Quick notes: Eco-sensitive zone | Pangong pullback...

• Church lobby backed by Kaangress and the Left: Protest brewing over buffer zone around the Wayanad wildlife sanctuary in Kerala's high ranges. . . . . . . Rahul Gandhi joins protest (..dated).
  
  Recurring floods and landslides are an outcome of rampant destruction of nature in Kerala. Forests, hills and water bodies are being encroached upon and destroyed to set up homes, raise crops and build resorts, with the development here often being driven by greed, not need.



• You can't build large dams in the Himalayas: In 2013, disaster struck the Mandakini river and this year it hit the Alaknanda.  Bhagirathi was saved because three dam projects were scrapped after being half constructed.
  
  When India was indeed a vishwaguru, it used science with common sense. We used to think of a development model which would not be disastrous for the people. The solution is what we did in Rajasthan. We made 11,800 small dams and not a single dam broke in the last 38 years. They are very small dams and they stopped water which then percolated in the ground. The land absorbed them and it is now in an underground aquifer.



• India not ready for mass adoption of EVs: Because of EV adoption, Norway nearly leads the world in per-capita electricity use. . . . Hybrids are more suited for India for the near future.



• Vacating the heights: Chinese troops were being posted to such forward locations for the first time and, contrary to belief that they were well-settled, the medical casualties were higher.
  

  China’s “win-win.” It insisted on:
  1. A Pangong-limited deal.
  2. A Buffer Zone. The Fingers 4 to 8 area was disputed. But Buffer Zone includes a swath of Indian-held area never in dispute. India is retreating further back in its own territory, to its post between Fingers 2 and 3.

  — Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) February 11, 2021




• Life without Google and Facebook: Microsoft backs Australia’s proposal that tech companies pay newspapers for content. The proposal could prompt other countries to follow suit in a global transformation of the relationship between tech companies and traditional media. 



• No more CCP checks? China bans BBC news broadcasts... BBC, Cambridge University took cash from CCP backed Tencent



• $17 Billion Semiconductor Fab: Samsung Foundry is seeking to build a leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing facility in the USA.