and why his own dad having good academic background was a teacher and never become rich. The book revolves around these two ways of thinking, rich dad and poor dad.
The book starts with an introduction with mention of the classic poem of Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” and the below excerpt need a worth mention.
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the differences.
The author had brilliantly explained the path which has made all the difference and the reason how and why people are rich and poor. The introduction itself creates the eager to read the entire book. The book is against the “old school” thinking of going to school/college, earn degrees, do job, pay the debt/bills and make entire life a burden. Instead, he firmly believes that school and college education is important to have basic knowledge to understand the concepts etc. but it is not sufficient to become rich. For that, what is more important is to have financial education over and above school/college education. The book tries to make readers think above having a job and become financially independent. One can become financially independent if he possesses financial intelligence which in turn can be achieved through financial literacy. Kiyosaki is a strong advocate of financial intelligence which can be felt while reading the book.
There are many people who are intelligent and have attained good academic qualification, but do they possess financial intelligence? Everyone should ask this question. The difference between intelligence and financial intelligence should be identified by the person through his financial decisions which one takes during his lifetime. The book has such kind of discussion which makes it an interesting read. A small excerpt from the book is worth mention here:
Money is one form of power. But what is more powerful is financial education. Money comes and goes, but if you have the education about how money works, you gain power over it and can began building wealth. The reason positive thinking alone does not work is because most went to school and never learned how money works, so they spend their lives working for money.
One of the most important aspect the book figures it out is that one should learn how money should work for him rather than yourself working for money. This is quite interesting. Learning how to have money work for you is a lifetime subject. This is the main difference between the poor and middle-class. “The poor and middle-class work for money. The rich have money work for them.” One has to learn how money work for them to become rich. This is the bottom line.
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The book provides a fruitful discussion on assets and liabilities, income and expenses of rich and poor. Need to mention that there are least financial jargons used in the book. The discussion revolves around how rich maintains their assets/liabilities and how poor does so. In general, rich people acquire assets whereas poor and middle class don’t turn their income into assets rather than they convert their income into liabilities which they think are assets. There is a cycle in which poor and middle class are trapped and in turn they remain poor/middle class lifelong. If a young couple would put more money into their assets early on, their later years would be easier.
Most people struggle financially because they do not know the difference between an asset and a liability. Rich people acquire assets. The poor and middle-class acquire liabilities that they think are assets.
The book provides a good insight on the mentality or way of managing expenses of rich and poor people. Rich poor buy luxuries at last, while the poor and middle-class tend to buy luxuries first.
As mentioned earlier, the book advocates a lot on financial intelligence (Financial IQ). Financial IQ is made of four broad areas of expertise:
Accounting
Investing
Understanding markets
The Law
Financial IQ is the synergy of many skills and talents. In the words of Robert Kiyosaki, financial IQ is the combination of four skills mentioned above that make up the basic financial intelligence.
Robert Kiyosaki has strongly suggested to focus on building assets through financial intelligence. One should be flexible enough to adjust in the changing environment rather than sticking to the past. One should keep the options open and avoiding limiting the options. Financial intelligence is simply having more options.
The author stresses on overcoming some obstacles after being financially literate. These obstacles are arrogance, cynicism, bad habits, laziness and fear. Fear and ignorance are essential cause of poverty or financial struggle.
The main cause of poverty or financial struggle is fear and ignorance, not the economy or the government. It’s self-inflicted fear and ignorance that keeps people trapped.
The author had beautifully advocated on being financially independent through financial intelligence in this book. The book provides the lessons the author learnt from his rich dad. One should read the book to know the lessons. He does not recommend falling in the trap or rat race which in his words, is a short-term solution to a long-term problem.
A job is only a short-term solution to a long-term problem.
The book is an interesting read as it as it offers the other way of thinking. It is written in simple and easily understandable language and provides some fruitful insights which is worth indeed. While reading the book, one will find many interesting sentences. Some of the interesting lines I have picked and shared below:
Intelligence solves problems and produces money. Money without financial intelligence is money soon gone.
Most people fail to realize that in life, it’s not how much money you make. It’s how much money you keep.
Today, wealth is in information. And the person who has the most-timely information owns the wealth.
People struggle simply because they cling to old ideas. Old ideas are their biggest liability. It is a liability simply because they fail to realize that while that idea or way of doing something was an asset yesterday, yesterday is gone.
Great opportunities are not seen with your eyes. They are seen with your mind.
Workers work hard enough to not to be fired, and owners pay just enough so that workers won’t quit.
Most workers focus on working for pay and benefits that reward them in short-term, but are disastrous in the long run. Instead, I recommend to young people to seek for what they will learn, more than what they will earn.
The world is full of talented poor people. All too often, they are poor or struggle financially or earn less than they are capable of, not because of what they know, but because of what they do not know.
Do read the book for such interesting discussions and share your thoughts. 🙂
The playground of life is crucial. Attack from every side is sometimes lethal. Fear of outcome always stops from being creative. Willingly or unwillingly, majority become defensive. All are moving and following the crowd. At the end, most are lost in the crowd. Life is no more peaceful in this chasing world. Noise and pain are the main glimpses of this world. Everyone pretends to be fully intelligent. That’s the root cause of situation becoming belligerent. Being calm and polite is rare characteristics of humans. Outrageous nature can be easily found in humans. “I know everything” is the general and acceptable truth. But looking at the other side, lies the bitter truth. “Very few” people know that they really know “very few”…
Everything in life was going normal. Just like “Business as Usual.” Morning to evening and till night. Every day was like a fight. Weekend was one which we used to like and wait. As it was a formal way to take a break. Exploring nearby and far places in the vicinity. Provided a way to find serenity. Going out was a normal course of business. Be it for work, tea/kulhar or tapri tea, shopping or movie. Our face used to thrill with positive expression.
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The freedom of roaming here and there no more lasts. As the world suddenly suffered the “Corona” blast. Weather of world has changed in startled way and direction. Work from home and social distancing is the new evolution. Life is no more “usual” now. Surviving in this pandemic is the priority now. We don’t know how much it will last. As the world is suffering from the “Corona” blast. Life is no more “business as usual.” As life has changed suddenly from “usual to unusual”. As life has changed suddenly from “usual to unusual”.
Sobre notícias e política com um viés nacionalista, onde os bravos nunca ousaram percorrer e que não espere deste o obsequioso silêncio dos covardes, amortecendo consciências, desarmando resistências que só no fátuo da retórica da ideia, da moral e da ética é que se venera seu oponente evitando a sedição!
Ashish Vision 