Business travel will drop as videoconferencing just as effective: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

COVID-19 will reboot the world into virtual reality and following the crisis, home based models are likely to continue and business travel may very well be curtailed as virtual meetings have became just as effective, Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Saturday said.

In a blog post, she said mobile and internet banking also have seen a surge because the viral outbreak. The new world order will now become a virtual reality, she added.

"The seismic events unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic could have a powerful effect on the world we reside in, changing it in ways we'd never imagined were possible. The economical damage is likely to be unprecedented," Mazumdar-Shaw said.

The world economy, worth USD 90 trillion in the beginning of the current financial year, would have lost USD 5 trillion and moved into recession by enough time another financial year starts, she added.

"COVID-19 may be the reboot button that will trigger a system-wide overhaul. A year from now, the world we will live in will be completely different. It will impact how exactly we live, how we work, and how we use technology," Mazumdar-Shaw said.

To quote a recently available McKinsey report, "In this unprecedented new reality, we will witness a dramatic restructuring of the monetary and social order where business and society have traditionally operated," she added.

This COVID-19 outbreak is a lesson that technology has many faces and being besotted with only 1 application of computational science is dangerous, Mazumdar-Shaw said.

"For humanity to survive, we will desire a multi-disciplinary method of advancing science and technology, combining biotechnology, biomedical technologies, biological sciences, environmental sciences, etc," she added.

The novel coronavirus has exposed the huge shortcomings in public healthcare systems, especially in developed countries where they have largely remained static since World War II, she added.

Mazumdar-Shaw said the governments will need to bring in policies to address essential healthcare infrastructure, strategic reserves of key supplies, and contingency planning for medical equipment, diagnostics, drugs and vaccines.

"COVID-19 will also cast an extended shadow on our social and cultural lives," she added.

What repercussions these changes will have on the condition of human society only time can tell, Mazumdar-Shaw said.

The post-COVID-19 world is unlikely to look like the "normal" we've grown familiar with in the modern times, she added.

"Ultimately, the best lesson that COVID-19 can teach humanity is that we are in this together, that what affects an individual anywhere influences everyone everywhere, that as homo sapiens we must think and act unitedly rather than fretting about race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, financial status, and such artificial groupings," Mazumdar-Shaw said.