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Mapping the global adoption of electric two-wheelers, barriers, consumer preferences and expectations.

A million-dollar question today is how soon the world will shift to electrified transportation and how the competitive dynamics in the global automobile market will change as a result. Scientists, policymakers, and industry experts around the world have been advocating for the electrification of road transportation as a strategy to reduce dependency on oil, CO2 emissions, and urban air pollution. However, electric four-wheelers (E4Ws) has their own set of challenges, as a result, electric two-wheelers (E2Ws) such as e-bikes, e-scooters, and e-motorcycles may offer more immediate opportunities for electrification of road transport, particularly in urban areas.

There are very few industries that have been adversely impacted by the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns as severely as the restaurant sector. According to the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), 7 million direct employees of the restaurant industry have been hit by the pandemic and the industry body had approached the government of India for a bailout package to help sustain them through the worst phase of the pandemic. The situation is similar in other parts of the world, as people’s habits regarding eating out has changed since the pandemic.

Almost two-thirds of consumers globally have become more health- and hygiene-conscious as a result of the pandemic. The Middle East certainly leads this trend with over three-quarters of Saudi and UAE consumers feeling an increased awareness of the need to look after their physical well-being.

The words “job loss” have been used quite frequently with the word pandemic in 2020. The pandemic has also dramatically changed the way people work. Telecommuting has become the new normal and it is likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. In this scenario, we conducted an online study in the US, and other parts of the world, to learn how the pandemic and the accompanying lockdown have affected the work-life of white-collar working professionals. The results of the study give us a good idea about the current state of work-life compared to the rest of the world.

In several European countries, the worst phase of the pandemic is over. But while for the society go back to pre-COVID normality will take a long time, across Europe lockdown measures are being lifted gradually. In Germany, businesses have started to gradually open up but with caution, with Chancellor Angela Merkel stating that in case of a surge, ''emergency brake' would be applied. Meanwhile, across the English Channel, in the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced new rules about social gatherings and operation of businesses in a bid to keep the pandemic contained.

As the pandemic spread around the world has been upturning people’s lives, it also changed the way that people do things. Shopping habits are yet another example of a routine that has changed in a big way. We’ve taken a close look at how these practices have changed in the Middle East, focusing on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt.

From wearing masks and washing our hands more carefully than ever to working from home COVID, has changed our behaviour in dramatic and measurable ways. The virus has also had a versatile impact on consumer behaviour, with large swathes of the world’s population changing their well-worn habits within a few short weeks. Following on from our previous pieces about work-life post lockdown and how the pandemic has affected attitudes towards health, we have taken a deep dive into the altered shopping habits of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa and globally.

Globally 34% of people claim to be shopping online more than they did before the pandemic. Sub Saharan Africa hasn’t followed this trend to the same degree with only 16% of South Africans and 27% of Nigerians shopping online more than before. However, this does not mean that people in these countries are unafraid of the virus. Rather people appear to be buying in bulk and visiting physical stores less often than they did before, complementing this shopping with online buying. Only 15% of worldwide respondents say they have not altered their shopping habits. Nigeria (14%) mirrors this but a greater number of South Africans (21%) have not changed the way they shop. Of the three Sub-Saharan countries in question, the last amount of Kenyans (10%) have not changed the way they shop.

Finding ourselves in the middle of a global pandemic has been a shock. We’ve spent a lot of time fine-tuning ways in which we can prevent ourselves from catching the virus. COVID-19 has prompted many of us to examine our health, with 63% of people around the world reporting that coronavirus has encouraged them to seriously consider their levels of health and fitness. We’ve taken a closer look at global changes with regard to general health, hygiene and fitness, with a special focus on Nigeria and South Africa.

A recent study conducted by Borderless Access about the impact of COVID-19 on future healthcare consultation scenario, including pre-travel healthcare consultation, found that patient behaviour and habits were significantly varied from country to country. This highlighted the notable influence of culture and social and economic realities on behaviour related to personal health.

The phrase “work is something you do, not something you travel to,” coined in 1995, was used as a motto by the proponents of the work arrangement where people do not commute to a place of work. The concept of working from home, also referred to as “telecommuting” in some instances, has been prevalent since several decades, but has never been mainstream. However, for the first time, we could see a drastic shift in status quo due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.