COMMERCE ALL THE WAY

Change is the unchanging law of nature. It is an axiomatic fact and, by its very nature, transcendental. Its nature is to consume all living and inanimate things.

1. Outline

However, at another scale, there is an equal and pervasive change impacting human society. That is commercialization, which slowly, and sometimes quickly, spreads its tentacles to include all aspects of social life structures and processes in its expanding sphere.Everything is structured, defined, categorized, and set in motion for exchange and valuation. It can be called anything from commercialization to exchange to monetization. As if there are certain de facto stock exchanges, besides the existing one in business and commerce, to list the stocks of non-business structures and activities. Search engines are set in motion to include as many and diverse companies as possible on the stock exchange.The goal is to monitize every unit, process, activity, and structure of society by creating a valuation mechanism for further exchange on the stock market.The cycle of exchange is nonstop and moves in a cyclic motion of constancy or fluctuation. Everybody is experiencing the phenomena of commercialization, exchange, and valuation, but the realisation part is somewhat slowly emerging.

2. Paradigm Drift

The established pattern of a way of life process in our society, culture, economy, politics, and activities is being drifted away and supplanted by a reoriented way of life process, which is based on a specific set of concepts, assumptions, values, and practices.The paradigm hitherto based on public participation, discussion, and open access irrespective of class or creed is slowly and steadily being relegated to the background by the emerging market forces unleashed by commercialization, marketization, and monetization.

Everything is being assessed through net cash reversion or valuation. Anybody may call it by any nomenclature, but the fact is that there is a paradigm shift in our public and social spheres, life processes, and activities. The catalyst for the shift is the all-pervasive market mechanism, which may be physical, virtual, or anything else.

Essentially, it is a stock exchange market, both physical and virtual. As if everything was constantly and consistently aiming to get into the exchange-derived valuation tag.The exchange-derived valuation tag is for all and any sundry item or service as an identification tag for benchmarking ourselves in our various spheres of activities. It is considered essential to our social order.

The same is also coming out in our mental process when we talk about anything to derive the valuation for a particular product, process, or service. It so happens that the public media discuss whether "A," "B," or "C" foundation-sponsored higher educational fellowships or non-public service in a particular sector is prestigious not because it is done through an open, competitive assessment but by virtue of recommendation from certain quarters. It is a fact, and it is happening also.

3. Product, Process, and Service

The paradigm shift is visible in various sectors of product, process, and service.

 3.1. Charity

Charity is slowly and steadily coming into the fold of commercialization. Enhancing and sustaining the market share through intense competition, economies of scale, and the monetization of value has put the industry and business into charity through earmarking for corporate social responsibility (CSR). This is essential to building up the portfolio of shared entrepreneurial initiative through collaboration with local area development and entrepreneurial initiative by aligning micro-level institutions like self-help groups (SHGs), micro-finance and credit groups, etc. at the grass-roots level. At the micro level, they are enticed to become their brand ambassadors in some way.Their very purpose is to make their presence felt at the grass-roots level through the involvement of such microlevel institutions. It may be called "direct marketing ventures" by business enterprises.

 3.2. Art and Artefacts

Rapid advancement in communication and tourism is making a significant dent in traditional artifacts. Such products cannot be economised in scale because they involve audacity of product, material, skill, time, and process. To cater to the mass market in terms of economy of scale, products based on handwork and skill are now machine-made, along with the addition of synthetic or plastic materials to the original materials. This has been demonstrated in the cases of numerous handcrafted works of art, paintings, and artefacts that were previously restricted to specific areas and skill groups.

There are numerous such products that have either been adopted by commerce or have gone into oblivion. Stone and wood carvings, camphor garlands, sliver and filigree, terracotta and pottery, jute carpets, and sea shell works, to name a few,

 3.3. Education

In India, education is declared a fundamental right. This is after the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002, inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education for all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a fundamental right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which represents the consequential legislation envisaged under Article 21-A, means that every child has a right to a full-time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school that satisfies certain essential norms and standards set forth in the Supreme Court's judgement. 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights set a common standard of achievements for all people and all nations by inserting Art. 26(1) on the right to education, i.e., "Everyone has the right to education." Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education will be mandated."Technical and professional education shall be made generally available, and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit." 

Declarations are essential towards universal basic literacy. But this sector has optimum penetration and reach for commercialization. It starts from nursery school and continues through higher education and research. It is one of the most lucrative sectors where major business houses have predominant access, reach, and presence. Towards this end, educational institutions are given ranks by various agencies under a certain assessment framework to create an artificial demand and supply situation.

Education has evolved around the paradigm of shaping humanity by focusing on character building with secular values of compassion, tolerance, patience, purity, and perseverance. It also involves focusing on the clarification and understanding of key theories, concepts, definitions, methods, dialectics, assumptions, arguments, discussion, ideas, knowledge, reality, etc.

However, the entry of commerce into education turned into a demand-supply situation. Education is reoriented to cater to certain skills demanded by business, industry, and market forces. If you go to any field of education, be it managerial, health, engineering, science, nursery, primary, secondary, or higher, someway or another, business is involved, either wholly or partially through project or scholarship sponsorship. New skill areas and curricula are established as and when the market so demands. Essentially, the purpose of this sector is to meet the market's supply and demand chain.

3.4. Health

The inclusion of the right to health as a fundamental right has not been expressly carried out in the Constitution of India, but the Directive Principles of State Policy in Chapter IV conclusively focus on the role of the state in taking care of the basic health needs of its population:

·     promote the welfare of its people (Art. 38);

·     Protect their health and strength from abuse (Art. 39(e));

·     Provide public assistance in cases of sickness, disability, or "undeserved want" (Art. 41);

·     Ensure just and humane conditions of work, and

·     raise nutrition levels, improve the standard of living, and consider the improvement of public health as its primary duty (Art. 47).

Following education is health, which is undergoing massive marketization based on commercial principles.Commerce in health is a positive step as long as it promotes or supplements the state's effort to achieve universal health care.

 The question is whether commercialization can protect patient care decisions from profit-driven decisions.It has been found that health care services in the private sector are mostly converted into revenue in terms of net cash flow through various services including medical diagnostic tests, paramedical services, room rental and services, ICU systems, etc. Further, doctor-patient relationships get circumvented by the influence-peddling role of non-physician managers in the decision-making of doctors.

The role of pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment companies is an open secret in health care, as is their peddling in doctor-patient relationships. How do you strike a balance between health services and the profit motive? That issue needs to be addressed.

3.5. Ancilliary Areas:

In organising sponsorship events, the pervasive effect of market and commerce in converting everything into monetary value is well known.

·     social and cultural (festivals, if you will)

·     Sports sponsorship competition at the league, school, college, national, and international levels is well known.

·     Services provide empty space for direct access by businesses and corporate houses in terms of supply, delivery, transport, finance, and other logistics.

 4. Remarks

Commercialization per se is there to stay and needs to stay as well. It may promote efficiency, competition, and economies of scale. But if it becomes the first and last principle, then it may affect quality, price manipulation, and cartels. And if it is not regulated, it may have an impact on the basic socioeconomic and cultural fabric of society.

-Asutosh Satpathy