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Ashwinikumar Singh is an Indian citizen and holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Information
Technology from the University of Mumbai. Following a two year stint in information risk manage-
ment consulting, he spent another year working in human resource consulting and small business
management. His interest areas include entrepreneurship, sustainability, politics and cinema. He is
a co-founder of a social venture that worked towards imparting sustainability education and im-
proving university-industry linkages in India. He is currently pursuing a Masters in Management
studies programme at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai.
What could be the answers if the ceding generation of leaders, it would down barriers to communication, pa-
young from every generation were be in this context. ving the way for the Information Age to
asked to pick an event that captured the kick in and leading to a globalized,
zeitgeist of their youth? The Silent The Good inter-connected and inter-dependent
generation I presume would pick the It is beyond question that the human world. The Berlin Wall was brought
Second World War. The Baby Boomers race has made significant strides in the down and the United Nations grew
would probably choose the Apollo 11 last few decades. The world has from 51 members in 1945 to a 193
mission and the Generation X would advanced in almost all arenas and Baby member organization. As per the latest
call out the collapse of the Soviet Boomers and Generation Xers can take report of Freedom House, the propor-
Union. My generation, the Millennials credit for much of this progress. In the tion of democratic countries in the
in characteristic fashion, instead of one last 25 years, child mortality has fallen world has gone up from about a quarter
would pick two - the 9/11 attacks and by half from 12.8 million to 6.5 million. in 1970 to about two-thirds in 2010.
the 2008 financial crisis. The Second The percentage of global population
World War was a successful fight living on less than $ 1.25 a day has come The Bad
against the rule of tyranny, the lunar down from 34.8 percent to ~15 percent. In spite of all the progress weve
mission a remarkable feat for humanity The number of polio incidences around made in the past, the present is far
and the downfall of the Soviet Union, a the world has declined from 261,000 to from reassuring. The global public debt
gateway to the opportunities of capi- 369 and it is close to being eradicated in stands at $52.5 trillion. When the first
talism and liberalism. In stark contrast, almost every country. boomer was born, United States
the World Trade Centre attacks and the government debt stood at $228 billion.
Great Recession are grim reminders of The World Wide Web was invented by It is now $16 trillion which is an in-
a less promising world and led to Tim Berners-Lee and thankfully not crease of 7018 percent. Cost of edu-
inhibition of ambition. So when the patented. Computers, Mobile Phones cation has skyrocketed in developed
Millennials assess the legacy of the and the Internet proliferated, bringing countries leading to student debt cros-
st. gallen symposium
sing the $1 trillion mark in the United percent of species face potential extinc- when you control 85 percent of the
States. According to the International tion only after 2C of warming. Accor- worlds wealth, run every major
Labour Organization, global unemploy- ding to certain estimates, climate corporation and hold political office in
ment rate among 15-to-24 year-olds was change is already wiping 1.6 percent almost every democracy of the world.
estimated at 12.6 percent in 2013, with annually from global GDP and the cost Baby Boomers and Xers need to be
73 million people jobless worldwide. of climate change and air pollution invested in the well-being of the world
Youth unemployment stands at around combined is expected to increase to 3.2 and this requires a paradigm shift in
16 percent in the US but Europe fares percent of the global GDP by 2030. The outlook and thinking. Structural re-
far worse at 22.6 percent. Students face least developed countries will have to forms are required in almost every
bleak employment prospects upon bear a disproportionate share of this aspect of human life and these deci-
completion of education. It has been burden. The Baby Boomers might have sions wont be easy ones to make.
two decades since the end of the Cold succeeded in becoming the wealthiest Gradual change of guard needs to be
War but there are still some 17,000 generation ever but in the process brought about to infuse young blood
nuclear warheads across the globe. The theyve led the Earth to its poorest in and new thought in political and
global hunger problem still remains history. corporate leadership. Innovation needs
unsolved and yet the amount of food to be unshackled from the reins of
wasted in Europe alone can feed nearly Sand Goby or Lumpfish? conventional thinking and myopic
200 million people. Corruption, nep- Pomatoschistus Minutus or the Sand agenda. Bill Gates is showing the way to
otism and inefficiency continue to Goby is a unique species of fish. It feeds his generation by not only giving away
plague political institutions in the least on its own offspring even when there most of his wealth to tackle the most
developed and developing countries are other food alternatives. It is not my critical issues of this age but also urging
and global governance has been below argument that both the Baby Boomers his fellow billionaires to do the same.
par. Freedom of speech as a fundamen- and the Generation X have practiced
tal right remains non-existent or some metaphorical form of filial Global and national governance insti-
stands abridged in many parts of the cannibalism. But no one would call tutions will have to reinvent them-
world. them Lumpsuckers either which is selves to deal with pressing issues of
another type of fish that nearly does a poverty, climate change, unemploy-
The Ugly kamikaze protecting its to-be-born ment, inequality, social security and
An unwelcoming future is far scarier children. In spite of all the achieve- terrorism. The world is made up of 3.5
than an imperfect present. In the next ments of the last century, the world is billion young people and half of them
16 years, world food demand is expec- faced with one of the most critical live in developing economies. The
ted to go up by 50 percent, energy times in its history. The good of our existing global power centres need to
demand by 45 percent and water progenitors has not outweighed the acknowledge this emerging reality and
demand by 30 percent. The lack of bad and the ugly. Like the world they create room for a more balanced,
sustainability in human progress has too stand at crossroads. They could consensus-driven and equitable world
put the earths regenerative capacity choose to maintain the status quo and order. Leadership marked by moderate
under tremendous strain. An estimated go down in history as the luckiest risk-taking in pursuance of enlightened
4.5 billion people globally live within 50 generation having lived in a world that self-interest is bound to achieve success
km of an impaired water resource. was peaceful, stable and wealthy. This as demonstrated in the recent US-Iran
Global food prices are close to their shall be accompanied with the igno- rapprochement after decades of host-
historic peaks and volatility in food miny of having left their children and ility. Sacrifices will have to be made and
prices has been accepted as the new grandchildren with gargantuan pro- must be made, for the cost of inaction
normal. Climate change and Global blems to solve. Or they could choose to today is going to be unprecedented and
Warming threaten to irreversibly alter act and be remembered for helping set ensuing damage irreversible.
the Earths ecosystem. things right.
As per the Stern Review on econo- You cannot escape responsibility and
mics of climate change, around 1540 expect someone else to fix the problem
st. gallen symposium
I had an inheritance from my father, 8. Terence Tse and Mark Esposito. archives/1996/a-fathers-day-top-ten-
It was the moon and the sun. Youth unemployment could wreck animal-fathers.aspx
And though I roam all over the world, Europes economic recovery. The
The spending of its never done. Guardian. 14 November 2013; http:// 15. Charles Q. Choi. Why Parents Eat
- Ernest Hemingway www.theguardian.com/ Their Young, Especially the Big Ones.
commentisfree/2013/nov/14/youth- Livescience, 6 February 2008; http://
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