Sapience Pulse: Edition 1

What Sapience Means

Sapience (Noun), Origin: Sapientia (Latin)

Meaning: Good taste, good sense, intelligence, and wisdom

Sapience Network is a global “Think and Do Tank”, a club of the most influential thinkers from around the globe. Sapience’s vision is to shape the world towards a benevolent and inclusive future. To this end, Sapience would work with governments, world institutions and multilateral bodies to help support and shape their thinking.

With a strong desire to serve selflessly, our members are uniting for a righteous purpose, to multiply the collective impact at a global level.

Sapience Network has identified a few areas to focus on as its core priorities at this juncture:

Shaping a truly polycentric world, i.e. a world that is multipolar in political, economic, social and cultural dimensions

Evolving the next macro-economic model, redefining the wealth creation, distribution and value delivery of the emerging world

Promoting human dignity, beyond rights, and the reverence of culture across societies

Promoting the sustainability of nature and biodiversity

Sapience would pursue these areas through multiple routes –

Sapience Network is registered in Norway and is here for the long term, to create a better world for coming generations.

Food for Thought

Rising Inequality and Economic Vulnerability

Over the last century, the world economy has seen staggering growth—global GDP has surged from around $3 trillion in 1925 to nearly $160 trillion today (in PPP terms). Alongside, average per capita income have also grown – from just $1,450 in 1925 to $19,750 now.

However, this growth has come with a deep divide – the top 10% of the world’s population now holds a staggering 74% of global wealth, while the bottom half of humanity owns just 2%.

Furthermore, economic vulnerability is a key issue too. Almost 50% of the world, i.e. ~4 billion people lack access to any form of social safety net, and around 2 billion work in informal jobs with no job security or benefits. In low income countries, the share of informal workers could be higher than 90% with no hope of social security either.

Even as the world becomes richer, the gap between prosperity and poverty is wider than ever before. For example, a child born in Somalia is roughly 25 times more likely to die before age five than one born in Norway!

This poses fundamental questions on the virtues of an economic model that is generating wealth in such a concentrated minority. If a large part of the world is excluded from this windfall and stays economically vulnerable, what does this mean for the world’s stability and resilience? These and more such vexatious questions deserve deep thought and consideration.

Biodiversity and Nature on the Brink

The world’s biodiversity is vanishing at a pace unseen in human history. Species are going extinct 1,000 to 10,000 times faster than the natural rate. A key culprit is our inveterate consumption—especially of meat. Today, the global average is 44 kg of meat per person per year. Reducing meat consumption by just 1 kg per person would spare hundreds of millions of animals from slaughter each year, besides reducing greenhouse gas emissions by over 200 mn metric tons of CO2 equivalent annually!

Our current path is environmentally dire. The richest 10% of the world emit nearly 30 tons of CO₂ annually—60 times more than the poorest 10%! Human-driven warming now triggers over 80% of extreme weather events. Heatwaves and forest fires are rampant, while Antarctica loses the equivalent mass of Mount Everest in ice every year. The human price of this disruption is high – for example, almost 200 million children under the age of 5 now face food insecurity, i.e. nearly one third of the world’s children under 5!

Can the world sustain a consumption-oriented lifestyle that extracts heavy costs from the planet? Plus, if those costs come from and further feed deep inequalities across countries, what consequences does it have for those that are vulnerable? What is the responsibility of the world towards its future generations?

These questions have no easy answers, but they demand deep contemplation and awareness building as a foundation on which change can then be envisioned.

Current Activities

Currently, Sapience Network is focussing its efforts on extending our network and establishing bridges with like-minded organisations and personalities.

In April 2025, core members of Sapience spent a few days in the UAE meeting representatives of various aspects of society, including esteemed members of the royal families of UAE, notable businessmen, religious and community leaders, policy advisors and philanthropists. The discussions served to both share the vision of Sapience as well as receive their advice. The trip also served to highlight the strong potential for UAE to be a hub for global policy making, given its strategic location and unique characteristic as a microcosm of the globe, being home to citizens of over 200 nationalities! Sapience is evaluating the possibility of establishing a hub office in the UAE in due course.

In May 2025, Sapience continued its outreach efforts with a special visit to Govardhan Eco Village, a ecovillage community outside Mumbai, to meet with its director, Shri Gauranga Das, also the head of ISKCON India and a member of ISKCON’s global Governing Body Commission.

In the latter part of May, Sapience arranged a global meet of experts in the fields of traditional Yoga and Ayurveda, both disciplines originating from the land of India (Bharat). Speakers included veterans such as Shri Virendar Kumar Hirat (France), Dr Harish Verma (Canada), Shri Premchand Munshi (Mauritius), Shri Sushil Pandit (India), Shri Sudhanshu Mittal (India) and more. The experts weighed in with their individual perspectives on integrating yoga and Ayurveda into the mainstream while preserving their original essence. The group also agreed to convene on a regular basis to brainstorm and lend a concrete shape to this initiative.

Mr Himanshu Gulati (MP, Norway), a core member of Sapience Network, held informal meetings with dignitaries and accomplished sportspersons as part of the efforts to build a global network that unites for good and righteous purposes.

Upcoming Activities

In the months of June and July, the Sapience core team intends to build further.

A follow up visit to the UAE is planned.

Sapience core team is planning to visit Norway to discuss the future of the Arctics and the critical role of the Tropics.

A discussion group is also forming to discuss critical issues regarding synergy in the strategically important Indian Oceans region, covering countries such as Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Brunei, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. The topics would cut across aspects of sovereignty, balance of payments, economic resilience and political stability. Stakeholders including governments, policy makers, civil society, professionals, corporates and overseas investors would be involved in these discussions.

Sapience is also excited to partner with the World Tribal Alliance for the first ever World Tribal Alliance conclave in November 2025. This event is the first major such gathering that unites elders from native tribes around the world in Cape Town, the cradle of humanity. The event, being organised with the support of the South African government, aims to put a spotlight on WTA’s core purpose of protecting nature and preserving indigenous wisdom, a topic that fully aligns with one of Sapience’s focus areas as well.

Sapience is working on curating events centred around our main priorities and further developments will be shared soon.

“Sapience Network is an ambitious initiative with a righteous and selfless purpose. We are passionate about making the world a better place for the coming generations.”