JOIN USWe should not go back to pre-pandemic world, says Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus
Nobel laureate and founder of Grameen Bank Muhammad Yunus on Tuesday said we should not go back to the pre-pandemic world, which was impacted by global warming and extreme wealth concentration.
"We should not go back to the world that we are coming from - pre-pandemic days. Everybody is trying to go back to the economic situation of the pre-pandemic days," Yunus said while speaking at a virtual event organised by Vivekanand Education Society's Institute of Management Studies (VESIM) and Research for Resurgence Foundation (RFRF).
"The old world was terrible and was heading towards disaster. We don't want to join the disaster. We want to get out of that world and go into a new world," he said referring to global warming.
In this world, all the wealth is concentrated in a few hands, Yunus added.
"One per cent of the population of the world owns 99 per cent of the world's entire wealth. This is a disaster by itself. It will explode and this situation cannot continue," he noted.
Yunus said Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated that our financial institutions are designed in a wrong way as the people at the bottom of the pyramid are deprived of any financial services.
"Our financial institutions are designed in the wrong way. The financial system is constantly catering to the needs of the people who already have a lot of money."
He said banks should not judge people on whether they are creditworthy or not.
"People should be judging banks. They should be raising questions on whether banks are people worthy. Financial institutions need to make themselves people worthy," the social entrepreneur said.
Yunus said it was hard for him to see many people losing their livelihoods and not being able to find ways to survive during the pandemic.
"We have created a wrong kind of economic framework which makes this happen. We abandoned these people from our economic thoughts and actions. So they remain left out," he added.