Quick notes: Decoupling | Drone industry...

• Decouple from western hegemony: Russia offers SWIFT alternative to India for rouble payments. Russia also wants India to link its UPI with their MIR payments system for seamless use of cards after Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. suspended operations
  
  Russia built parallel payments system that escaped Western sanctions: Crimea sanctions spurred Russia to build its own Mir payments network, taking the sting out of Visa, Mastercard exits



• Indian drone industry: In rapid succession, India unveiled new tax incentives and subsidies for drone manufacturing and sales, banned imports of completed drones, and PM Modi presided over the dispatch of 100 locally made pesticides-spraying drones to different parts of the country. "More than 200 drone startups are currently working in the country and soon their numbers will increase to 1,000".



• Chinese Chip Talent Poachers: Coordinated raids across several major Taiwanese cities to thwart "China's efforts to weaken Taiwan's core economic competitiveness."



• China Demos First Domestic GPU: Chinese startup develops full featured GPU, with a multitude of modern supporting features and technologies



• Manchurian candidate: Biden eliminates U.S. Tariffs on more than 350 China-made products



• Rudra Veena: Ustad Bahauddin Dagar | Raag Kausi Kanada




• Ahead of India in EVs? Vietnamese automaker Vinfast plans to build EVs in North Carolina starting in 2024



• Digital Markets Act: Europe will soon attempt to tame the anti-competitive power of tech companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook, which the act labels as “gatekeepers.”



• Microplastics Detected in Human Blood in New Study: “It is certainly reasonable to be concerned. The particles are there and are transported throughout the body.” Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), commonly used in disposable water bottles, and polystyrene (PS), used in food packaging and polystyrene foam, are the most common plastic polymers.



• Weedkiller and Parkinson's Disease: Studies suggest toxic weedkiller Paraquat could be a factor in the onset of Parkinson's Disease.



• Fast Fashion’s Long-term Impact: How cheap textiles are compromising the health of our planet. It might seem dramatic, but microfibers can and will infiltrate each corner of our planet. They’re in our air, in our water, and our soil.