PEST ANALYSIS

1.Use PEST to brainstorm the changes happening around you. Use the prompts below
to guide your questioning, and tailor the questions to suit the specific needs of
your zone/temple/project.
2.Brainstorm opportunities arising from each of these changes.
3.Brainstorm threats or issues that could be caused by them.

The worksheet guides you through these steps.

Step 1: Brainstorm Factors

Political Factors to Consider
• Who are the country leaders—current and future? What are their views on religion,
environment, and on other policies that may affect ISKCON and/or your zone?

Both the central and state governments are favorable towards Hindu religion in general
and are appreciable towards ISKCON initiatives. We received many appreciation letters
from both the central and state government. With having a favorable government, all the
policies become favorable.

• Depending on the country, how widespread are corruption and organized crime? How
are these situations likely to change, and how is this likely to affect your
zone/temple/project?

India is a highly corrupt country, however, although the crime rate is high in India most
of this crime is unorganized. However, the people in general are religious so when it
comes to religious matters, corruption and crime does not affect ISKCON much

• How does government approach corporate policy, corporate social responsibility,

environmental issues, and customer protection legislation? What impact does
this have, and is it likely to change?

The current government is very much pro corporate. They have made the CSR
mandatory for big and medium size corporations. These CSR funds could be used to
save and spread, the Vedic culture in general. We can tap on these funds for many
ISKCON initiatives and for setting up a Girls Hostel.

Economic Factors to Consider

• How stable is the current economy? Is it growing, stagnating, or declining? At what
rate?

Due to Covid, the current economy is declining, and this impact may stay for a long
time. There is no spending happening on anything luxurious and the only business
running is the essential services. The job market is not stable and there are salary cuts
happening throughout the job market.
This is spreading a lot of stress among the young girls. Although unfortunate, but this
gives us an opportunity to fill in the gap that the girls are experiencing on the social and
economic fronts. We, as IGF, can give them a spiritual perspective on how to deal with
the current situation and come out of it as a stronger being.

• Are customers' levels of disposable income rising or falling? How is this likely to
change in the next few years? How might this affect the donations received?

The disposable income of the customers is falling as well as their spending capacity.
They are spending only on the essential goods and donations for religious purposes are
hard to come by. The situation is going to remain the same for next few years which
may pose a challenge to our preaching activities.

• What is the unemployment rate? Will it be easy to build a skilled devotee base? Or
will it be expensive to hire skilled labor?

Right now, the unemployment rate is high. Companies are forced to lay off their excess
staff. So, cost of hiring a skilled labor has come down. With no stability in the job
markets, the new or potential devotees find it difficult to spend good amount of time on
spirituality.

Socio-Cultural Factors to Consider

Consider current status and future state of…

1. population's growth rate and age profile?
2. your society's levels of health, education, and social mobility?
3. social attitudes and social taboos?
4. religious beliefs and lifestyle choices?

How could the above trends affect your zone/temple/project?

1. Population is expanding at a rapid rate, and the average age for India is coming
down
2. Noida is a tech city and educational hub. So, the overall literacy rate in Noida is
higher than the country average. The girls in Noida are socially mobile and are
using most of the social platforms.
3. With the influence of western culture, particularly in Noida, the girls are turning
away from religion. Also, the girls who are inclined towards religion, they are not
that open to practice it openly and deeply as it is considered a social taboo. The
society and people around them treat them as if they do not belong to a society.
4. As stated above, the western culture is spreading fast in Noida and more and
more people are turning towards the western lifestyle.

Technological Factors to Consider

• Are there any new technologies that you could be using?
With the advent of Jio in telecom market, the penetration of smartphones has increased
exponentially. More and more people are hooked to their smartphones and internet.
They spend most of their free time surfing the net for their interest areas.
So if we can spark their interest in spirituality and ISKCON, they would get many
programs over internet.

• Are there any new technologies on the horizon that could radically affect your work or
your industry?

1. With the advent of 5G in mobile communications, most of the people would get
access to fast and reliable internet. This would help us to spread Krishna
consciousness at a faster pace using technology.
2. Virtual reality (VR) is going to be more accessible and a norm in coming future.
We can explore VR to create some interesting content for IGF and try to outreach
girls using the VR platform.

• How have infrastructure changes affected work patterns (for example, levels of
remote working)?

In Covid times, most of the work and study is happening from home. This spares some
of their time that they use to spend on travelling. If we can help start a girl on spirituality,
they would have enough time to explore and understand the philosophy of ISKCON.
At the same time with most of the people choosing to stay home, it becomes difficult to
engage them in services.

Step 2: Brainstorm Opportunities

Once you've identified the changes that are taking place in your zone/temple/project
environment, it's time to look at each change, and brainstorm the opportunities that this
could open up for you. For example, could it help you develop new services, open up
new avenues for outreach, or help you make your services/processes more efficient?

1. With favorable governments at center and state level which helps to get the
requisite permissions without any hassle.

Step 3: Brainstorm Threats

It's also important to think about how these changes could undermine your
zone/temple/project. If you understand this early enough, you may be able to avoid
these problems, or minimize their impact.

For example, if a core part of your target “market” is in demographic decline (for
example, decline in number of college students in your yatra), could you open up other
areas/avenues? Or, if technology is threatening a key “product” (such as print media—
hard copy books) or a key service (such as Bhagavatam class attendance at the temple
as other online classes are available), can you master that technology and improve the
product or service?

Factors
Political Factors
1. Favorable central and state
governments
2. Political inclination of girls.
3. Change in government
4. High level of corruption
Economic Factors
1. Economy is declining
2. Instability in Job Market
3. Drop in average household
income
ALP Assignment
PEST Analysis Worksheet
Opportunities
1. With a sympathetic
government, it becomes
easy to conduct preaching
programs
2. We can even approach
government for help,
permissions, and grant
3. The current Chief Minister
of Uttar Pradesh is himself a
sanayasi from Goraknath
Muth, which gives us an
opportunity to get
permissions for programs
that were hard to come by
with the previous
government.
4. Right now the government
is stressing on cow
protection most and this
helps in ISKCON’s cow
protection programs.
5. Girls are usually politically
neutral and more inclined
towards religion and
spirituality. They can be
convinced to join IGF
Opportunities
1. Due to instability in the job
market there is lot of stress
among the young people.
We can outreach to these
stressed youths and help
them cope up with the
stress through sastric
guidance.
Threats
1. With both the central and s
governments run by people
with inclination towards
Hindus, sometimes it may
happen that we may incite
them in a wrong way with
wrong preaching
2. If the government changes
secular one, or one with
inclination towards anothe
religious group, they may u
their pollical clout to hamp
ISKCON’s preaching activiti
practices.
3. Corruption poses a challeng
institutions inimical toward
ISKCON may use the corrup
government machinery aga
ISKCON.
Threats
1. With the economic market
down, the girls would be m
inclined towards working o
their material skills to enha
their chances of getting a jo
2. With the drop in average
household income, there is
family pressure also on the

Socio-cultural Factors
1. Religious beliefs in Family
2. Increase in young
population
3. Influence of western
culture
4. Declining health and age
Technological Factors
1. Increased use of
smartphones
2. Availability of Internet
3. Advent of Virtual Reality
2. We can help them out with
meditation programs or
stress management
sessions based on the
teaching of Bhagavad Gita
3. It is not only the
youngsters, but the
complete family and their
friend circles are under
stress and looking for ways
to cope up with these. So, if
we can approach and
preach them message of
Krishna about how to cope
up with stress then we can
help them to start their
spiritual journey.
Opportunities
1. Easy to preach as they have
some background from the
childhood
2. The people whom we can
preach and connect with
IGF is increasing in general
and this helps us to
approach more and more
people
3. With ISKCON having many
western devotees, it helps
to preach the youngsters
when they see their
western peers practicing
Krishna consciousness.
Opportunities
1. With the smartphones,
people are now days easy
to approach and preach
2. We can reach the target
audience through internet
and social media platforms
apart from the traditional
youngsters to contribute
toward family income rathe
than spending time on
spirituality
Threats
1. Sometimes they are so
engrained in their beliefs th
becomes difficult to change
them
2. Being spiritualist is conside
a taboo at young age. It is s
considered something that
should do at an old age.
3. With the spread of western
culture, people are more
inclined towards spending
on sense gratification rathe
than Krishna’s service
Threats
1. People are more glued to
smartphones but in a wron
way like wasting their time
facebook or youtube
2. Social media platforms and
whatsapp could be used fo
spreading false/wrong
 preaching methods information about ISKCON
3. Whatsapp and other IGF
chatting platforms can be 3. VR platforms have more
easily used to reach out to content for sense gratificati
girls and make them then content for Krishna
interested consciousness.
4. Its is easy to be associated
with devotees through chat
and social media messages
and it also helps in keeping
them hooked
5. Virtual reality can be used
to develop and