Saturday, October 31, 2020
Fwd: Retrospective-Prospective Series 5 - Webinar with Koenraad Elst
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: INDICA <info@indica.org.in>
Date: Sat, Oct 31, 2020 at 8:42 AM
Subject: Retrospective-Prospective Series 5 - Webinar with Koenraad Elst
To: <rajeev.srinivasan@gmail.com>
From: INDICA <info@indica.org.in>
Date: Sat, Oct 31, 2020 at 8:42 AM
Subject: Retrospective-Prospective Series 5 - Webinar with Koenraad Elst
To: <rajeev.srinivasan@gmail.com>
|
sent from xiaomi redmi note 5, so please excuse brevity and typos
Friday, October 30, 2020
Quick notes: Neutrino observatory | Electric buses...
- Warning from Indian scientists: India will lose edge over rivals if neutrino project delayed by another year.. An underground laboratory proposed in Tamil Nadu has been a non-starter for years.. "After a year, other competitors will be ahead of us and there is no second prize for discovery in science. The detector technology which TIFR and related institutes built is unique in the world. We have a unique way to do the experiment with proven ideas that no one in the world can match."
China will complete the construction of Underground Neutrino Observatory by 2022. Other neutrino experiments, such as Hyper-Kamiokande (Hyper-K) in Japan and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) in the USA, are also under construction. - Karnataka can't keep China out of electric buses: India may have made rules to curb Chinese imports, but a look at transport corporations' efforts to procure 490 electric buses shows that there is no alternative to Chinese products for now, at least in the electric vehicle sector. . . . . world champs in history debates.
- Project Hanson: How Chinese military contractor acquired Michigan dual-use manufacturer
- First of five: China's first domestically built aircraft carrier to be combat-ready by year-end. Four more are in the works.
- Lesson for India's massive solar farms: Managing vegetation should be among the first things to consider when developing large-scale solar.
- US grid-battery costs dropped 70% over 3 years: Future grids will be dominated by solar and wind with battery storage to smooth out the supply from variable generators.
- Rad’s E-Bike Disrupts America’s Pandemic Commute: Convincing customers that they can use the bikes to replace at least some car trips.
- Tern GSD Cargo Bike:
- San Diego fraudster: Nimesh Shah, 37, was sentenced to almost four years in jail for defrauding the Department of Veterans Affairs out of nearly $30 million
- Interest from India and abroad: Tirupati's National Sanskrit University online courses evoke positive response from students
- Dictionary of Dravidian Languages: Unique dictionary covering 4 Dravidian languages ready
Ant IPO Sets Off $3 Trillion Scramble Among Small Investors - The Wall Street Journal.
Ant IPO Sets Off $3 Trillion Scramble Among Small Investors https://www.wsj.com/articles/ant-ipo-sets-off-3-trillion-scramble-among-small-investors-11604050204
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Great Barrington and John Snow duel on Covid
https://rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/p/great-barrington-and-john-snow-duel?r=66qfh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=email
why is the medical industry unable to figure covid out? maybe it is inherently incapable of doing so.
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Quick notes: Desi drones | Globalization rethink...
-
Raising a swarm: India’s R&D spending on drone technologies is not even equal to the
annual maintenance costs of the fleet of imported systems. The lack of a long-term acquisition plan or a roadmap, a
version of the Integrated Guided Missile Development program for
drones, means there
is virtually no indigenous ecosystem for UASes. Worse, all the major
components for lightweight drones, the auto-pilot or the brain of the machine, the battery pack, the motherboard and the propellers and
motors, are imported, the majority from the world leader in drones,
China.
There is exactly one project which currently holds out a glimmer of hope for futuristic military projects, the Mehar Baba Swarm Drone Competition, an IAF-funded project for creating swarm drones. The winner of the contest to build a fleet of 50 drones to deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster relief will bag a Rs 100 crore IAF contract. But such projects, which bring in the brightest in Indian industry, are few and far between... Unmanned surveillance gives us a huge tactical advantage on the seas, which satellite and aircraft-based surveillance don’t
Developers point to Turkey, which has built up an ecosystem over the past 15 years and is now a world leader in armed drones. Turkish armed drones have tipped the scales in virtually every recent conflict in its extended neighbourhood, from Syria and Libya to Nagorno Karabakh. It might only be a matter of time before drones appear in our neighbourhood too, as a wake-up call. - Latest terror strategy: Pakistan using Chinese drones to airdrop weapons in Indian border areas. . . Army shoots down Paki quadcopter in Kashmir
- JEE (Main) to be conducted in regional languages from 2021: “Top-scoring countries in PISA examination use mother tongue as a medium of instruction”.
- VikAss is visible: “Look at, India, it’s so filthy, the air is filthy”.
- Turns out, globalization wasn't such a blessing: Back in the ’90s, when the post-Cold War consensus was just emerging, economists tended to take a simplistic either-or view of trade—either you were a free trader or a protectionist—and forced people to choose sides.
Paul Krugman branded just about everybody who questioned the rapid pace of globalization a fool who didn’t understand economics very well. Now Krugman has come out and admitted that his own understanding of economics has been seriously deficient as well. Many of these working-class communities have been hit hard by Chinese competition, which economists made a “major mistake” in underestimating, Krugman says. - The Economics Nobel Isn’t Really A Nobel: Technically, there is no Nobel Prize in economics. The Nobel Foundation doesn’t pay out the award or choose the winner, but it does list the prize on its website along with the Nobels. Members of the Nobel family have spoken out against the award.
- Re-embrace the bicycle:
- Living Without Ego: The Truth is not 'deep'. The Truth is 'Here'.
- Rooftop solar isn’t shining in sunny India: Smart meters coupled with time-of-the day tariffs could be the answer.
- Shenzhen SEZ: Lessons from the hardware capital of the world. “In India, SEZs are identified with tax and exchange control relaxations. But the Chinese SEZs were basically areas exempted from the application of various domestic laws, rules and procedures by giving each SEZ chief wide discretion to adapt international best practices.”
One distressing thing I have noticed in our corner of rural India is the steady decline of the bicycle, replaced by the motorcycle. Distances as short of 1-2 km are routinely covered by motorcycles.
— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) October 20, 2020
Recently in my ancestral village a speeding motorcycle killed a morning walker.
Friday, October 23, 2020
my malayalam piece on CRISPR, patent battles and nobel 2020
https://keralakaumudi.com/news/news.php?id=417954&u=nobel-patent
--
sent from xiaomi redmi note 5, so please excuse brevity and typos
Thursday, October 22, 2020
on why IPR is important and how CRISPR-cas9 may have huge impact on us
my piece in open magazine.
https://openthemagazine.com/columns/crispr-cas9/
--
sent from xiaomi redmi note 5, so please excuse brevity and typos
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Quick notes: Manufacturing struggles | R&D spend...
- VikAss ain't working: India’s manufacturing exports are declining big time, while raw material exports are going up. In contrast rivals like Vietnam and Bangladesh managed to post positive figures for their export of manufactures ranging from garments to light engineering.
The next China? India first needs to beat Bangladesh: Even without the pandemic, India might have eventually lost the race to Bangladesh which is taking a leaf out of China’s playbook.. China held on to high GDP growth for decades by carving out for itself a far bigger dominance of low-skilled goods manufacturing than warranted by the size of its labor pool. However, India has gone the other way, choosing not to produce the things that could have absorbed its working-age population of 1 billion into factory jobs. - Anika Chebrolu: 14-year-old girl wins $25K prize for a discovery that could lead to a cure for Covid-19
- Why Govt R&D Spending Does Matter: A 10% increase in govt-financed R&D generates a 5% to 6% additional increase in privately funded R&D resulting in productivity gains.
- Anti-submarine warfare: DRDO’s SMART missile could be trump card against China’s submarines
- Kerala's own 'Neem G' e-autos to hit streets of Nepal: Kerala Automobiles Limited, a public sector undertaking, has started exporting electric autos.
- De-paving the streets: 800km of lesser-used roads in Sydney to be replaced with pedestrian networks, community spaces and market gardens.
- Royal Enfield: An Indian-made motorcycle with a retro look is coming after Harley... In its last financial year, the company sold about 824,000 bikes globally. Harley, by contrast, shipped about 218,000.
- Larry Summers: America would have saved trillions had it handled the pandemic as well as Pakistan
- Fair skin obsession: 'Name one dark-skinned superstar in Bollywood'.
- Help the traditional goldsmiths:
- Why a cyclist is a disaster for the economy: 😀
- Does not buy a car and does not take a car loan.
- Does not buy gasoline, does not need car insurance.
- Does not use the services of repair shops and car washes.
- Does not become obese.
- Does not buy drugs.
- Depends less on doctors.
yes. IIT/eng/medical education has been generous 'foreign aid' give by india to the US. at the cost of universal primary education. i once wrote that the middle class hijacked indian edu budgets for the benefit of their kids. IITs are "finishing school for the middle class" 1/2
— Prof राजीवः श्रीनिवासः (@RajeevSrinivasa) October 17, 2020
#Tanishq episode should now be used to benefit small time hindu goldsmiths , the traditional sunyaras who sit in small shops...
— Ritu (सत्यसाधक) #EqualRightsForHindus (@RituRathaur) October 14, 2020
Let's make their #Diwali beautiful from now onwards
Pls encourage all your family & freinds to do so!
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
arvind makes the case against biden
https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/trump-better-india-indian-americans-biden-harris
greg sheridan made a similar point in the australian, but that article seems to be firewalled now. good stuff if you can find it.
--
sent from xiaomi redmi note 5, so please excuse brevity and typos
rajiv malhotra's New Book: Sanskrit Non-Translatables
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Rajiv Malhotra
From: Rajiv Malhotra
|
Rajiv Malhotra
Infinity Foundation
174 Nassau Street #400
Princeton, NJ 08542
Infinity Foundation
174 Nassau Street #400
Princeton, NJ 08542
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Fwd: Book Announcement: Saraswati Civilisation - Paradigm shift in Ancient Indus history by Maj. Gen. GD Bakshi (Hindi edition, 2020)
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: kalyan <kalyan97@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 4:30 AM
Subject: Book Announcement: Saraswati Civilisation - Paradigm shift in Ancient Indus history by Maj. Gen. GD Bakshi (Hindi edition, 2020)
To:
From: kalyan <kalyan97@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 4:30 AM
Subject: Book Announcement: Saraswati Civilisation - Paradigm shift in Ancient Indus history by Maj. Gen. GD Bakshi (Hindi edition, 2020)
To:
(1:40:59)
FII held a Webinar on: "Saraswati Civilisation - Paradigm shift in Indian History" . Monday, 19th October 2020 at 1800 hrs. Guest Speakers: Dr. Subramanyam Swamy, MP Major General G.D. Bakshi (Retd.) SM, VSM , (Retd.) Deepak Jain Director General , FII For CVs of Spekaers: https://www.fii.org.in/speaker-profiles/ For Provisional Agenda https://www.fii.org.in/provisional-ag...
Links:
Dr. Shailendra Vyas Vice President Federation of Indian Industry
RCT is a crock; medical fundamentalism is going to kill us all
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/science/articles/randomized-control-tests-doidge
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sent from xiaomi redmi note 5, so please excuse brevity and typos
Friday, October 16, 2020
nyt says indian americans love biden harris.
ok. but since the NYT says it, i'd be a wee bit sceptical.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/us/politics/biden-harris-indian-americans.html?smid=tw-nytpolitics&smtyp=cur
--
sent from xiaomi redmi note 5, so please excuse brevity and typos
xi coughs uncontrollably in shenzhen speech. does this mean anything?
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1348278/China-news-Xi-Jinping-coronavirus-latest-president-health-fears-cough-latest-video-VN
--
sent from xiaomi redmi note 5, so please excuse brevity and typos
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Quick notes: Perovskites | Harambee...
- Solar is now king: A group of materials called perovskites are being used to create the next generation of solar panels.
More coal plants have closed during President Trump’s first term than during the entire 8 years Obama was in office. Renewables will account for 80% of growth in global electricity generation. - US politics: India better not take sides
- Hybrid war: The PLA has been developing hybrid war strategies over a period of time. A Chinese data mining company had been tracking 'big data' of over 10,000 Indian individuals. China will probably in due course make experimental attempts to target a few Indian networks as part of its cyber capability. North East India and the Red Corridor remain vulnerable to Chinese manipulation.
- Harambee: The law of generosity that rules Kenya... Indian migrants working alongside Kenyans called on Hare, the divine potency of God, and Ambe, the goddess of power, energy and invincibility. The Kenyan workers often joined in, and soon, this combined Indian chant of “Hare” and “Ambe” became a uniquely Kenyan rallying call of unification.
- Bengaluru needs a million wells: Precious rainwater that could recharge the aquifers instead flows down the buildings and tarred roads of the city as surface run-off, choking sewers and inundating low-lying areas. If the city can dig a million wells, 50-60% percolation of rainwater can be achieved and urban flooding avoided.
- Vegan Fest: Thai company is getting rich by turning Jackfruit into meat.
- Rebuild the collapsed shikhara of the Konark Sun Temple":
- Not one Big Bang: The universe goes through cycles of death and rebirth. There have been multiple Big Bangs, with more on the way.. Black holes hold clues to the existence of previous universes.
- Koe Knuffelen: With immense mental health benefits, the practice of embracing cows has growing global appeal.
- Keerthana Vaidyanathan: Ksheera Sagara Shayana
No idea why some ppl in India take the US elections and the result there so personally. You can’t shape the outcome but you can hurt India’s interests by appearing to influence their elections. India has to and will work with whoever wins there. 1/2
— Yusuf Unjhawala 🇮🇳 (@YusufDFI) October 15, 2020
I ask for a public campaign in India to seek reconstruction of the collapsed shikhara of the Konark Sun Temple. (The white part in the figure is collapsed.)
— Subhash Kak (@subhash_kak) October 11, 2020
(Such reconstruction has been done elsewhere as in the world-famous Prambanan Temple in Indonesia). pic.twitter.com/2VekovlRyd
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Fwd: Sabarimala
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Koenraad Elst
Date: Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 4:00 PM
Subject: Sabarimala
To:
From: Koenraad Elst
Date: Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 4:00 PM
Subject: Sabarimala
To:
Dear listfolk,
in case you hadn't seen this yet:
Kind regards,
KE
sent from xiaomi redmi note 5, so please excuse brevity and typos
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
is paytm's superapp the big new thing in financial services?
let us note in passing that a superapp is perfect for surveillance, and that's exactly why wechat and alipay are popular with the CCP.
https://openthemagazine.com/columns/indias-first-superapp-paytm/
--
sent from xiaomi redmi note 5, so please excuse brevity and typos
Friday, October 09, 2020
Quick notes: Phoren degree | App store...
- Yale, Oxford campuses in India? Govt pushing for changes in laws.. Indian students spend about $15 billion each year pursuing degrees overseas.
- Swadeshi app store: More than 150 startups and firms in India are working to form an alliance and toying with the idea of launching an app store to cut their reliance on Google, Apple
- India eyeing Embraer’s commercial aircraft division: That Brazil has also floated the Embraer bid to China has added urgency to the discussions.
- Make in India? Boeing F/A-18 Block III Super Hornets could be headed to India
- HAL choppers are ideal for China border: For such a small, light helicopter, the LCH is a formidable fighting machine.
- Tata Super-App: Tata taking on Mukesh Ambani could be India's Alibaba-Tencent
- Motor Cart: 18-year-old Muhammad Shibin from Kerala's Mallapuram designs a unique motor cart.
- KPs definitely supported article 370 until 1990 happened.:
- What they don’t teach you in school :
- Less Stealthy F-35: The U.S. is looking at ways to make the F-35 less stealthy for a sale to the UAE as Washington tries to overcome resistance from Israel. A working idea was for Israeli air defenses to be able to detect the UAE F-35s with technology that effectively defeats the stealth capabilities of the jets.
When I tell RW Hindus that KPs were basically running India between 1947 and 1984, they look at me like I am from Mars. Seriously guys. This isn't some cooked up myth. pic.twitter.com/dp546TVynt
— Frank (@FrankBullit67) September 24, 2020
Here’s what they don’t teach you in school about the British rule over India.
— VICE UK (@VICEUK) August 21, 2020
There’s a misguided idea that India should be grateful for the trains, democracy and law that the British empire ‘gave them’. pic.twitter.com/ThHuFouBUL
Sunday, October 04, 2020
Fwd: FW: Directory Of Subject Matter Experts
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: P
From: P
From: STI India <sti-india@psa.gov.in>
Sent: 01 October 2020 13:43
To
Cc:
Subject: Directory Of Subject Matter Experts
Dear All,
The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Govt. of India, is collating a directory of Subject Matter Experts (SME) for knowledge sharing and collaboration with Industry. This is for Industry or Philanthropic organizations to jointly engage with faculty members to co-author technical papers, seek help in evaluating technologies and engage faculty in other knowledge sharing efforts.
Kindly request the faculty to fill in their information on the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser's Portal at the link provided below.
Information on Subject Matter Experts: https://www.psa.gov.in/web/contact/subject_matter_expert
The information shared will be publicly accessible in a central repository on the PSA's portal under industry engagement for promotion of R&D through Industry collaborations.
Regards,
Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser
to the Government of India
thanks
rajeev
sent from xiaomi redmi note 5 phone, so please excuse brevity and typos
Friday, October 02, 2020
Quick notes: SEZ flop | Imported waste...
- Why Indian SEZs failed: India's SEZ "reforms" largely centered around concessions to favored businesses--tax sops and
cheap real estate—rather than a fundamental reset of India’s convoluted
and restrictive rules for doing business. If low taxes were all that
mattered for attracting investment, any poor country could entice global
manufacturers by slashing taxes. Clearly, good governance and strong
rule of law matter a great deal more to such businesses.
Whereas the Shenzhen agglomeration alone sprawls across 2,000 square km, all of India’s SEZs put together occupy less than 500 square km. Larger zones benefit from several spillover effects: They attract clusters of businesses, encourage knowledge transfers from foreign to domestic companies, and spread employment, infrastructure and development to neighboring regions. India’s zones are too small to do the same. - Banned Chinese apps re-enter in new avatars: India is too lucrative a market to lose for Chinese companies and they would make every effort to return. “If the app ban doesn’t subside in a few months, banned apps in new avatars will crop up.
- Battlefront at minus 40 Celsius:
The Eastern Ladakh area witnesses the harshest winters where
temperatures normally dip to minus 35 degrees in the night during
winters coupled with high-speed freezing winds.
- China's unmanned plateau helicopter makes maiden flight: The AR-500C drone will be used in missions including reconnaissance and communication relay, with optional functions including electronic disruption, target indication, fire strikes, cargo delivery, and nuclear radiation and chemical contamination reconnaissance.
- Sri Lanka returns hazardous waste to UK: Several other countries in the region have recently begun to return waste imported from foreign countries. In January, Malaysia returned 42 shipping containers of illegally imported plastic waste to the UK.
- "Detox My Fashion": Textile dyeing is one of the most polluting aspects of the global fashion industry, devastating the environment and posing health hazards to humans. The discharge is often a cocktail of carcinogenic chemicals, dyes, salts and heavy metals that not only hurt the environment, but pollute essential drinking water sources.
- Make these in India: Bollinger plans to make new electric Deliver-E van with 200 miles of range
- EU's China weak spot: Germany had been particularly reluctant to speak out on Hong Kong repression as it hoped to secure an investment deal with China by year's end.
- “We took a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook”: Tobacco companies initially just sought to make nicotine more potent. But eventually that wasn't enough to grow the business as fast as they wanted. And so they added sugar and menthol to cigarettes so you could hold the smoke in your lungs for longer periods. At Facebook, we added status updates, photo tagging, and likes, which made status and reputation primary and laid the groundwork for a teenage mental health crisis. To continue to grow the user base and in particular, the amount of time and attention users would surrender to Facebook, they needed more.
- May his ilk grow: A ray of hope for the vernacular
@sankrant I have started teaching computer programming/coding in Gujarati via weekly facebook live sessions. Page: https://t.co/ogwz8FZQyN Thank you for re-igniting that flame in me :) 🙏
— चिराग: Chirag Patel (@chipmap) September 24, 2020
Thursday, October 01, 2020
Fwd: An invitation - Nikkei Asia Exclusive webinar
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Nikkei Asia <nikkeiasia@noreturn.nikkei.info>
Date: Thu, Oct 1, 2020 at 10:01 AM
Subject: An invitation - Nikkei Asia Exclusive webinar
To:
From: Nikkei Asia <nikkeiasia@noreturn.nikkei.info>
Date: Thu, Oct 1, 2020 at 10:01 AM
Subject: An invitation - Nikkei Asia Exclusive webinar
To:
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