Quick notes: IMEC is alive | Microplastics...

• IMEC resurrected: India–Turkey tensions shape IMEC route via Oman Jordan, Israel and Greece.
  
  Three new political-economic axes have been converging in recent weeks — none of which include Turkey:
  
  1. A renewed Qatar–Saudi axis, including the announcement of the Doha–Riyadh high-speed rail line and economic agreements between Saudi Arabia and Syria.
  
  2. The Oman–India–Jordan axis, forming the eastern and western anchors of IMEC trade routes.
  
  3. The Israel–Cyprus–Greece axis, connecting IMEC from the Middle East to Europe via the Mediterranean.



• How Solar Saved Pakistan’s Economy (sort of):




• The battle for Aravalli range: Arnab's 5 stinging questions. Who really gains?



• Your Zomato order is clogging your testicles: People who have five to 10 takeaways per month might be consuming excessive microplastic from the containers their meals come in. "Miicro- and nano- plastics, have been detected in virtually every organ in our bodies, including arteries, brain, blood, placenta and testicles".



• Leftists abandoning Muslim women? Who knew! "So many big names in progressive and feminist circles, would personally agree with us, but when it came to taking a public stand, they'd go back on their promise. Only Asghar Ali Engineer stuck publicly to the stand he took privately. And he bore the brunt for doing so".



• Putin-Bush talks: 'A Junta with nukes'-revelations on Putin-Bush talks disclose Putin's 'Pakistan' warning



• Why So Many Jews Fall In Love With Buddhism: A surprising number of American Buddhists are Jewish, enough to earn the nickname JewBus.



• Madhavi Latha: The Engineer behind the Chenab Railway Bridge, the world's highest, standing at 359 meters above the Chenab River.

annus horribilis for the US

2025 has been a disastrous year for the US, surely in foreign affairs and economics. The trade war, far from strengthening the economy, has shown the limits of American power: the capitulation to Chinese supplier power on rare earths, and a strategic retreat in the face of Chinese buyer power on soybeans, for example.

At the beginning of 2025, I must admit I was optimistic about Indo-US relations under Trump’s presidency. I did not think the G2 condominium would arrive so soon, especially under Trump, or that the eclipse of the US would be so sudden and so dramatic. India had at least one bright spot in 2025: the rapidly-growing economy, despite US tariffs. I really can’t see much that went well for the US. Truly an annus horribilis. In 1999, I wrote that that year was terrible for India, but 2025 may have been worse for the US, in my opinion.

https://open.substack.com/pub/rajeevsrinivasan/p/annus-horribilis-g2-spheres-of-influence?r=66qfh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Quick notes: Golden share | Denaturalization...

• CEOs are learning to live with Trump’s turn to state capitalism. Last week Nvidia finally got permission to sell one its most advanced semiconductor chips to China. The catch: The federal government will take 25% of the revenue from those sales.
  
  The Nvidia deal says something important about the relationship between business and government under Trump. His regular intrusions into the boardroom—taking equity stakes, revenue slices or a “golden share”; prodding companies to lower prices or sell drugs through a federal website—are a sort of state capitalism, in which the state doesn’t necessarily own companies, but uses its leverage to steer their behavior.



• Trump's biggest gift to CCP yet: Trump’s decision to let China have Nvidia chips is dangerous. . . China can accelerate science and engineering with the H200 better than any of the newer hardware from Nvidia.



• Denaturalisation: Some naturalised Americans likely to lose citizenship
  
• "De-Indianise" Call: "1 H-1B Worker Equals 10 Illegal Aliens". . . Brown MAGAs go into hiding.


• Hit hard by Trump: Tata, Infosys and Cognizant to bear brunt of Trump’s $100,000 H-1B fee
  
  
  


• Worst fears coming true: China may have reverse engineered EUV lithography tool in covert lab, report claims — employees given fake IDs to avoid secret project being detected, prototypes expected in 2028



• India's Nuclear Power Push: Big goals, slow build. Nuclear energy share in total installed capacity remains limited, fluctuating between 1.9 per cent and 2.9 per cent from FY10 to FY24.



• 'Thar Desert Will Reach Delhi Soon': Around 90 percent of the Aravalli hills is in the height of 30 to 80 metres. Now they are in danger of perishing. . . BikAss Gando Thayo Che



• 73 Ragas with Abby V:




• Clerk-factory education system: Unable to learn English, Andhra student dies by suicide.



• Is Iran dying?: Who Can Solve Iran’s Many Problems? Not I, Says the President.



• The US reverse engineered the Iranian Shahed-136 drones! :

The US Marine Corps is testing a Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) as a long range suicide drone. The US reverse engineered the Iranian Shahed-136 drones!

Too bad for Iran. Not only lost against Israel, got the nuclear sites hit, but also lost drone tech. #TWZ pic.twitter.com/LntStsg8vG

— Kiran Kumar S (@KiranKS) December 12, 2025




• India needs its own 'Singapore' (outside India): As global scrutiny grows, Chinese firms look to call Singapore home. "The Singapore brand is trusted worldwide. Singapore is valued for its international flavour, neutrality, and is culturally easy ‍for Chinese firms and their expats to adapt to,"



• Cover up: The UK wants Apple and Google to install “Nudity-Blocking Software” on iPhones and Android phones



• We don't want no AI: LG forced a Copilot web app onto its TVs but will let you delete it after user backlash.



• Aravallis: With one legal stroke, over 90% of the Aravalli range was erased on paper, handing it over to mining mafias, real-estate sharks & profiteers.



#SaveTheAravallis | Over 1.8 billion years old, the Aravalli Hills form a natural barrier protecting North India from desertification and severe air pollution. A recent Supreme Court definition has altered how the range is identified, leaving nearly 90 per cent of the hills… pic.twitter.com/DYmPteIXCn

— Republic (@republic) December 20, 2025




The shameless Haryana govt passes the bill that will open the ecologically sensitive Aravallis to construction... NCR to lose more green cover... #SaveTheAravallis @I_Am_Gurgaon #AirPollution pic.twitter.com/YOAtG5E1ka

— Shruti Malhotra ‏‎ (@Shruti_Malhotra) February 28, 2019




Old Arnab Goswami is back 🔥
Everyone should watch this video of Arnab Goswami and support him.

While other journalists remain silent, he is boldly raising his voice to #SaveAravalliHills pic.twitter.com/e75WO1A6SK

— Voice of Hindus (@Warlock_Shubh) December 19, 2025

does the BJP win in Trivandrum corporation actually mean anything?

 BJP won the Trivandrum corporation in local body elections. is this a clear inroad into the deep south, the last remaining bastion of the communists, or just a flash in the pan?

https://open.substack.com/pub/rajeevsrinivasan/p/ep-180-what-the-bjp-win-in-trivandrum?r=66qfh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Quick notes: Peaceful rise | Hybrid efficiency record...

• China’s growth is coming at the rest of the world’s expense: “China is driven by a fortress mentality and sees industrial dominance as key to wealth and power”.
  
  The most effective way to turn back China’s export onslaught would be for the U.S. to coordinate with like-minded partners. Trump has to date shown no interest in such a united front.
  

Canada last year copied the U.S.’s 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs. Then Trump hit Canada with auto tariffs, and China retaliated against Canadian agriculture. Caught in a two-front trade war, Canada is reviewing its tariffs on China. . . . Trump is a blessing for CCP. . . Why China’s trade surplus just keeps growing.



• Automobile superpower: China beats Toyota at its own hybrid car game with 48% gas engine efficiency record



• AI superpower: U.S. Investors are going big on China AI despite concerns in Congress



• China Has a Different Vision for AI: "It Might Be Smarter."
  
  Silicon Valley has spent mountains of money in pursuit of AI’s holy grail: AGI. Enthusiasts say it will give the U.S. insurmountable military advantages, help cure cancer and solve climate change, and eliminate the need for people to perform routine work such as accounting and customer service.
  
  In China, by contrast, leader Xi Jinping has recently had little to say about AGI. Instead, he is pushing the country’s tech industry to be “strongly oriented toward applications”—building practical, low-cost tools that boost China’s efficiency and can be marketed easily.

China leads research in 90% of crucial technologies — a dramatic shift this century

The United States tops the remaining areas in an assessment of 74 technologies.https://t.co/AZ6r7r9GKd pic.twitter.com/8Bp1xBzEXw

— Amit Paranjape (@aparanjape) December 14, 2025




• Deindustrializing Germany: Germany’s industrial might was built on equilibrium cheap Russian energy, Chinese technology partnerships, and an export-driven alliance with global markets. That balance has been obliterated.

Deindustrializing Germany: The Silent Coup of Brussels, Washington & the War Economy

Germany’s collapse is no longer a distant warning it is unfolding in real time on the factory floors of Wolfsburg. Volkswagen, the crown jewel of Europe’s manufacturing prowess, is preparing to…

— Navroop Singh (@TheNavroopSingh) October 22, 2025




• Swami Vivekananda on China: ‘I see before me the body of an elephant. There is a foal within. But it is a lion-cub that comes out of it. It will grow in future, and China shall become great and powerful.’



• KK Mohammed Slams BJP Govt: 'Dark Age for ASI'. "We had done conservation work of around 90 temples there during the Congress period. But during the 11 years of BJP rule, only 10 temples were restored".




• GDP figures not adding up: Why has the Rupee hit rock bottom - again?

Quick notes: Solar hack | Self-reliance...

• "We learnt a lot from the very first prototype in India": Placing solar panels over the 4,000 miles of California’s open canals could save up to 63 billion gallons of water annually — enough to meet the needs of 2 million people.
we need an Indian name for this solar hack



• India Builds Best When It Builds Alone: Take missiles, for example. If you want a missile, you have to build it yourself; nobody will sell it to you.
  
  This is also how ISRO succeeded -- you can't import a satellite launch vehicle.
  
  In such segments, DRDO and ISRO come out looking very good.
  
  Take for instance, the ring laser gyroscope developed by DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Programme.
  
  Older missiles used mechanical gyroscopes; the new laser gyroscope is far more accurate.
  
  Nobody would give that to us, so DRDO developed it indigenously.
  
  However, in areas where an import option exists -- like fighter jets, main battle tanks, or towed artillery guns -- the moment DRDO gets close to a solution, someone shows up offering to sell it.
  
  The sellers also have an interest in undermining DRDO.
  
  There are also numerous critical subsystems developed that aren't as visible.
  
  For example, the heat shield technology for re-entry vehicles was first mastered in DRDO for the Agni missile.
  
  This is why the Americans were so opposed to Agni in the 1980s, unlike other missiles -- it was a re-entry vehicle.
  
  We also had to master the technology of mounting printed circuit boards in these missiles that can withstand extreme shock, vibration, and temperature.
  
  The US had a far better ecosystem for spinning off military technology for civilian use --Teflon came from the space programme.
  
  DRDO could have done this, but it was stifled by financial and ideological hurdles.
  
  For example, armour-penetrating explosives could have had mining and other civilian applications. Similarly the laser gyro, heat shield etc.
  
  The commercialisation never took off because our finance people were scared to make decisions.
  
  I don't necessarily blame them; they fear audit objections. The whole system is messed up.
  
  This is also why government startup funds often go unspent -- no one wants to take the risk inherent in venture capitalism, where you expect many failures for one big success.
  
  This culture of audit objections stifles innovation, and no government, including the present one, has shown the willingness to truly understand and fix this problem.
  
  Our biggest success was the control law for the LCA.
  
  It started around 1992. Girish Deodhare, who just retired as DG of ADA, was my PhD student at Waterloo and joined CAIR.
  
  Dr Kota Harinarayana was the programme director of ADA.
  
  Initially, Martin Marietta was supposed to design the control software. They would talk big but belittle Indian capabilities and refused to share design documents, only giving final numbers.
  
  Dr Kalam, who took over as DG in July '92, called a meeting -- on a Sunday -- and appointed Prof Roddam Narasimha FRS, to head a committee to decide if we could build the control law indigenously. We all said we could.
  
  These foreign companies weren't impressive technically and weren't offering a knowledge transfer.
  
  We decided to go for a state-of-the-art digital fly-by-wire control with a 32-bit floating-point processor, which was advanced for the time.
  
  Prof Narasimha recommended we do it ourselves, and Dr Kalam agreed. He appointed Professor I G Sharma of IISc as an independent assessor to report to the ADA governing council every three months.
  
  We designed the first cut of the control law in about two years.
  
  A major hurdle was computing power. Due to international restrictions, we couldn't get powerful computers in India.
  
  We rented time on a British Aerospace flight simulator in the UK.
  
  Our team would go there with the software on tapes, and our test pilots would fly the LCA control law on that simulator.
  
  Interestingly, the BAE guys, who were also working on the Eurofighter, invited our pilots to try their simulator.
  
  Our pilots later reported that they found the LCA's handling qualities to be better!
  
  Professor M Vidyasagar, FRS, is a Distinguished Professor at IIT Hyderabad. He earned his BS, MS, and PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin.



• Blue skies are a luxury in India: It’s the same endless blue dome that stretches over America, Europe, and India alike. But it’s not blue anymore in most Indian cities. The saddest part? We got used to it.




Ram mandir needs trees and water bodies to be the model temple of the maryada purushothaman

— Prof राजीवः श्रीनिवासः (@RajeevSrinivasa) November 27, 2025





Trees have literally disappeared from the discourse of India today, especially in its urban and Dharmika landscape.

Why do we need to focus on it? Here is a short explainer on the importance of trees to our Dharmika ecosystem #tree #trees #hindu #dharma #landscape #urban pic.twitter.com/YWPhyoTuyw

— Mahakaul (@i_mandhata) July 9, 2025





I feel a tad bit sad every time I go outside the country. In Vietnam now. Lots of parks, used by the elderly for exercise and socializing. Lots of bicycles on the roads. We could have all this and more if only we could root out corruption and develop civic sense in India. https://t.co/Lb0rNBVSzf pic.twitter.com/ggQVOWAxYT

— Vishnu Sreekumar (@vishnusreekumar@masto.ai) (@vishnusreekr) October 24, 2025




• Royal Enfield - From a Joke to Global Domination:

AI 171 Crash Probe

AI 171 Crash Probe: Friction, unease and mistrust have marked the ongoing probe into the Air India Flight 171 crash, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Tension between the US' NTSB and Indian investigators at one point reached so high that the US side even threatened to withdraw support for the probe.

Temporary link: When two American black-box specialists landed in New Delhi in late June, urgent messages arrived on their phones.

Don’t go with the Indians, their colleagues told them.

Earlier that day, Indian authorities had told their American counterparts of a new plan to unlock the mysteries behind the first deadly crash involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

They wanted the U.S. technical experts to take a late-night flight on a military plane and then drive to a remote area. At an aerospace company’s lab there, the experts were supposed to analyze flight-data and cockpit voice recorders pulled from the wreckage of the Air India jet that crashed nearly two weeks prior.

But that plan for the recorders—commonly called the black boxes—worried Jennifer Homendy, a top U.S. transportation official. She and other American officials were concerned about the safety of U.S. personnel and equipment being taken to a remote location amid State Department security warnings about terrorism and military conflicts in the region.

The National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman made a flurry of calls, including to Sean Duffy, President Trump’s transportation secretary, as well as the chief executives of Boeing and engine-maker GE Aerospace.

At her request, the State Department sent embassy officials to intercept the NTSB recorder specialists at the airport, and the Americans stayed in Delhi.

The previously unreported episode marked a high point of tension between Indian government officials, who are leading the probe into the June 12 crash, and the American experts assisting them. The investigation has been marked by points of tension, suspicion and poor communication between senior officials of the two nations.

In June, in the crucial early days of the investigation, Homendy complained about delays in downloading data from the Air India flight and insisted Indian officials extract information from the Air India black boxes at their facility in Delhi or at the NTSB’s lab in Washington, according to the draft of an unsent letter from Homendy to India’s minister of civil aviation.

The friction has been fed by each country’s high stakes in the investigation, which is continuing and could take a year or more.

• The race to build GPS alternatives: GPS spoofing.. GPS outages from Delhi to the Black Sea… 430,000 spoofing attacks in just one year… Flights going off-route, drones crashing, networks glitching.
  
  The world has realised something alarming: We’ve built everything on one fragile system - GPS.





• Temu & Shein Just Got Destroyed By France: Ambanis have tied-up with Shein, so they cannot be touched in India

pauper Britain can afford cars?

i'm surprised. anyway, nice turnaround: India dumping manufactured goods into britain rather than vice versa. ok, it is true Britain dumps its toxic propaganda (BBC, the economist, financial times, etc) into India. graph from nikkei Asia.

behold the future of pakistan

 

sadly for India, what this means is that all these babies will invade.

How genAI produces bullshit. et tu, RLHF?

 

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.07484

sadly, RLHF makes it worse, it appears.

What's in the Report-to-US-Congress?

US panel’s report claims Pakistan’s "success" over India in May 7-10 clash. PDF link

Pakistan’s military "success" over India in its four-day clash showcased Chinese weaponry. While characterization of this conflict as a “proxy war” may overstate China’s role as an instigator, Beijing opportunistically leveraged the conflict to test and advertise the sophistication of its weapons, useful in the contexts of its ongoing border tensions with India and its expanding defense industry goals.

As Pakistan’s largest defense supplier, China provided approximately 82 percent of the country’s arms imports from 2019 to 2023.204 This clash was the first time China’s modern weapons systems, including the HQ-9 air defense system, PL-15 air-to-air missiles, and J-10 fighter aircraft were used in active combat, serving as a real-world field experiment.205 China reportedly offered to sell 40 J-35 fifth-generation fighter jets, KJ-500 aircraft, and ballistic missile defense systems to Pakistan in June 2025.206 That same month, Pakistan announced a 20 percent increase in its 2025–2026 defense budget, raising planned expenditures to $9 billion despite an overall budget decrease.

In the weeks after the conflict, Chinese embassies hailed the successes of its systems in the India-Pakistan clash, seeking to bolster weapons sales. Pakistan’s use of Chinese weapons to down French Rafale fighter jets used by India also became a particular selling point for Chinese Embassy defense sales efforts despite the fact that only three jets flown by India’s military were reportedly downed and all may not have been Rafales.

According to French intelligence, China initiated a disinformation campaign to hinder sales of French Rafales in favor of its own J-35s, and it used fake social media accounts to propagate AI and video game images of supposed “debris” from the planes China’s weaponry destroyed. Chinese Embassy officials convinced Indonesia to halt a purchase of Rafale jets already in process, furthering China’s inroads into other regional actors’ military procurements.

---

China Opportunistically Used Pakistan’s Military Crisis to Test and Promote Its Own Defense Capabilities

The Indian Army claimed China helped Pakistan with “live inputs” on Indian military positions throughout the crisis and effectively used the conflict as a testing ground for its own military capabilities.

---

The Jeruselam post: How Pakistan shot down India's cutting-edge fighter using Chinese gear

---

Prof Bharat Karnad: In retrospect, Modi made the gravest strategic error by calling the White House after the Indian missiles had been fired at the terrorist facilities in Muridke and Bahawalpur on May 7 to inform the US President that the Indian strikes were limited retaliation for the Pahalgam massacre.

Modi was telling him nothing he did not already know. But the act of Modi telling him is what marked India out in the pecking order as a subsidiary power trying to preempt Trump from lashing out. It did not work.

Not sure why Modi feels it imperative to please the US President, when Trump insults and humiliates in return. Because going strictly by his transactionalist tilt, it is Trump’s America that will be hard put strategically to replace India in the Indo-Pacific, to economically find a market as vast as India’s to sell to.

---

Dr Ajai Sahni: Trump has over the years made several statements which suggest that he is interested in a (mediatory) role in the Kashmir conflict. I think this is a very definitive disadvantage or loss as far as India is concerned.

---

"Whatever You Need": Russia Offers "5th Generation Fighter" Tech To India.

---

the big AI ponzi scheme

 

Quick notes: Dimmer skies | Tech talent...

• Bye-Bye Blue Skies: India is getting dimmer. Sunshine hours have been steadily declining across most regions for the past three decades. Aerosols from sources like vehicles and industries block sunlight — a phenomenon scientists call “solar dimming”. Reduced agriculture yields and solar power output apart from damage to health.




• Top researchers consider leaving U.S. amid funding cuts: A poll from the journal Nature found that 75% of researchers in the U.S. are considering leaving the country.



• China rolls out its version of the H-1B visa: Vaishnavi Srinivasagopalan, a skilled IT professional who has worked in both India and the U.S., has been looking for work in China. Beijing's new K-visa program targeting science and technology workers could turn that dream into a reality.



• Higher studies abroad: Parents burn fortunes, US gains skills, India loses both capital & talent.

Good oped in @EconomicTimes that points to the surge in Indian students in the US (most in STEM and management) but at huge economic and talent costs to India. The authors call for building world-class universities at home, reabsorbing PhD talent, and turning brain drain into… pic.twitter.com/7zSDTCuyTJ

— Prasanna Viswanathan (@prasannavishy) October 25, 2025




• "India is the dumbest IPO market" "The millions and billions of small investors coming in. Someone has to extract money from them, so these IPOs come and take money from you".



• The world’s most expensive stock market: In terms of Shiller P/E (a long-term measure of valuation that uses 10-year earnings figures), India is the most expensive equity market in the world, surpassing even the US. . . Buffett Indicator.



• Dhaaru haven: India to emerge as largest global scotch whisky market. Once the FTA with the UK becomes operative, it will see a variety of Scotch whisky coming into the country.



• "India is just screwing the parts together": Are we truly manufacturing, or just assembling parts? We destroyed our electronics industry and turned to a 100% importing nation. The real state of ‘Make in India’.




• Incentive wars: Why walking away can be wiser. Karnataka’s refusal to outbid Andhra Pradesh for Google’s $15 billion AI data centre may seem like a loss, but in game theory – and governance – wisdom often lies in knowing when not to play. Around the world, multinational firms have mastered the art of triggering incentive wars between governments, extracting concessions that can erode public value. . . . The Hidden Cost of Google’s $15 Billion AI Data Center in Vizag.



• Defying China: Vietnam is building islands to challenge China’s hold on a vital waterway

Quick notes: Anti-India hate | AfPak tensions...

• Anti-Hindu hate spirals: Vivek Ramaswamy, Kash Patel, Tusli Gabbard and Dinesh D'Souza all at the receiving end of White Christian bigotry.




• ‘Worship of false gods’: MAGA spreads hate on Diwali as Trump lights diyas at White House



• Brown MAGAs shocked that MAGA is racist: Indians on the right are realizing what black folks already knew. . . . Vivek is done — The racist base turned on him.




• India loses airbase in Tajikistan: The Ayni Airbase in Tajikistan, once India’s only real overseas military footing has been quietly vacated after pressure from Russia and China.



• South Asia’s most geopolitically charged shoreline: Pakistan’s Pasni port pitch to Washington can reshape regional rivalries with China and India



• Water scarcity - Pakistan's Arabia wish coming true: Afghanistan has announced plans to construct a dam on the Kunar River, a key tributary of the Kabul River, aiming to restrict water flow to Pakistan after deadly clashes along the Durand Line.



• Why Afghanistan and Pakistan are fighting: Afghanistan’s rulers say their border with Pakistan doesn’t exist.




• I like this map of Pakistan: Sindh may need more time :)




• Why Taliban trusts India but hates Pakistan: After 2001, India quietly supported Afghanistan with schools, roads, and Deobandi education. Meanwhile, Pakistan trained the old Taliban with violent Wahabi ideas. Pakistan also mistreated Afghan refugees and tried to control them. Today, the new Taliban trusts India and rejects Pakistan’s influence.




• Indians moving away from GOP: Blowback to MAGA racism

Shift towards Democrats in Virginia

Whites: 6
Black: 11
Hispanic: 20
Asian: 42

Keep demonizing immigrants, that'll take you far. pic.twitter.com/v6Mqisc4IP

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) November 7, 2025

Lal Salaam: Turning Big Apple Communist Red

Soros Brags About Brainwashing Ukrainians Into War

Uncle George, who calls for regime change against the current Indian govt, brags about having brought regime change to Ukraine

How Zohran Mamdani CAPTURED New York

Post-election Muslim triumphalism against Trump:

There are about 500 mosques in New York, but they decided to pray to Allah under a Trump building. This isn't religion, but it's yet another provocation to Christians. pic.twitter.com/YuvcHbRXt2

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) November 7, 2025

is she working because she NEEDS to, or WANTS to?

https://www.businessinsider.com/older-american-workers-health-issues-challenges-disabilities-2025-11 

i'm reminded of 'the grapes of wrath'.

cyber attack on Delhi air traffic

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/delhi-airport-saw-major-flight-disruptions-diversions-congestion-this-week-here-is-why-9591027 

the intent is to create a mid-air collision and blame the GoI, partly to erase the memory of AI171 and partly to continue with the 'vote chori' meme.

Sudan genocide? What Sudan genocide?

 Arabs killing blacks, both sunni muslims. radio silence from the usual suspects. 

AI Parody: RIP NYC

 AI gives a whole new outlet for political expression

https://x.com/ChayasClan/status/1986122518269190638

Whoever made this, it’s brilliant 😆

RIP New York pic.twitter.com/T9BFKg38mN

— Chaya’s Clan (@ChayasClan) November 5, 2025

Frankly, I couldn't care less. US gave us Kejriwal in Delhi, so they deserve Mamdani in NYC.

Grow Snakes, Get Bitten

In NYC Mayoral Victory Speech, Zohran Mamdani Quotes Nehru, Then Sends Warning To Trump

Oh well, at least he's fighting with Trump instead of fighting with us - for now.

interestingly, vice versa farmer distress in the US is forcing trump to kowtow to china

 

china used to buy 24 million metric tonnes of soybeans from the US. they suddenly switched all their purchases to Brazil and Argentina, thereby causing major farm distress. this led to Trump recapitulation to china in trade talks (along with the rare earths squeeze, of course).

Given that, it is a little funny that they are accusing India of the same. 

Trump Releases H1B Ad: Indians Are Stealing the 'American Dream' from Americans

Aren't we glad we got a shiny new defense deal with USA?

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

With Trump, it seems we get both in one package -- how convenient & thoughtful of him...

$100 million visa application fee

Keeping with the spirit of reciprocity, will the "Hindu nationalist" Government of India led by Prime minister Narendra Modi that supposedly represents "civilizational nationalism" impose a $100 million non-refundable application fee for all foreign nationals seeking to enter Bharat for the purpose of proselytization / missionary activity - without any guarantees of the visa application being approved? This should be accompanied by an open ended round of nuclear tests that continue until all parameters are satisfied to fully validate 1) thermonuclear weapons 2) tactical nukes - both things that Bharat supposedly lacks. The "declaration of no first use" should be declared null and void with an explicit statement that nukes can and will be used when the Hindu nation faces an existential crisis. The doctrine should explicitly address Jihadi Beggardesh's threats to sever the North East from the mainland at the "Chicken neck corridor" stating that any such move will be met with a nuclear deterrent mercilessly deployed against 300 million Beggardeshi Jihadis! These actions will indicate to the world that Bharat means business - and will defend both her civilizational identity and sovereignty at any cost.

death wish, Indonesia? buy some brahmos and Tejas instead! jeez!

 

Big Pharma always wins: snake oils, both allopathy drugs and generativeAI

 https://x.com/dr_alphalyrae/status/1983244962646110685

welcome to the next latest and greatest snake oil, courtesy generativeAI!

we said so years ago: allopathy is like generativeAI. 

https://openthemagazine.com/columns/artificial-intelligence-like-allopathy

voice of NATO/deepstate realizes it's game over. Europe is done for, US has no bargaining power

 

Realization slowly dawns on the economist magazine that it's the end of the European century. china has leverage.

where is india's leverage, o omniscient 180-IQ IAS/IFS mandarins in Delhi?

why is india always first here? ah, because India has no leverage

 

alphabetically, china comes before India. in terms of volume of imports, china imports 2.2 million barrels a day, India imports 1.5 million barrels a day, or china imports 50% more than India. (headline and data from the financial times).

but India is vulnerable to US pressure, whereas china retaliates. 

india has to somehow build leverage. 

Quick notes: GM corn | Whites-only...

• Arm-twisted: US trade talks may be cracking India’s opposition to GM crops. Concessions offered by the Indian trade team already included the possible easing of some restrictions on the import of GM corn. “GM is a life and death issue for Indian farmers.”... are we Trump's dumpyard?



• ‘It could feed the world’: Amaranth, a health trend 8,000 years old that survived colonization.. The Spanish believed that amaranth was a satanic food of natives. 1521: Spanish conquistadors ban amaranth cultivation under penalty of having hands severed, destroying temples where 200,000 people annually consumed tzoalli (amaranth-honey statues) during ceremonies. . . Rajgira could be game-changer for Indian farmer.




• White Right-wingers Only: Trump considers overhaul of refugee system that would favor white people. Importing white South Africans and European Nazis.



• Trump immigration plan may wipe out 15M jobs by 2035: Fewer workers in the labor force could have dramatic effects on the U.S. economy, from lower economic growth to reductions in the nation's goods and services produced.



• Soft on Beijing: Trump has purged the National Security Council of many advisers who advocated a tougher line toward China and diminished the role of the council. China hawks grow queasy over Trump’s push for deals with Beijing.



• 'DOGE was all about collecting data for Musk's Grok': Tariffs are way up. Interest on debt tops $1 Trillion. And DOGE didn’t do much.



• Japanese Monster: Shohei Ohtani’s historic performance sends LA back to World Series.




• How China Built Tech Prowess: Chemistry Classes and Research Labs. Unlike India's history debate clubs



• GOP's true colors: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat. “Im going to create some of the greatest physiological torture methods known to man. We only want true believers”. ‘I love Hitler’



• Trump Organization Expands in India: Where Many of Its Partners Face Accusations

Ashley Tellis Arrested for Spying for China

After Trump complained Modi is now with Xi, soon Ashley Tellis is arrested for giving secrets to China. Is this a "kabuki theatre" to show the American public that Indians are in league with the Chinese?

And uncoincidentally, China's govt is now cracking down on Christian churches

so now little Britain is trying to steal bitcoin from Chinese crypto investors. nation of thieves.

this is good. let's see how xi jing ping responds to this: he'll likely screw the little brits. excerpt from this FT article. 

bloody thieving brits. first they stole $45 trillion from India, then a few $ billions from Russia by freezing their assets, now this from china. "nation of thieves", not shopkeepers.

AI Is Really Making Anything Visually Possible

EPSTEIN ISLAND - As a Toy Commercial

We should learn how to make our own meme-worthy parody videos

Ashley Tellis: US State Dept Employee Accused of Leaking Secrets to China

State Department employee allegedly removed classified docs, met with Chinese officials

https://www.foxnews.com/us/state-department-employee-allegedly-removed-classified-docs-met-chinese-officials

Death blow to Indian defence industry

• Prof Bharat Karnad: Modi’s atmnirbharta policies are cementing India’s reputation as a classic sucker.
  
  “In a move that could severely undercut India’s domestic defence industry, the Modi govt is considering allowing wholly owned local subsidiaries of foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to qualify as ‘Indian vendors’ in defence procurement. This long-pending demand of multinational arms makers threatens to hand the lucrative defence market to global giants while sidelining homegrown firms.”
  
  That Modi cannot distinguish between “Made in India” — where the entire weapon system is designed, developed, and produced in the country, and “Make in India” where any foreign goods can be imported in disaggregated kit-form and screw-drivered, was pointed out by me when the PM first started talking about atmnirbharta. 11 years later we know what that means.
  
  Modi publicly disclosed what he meant by atm nirbhar — his “Make in India” policy, he said, involves “Indian toil”. So, for the PM it is enough that Indians employed in these Indian factories of foreign arms companies, being set up here in the hope of getting the exact bonanza they are getting now, will be screwdrivering vintage second rate military hardware. But, this policy wrinkle will simplify procurement by bypassing the “jhanjat” of tech transfer. Welcome to India — the dumping ground for antique Western weaponry!
  
  But this development seems in the mainstream of the Modi government’s recent initiatives that see nothing wrong in signing Free Trade Agreements left and right drawn up by that shortsighted commerce minister, Piyush Goel, and his bunch of babus, with provisions in them to permit British and European companies to bid for all Indian govt procurement contracts at the central, state and local levels worth $750 billion annually, which will void the Indian industry.
  
  There are other provisions in them that will bar Indian entities from demanding the transfer of source codes as part of sales deals to enable the re-engineering, say, of weapons and other systems for retrofitment on imported hardware and weapons platforms, to fit India’s needs and requirements.
  
  Hence, Dassault Avions’ refusal to part with source codes for the Rafale aircraft means that DRDO cannot integrate Indian designed and produced missiles and ordnance into the IAF Rafales. And even for the most minor modifications the IAF will have to go to the French company — an endless revenue stream for Dassult! Apparently Paris had alerted the French defence industry to New Delhi’s agreeing to such provisions in the soon to be formalised FTA with EU (and also with the UK and the US).
  
  



• India and China, a study in contrast: MNCs forced to do JV with locals in return for market access is at the heart of China model. In India, not only do we surrender our markets to MNCs, we also put up with their transfer pricing/royalty shenanigans

MNCs forced to do JV with locals in return for market access is at the heart of China model. It allows domestic firms to "absorb" tech and move up value chain
In India, not only do we surrender our markets to MNCs, we also put up with their transfer pricing/royalty shenanigans pic.twitter.com/49Uqi7bjul

— Diva Jain (@DivaJain2) September 5, 2025




• IAF and the French Defence industry: Recently, we learnt from defence minister Rajnath Singh that the French jet engine maker, Safran would help India design and develop its own jet engine — no, not by building on the Kaveri 35VS engine that produced 81 kiloNewtons (kN) of thrust in a dry test — which, incidentally, is some 9kN more than the 73kN thrust developed by the engines on the Rafales flying with the IAF currently. And, notwithstanding some Rupees 20 BILLION the country has sunk into the Kaveri project, including setting up the impressive jet engine facility at the GTRE, Bengaluru. But rather by forking over $10 BILLION to Safran for passing off the Snecma M88-4 engine with some tinkering, as some new fangled power plant for the Tejas 1A and Mk2.
  
  Except, the M88 is a design product of the 1970s, that is, it is an over 50 year OLD jet engine!
  
  The defence minister very proudly declared that the indigenous twin-engined advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) would be powered by this engine. Sure its power is going to be increased to 120kN but on the same old design. In other words, by the time the AMCA — a supposedly 5th generation aircraft is airborne realistically no earlier than 2040, the engine it will be outfitted with will already be 70+ years old!!!
  
  The Free Trade Agreement the Piyush Goel-led commerce ministry negotiated with the UK and is negotiating with the EU and the US, permits Western supplier firms to deny transfer of source codes for their wares!



• Blundering again: It takes a special talent in our politicians to make Leh’s Tibetan Buddhists so belligerent





• Forever dependent on phorenware: Do unto America what America does to China

Shouldn’t India do the same with Google and FB, not to mention X? pic.twitter.com/325v6OTAoI

— Sankrant Sanu सानु संक्रान्त ਸੰਕ੍ਰਾਂਤ ਸਾਨੁ (@sankrant) September 17, 2025

the end of the EV boom? ok, china you can have them all. hybrids make more sense in India.

 

now this is called leverage. xi has trump cornered

 

so that's why trump's folks are pressing India: "buy our GMO corn, or else!"

 

see this too: https://rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/p/ep-176-farm-distress-the-real-reason