Welcome to Filter Coffee!
First off, I trust that you know me, but to get the formalities out of the way, I’m M.R. Prasanna, also referred to as Mysore Prasanna. But, please - call me Pras. I have served as the General Counsel to major corporates (including Larsen & Toubro and Aditya Birla Group). I’m now an independent director, arbitrator, corporate law consultant, trainer, and speaker.
This is the first of a (hopefully) regular weekly series of newsletters that I am publishing for my friends, professional peers, and family. Consider this an outlet for my 50+ year love affair with Law, Business, and Governance. I’m calling it simply - Filter Coffee: Sunday Musings with Pras.
Just as a perfect blend of coffee makes it enjoyable, law, business, and governance must complement one another.
Law isn’t just what’s on the statute book; it encompasses all rules, formal, informal, written, and unwritten that regulate our behaviour in a given situation. Code of conduct and ethics also come within the ambit of law.
Governance in simple terms is the act of governing. This could be governing a State, a business, a sports body, an educational institution, a hospital, an NGO, or a charitable organisation. Governance must be in consonance with all those elements of Law that apply to a particular body.
Business, at its core, is about running an enterprise largely for-profit and delivering value to its investors. Corporate governance, which typically is about governing a business, involves strict adherence to the elements of Law as applicable to it.
Each of them can influence the other in interesting ways as we will continue to explore in later editions of my newsletter.
This week’s post: Covidya
Covid-19 has compelled Law, Business, and Governance to come to terms with a strange and harsh reality.
Businesses went into a tailspin that no one imagined would happen. Operations have been staggered, production has been sporadic, and off-take of goods has been sluggish. Social distancing has inhibited the efficiency of online service providers.
Administration of Justice became virtual, and despite the Courts getting used to the new normal, the pace has been juggernautical. The apex court has always been a guardian of human rights, but during the COVID period, it has demonstrated its resolve and ability to ensure that the government is kept on its toes to ensure access to life, liberty and justice to all.
Governance once again held out a helping hand, with the Reserve Bank of India having to make small, to medium, to large concessions. Unprecedented budgetary allocations and financial stimuli seem grossly inadequate.
Issues of unemployment and the migrant labour exodus have plagued society, business, and the economy, making them partners in a national initiative to stay afloat.
The securities market regulator and the department of company affairs have relaxed various legal requirements which boards had to follow as part of corporate governance.
So, the compartments of separation of powers are no longer the exclusive turfs of that branch whether it be Executive, Legislature or Judiciary. They say it takes two to tango, but here all three have come together to stabilise a tottering nation.
While various institutions strived hard to gain traction and pull together, the tension on the border has been a major distraction. This, along with the stock market doing a yo-yo and dampening investor sentiments, has accentuated the challenges before the Indian nation.
Resilience is touted as the balm to ease the pain if not to heal the wounds inflicted on every sphere of life whether it be social, economic, psychological and commercial.
Psychological issues have surfaced in alarming proportions; stress for those working from home, financial distress (leading to bankruptcy) for the less fortunate, and, disturbingly, increasing reports of cases of suicide. The initial euphoria of not having to commute and working from the “comfort” of home all evaporated. In its place came domestic tensions, invasion of personal space, social distancing cramping one’s lifestyle, and kids staying at home creating a ruckus of their own. And underneath all of this is the anxiety of having to eventually return to the workplace when it opens, exposing oneself to unquantifiable probabilities of an infection. The list is endless.
Neither, Law, Governance or Business can provide succour to the people holed up in their homes contemplating an uncertain future. Financial burden may be eased a bit, but the emotional struggle that each one goes through is of such magnitude that it makes me wonder what kind of a society we shall see in the new normal, where abnormal and subnormal behaviours and attitudes will define the life after life we expect to live post-COVID-19, an inflexion point that we must face.
Nevertheless, this post isn’t about doomsaying - this is mere crystal gazing to ascertain whether COVID has irreversibly altered the course of human life and conduct, or whether we, the resilient human beings, show the resolve to retract from the new normal to the Normal.
P.S.: If you liked this post, please click the link below to share. I would also love your feedback - please leave a comment with your reactions and suggestions!
Happenings
I have been organising a forum called Lawyers Round Table (LRT), which is now into its 7th year. Each month until March 2020, we held a luncheon meeting hosted by a law firm or other entity, where the host made a presentation on a topic of interest to the hybrid crowd of external counsel, in-house counsel, chamber practitioners, company secretaries, and other professionals. The 69th LRT on 12th March just before COVID altered the way we meet, so we shifted to Zoom for the 70th LRT, where we have continued to host the event. We are now due to hold the 74th meeting on 10th of July, where two barristers from London, Karishma Vora and David Brynmor Thomas, will be addressing the group.
Debevoise & Plimpton are hosting a webinar on 9th July on the topic of ‘Rebooting International Law for the Cyber Age: Avoiding and Responding to Cyberattacks’ - RSVP here.
If you would like to share events, achievements, or news in this newsletter, please feel free to send them my way, and I will do my best to include them.
Potpourri
True story: Pre-COVID my wife Geetha would say: “When will you spend some time with me?” Post lockdown: “ When will you leave me alone for some time?”
The propensity for people to come up with jokes on or around COVID reflects their resilience in a way. Here’s one:
COVID has taught us to recognise that nothing is in our hands, except to wash them often.
The otherwise serious proceedings in a court can have lighter moments. Sample this great anecdote involving Justice D Y Chandrachud.
As I struggled with time standing still, I discovered an app that kept me occupied with karaoke. My wife took to painting, attending Zoom seminars for senior citizens. We learned to give each other space, but to also find time to play scrabble and watch some movies and tv serials. Finding something that both of us like is another challenge…
A good insight on how CV19 impacting India for the diaspora
Excellent filter coffee sir