Quick notes: Petro-yuan | English fines...

• Petrodollar Dusk, Petroyuan Dawn: Iran, Venezuela, Russia and now Saudi Arabia shifting towards Petro-yuan. For nearly 50 years, the Saudis had insisted on payments with US dollars. But that all changed recently. “The Saudi move could chip away at the supremacy of the US dollar in the international financial system, which Washington has relied on for decades to print Treasury bills it uses to finance its budget deficit.”




• India Pushes Trade in Local Currency : Malaysia will be a test case that other countries will watch to decide whether trading in the Indian currency is feasible. India has already established a rupee-ruble payment mechanism with Moscow, which experts say is serving as a template for other countries. Last July, banks from 18 countries set up rupee accounts in Indian banks. They include Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania, Israel, Germany, Oman and Singapore.



• Italy introduces legislation to stop invasion of English language: Public officials could face fines of up to $110K for using foreign words in official communications.. France also has a language watchdog – the Académie Française — in which it catalogs and fight against foreign words, especially English ones, creeping into everyday language.

Countries oppose/ban the use of foreign language and even the foreign vocabulary in official communications to preserve their culture since language and culture are inseparable and go together. Invaders/colonisers impose their language for the same reason! https://t.co/YUabTzMdF3

— चमू कृष्णशास्त्री Chamu KrishnaShastry (@ChamuKShastry) April 2, 2023




• Brown is beautiful: India's 'brown beauty' makeup influencers go global




• New star in AI: Google says its AI chip is up to 1.7x faster and 1.9x more power-efficient than Nvidia A100 chip.



• Generative AI: Who will be the ultimate financial winners?

Great clip from @chamath describing who the ultimate financial winners may be from the generative AI revolution

pic.twitter.com/PieaotllOI

— Science Is Strategic (@scienceisstrat1) March 30, 2023




• Ustad Imrat Khan: Raag Gorakh Kalyan, drut