Quick notes: G2 | Nuclear dependency...

• G2 resets India’s calculus: The emerging US-China cooperation means the marginalisation of New Delhi and other powers in Asia and Europe. First proposed by Brzezinski and implemented by Obama in 2009, G2 suggests that the US and China rule the rest of the world. The Obama-Hu Jintao joint statement of 2009 even mentioned both countries looking after South Asian security issues.
  
  China will leverage G2 to scale up its “all-weather” friendship with Pakistan. India needs to brace for further aggression.
  
  Why Hegseth's 'Shangri-La' Speech Should Worry India: For peace, you need strength. But that is certainly not what the US is projecting right now.
  
  The Chinese use not just their navy, air force, or coast guard but even massive fishing fleets to threaten neighbours. These "maritime militia" obstruct shipping routes, forcing international shipping as well to zigzag around them.



• Honeymoon: From mutual suspicion to political embrace: How the U.S. learned to stop worrying and love Pakistan.



• Was Rafale a bad choice? Why IAF needs Russian Su-57 stealth fighter. Pakistan is pursuing Chinese J-35 stealth fighters while China already operates hundreds of J-20 stealth aircraft.



• Chinese Missile Likely Downed US F-15 Fighter Jet In Iran: US officials said the equipment could have improved Iran’s ability to track advanced fighter jets like the US F-15E Strike Eagle.

  Elon Musk Drops Truth Bomb: China’s Army of Brilliant, Relentless Talent Is Far More Powerful Than Most Outsiders Realize
  
  Elon Musk, speaking candidly in a recent interview, cut through the noise:
  
  “I want to emphasize the sheer number of smart, talented people in China who work… pic.twitter.com/YHkUStbn7J

  — Alvin Foo (@alvinfoo) May 25, 2026




• High cost of import dependence: Tighten belts says PM, then $43 Bn thrown at Rafale, another $10 Billion for a diesel submarine



• India will pay $68 billion to US to become a nuclear dependency: Trump has moved on from India and Modi. In the region, he has found Asim Munir and the Pakistani state he runs far more congenial to augment his personal/family holdings and US interests. Because however much Modi wishes to cuddle up to Trump and accommodate the US, there is a limit beyond which he cannot. Munir faces no such systemic constraint.
  
  As per the 2008 civilian nuclear cooperation act, the fuel for the imported American reactors will have to be periodically imported from the US, and which supply can be stopped/disrupted at will, at any time for any reason, that Washington can think up. If these reactors are owned by US power companies, however, the US govt will be more considerate in imposing sanctions, say. And with a regular supply of US fuel assured, these firms can be permitted profitably to run a chain of nuclear power plants in India in a closed loop.



• Indians in MAGA land: How Trump's Visa Crackdown Triggered a Texas Housing Bust




• India’s fertility rate falls below replacement level: India’s Total Fertility Rate has fallen below the replacement level for the first time, revealing a widening demographic divide between ageing southern states and younger northern states.



• Rice bags for atrocity drama: Andhra Pradesh pastor booked for staging attack on self to trigger communal unrest



• Big Subsidies for Google, Limited Water for Locals: The Dilemma of AI in India. When Google arrived last year in this sleepy coastal Indian city, the govt rolled out the welcome mat, offering billions of dollars’ worth of incentives for the U.S. company to build data centers for AI.



• Lahore Is Changing Names Of Its Streets: Now, the official signboards of Islampura read Krishan Nagar, Babri Masjid Chowk has reverted to Jain Mandir Chowk, and Rehman Gali is back to being called Ram Gali.



• America Can't Touch It: There Is A 'Shadow' Route Keeping Iran Alive.



• Tabla Cover: Shreya Bhattacharjee




• Beijing enforces policy to secure top-tier talent: Chinese AI experts in private firms now required to secure approval before international travel.



• R&D: Chinese university builds 3D chip design tool tailored to Huawei's ‘LogicFolding’ architecture — 3D design delivers increased performance and better thermal management



• Impressive specs: Russian-Chinese Irtysh 32-core CPU runs The Witcher 3 at 30+ FPS



• China's New Export Rules: Will Curbs Short Circuit India's $120 Billion Electronics Dream?



• India’s energy storage crisis: The Advanced Chemistry Cell PLI scheme, launched in 2021 with an outlay of Rs 18,100 crore, targeted 50 GWh of domestic cell manufacturing by 2025. As of December, 40 GWh had been awarded across four firms, of which only 1 GWh had been commissioned, and no incentive has yet been disbursed.
  
  Policy still treats storage as a single category. It is not. An electric vehicle battery is built around energy density — weight matters, lithium wins. A grid battery or data-centre backup has no such constraint. It needs cycle life of over 10 to 15 years, thermal safety in occupied environments.
  
  The chemistries worth backing are the ones where India already has the upstream. Zinc is the cleanest case. India is among the world’s top five zinc producers, with an integrated mining and smelting base in Rajasthan operating at global scale. The upstream does not need to be invented; what does not yet exist is the bridge from refined zinc to battery-grade material to an Indian-manufactured cell, and that bridge is a policy choice, not a technology gap.
  
  Sodium offers a parallel opportunity, side-stepping cobalt, nickel, and graphite — the three minerals Beijing holds most tightly. Indian institutions are already moving.
  
  The choice is between accepting whatever the current supply chain delivers at whatever price Beijing decides, and deliberately building a storage industry where the cell is Indian, the electrolyte is Indian and the input minerals are Indian.

Quick notes: Shaksgam Valley | High protein diet...

• China Provokes India With 'Shaksgam Valley' Claim: If the Chinese and Pakistanis join hands, they have the resources to come down to Ladakh and into Leh. However, the presence of Indian troops in Siachen is a deterrent to China and Pakistan from joining hands in the Karakoram. Therefore, if that road is constructed to Aghil Pass and is connected to Khunjerab Pass, it will provide them access. China will connect as much of the Karakoram Pass as they can. They have also constructed a 170-kilometre artery from Gilgit to Siachen.
  
  Claude Arpi's insights on Shaksgam Valley.



• Artificial nation: Pakistan Should Actually Be 4 Different Countries.



• US Companies Face Anti-Indian Backlash: Indian American entrepreneurs who obtained loans from the government-backed Small Business Administration have been singled out for coordinated harassment.



• Why India-US Trade Deal Is Delayed: India has shown willingness to eliminate tariffs on nearly 95 per cent of US industrial exports and lower duties on products such as almonds, apples and avocados. Yet Washington continues to push for unrestricted access for dairy and genetically-modified crops, including corn and soybeans -- an issue deeply sensitive in India due to environmental, political and social concerns.



• On trade, DJT is CCP's biggest asset: Trump's protectionist trade policies allow China to swoop in. Canada allowing Chinese EVs is the latest.



• Transforming India Post into a Rural E-Commerce Powerhouse: Can India Post, a state-run entity with a massive presence and logistical network across India, reposition itself as a leading e-commerce player, not just a logistical support provider?
  
  The answer could lie in harnessing the power of its well-established network, employees, and extensive rural reach to create a transformative e-commerce platform catering specifically to rural markets. It will also enable India Post to have a good share of the emerging e-commerce era pie, in terms of volume of sales, turnover, and profitability, making it a brand like Amul.



• The Effects of High-Protein Diets on Kidney Health and Longevity: High-protein diets may be associated with a number of metabolic complications that may be detrimental to kidney health. . . Kidney disease death rate by country.




• India's State-Sponsored Sugar Addiction : Thanks to our policies, India produces way more sugar than it needs, using up precious water and financial resources; and as a result, Indians end up eating more sugar than is healthy.



• Madhav Gadgil, Kerala’s reluctant prophet: Gadgil was part of the scientific scrutiny that questioned the ecological wisdom of damming Silent Valley. That intervention helped reinforce an idea Kerala would never quite abandon, that development was not automatically virtuous and that expert knowledge could legitimately challenge state power.

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.

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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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

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'Cutting India down to size'

Is there something deeper in the US' muted response to Munir's remarks that signals strategic indifference to stability in South Asia?

I think they are actually encouraging the Pakistanis to do this because they think that the Indians have got too big for their boots.

The current American establishment thinks that we need to cut the Indians down to size, and they will pull out all stops to do that.

People think this is just about some trade deal, but why should India take GM seeds from the Americans? Why should we go into bondage with the Americans on something as basic as seeds?

Can one infer that the US is using Munir's threats against India to get even with the Modi government for not succumbing to tariff threats?
I won't say the US president is firing from Munir's shoulders, but he doesn't object if somebody is doing this. What he is probably trying to do is use Pakistan as a tool against India -- partly to negotiate, partly to cut India to size.

That's the old American game, or at least that's what has been the feeling in India -- that it's the Americans who ensure that things never settle down in this region. I would add the Brits to that, but they don't exercise the same power as they did. They just have a great ability to sabotage things and disturb things. - Sushant Sareen, Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation

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'Trump Tilting Towards Pakistan' - Max Abrahms: "What we had not heard before is this sort of nuclear threat from American soil. And if this was the only incident, I would find it rather unremarkable. But what we are currently witnessing is a trend where it appears that this second Trump administration is tilting towards Pakistan and away from India. We've actually seen it throughout this whole summer."

"I will say, however, that even if some of the tariffs are lifted, I still think that the US-India relationship may not fully recover for quite some time under this administration".

"Because the message to India is that the United States isn't reliable, and that is happening at the same time that the US is inviting the army chief of Pakistan for high-level meetings, including with the President in the United States".

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Trump's tariffs spark calls to boycott American goods

From McDonald's and Coca-Cola to Amazon and Apple, U.S.-based multinationals are facing calls for a boycott in India to protest against U.S. tariffs.

India, the world's most populous nation, is a key market for American brands that have rapidly expanded to target a growing base of affluent consumers, many of whom remain infatuated with international labels.

India, for example, is the biggest market by users for Meta's WhatsApp and Domino's has more restaurants than any other brand in the country. Beverages like Pepsi and Coca-Cola often dominate store shelves, and people still queue up when a new Apple store opens or a Starbucks cafe doles out discounts.

Rahm Shastry, CEO of India's DriveU, which provides a car driver on call service, wrote on LinkedIn: "India should have its own home-grown Twitter/Google/YouTube/WhatsApp/FB — like China has."

I am discussing USA & China collaborating to break up India and share different pieces. They will also divide the Muslim parts of South Asia to keep them from uniting into a massive Islamic power. China will want the northern parts and maybe some Marxist belts, along with access…

— Rajiv Malhotra (@RajivMessage) August 13, 2025

Quick notes: Neglected ally | Cow abuse...

• America returns to its neglected ally: For destabilising Iran, America needs land access. This is how the Pakistanis were used during the Afghan wars, targeting the Russians.
  
  From Iran's nuclear programme to Afghanistan's lithium reserves, Pakistan's unique positioning at the crossroads of America's most pressing strategic concerns has transformed it from a neglected ally into an indispensable partner. . . After 25+ years of progress, India-US ties take a U-turn, history repeats 
  
  
  



• "The U.S. is not an ally of India": "The U.S. is absolutely uninterested in India based supply chains. Trump is uninterested in that. He is incapable of long-term strategic relations and any of that. India should not presume that the U.S. will do great favors to India. Thats is not going to happen". . . . listen to him, India. Stop being naive.



exactly. the intangibles sold to India are now invisible. but they could attract 50% punitive retaliatory taxes, couldn't they? https://t.co/gXOZDm5wAS

— Prof राजीवः श्रीनिवासः (@RajeevSrinivasa) August 10, 2025



• Trump Wants Big Pie Of India's Economy: They want their companies like Amazon to have more facilities for operations. They want unlimited data flow for Google. So, it is beyond tariff, it is beyond trade. The US wants a big pie of the domestic economy.



• Experts warn Trump: Caving on Nvidia H20 export curbs may disrupt his bigger trade war



• Blessed to have engineers at the helm: China is developing nation-spanning network to sell surplus data center compute power



• Cow abuse: Coca-Cola under fire after undercover investigation reveals disturbing scenes at farm: 'A habitual offender'. Investigators also recorded pregnant and sick cows being whipped, punched, kicked, and beaten with metal objects, including shovels, wrenches, and pipes. The abuse was carried out by various staff, including owners, managers, and ranch hands. . . . blacklist Coke!



• Shut humanities department in STEM institutions:

Recently at IIT Gandhinagar Muhammad Luqman won gold medal for ground breaking research on clothes worn by Sunni Ulema in Kerala. Yes.

Who was his guide? Prof Madhumita Sengupta. In her studies she researched colonial history, but instead of using it for decolonisation of India,… pic.twitter.com/1Y3S1pH9D6

— Eminent Intellectual (@total_woke_) August 2, 2025




• SEBI, Jane Street and India’s Regulatory Dilemma: Watch at 2x




• Evangelicals lobbied hard for this: Texas law will require Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom

Pakistan, US seal trade deal

"Massive" Oil Partnership With Pak: The US struck a trade deal with Pakistan, hours after announcing 25% tariffs on imports from India.

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Fourth-largest oil and gas reserves in the world: This could be a potential game-changer in the region’s energy flows... Fictitious reserves?

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"India can take its dead economy down for all I care"

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China spared, India sanctioned: 6 Indian Companies Sanctioned By US Over Iran Petroleum Purchases

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Why Trump doesn't want Google, Microsoft to hire Indians: He wants a new "spirit of patriotism and national loyalty".

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From the archives: 'Abki Baar, Trump Sarkar': PM Modi gives tacit support for Trump's re-election in 2020

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Quick notes: Hiring Indians | Baloch and Israel...

• 'Put America First': Trump's big warning to tech firms against hiring Indians.. Doesn't want Google, Microsoft to hire Indians.
  
  
• US driving India into China's lap? Trump's renewed interest in Pakistan has India recalibrating China ties.
  
  
• China proving to be tough: Trump’s U-turn on Nvidia spurs talk of grand bargain with China. . India takes note.
  
  
• Trump eases China chip restrictions: Trump caving on Nvidia H20 export curbs may disrupt his bigger trade war. . . Dissenters warn H20 reversal is a dangerous mis-step.
  
  
• Reality check for India: Far from being supportive, the US under Trump has ended up re-hyphenating Pakistan with India. The two superpowers, the US and China, seem to have an unstated common interest in keeping India down a notch.



• Indians' propensity to be duped: How Jane Street Made $4.3 Billion in India—Then Got Banned!




• Aljazeera: "Israel is trying to hijack the Baloch struggle"



• Balochistan Studies Project: Pakistan fears MEMRI's support for a free Balochistan



• Balochistan Studies Project: Chinese Communist Party fears MEMRI's support for a free Balochistan



• Arjun Nimmala: First-gen Indian-American MLB first-round pick



• MP Tejasvi Surya Speaks: Bengaluru’s Tunnel Road: A Roadblock, Not a Relief.

Are we being hoodwinked?

Is this the deal? India, Vietnam and China all get to pay the same 20%.

President Trump announced that a trade agreement with China has been signed and claimed the deal would begin to “open up” China. The strange part? We haven’t heard any details—except that it supposedly addresses rare earth disputes. On the Chinese side, it’s total radio silence.… pic.twitter.com/6xvfYXVqKC

— Lei's Real Talk (@LeisRealTalk) July 3, 2025

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What's the point of Quad if Trump equates India-Pakistan? If the only superpower, which calls India an ally, sees the region through an India-Pakistan prism, it is unacceptable. Rather than endorse India's sphere of influence, this undermines it.

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Trump Baffles With Sudden U-Turn on China Buying Iranian Oil: President Trump appeared to undermine years of US sanctions on Iran, giving its biggest customer China the green light to carry on buying its oil. . . . . India restricted from buying Iranian oil while China is free?

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Elon: America is going bankrupt quickly, but everyone is whistling past the graveyard.

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Old pal of Elon Musk has ominous warning for Trump: “I’ve had my share of blowouts with Elon over the years,” neuroscientist Philip Low told Politico. “Knowing Elon the way I know him, I do think he’s going to do everything to damage the president.”

NEW: Poll finds that 40% of voters say they are likely to support Elon Musk's "America Party" if he decides to launch it, according to Quantus Insights.

The poll comes as Musk has threatened to launch his own political party over recent disagreements with the Republican Party.… pic.twitter.com/bsdraGwpGq

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 2, 2025

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India caught in the middle: Rare earth curbs to hit EV, RE, defence sectors

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Time for Swadeshi platforms: Congressional staff members were informed that WhatsApp can no longer be used on their government-issued smartphones or other devices.

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Will Modi sarkar cave in?

After chickening out to China, Trump wants to "open up" India: The White House’s demands to “open up India” as it seeks a major trade victory — have made it that much harder for Modi’s govt to sell the deal to a domestic audience.

“Nothing riles Indians more than the idea that their govt was bullied by a foreign leader”

#WATCH | "...We just signed (trade deal) with China. We're not going to make deals with everybody... But we're having some great deals. We have one coming up, maybe with India, a very big one. We're going to open up India. In the China deal, we're starting to open up China.… pic.twitter.com/fJwmz1wK44

— ANI (@ANI) June 26, 2025

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India gets no favours from Trump: Efforts to strike a trade “mini-deal” are dragging on. The Trump administration is asking India to lower its trade barriers, while only offering to give up some of its newly-imposed tariffs, in return.

“Whatever the government [in India] does, it will be seen as they basically capitulated to Trump’s demand. So they are in a no-win situation.”

The president has complicated matters by repeatedly taking credit for brokering peace between India and Pakistan this spring.

“The more he repeats his claim, the more a prospective U.S.-India trade agreement smells like coercion, not cooperation.”

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Threat of more tariffs hangs over trade partners: These governments have been hesitant to strike a deal with the Trump administration, worried that they only will be hit by more levies down the road. For some foreign governments, these national security tariffs are potentially more concerning than the reciprocal tariffs Trump is threatening to apply to all their US exports.

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Maybe India can learn from EU: EU to accept Trump's universal tariff but seeks key exemptions. Everyone knows Trump will eventually break his own deals, so keep it small.

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GMO junk: Trade deal hits hurdle over US demand of low duties on agricultural, genetically modified food

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Trump looking at deporting Musk

Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!

And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 30, 2025

Quick notes: Ziroh | Meta whistleblower...

• Ziroh: India startup Ziroh runs AI models on CPUs instead of GPUs. Called Kompact AI, the technology is aimed at bringing AI training and inference to SMEs which cannot afford GPUs... Solve AI for those with accessibility challenges.



• Bombshell testimony: Whistleblower claims Meta helped China develop advanced AI. “The greatest trick Mark Zuckerberg ever pulled was wrapping the American flag around himself and calling himself a patriot and saying he didn’t offer services in China while he spent the last decade building an $18 billion business there”.
  
  China is developing AI models for military use, relying on Meta’s LLaMA model.



• Meta Fights To Stop Potential Breakup Of Instagram And WhatsApp In A High-Stakes Trial



• ‘The Tsunami Is Coming’: China’s Global Exports Are Just Getting Started. A staggering $1.9 trillion in extra industrial lending is fueling a continued flood of exports that could be spread even wider across the world by the Trump tariffs.



• Do Bangladesh a favour: Help the tribals carve out its hills tract.

Rather than spending billions on innovative and challenging engineering ideas we might as well break up Bangladesh and have our own access to the sea . The Chittagong hill tracts were always inhabited by indigenous tribes which always wanted to be part of india since 1947 . There… https://t.co/rcjs6msae7

— Pradyot_Tripura (@PradyotManikya) April 1, 2025




• 'Dukaandari hi karna hai?': Piyush Goyal is right. India needs an ecosystem that better enables deep-tech innovation. India’s venture capital landscape prioritises quick returns over patient capital.
  
  Despite these challenges, India has seen pockets of quality startup success. Space startup Digantara has embarked on a very impactful journey. Likewise, Skyroot Aerospace and Agnikul Cosmos are making strides in space.



• Raag Chhaya Nat: Jayshree Patnekar




• No excuse not to screw the adversary: The greatest flaw in the Indian institutional strategic mindset is that it is not strategic, because it is too set along linear lines. If India trades with China, it cannot also undermine it in various military ways, etc. China believes in just the reverse– that good economic relations is no excuse for not screwing the adversary in every other respect. The twain don’t meet, and is the reason why the Indian government learns nothing and the country is supine, keeps getting it in the neck everytime.
  

  ---

  But the troubling and worrying question is this: Is there any original software written in India? China seems to have these inventors and innovators coming out in droves. They are adding high-octane fuel to the already astounding pace of progress by that country. India is near zero in this realm of technology creation. But, how is it that the even more, bureaucracy-wise, turgid “state socialism with capitalist characteristics” ideology and system in China is now the source of endless and astonishing new technologies?

  ---

  In the sheer mass and the drudgery of the Communist system in China, Deng’s successors still found that the country needed to catch up with the tech front rankers. So, the next thing they did was fast-forward the process by simply getting the very best brains from all over the world via its “Thousand Talents” programme which has spawned its adjunct — “Thousand Young Talents” programme for Chinese youth which is now advancing the economy with technology inventions and innovations.
  
  And here’s India, which has yet to find its Deng.

Quick notes: Tariff pressure | Dr Chetan Nayak...

• US push for grand trade agreement with India The US is pushing India to negotiate a "large" and "grand" bilateral trade agreement while seeking opening the agriculture sector for American businesses, saying "it just can not stay closed".



• Hurting everyone else but sparing China: Donald Trump makes Chinese stocks (somewhat) great again.



• ‘Closest target’: Why is Trump targeting allies while sparing China?



• Dr Chetan Nayak: The man behind Microsoft’s decadeslong quest to build a quantum computer



• Sweatshop advocates: Mr. Amitabh Kant, Advocating an 80-90 Hour Week is Abetting Multiple Offences



• WIN-WIN!: Solar panels above waterways and farms... Gujarat innovation spreads world over!




• Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom and now Intel: Major US tech firms now have Chinese-descent individuals as their CEOs, shows how valuable China’s talent is for the tech industry.
  
  
• Astonishing, if true: China’s in-House EUV machines reportedly entering trial production in Q3 2025, utilizing an approach that offers a simpler, efficient design; SMIC & Huawei to benefit greatly
  
  
• Han juggernaut: Why a Chinese Gadget Company Can Make an Electric Car and Apple Can’t
  
  
• China Piles the Pressure on India in Its Own Backyard: China has also poured billions into 46 commercial ports across the region, 36 of which are capable of hosting naval assets



• 'India Has Missed Every Bus': "India has missed every bus; not just one. We don't know which bus is coming next. I know for sure it will miss that too. To imagine that by 2047, we will be better than the US or China is just living in a dream world".



• Shiv Kailash: Rishab Rikhiram Sharma

Quick notes: What Musk wants | WTO is toast...

• What Musk Really Wants: India’s appeasement of Trump comes to nought.. All this touchy-feely diplomatic propaganda masked what Musk really wants from India — that his Starlink be allowed to enter the Indian market via an administrative allocation of spectrum (as opposed to the hefty sums paid by the existing Indian players through competitive bidding), a reduction in import duties on electric vehicles, especially Tesla and a possible collaboration between Space X and ISRO.



• Forever indebted to our colonial masters: UK and India relaunch trade talks in Delhi. . . "Oxford seat for my daughter and you get to loot India again, deal?". . . . UK's richest 10% extracted $33.8 trillion from India during colonialism
  
  



• Darshan devo Shankar: Raag Yaman Kalyan bandish. Rahul Ranade, Navin and Chirag Solanki.




• ‘The WTO is toast.’: What happens to global trade now. The free trade promise of consumers buying from the lowest-cost producers could be imperiled.



• Trouble for China: Any deep understanding between the US and Russia will erode China’s influence at the high table. . . Checkmate Xi?



• What If China, America Make Up?: Possibility of America and China reaching some level of tactical accommodation. . . Trump Says New China Trade Deal ‘Possible’.



• The world's deadliest dam failures have occurred in China:

My column: The world's deadliest dam failures have occurred in China. And if a powerful earthquake caused China's super-dam to collapse, millions downstream could die, largely in India's populous Brahmaputra Valley. Yet India has said little on the threat. https://t.co/5AKxJZPRsG

— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) January 29, 2025




• Raja Koduri on Intel's "cancel" culture: Intel’s ex-exec Raja Koduri says “You don’t learn without shipping”; gives a rundown into what’s wrong with Team Blue and how Intel is held back by bureaucratic snakes



• Hand in the cookie jar: Meta claims torrenting pirated books isn’t illegal without proof of seeding



• China's bicycle revival: "Automobiles, as a transportation method, have their limits".

Trump Threatens BRICS Nations With 100% Tariffs

Donald Trump threatens BRICS countries—including Russia, India—with 100% tariffs if they act to undermine US dollar

“We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new BRICS currency, nor back any other currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. of “weaponizing” the dollar and described it as a “big mistake.”

Russia has specifically pushed for the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global bank messaging network, SWIFT.

Trump threatens 100% tariff on the BRIC bloc of nations if they act to undermine US dollar

Quick notes: Dhanteras | Demographic dividend...

• Putin-Modi parity? India brings back gold from London. Some day, the west may find an excuse to freeze Indian reserves like they did to Russia.



• Here you go: US sanctions 15 Indian entities for backing Russia



• Violating US export laws: Indian drugmaker exported Nvidia AI chips to Russia.



• Maintaining the demographic dividend: Chandrababu Naidu mulling new election law to boost population in Andhra
  
  Demographic crisis: South Korea sets world record with fertility rate dropping to new low
  
  'Uday' and 'Nidhi' are Sanskrit: Stalin asks parents to give Tamil names to children



• Bharat Karnad: This Chinese advantage is only because New Delhi is not willing to play the game by the rules of strict reciprocity.
  
  China has had to pay no price in terms of, say, losing its access to the Indian market that the Indian govt generously affords it. Nor has Delhi insisted that Chinese tech companies, in particular, wishing to do business here, establish joint ventures and be required by law to transfer all the technology of the products they sell to the Indian people, to their Indian partners, and to manufacture every small sub-component and widget that goes into their products in India itself. Or, to get the hell out, and stay out! These are conditions, by the way, China insists on for any foreign company, including Indian firms operating in China.
  
  But no, the Indian govt has no such set of pre-conditions. The result: a humungous trade imbalance — just in the first six months of 2024, the trade deficit grew to $42 billion — the highest it has ever been! Meaning $42 billion of India’s wealth has been shifted to the Chinese khazana!



• Basically poison: How Canada convinced the world to eat engine lubricant... Canola oil is repurposed motor oil, not edible.




• Displacing software engineers? Google now uses AI to write 25% of its new code



• Woke Mecca: Donations to Harvard’s Endowment Drop by More Than $150 Million



• AI BS: Linus Torvalds reckons AI is ‘90% marketing and 10% reality’
  
  - Baidu CEO warns AI is just an inevitable bubble.
  
  - Marc Benioff blames Microsoft for overhyping AI.
  
  - Son-in-law Zuck's gift: Chinese researchers develop AI model for military use on back of Meta's Llama
  
  - Social media platforms using your data to generate AI models. How to opt out



• Amazon goes nuclear, to invest more than $500 million to develop small modular reactors
  
  - Google will help build seven nuclear reactors to power its AI systems

Quick notes: Minorities first | Colombo port...

• "Minorities have the first right to the country's resources": Kaangress releases ‘Minority Declaration’ in Telangana, promises Rs 4,000 cr budget for welfare. Additional Rs 1,000 crore per annum to provide subsidised loans to jobless minority youth and women. Newly wed couples belonging to minority communities will be given Rs 1.6 lakh each.




• Countering Belt and Road: US commits $553 mln financing for Adani terminal venture at Colombo port



• US Presidential poll 2024: RFK Jr. beating Biden and Trump among young voters in key states



• Canon’s chipmaking tech promises advanced chips for less: "The price will have one digit less than ASML's EUV [litho tool] which costs more than $150 million a piece. Canon implies that its Nanoimprint litho machine will cost around $15 million.




• Chinese EDA: Chinese chip design software devs receive massive govt support. . . . . . EDA is perfect fit for Indian software companies.



• Lesson for India: Students are sharing AI-generated fake nudes of classmates. There's no US federal law to stop them. . . calls for action.



• Antimicrobial resistance: Antibiotics that fight deadly infections in babies are losing their power



• Why not 100%? Bihar cabinet approves raising quota cap to 75%. . . Nitish wanted 87%.



• Honest Mohammedan:

MusIim man in Germany:” when MusIims are in majority, we would take over Germany with force.
Sharia law will be instead of Germany laws.
When Germans stand against our sharia they will be attacked.
Christians and Jews have to pay Jizya,Hindus,Buddhists have to leave or be killed” pic.twitter.com/OiN19m6DYR

— Azzat Alsalem (@AzzatAlsaalem) November 4, 2023




• Honda e-MTB Concept: Honda shows off its first electric bicycle.

Quick notes: IMEC | Gigacasting...

• India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor to counter China? The new trade corridor linking India and the Mideast to Europe is being hailed as a modern version of the Spice Route. "The project is a geopolitical game changer and will also benefit Southeast Asian countries."
  
  “Chinese officials know that when it comes to infrastructure building, they are the No. 1 in the world. They are the ones who have the deep pockets, and they know BRI is 10 years ahead.” Yet the BRI finds itself on shaky ground as well.
  
  "Great geopolitical idea, but it doesn’t make much economic sense"



• Italy wakes up: Italy tells China it plans to exit Belt and Road project 



• Leaving China, but not to India: HP to relocate PC Assembly to Thailand, Mexico, and Vietnam. . . Enough of highways, we need Thousand Talents
  



• Khalistanis increase vulnerability of Indian diplomats: (article from 13 July 2023): The campaign suggests that the Indian intelligence agencies are playing the Israeli playbook in hunting down wanted terrorists.
  
  The Khalistani 'movement' has seen deaths or killing of four of its top leaders in the last six months. They include Khalistan Tiger Force chief Harmeet Singh Nijjar shot dead in Canada on June 19, Khalistan Commando Force chief Paramjit Singh Panjwar killed in Lahore on May 6, Sikhs for Justice leader Avtar Singh Khanda who ostensibly died of cancer in a UK hospital last month and a narco-terrorism accused Khalistan exponent, Harmeet Singh alias Happy PhD, who was shot in Lahore in 2020.
  
  Other than Khalistani terrorists, in the last six months several Kashmiri extremists have been mysteriously killed by gunmen in Pakistan where they were sheltered.



• U.S. vs. China: The U.S. is pouring resources into Hypersonic missiles but has struggled to develop them. China and Russia are far ahead




• Gigacasting 2.0: Tesla reinvents carmaking with quiet breakthrough



• Huawei rolls out ‘de-Amricanized’ phones: Apple made 19 percent of its total fiscal year 2022 revenue in China, totaling $74 billion
  
  EU arm-twists Apple: USB-C changes everything.
  



• 'Third-party chats': Meta caves to EU pressures with an apparent cross-platform messaging feature for WhatsApp



• Google v US Dept of Justice: DoJ alleges Google uses ‘Feedback Loop’ of payoffs to maintain search dominance.



• How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education: Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, thinks AI could spark the greatest positive transformation education has ever seen. Demos some exciting new features for their educational chatbot, Khanmigo.

Quick notes: Semi setback | EV juggernaut...

• Semi setback: Vedanta-Foxconn setback shows cracks in Modi's $24 bn manufacturing push... A $3 billion proposal that had Israeli foundry Tower Semiconductor Ltd. as a tech partner has also stalled, while a third plan is stuck because Singapore-based IGSS Ventures Pte wants to re-apply
  
  Stalled: Tower ISMC's India chip plan stalls after Tower-Intel deal. . . "No country ever succeeded in launching a viable semiconductor industry without doing some research on its own". . . . . . not history research and debates.
  
  U.S. Semiconductor Fab Boom Kicks Off: Thanks to the CHIPS Act and electric vehicles.



• China’s EV Juggernaut Is a Warning for the West: China rocked the auto world twice this year. First, its electric vehicles stunned Western rivals at the Shanghai auto show with their quality, features and price. Then came reports that in the first quarter of 2023 it dethroned Japan as the world’s largest auto exporter.
  
  Ford CEO On EVs: "We see the Chinese as the main competitor, not GM or Toyota"
  
  Giga-factory in Gujarat: Tata Motors looking to increase localization of EVs to 85% . . . . . . . . Salt might soon end up powering EV's



• Vital lessons for India: The real reason Egypt is moving its capital - Thwart anarchists . . . . . . . . Remember Shaheen Bagh? . . . .Watch from 7:30




• Blow to East India Company: BBC ‘accepts’ it paid lower taxes in India



• No to Huawei and ZTE: India has no plans of providing trusted source certificates to Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers



• Distrust: Backlash against weaponized dollar is growing across the world.



• "Vulgarity and violence": Utah primary schools ban Bible for 'vulgarity and violence'



• Jaali buildings are gaining popularity globally: Jaali’s cooling feature relies on the Venturi effect in a similar way to an air conditioning unit. "When air passes through holes, it picks up velocity and penetrates afar. Due to the small apertures, air gets compressed and when released it gets cooler".