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By:

Asha Tripathi

14 April 2025 at 1:35:28 pm

Stop Comparing, Start Growing

Success does not grow in comparison; it grows in focus. Over the years, women have made significant strides in every sphere of life. From managing homes to leading organisations, from nurturing families to building successful careers, women have proved that strength and resilience are deeply rooted in their nature. Financial independence has become a significant milestone for many women today, bringing with it confidence, dignity, and the freedom to shape one’s own destiny. However, along...

Stop Comparing, Start Growing

Success does not grow in comparison; it grows in focus. Over the years, women have made significant strides in every sphere of life. From managing homes to leading organisations, from nurturing families to building successful careers, women have proved that strength and resilience are deeply rooted in their nature. Financial independence has become a significant milestone for many women today, bringing with it confidence, dignity, and the freedom to shape one’s own destiny. However, along with growth has come another silent challenge — the tendency to constantly observe, compare, and sometimes even compete with the journeys of others. But a crucial question arises: Is it necessary to track the growth of others in order to grow ourselves? From my personal experience of more than two decades as an entrepreneur, I have realised something very powerful — true growth begins the moment we stop looking sideways and start looking within. A Small Beginning I had a flourishing career of teaching abroad, but when I restarted my career after moving back to India, my beginning was extremely small. My very first assignment was a simple home tuition for a single student, and the amount I earned was meagre. There was nothing glamorous about it. No recognition, no large batches, no big earnings. Just one student and one opportunity. But instead of worrying about how others were doing, how many students they had, or how much they were earning, I made a conscious decision—my only focus would be on improving myself. I focused on teaching better, preparing better, and becoming more disciplined and consistent. And slowly, without even realising it, things began to grow. One student became two, two became a small group, and gradually, over the years, the work expanded beyond what I had initially imagined. Looking back today, I can confidently say that the growth did not happen because I competed with others. It happened because I competed with myself yesterday. Comparison Creates Noise When we keep watching others' journeys too closely, we unknowingly divert our own energy. Comparison creates unnecessary noise in our minds. It brings doubts, insecurities, and sometimes even negativity. Instead of walking our own path with clarity, we start questioning our speed, our direction, and our worth. True success grows through focus, not comparison. Every woman has her own story, her own pace, and her own struggles that others may never see. The path of one person can never be identical to another's. So comparing journeys is like comparing two different rivers flowing towards the same ocean — each with its own route, its own curves, and its own rhythm. As women, we already carry many responsibilities. We balance emotions, relationships, work, and society's expectations. In such a life, the last thing we need is the burden of comparison with one another. Instead, what we truly need is support for each other. When women encourage women, something extraordinary happens. Confidence grows. Opportunities multiply. Strength becomes collective rather than individual. There is enough space in the world for every woman to create her own identity. Each of us can build our own niche without stepping on someone else's path. Choose Encouragement Envy weakens us, but encouragement empowers us. Rather than questioning how someone else is progressing, we can ask a more meaningful question: "How can I grow a little better than I was yesterday?" Lift As You Rise Today, after twenty years of experience, the most valuable lesson I have learned is simple yet profound — focus on your own work with honesty and dedication, and success will quietly follow you. We, women, are capable, resilient, and creative. We do not need to pull each other down or compete in unhealthy ways. Instead, we can lift each other up while building our own dreams. Because when one woman rises, she does not rise alone. She inspires many others to believe that they can rise, too. And perhaps that is the most beautiful form of success. (The writer is a tutor based in Thane. Views personal.)

Human Capital

Economic surveys are not usually known for fretting about what people eat, how long they scroll or whether their children are glued to glowing screens. They are supposed to concern themselves with sterner fare like GDP growth, fiscal arithmetic, productivity trends and export projections. That is precisely why the Economic Survey 2025–26 deserves attention. In a striking departure, it treats junk food, obesity and excessive screen time not as lifestyle peccadilloes but as matters of macroeconomic consequence.


At his briefing ahead of the budget session, India’s chief economic adviser, V. Anantha Nageswaran startled many by straying from the familiar language of output gaps and capital formation. Instead, he spoke of ultra-processed foods, social media addiction and declining physical activity among adolescents and working-age adults. The surprise lay not in the diagnosis but in their placement within the country’s premier economic document. The blunt message was that a demographic dividend cannot be banked if the workforce is unwell in body and mind.


The survey drew on data from the National Family Health Survey to show the rapid change for the worse in India’s nutritional profile. More than one in five adults is now overweight or obese, with urban India predictably worse off but rural and poorer households catching up fast. Obesity, once caricatured as an ailment of affluence, is spreading across age groups and income classes. The causes are familiar enough: cheap ultra-processed foods, high sugar intake and increasingly sedentary lives. What is new is the survey’s insistence that this is not merely a public-health worry but an economic one.


The survey’s treatment of digital life is similarly blunt. Excessive screen time and social-media use, particularly among adolescents and young adults, are linked to anxiety, depressive symptoms and emotional distress. Behavioural studies cited in the report suggest that constant online comparison, coupled with reduced physical activity, heightens the risk of mental ill-health and even suicidal thoughts. Some Indian states have already begun to toy with restrictions on social-media access for minors.


More striking still are the policy implications the survey dares to sketch. It floats the idea of restricting the marketing of ultra-processed foods during most waking hours, alongside tighter controls on the promotion of infant and toddler milk products. It argues for clearer food labelling to help consumers make informed choices. Such measures tread on sensitive ground, pitting public health against powerful commercial interests and India’s instinctive suspicion of nanny-statism. The survey is careful to note that government action alone will not suffice and that cooperation from the private sector and greater public awareness are essential.


India’s growth ambitions rest heavily on its youthful population. In broadening its lens by linking the mental and physical well-being of the populace, the Economic Survey has made a larger point about development. It acknowledges that human capital is shaped as much by diets, screens and habits as by schooling and skills. That is laudable realism.

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