Quick notes: Brain drain | Deep tech...

• GOP versus scholars: The US is witnessing the beginnings of a Science brain drain. Other countries may benefit.
  
  India must decide if it’s ready to welcome back scholars: A perceived threat to academic freedom is prompting many academicians to consider relocating. Countries in Europe have taken swift action on the perceived brain drain from the US. Emmanuel Macron extended an open invitation to the best brains to relocate to France.



• Deep tech, shallow pockets: Indian deep tech startups raised only about 3.2% of the total funds funneled into Indian startups since 2014. Unlike e-commerce, ride-hailing or financial services, where revenues kick in from the beginning, startups focusing on deep tech take years to develop and commercialize their products. While Silicon Valley might have become obsessed with startups dealing in robotics, rockets, chips and other complex technologies, such deep tech companies are having a much harder time fundraising in India. . . Frugal tech.



• Bharat Karnad: "The trouble lies in Modi’s inordinate desire to please America, to be in Trump’s good books, and that’s the joker in the pack".
  
  Remittance Tax: Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' proposes 5% remittance tax, may cost India $1.65 billion
  
  Tenacity: Xi defiance pays off as Trump meets most China trade demands
  
  Stand tough: China-US trade truce prompts nations to consider tougher tactics
  
  ‘Trump Was Forced to Back off’: Even Fox news reporter thinks President caved on China tariffs



• Al-Bakistan: Afghanistan plans to build dams to cut water flow to Pak . . . Pak always wished to turn into Arabia.. water scarcity coming soon :)
  
  




• #FundKaveriEngine trending: Many called on PM Modi to allocate more funds and resources for the Kavera engine. The goal is to end India's dependence on foreign engines for building fighter jets, promoting self-reliance in defence technology.



• US DIA Report: China still India's 'primary adversary', Pakistan mere security problem.
  
  Prepare for China conflict: "If India really did lose between two and five aircraft, as most outside analysts believe is the case, the explanation for that appeared to be the superior radar of the Chinese aircraft. I hope Indians are really reflecting upon what does this mean for a potential China-India conflict, not just what does this mean for future India-Pakistan conflicts".



• Self-Reliance looks like this: China's first 6nm domestic GPU has powered on.
  
  Tech rival: HarmonyOS replacing Windows on Huawei laptops — delivers connectivity across the ecosystem
  
  What the U.S. Feared Is Happening: China’s Chip Empire Is No Longer a Fantasy—Huawei and Xiaomi Just Opened a New Front
  
  



• Toxic work culture: Suicide due to work pressure at the OLA Krutrim, the worst place to work.



• White Man's Caste:

If Japan Pulls Its Money Out of US, Then Can India Reap That Windfall?

The Japanese, who are America's largest creditor, are starting to pull their money out of the US, which is going to cause massive effects on the US economy and world economy. But in pulling all that money out of the US, they'll have to put it somewhere. Can India reap that windfall?

Greece, India, Israel: An Emerging Alliance

The increasing tilt by Turkey towards Pakistan in regional geopolitics, again shown during Operation Sindhoor, may necessitate increased Indian hedging through outreach to Greece. Given existing ties with Israel, and the prospect of an IMEC corridor for economic trade stretching from India to Israel to Greece and beyond, should these 3 countries form a new nucleus of cooperation?

Turkey Expanding Into Africa - Will India Have to Counter It?

Given Erdogan's communal Islamist ideological bent, should Indians view his expansion into Africa as benign, or should we be concerned that it may become another new axis to link up with Pakistan, similar to what's been happening with Azerbaijan?

pahalgam: imperial fortresses and the settler-colonial complex

written on apr 28, posting now as I was traveling abroad. but the arguments remain valid.

https://open.substack.com/pub/rajeevsrinivasan/p/ep-163-abroad-at-home-pahalgam-imperial?r=66qfh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

"Pakistan Army Will Not End Conflict with India as War Is Performance of Its Nationhood"

My response to the ending comments in the video:

We must refuse (I certainly refuse) to just sit there and absorb further terrorist attacks without doing anything. If they're stupid enough to hit us, then we need to respond with attacks sufficiently punitive that the pain forces them to re-evaluate whatever's motivating them. Don't give Houthi comparison to claim overreach by our side -- Houthis are on the other side of the world from USA. Pakistan is right on our border, and we should not just sit on our thumbs and accept cross-border attacks. You call our threats mere polemics -- don't be ridiculous. We must express our will to survive, and not submit to their irredentism. Their nuke threats are hollow, because their military generals have no desire to lose their lives. Their only goal is to live in luxurious comfort while sending other fools to their deaths. Pakistan's rulers are the ones spouting polemics, while their crumbling state survives on IMF aid. They've brought themselves to ruin, and it's only US aid thru IMF which keeps them afloat. We need to deal with this IMF aid problem, since that's what furnishes them with a continued path for irredentism. One solution is to press more attacks against Pak's nuclear storage sites. This will force the Pakistanis to further disperse their nuclear assets. That dispersion will in turn cause US/Western alarm, since it makes their nukes more vulnerable to jihadi capture -- and those kinds of jihadis usually see bigger fish to fry than India.

Trump-Backed Firm Signed Crypto Deal with Pakistan Days ​After Pahalgam

Quick notes: PM yojana | Kill chain...

• Pradhan Mantri Yojana to rescue UK's economy: Hasn't India enriched them enough already?
  
  UK gains: Because British exports are so much higher value than Indian exports of clothing, footwear, and food, this should be worth £15bn extra for British exports and £10bn for India by 2040. . . expect this to get even worse for India
  
  Roll out the barrel: Scotch makers toast UK trade deal with India. . Our riches attracted invaders and colonizers. Today it is our dhaaru culture that is drawing them.
  
  FTA Impact: Scotch to get cheaper, Indian liquor stocks dip
  
  Limeys and cheating: India's exports to the UK may be impacted by Britain's decision to introduce carbon tax from 2027. “If Indian exports still face CBAM levies while UK goods enter India duty-free, it risks turning a balanced FTA into a one-sided bargain”.
  
  Limeys and looting: Sotheby's halts Buddha Piprahwa Gems auction. The collection is described as one of the most astonishing archaeological finds of the modern era. Its sale had drawn criticism from Buddhist academics and monastic leaders.




• Kill chain: While a spendthrift IAF invested in prohibitively priced weapons platforms, like the Rafale, the PAF invested in the “kill chain” inclusive of a few J-10Cs, Saab AWACS and mostly long range A2A ordnance.
  
  The PAF has initiated a new method of air warfare — combat aircraft staying well back in their own air space, firing long range air-to-air (A2A) and air-to-ground (A2G) weapons with exceptional support. Rafales cost $250 million each. The fleet of 36 is now depleted.
  
  The US is keen to push the far more useless and expensive F-35 on Modi’s India.




• US tariffs come with a side of Starlink: The US is reportedly encouraging countries to adopt Musk’s Starlink in tariff trade talks. India, Lesotho, Bangladesh, and other countries have moved forward with Starlink adoption in recent weeks.



• Woke flight? Europe launches program to lure scientists away from the US



• Manufacturing juggernaut in serious trouble: China’s economy on cusp of a deflationary death spiral

Chinese Blackout On Economic Data: Signs of Growing Economic Crisis?

The Chinese regime 'does not want us to know what's going on': Gordon Chang

Trump Announces 100% Tariffs on Movies ‘Produced in Foreign Lands’

 Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood, etc will all have a fit over this.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/04/trump-tariffs-foreign-movies

Quick notes: Indus water | JetZero...

• Indus water treaty: Denying Pakistanis even “a drop” of any of these waters is not a practical proposition in the here and now, and cannot be engineered out of thin air in the near or even mid-term. Constructing the dam infrastructure and system of subsidiary dams, etc on the eastern rivers to divert them fully to flow through India — assuming it is at all, practicable, will take India some two decades to realise. In all this time, the western river waters will be available to Pakistan.




• Arm-twisting: US pressures India to give Amazon, Walmart full market access.



• Setback for domestic chips: Adani pauses talks with Israel's Tower for $10 billion India chip foray. "Did not make strategic and commercial sense for the group".



• Indian owned startup in Silicon Valley: These electric motors could help break the world’s dependence on China's rare-earths. Conifer technical lead Yateendra Deshpande spent years helping design some of the world’s most advanced electric motors, including the ones powering Lucid Motors luxury cars. He has worked at Apple on its ill-fated car project. His co-founder, Ankit Somani, worked on data-center designs at Oracle and Google.



• Blended wing aircraft: JetZero Secures $235M U.S. Air Force Contract As United Airlines Eyes 200 Orders For Revolutionary Blended-Wing Aircraft




• Land-grab: 50 Christian farmers embroiled in land dispute join BJP hours after Waqf Bill passed. They have been protesting for several months for revenue rights over their properties, allegedly claimed by the Waqf Board.



• 30% less jobs: Microsoft's CEO reveals that AI writes up to 30% of its code — some projects may have all of its code written by AI



• China's next-gen J-36: Tri-Engine Setup, No Tail: Inside China's New Sixth-Gen Fighter Jets



• Muslim brotherhood: Why is Pakistan deporting Afghans? Not Pakistan's 'jugular vein'?



• Bhajan - Hari Om Tatsat: Raza Ali Khan · Ustad Munawar Ali Khan