I haven't seen any report from Hashmi on what happened to the Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley. I wonder what happened to his or BBC's reporting abilities on that topic?
The optics of this genuinely make it feel like both of our former colonizers are joining hands to gang up on us.
China's obviously distracted by the Hong Kong protests right now, which shows that Modi-Shah-Doval-Jaishankar have picked a better moment to act on Kashmir. But we can't count on China being distracted forever. At some point, they'll turn their attentions back onto Kashmir and Ladakh. We'd better use our time to prepare for that moment, because we'll likely face major challenges from them when that moment comes.
Capitalizing on trade war: “There is one other monster country that has a huge domestic market, India, but they have got to get moving. There is no time to waste in catching that new wave and in fact the question is: Have they already missed it?"
Indian Made Electronics: A mere 700,000 electronics manufacturing jobs have been created since Make in India started. Skilled workers such as industrial designers are in short supply, and there isn't yet much of a supplier network providing crucial components such as batteries, semiconductors and processors. "India is not there yet. But things are beginning to fall in place."
MNCs ripping off: A CPU purchased from an Intel Authorized Distributor costs 2.6x as much as the same would from a reseller in the U.S
Free battery swapping: Chinese EV maker Nio is waiving the fees for something that could be a real selling point in the EV market: battery swapping.
K-pop in India: With the expansion of Korean culture, many Korean stores are coming up.
Millets: superfood to tackle malnutrition: After having lost out to commercial crops such as rice, wheat, and corn in the past, the resurgence of millets can also be attributed to the fact that they are climate resilient.
American Factory: The film perfectly captures the escalating workplace cultural divides between the American workers and their Chinese managers: A Chinese worker asks a visiting Chinese-speaking US colleague if workers in Ohio really get eight days off a month, telling him workers in Fuqing production lines only get one or two days off a month, and work 12 hours a day.
BBC is going full-tilt against India in J&K, and becoming a vocal participant in the conflict:
It seem the Brits believe in holding up the mirror - to everyone but themselves.
Given the British govt's historic role as instigators of conflict, Indians should be returning the favour with more support to causes like Northern Ireland and Scottish independence.
As we know, media have always been politically weaponized, ever since the earliest newspapers, and that's especially true in India. While the Indian Left have always sought to attack and caricature the Indian right, the latter had responded with newspapers of their own to get their opposing view across. Political cartoons have always been a staple of newspapers, including in India, providing fodder against all parties.
In recent decades, Bollywood/Urduwood had gotten into the act to weaponize entertainment. But even while Leftist ladder-climbers manage to enforce their will on most of the industry, other entertainers have been able to occasionally pierce the fog with alternate views.
More recently, we'd all commiserated about the need to challenge the dominance of english-language media (NDTV, etc) by hoping for our own FOX News. The arrival of newer networks like Republic TV have helped to address this gap.
The weaponization of Comedy & Satire by the Left has gone beyond the objective satire of Mark Twain. In the West, late night talk shows have been a staple of comedy entertainment, but traditionally stayed neutral without taking political sides. However, starting with Jon Stewart, the trend in recent years has seen a flood of comedians shoving their way ever more aggressively into the sphere of politics, with very powerful effects. The political right has been notably feeble in responding to this.
I was watching this video by Shekhar Gupta's news outfit The Print, and noticed a departure from their usual solemn Left-leaning reports, with a foray into satirical reporting to mock and skewer the Indian right:
What's then wrong with the Indian right also doing the same back, and coming up with comedians to skewer the Indian Left mercilessly and unsparingly?
Rather than mocking Mullahs, who are a never-ending source of absurdity ripe for ridicule, the better target might be the Indian Left, who at least cannot claim to be a persecuted minority.
Tough talk shows like Arnab's and others have had a strong impact that's greatly benefited the Indian right, by allowing them to get their viewpoint across. We now know to think beyond mere individual news reports and instead look at narratives. What about the use of comedy and satire for the same? Could the cultivation of Indian comedy & satire for skewering the Left in a broadcast format not similarly provide good return on investment? Perhaps it may start out with just humorous WhatsApp videos, but there may be room for evolution from there.
They also need to include an employment & education plan that gets youth out of the political cesspool of the Valley and over to other parts of India, where they can interact with the rest of the country. Merely looking at employment level in the Valley is only minimalist thinking.
Why not even promote exchange programs between Kashmir and the rest of the country, or even just between the Valley and Jammu?
They also really need to start getting the Valley back to normalcy soon, because the longer the current lockdown goes on, the more unhappiness will grow from it. Even I've been chatting with Kashmiris on the net who are distraught over not being able to contact their loved ones to the lack of communications. We'd better think of some kind of solution here. Social media is non-essential, but the absence of basic communication is affecting quality of life.
"Made In India" written all over "Little Sun": This is the most expensive mega-science effort India is participating in and globally ITER is the most expensive science project on Earth ever to be undertaken in the 21st century. India, by contributing to about 10% of the cost, gets access to 100% of technology.
Ditch cars:
In 2003, the share of cars was 14.8%. By 2031 that is expected to touch 40%. More cars will occupy more space. Our standard response to the traffic problem is making new roads and also widening the existing roads. But every time we make a new road or widen an existing one precious land is being used for it. The car owner gets most it for free for his use. The city indirectly pays for his car.
While we are busy making bigger and wider roads many countries are moving in a different direction. Developed societies are not adding roads. Instead they are reducing cars and other private transport. Cities like Rome, Madrid, Copenhagen, Oslo and Mexico City are using methods like high parking fees, pedestrianising the streets in peak hours and keeping some days as no car days for curbing traffic. London, has started charging congestion fees from owners of cars and taxis coming to its central area.
Long road ahead: Cities are saying ‘No’ to 5G, citing health, aesthetics.
‘Waterman of India’, Rajendra Singh: “Instead of politically administrative boundaries, we should recognise geo hydrological boundaries. Contractor-driven and corporate-driven solutions don't work. We need integrated watershed development”.
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Honor killing in Kerala: Neenu's father, who
hailed from the Latin Catholic community strongly opposed his daughter's
relationship with Kevin, a Dalit Christian.
Savarkar believed in AIT? Savarkar settles for the AIT and seems to indicate that the Aryans came from Persia and thereabouts. He inferred that upon coming to this land they felt a deep sense of oneness and belonging to the river that sustained them.
Wellness at workplace: Overworked Indian employees just want a room to nap at the workplace
Modi's govt backed off on Land Reform & Labour Reform back in 2015 after Lefties violently protested. We should try to go at this again from another angle, by devolving some of these powers down to the state and local district govts, in order to offload political risk/burden away from the central govt. Some local politicians will bow to their violent Lefty protesters and avoid using their newfound powers for reform, so that their economies then stagnate - but other local politicians will manage to get their reforms through, allowing their local economies to shoot forward. The result will be a net gain - and the positive performers will have a first-mover advantage, so that at some point they'll become ignition points to light the wider economy of the country on fire.
My point is that there are successful tactics against any obstacle - you just have to look hard enough.
Modi's govt had completely miscalculated on the latest budget, and I've no idea what led them to do so. Investors were hoping for something much more reformist, and felt completely let down by the latest budget announcement. Meanwhile, the economy is slowing down fast, as malaise seems to be accelerating, with associated layoffs, etc.
Modi & Co need to come up with a quick re-do on this budget, as there's still time to do so. Forget any sacred shibboleths about the budget having already been anounced -- forget that, and just re-do it.
Furthermore, recent developments in the US-China situation are causing major ripples for the world economy, creating perils and opportunities which India must not ignore.Trump's tariffs targeting China are of course driving many businesses to shift operations away from China to other convenient nearby alternatives. Vietnam has been a significant beneficiary of this, reaping a windfall of new business which has fallen into their lap due to business shifting away from China toward them.
India is less well-positioned to harvest the business flight from China, but it must take advantage of the current US-China fallout, in order to reap the vital and timely opportunities from it. The budget needs to be re-done in order to take aim at major developments like the current US-China clash, due to the large size and scope of its impact.
As we can see, China is now retaliating against US tariffs, and is timing its retaliation with an eye to the November 2020 elections in the US. In India, the Congress Party had stalled and then eventually approved passage of the GST with an eye to timing any resulting pain from GST transition with the upcoming national elections, hoping that this would cause the most hurt to Modi's re-election chances. Likewise, China's retaliatory tariffs against the US are now timed so that any resulting build up of economic pain will coincide or peak near the time of the US elections, to cause maximum damage to Trump's re-election bid.
Would that be considered election meddling? This tactic has never been seen before against the US, mainly because obviously not everybody has the economic heft to try something like this against USA. In China, we're now seeing for the first time somebody who does have that heft. In this high-stakes game neither side seems likely to back down, and the resulting shockwaves will likely be felt across all markets. That's why India mustn't miss out on the opportunities from this, because it could be a good opportunity to get more Make-In-India happening, which we badly need for our own employment.
Rajya Sabha TV has a segment on India's Afghan policy:
Vivek Katju needs to explain how we will avoid a repetition of Indian Airlines flight 814 hijacking, which Pakistan orchestrated and sent into Taliban-controlled territory, thus forcing us to bow to terrorist demands (Pakistan's demands) to save the passenger being held hostage.
The best strategy might be to negotiate a de-facto partition between the Pashtun southern Afghanistan and the non-Pashtun northern Afghanistan. Non-Pashtun northern Afghanistan should be separated, to ensure that it can stay viable and free from domination by Pakistan/Taliban. Once US withdraws, then US and India can arm and support southern Afghanistan not merely to oppose its fall to Pakistani/Taliban forces., but even to help the Pashtuns of southern Afghanistan to influence the Pashtuns of northern Pakistan, leading to reunification/Pashtunistan. There's an old saying: "When you stare into the Abyss, the Abyss stares back" - so Pakistan's arming of Pashtuns for Taliban will automatically spill back over into northern Pakistan.
Best to leverage the natural ethnic fault lines of Afghanistan. Defending only just the non-Pashtun north is an easier battle for us to win - especially if the US is on our side. By keeping the non-Pashtun Afghan north separate, we can help the Pashtun Afghan south to naturally gravitate toward Pakistan's Pashtun north to consolidate with it. The more time that passes, the more there will be a natural de facto Pashtun ethnic reunification that puts Pakistan on the ropes.
P Chidambaram is "absconding" - going on the lam from authorities seeking to question him over his role in the INX Media scam. Dr Subramanian Swamy, who has described Chidambaram as Sonia Gandhi's chief money launderer, comments on what lies ahead for him:
N Ram has company: Twitter ran paid ads from China's state news media criticizing the Hong Kong protests . . . . .
China also ran a covert disinformation campaign using fake social media accounts to target Hong Kong protests. Twitter,
Facebook are blocked in the mainland, but not in Hong
Kong.
Chinese telecom firms are security risk: “China today controls a significant section of India’s telecom networks even though information dominance is at the core of China’s military strategy, posing an unacceptable security risk”.
Sydney think tank: China missiles could overwhelm U.S. military in Asia in ‘hours’, says think tank
Entrenched and entitled: Card payments group Visa is critical of the India’s move towards no-fee debit card transactions
And now, plant-based eggs: Mung bean based liquid egg product, JUST Egg, is the second-best performing in the category.
Fermented rice or Pazhaya saadam: Increase healthy gut bacteria. High in vitamins like B12 lacking in other vegetarian sources... Use only organic milk free of antibiotics
The Modi-hating and Trump-hating Globalists are trying to promote Doom & Gloom in order to convince voters to reject those like Trump and Modi. The fact that these Globalists don't themselves offer any economic solutions is because they have none - instead they rely upon selective manipulation of facts to promote their narrative. Any positive economic reports are ignored by them, while any negative reports are played up. Modi's next national election is farther away, but there are plenty of state-level polls in the interim.
— RSS - Ready for Selfless Service (@PartyVillage017) August 11, 2019
Google is sharing the 'crown jewel' of its AI efforts with China: Peter Thiel. "AI is a military technology. Starting an AI lab in China while ending an AI contract with the Pentagon is shocking... By now we should understand that the real point of talking about what’s good for the world is to evade responsibility for the good of the country". . . . . Sentient, the classified artificial brain behind US intelligence.
5G Hype: China warns India of 'reverse sanctions' if Huawei is blocked
Han tricks: Chinese companies are funneling made-in-China products through Vietnam to avoid tariffs, a practice known as transshipment.
Speaking of China, there's a good chance the medicine you take originated there. The Defense Department is flagging this as a national security risk after pills made there were found to contain carcinogens https://t.co/TqX0xLdr6w
People-focused innovations: e-slippers, gliding platforms and more: meet the student innovators of Maddur
'Dangerous Korean cult': A lot of youth from the Northeast have fallen for the Christian cult from South Korea, Shincheonji, led by Lee Man-Hee.
Beef ban:
UK university banning beef burgers and introducing a levy on plastic
bottles as part of a wider drive to tackle climate change.
Water can act as a battery, too:
It’s called pumped storage and it’s the largest and oldest form of
energy storage in the US, and it’s the most efficient form of
large-scale energy storage.
Why does my child study Sanskrit? You will find universities from many countries having a Sanskrit faculty. Although India has been its custodian, Sanskrit has had universal appeal for centuries.
Hats off to the creator of this video.. The entire history of our civilization in 5 mins. And we are only taught of Mughals in our history books... pic.twitter.com/hHnSwntYSI
Meh, I think the Supreme Court of India is being political and deliberately anemic/flaccid on support the Union of India over a fundamental issue, when they should be giving resounding support. People will remember their lacklustre performance on this issue. The cagey Supreme Court justices look to be behaving like politicians - unelected politicians.
What happens when someone in Ladakh wants a case to be adjudicated on? Is the Supreme Court of India just going to delay and abdicate further? Why shouldn't Ladakhis be able to avail themselves of the Indian judiciary's services, when they regard themselves as citizens subject to the Indian constitution? How long will the Indian Supreme Court duck this vital matter? I hope that Ladakhis will indeed come forward to have their cases taken up by the Supreme Court, to compel it to establish its jurisdiction over them.
India needs judicial reform, and not just reforms like removal of 370. Indian public needs to take note of Supreme Court's unreliable conduct regarding matters of fundamental importance to the nation. In the direction India's Supreme Court is heading, they'll wind up like Pakistan's courts which bar politicians from seeking public office at the behest of anti-democratic vested interests.
I think it's pretty much guaranteed that Pak will try to start an 'intifada' or mass-uprising type of insurgency in J&K. They will stoke that to the maximum, because they have no other cards to play against us. They'll also try to stoke up Khalistan, since that's nextdoor to Kashmir, and other places to a lesser extent. Once the Pak-sponsored agitation gets underway, the anti-Modi media in the country will work to quickly convert the narrative from "Modi victory" into "look how that Modi has screwed things up again".
We'd better be prepared to stoke up Khyber-Pakhtunwa, Balochistan, Karachi, etc to convince them of the reciprocal cost. And we should target CPEC to show China that Pak's provocateur behaviour will only undermine China's strategic trade plans.
Trump's indicated his willingness to throw the Afghan govt under a bus in the interest of reaching a deal with Pak. New Delhi's actions on J&K have been part of a pre-emptive response to that. Another part of the pre-emptive response may require coordinating with the Afghan govt to mobilize Pashtuns on the Pak side of the Durand Line. The current Afghan govt would have little to lose in going all-out on this, when the alternative is their wholesale ouster.
Ordinarily, I wouldn't give Shekhar Gupta any time or publicity, but here @10:00 onwards he gives a pretty good description of what India is now having to do in order to protect itself from Pakistan's coming new jihad:
Amazon's quest to rule India: Amazon in talks to buy stake in India's Reliance Retail. . . . . We love our East India overlords
Lockheed may fly with Bengaluru startup's nanotech: “Modern fighter aircraft, including Tejas, are created from composites which cannot conduct electricity. Lightning strikes can destroy the aircraft. Aircraft are equipped with a wire mesh to channel the lightning strike to ground but it adds to the weight of the aircraft. Nanotubes served the same purpose but at a significant weight reduction”.
Sino-imperialism: Why China Is Taking over Africa's Resources One Country at a Time. . . . Six million rosewood trees have been cut down in Ghana for illegal export to China. Investigations found massive institutionalised timber trafficking scheme, enabled by high-level corruption and collusion.
Sign of the times: China's capital orders Arabic, Muslim symbols taken down. . . . . How do the Chinese make a profit on eBay selling items for 99p with free postage?
We are effectively moving towards a situation where one community will enjoy complete monopoly over the whole meat industry worth billions of dollars based on religious identity.https://t.co/h3NF1neQd3
