A fertile ground for thieves

The pandemic, soaring prices, and economic pain have combined to create perfect conditions for thieves and fraudsters. Theft of commodities such as lumber, metals, and food crops is nothing new. Yet the combination of higher prices, the pandemic, and the hit to economies has created an unusually fertile ground for criminals. Amarendra Panda, an assistant commissioner of police in Cuttack in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, says his officers have raided about 20 premises recently and confiscated what he calls “adulterated commodities” worth millions of rupees, or tens of thousands of dollars. “Their motive was to earn huge profits by investing as little as possible,” he says. In the US, lumber prices soared to an all-time high in May and are now more than double what they were a year ago. Copper is up 70pc over the same period, having also hit a record last month. Global food prices increased for a 12th straight month in May to the highest in almost a decade.

Adapted from “The Commodities Boom Is Luring Criminals to Make Bigger and Bolder Scores,” by Agnieska de Sousa, Marcy Nicholson, Tope Alake and Daniela Sirtori-Cortina, published on June 17, 2021, by the Bloomberg Businessweek)

To Indonesia’s benefit

Since the implementation of a preferential trade agreement in 2013, bilateral trade between Pakistan and Indonesia favours the latter. Currently, Pakistan’s imports from Indonesia are at least fifteen times larger than its exports to that country. Pakistan mainly imports palm oil from Indonesia, which accounted for approximately 63.7pc of Pakistan’s total imports. Overall, Pakistan’s imports from Indonesia are not very diversified. Since the trade agreement has come into effect, exports of textile goods have exhibited the highest growth though the overall export value remains low. Pakistan’s trade intensity index has been below 1 since 2015 which indicates that Pakistan is trading less with Indonesia than it should. On the other hand, the intensity of Indonesia’s exports to Pakistan is quite high, ranging from 4.5 to 5.1, showing an intense trade relationship. Further, the trade complementarity index indicates that Indonesia is better suited to supply the Pakistani market as opposed to Pakistan supplying the Indonesian market, thus Indonesia stands to gain more from a potential free trade agreement between the two countries.

(Adapted from “Second Review of the Indonesia-Pakistan Preferential Trade Agreement,” by Samir S Amir and Rabia Tariq, published in 2021 by The Pakistan Business Council)

Reflection cards for promotion

In a survey, 88pc of those promoted said that they recorded their performance to support their proposal for a promotion. To do so, create reflection cards that can have the following: 1) what you did and what worked well. Begin your reflection card by talking about the elements of a project that you’re leading. The idea is to help your manager really understand your contributions and what you did well. 2) What you learned and can do better: what are your takeaways from working on this project? How could you have made it better and what goals have you set for yourself from that experience? 3) Take responsibility for the bad and the good: when you’re working in teams, it’s easy to shirk responsibility or put the blame on a process. Instead, show your boss how you’re ready to assume responsibility. If you made a mistake, own up to it and talk about how you could have avoided it and what your plans for the future are.

(Adapted from “Don’t Let WFH Get in the Way of Your Next Promotion,” by Ben Laker, Will Godley, Yemisi Bolade-Ogunfodun, and Lebene Soga, published on June 30, 2021 by Harvard Business Review Ascend)

Covid and brain changes

Recent research from the UK on the health effects of Covid-19 found that even mild cases could cause significant changes to the brain. What makes the data especially powerful is that they compare brain images before and after a Covid infection in the same people. So what did it show? “Even mild cases of Covid led to loss of volume in certain areas of the brain, specifically those involved in processing smell and taste. But they also found statistically significant brain volume loss in the gray matter — the thin layer on the surface of the brain that contains most of the neurons — in other areas involved with memory formation. Only one other common respiratory virus that he knows of that can infect the brain.

(Adapted from “Even mild cases can cause significant brain changes, research shows, making “living with Covid” a risky and dangerous strategy,” by Sam Fazeli, published on June 24, 2021, by Bloomberg Opinion)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, July 5th, 2021