2021: A saga of resurgence and hope

It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, […] and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment - Bram Stoker

This has been an uphill year. However, in twelve months of relentless struggle against crises, humanity has fought tooth and nail for its survival and has scaled promising heights. From the darkest hour of the pandemic to startling economic contractions, from a time where carrying on seemed improbable, the world and the country has pulled off a feat of unparalleled resistance. This might have been one of the years of Covid-19, but this has also been the year of extraordinary developments in the startup world, the year of unprecedented technological advancement and the year of a successful Olympics. This has been a year of new paradigms and we must commemorate it in the same spirit.

The Covid-19 pandemic remains very much in sight with the Delta and Omicron variants around. Yet, more than one-third of the world's population is fully vaccinated today. New medical technologies and systems of service have provided security to people in previously unimaginable ways. The current active cases remain at a meagre 0.22 per cent while recovery rate from Covid in India stands at a brilliant 98.4 per cent, the highest since March 2020. There are promises of new vaccines and medicines to help us tide over a problem we are prepared to deal with much better than before. These are all heartening developments and make a post-Covid future seem like a surer eventuality, despite roadblocks.

This has also been a time of unadulterated leaps for the entrepreneurial world in the face of adversity. As The Economic Times reports, this was indubitably the year of the unicorn for India's startup ecosystem. What was for the better part of a decade a trickle developed into a stampede as 39 startups achieved billion-dollar valuations this year. India is now home to the third-highest number of unicorns of any country after the United States and China, having overtaken the UK. Eight Indian startups launched IPOs in 2021 and these companies raised as much as $2.5 billion from public markets. This tells us that the discipline of entrepreneurship has the tensile strength to bear the hardest of times and make scintillating breakthroughs.

Work never stopped with a mix of remote working and the usual workspace coming together to let companies stay afloat and flourish. Education had its own trysts with technology and managed to sustain its continuity. Creativity marked both of these fields as hitherto unheard of manoeuvres were accomplished to create and deploy human capital.

While climate change remains a worrying predicament, the pandemic and a host of related problems did not deter us from taking stock of the situation and thinking ahead. Countries congregated to discuss biodiversity at COP15 in Kunming and all parties signed agreements at COP26 for the better futures of humanity. As UN News reports, in a bid to alter the trajectory of the consumption of fossil fuels, the UN held a High-Level Dialogue on Energy, the first of its kind in 40 years, and governments committed to install an additional 698 gigawatts of renewable energy from solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and renewables-based hydrogen, and businesses, notably power utilities, pledged to install an additional 823 GW, all by 2030.

The realm of sports and culture continued to pierce through troubles to make our lives vibrant. The Tokyo Olympics were an event of unabashed joy and hope for humankind. Whether it was India's incredible tally, or the increased representation from diverse communities, the Olympics demonstrated exceptional strategy and possibilities of carrying on in the face of gargantuan hurdles. Several other massive sports events were organized to much fanfare and applause, The Miss Universe 2021 saw an Indian winner and cinema and television came up with fresh offerings which resonated across the world.

All of these developments attest to the unfathomable capacities for durability the human world holds. 2021 has spectacularly demonstrated that no matter what we lock horns with, the right concoctions of intelligence, optimism and labour can make us survive and flourish in the direst of circumstances. All said and done, this year must be remembered as an emblem of our unwavering perseverance, our commitment to shape our destinies and our march into an ever-expanding future of rewarding possibilities.

(The author is Chief Impact Officer at Recykal Foundation)