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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Quick notes: Trade colony | Awaiting Tejas...

• Trade colony India: China just posted a trade surplus with the rest of the world of almost $1 trillion for 2024. China today accounts for around 27% of global industrial production.




• Why China needs India more than ever: China’s Export Boom Means Trump Tariffs Would Hit Beijing Where It Hurts. . India should sync up with Trump for max damage



• Shakeout time: China makes more cars than it needs. Excess capacity among carmakers in China is driving the world’s largest auto market into a shakeout phase. . . . Chacha Modi to the rescue..?



• US To Effectively Ban Chinese Vehicles: New rule would effectively ban all Chinese vehicles from the US under the auspices of blocking the "sale or import" of connected vehicle software from "countries of concern."



• 'Achievments abroad is not enough': Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu shares the #1 reason Indians have no respect globally. “To earn true respect in the world, Indians have to develop deep capabilities in India. Achievements abroad won't do it."



• "First 40 Tejas still not...": Still awaiting Tejas from 2010 deal: IAF chief as China tests sixth-gen jet




• India's loss: How China’s Synthetic Diamonds Crushed India’s $20 Billion Diamond Industry.



• Bengaluru must shun car-centric planning: Instead of investing in projects that increase the vehicle footprint, the government should implement the vision outlined in the CMP— prioritising public transport, walking and cycling, and reducing dependence on private vehicles. It is time to shift focus towards building infrastructure that moves people, not just cars.



• Pakistan jackpot: Finds gold deposits worth Rs 609 billion.

the US pushing India into china's arms

here's a substack saying that in detail. I said the same thing on this blog, and also here, in less detail. the Kazan handshake and troop adjustment are an Indian signal to the US DeepState, not that india is keen on China or the BRICS currency: it says, stop bullying us with your terrorists!

https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-us-was-inadvertently-responsible: excerpt

 

here's an excerpt from my substack: https://rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/p/ep-142-the-implications-of-a-harris 

Quick notes: Women in combat | Fat storage...

• Should Women Fight Wars? Of all the countries in the world, a pacific India has paid a huge price for its misplaced chivalry and karuna, and must never forget this lesson. It would be unwise to follow the US blindly considering the crumbling family system there. In no case, should the standards have to be lowered.
  
  India's Supreme court has been particularly critical of the army for being slower to induct women.
  
  Combat is still a man's game:

Combat is Still a Man’s Game
Raz Sagi | 20/06/2014
Like it or not, nature is not egalitarian.https://t.co/six2R0g90h pic.twitter.com/d4I4pntjGb

— Spatel (@Rjrasva) August 11, 2018




• New US-India closeness angers Pakistan: Is the US finally waking up to Pak double game?



• Chinese colony: Pakistan trying to expand China's BRI to Afghanistan



• Himalaya Café: Dalai Lama backs bid to save Edinburgh café he inspired. . . How about a global café chain to rally the Tibetan cause?



• An alternative to eat-less-move-more: The calories-in, calories-out concept is 'tragically flawed,' new research suggests. Fat storage is all about our hormonal response to certain macronutrients. When high glycemic index foods are consumed, the body responds via two hormones. It increases insulin (a hormone used to direct sugar into the cells) and suppresses glucagon (a hormone used to release stored glucose when levels are too low). The combination of the two set up the stage for fat storage by telling our fat cells to store calories. This is due to a rapid rise and subsequent decline in blood sugar that occurs shortly after consuming the high GI food.



• Karnataka: Engineering will be taught in Kannada in 4 colleges from current year.



• Semiconductor firms can’t find enough workers: 80 percent of chip makers say that it's become hard to find workers. The problem is worse in North America and Europe.



• India will be hooked on oil for years to come: The addition of 20 crore passenger and commercial vehicles means oil demand will more than double for a country that already imports 85 per cent of its oil.



• Zeer Pot: Non-electrical Refrigerator. Evaporative refrigerator - no moving parts, no electricity .




• Vijay Kumar Sundaresan: The man getting back our treasures. "The joke is, if you break into a house illegally you will get 6 years' jail but in Tamil Nadu if you break into a temple and commit theft you will get 3 years' imprisonment.. In China there is capital punishment for heritage theft. Here we treat them like it's a house-breaking theft".



• Dalit-Sikh? Theoretically, Sikhism has been emphatically anti-caste. Yet, caste made inroads, surreptitiously and gradually. The upper caste status of Jatt is primarily a function of their land ownership profile, which is almost absolute in the state of Punjab.



• China, the loan shark: Central govt institutions aren't named in a lot of the deals struck by Chinese state banks, keeping such deals off govt balance sheets and hidden by confidentiality clauses. A deal with Venezuela demands the borrower deposit the foreign currency earned by selling oil directly into a bank account controlled by China.



• Shohei Ohtani: The wonder kid of baseball

Quick notes: Tech exports | Bird menace...

• Forget China, can India match Vietnam in exports?  Vietnam has been quick to realize the importance of hi-tech exports amounting to 40%, whereas India’s share stands at 9%. In comparison to Vietnam's technology-oriented exports, our exports comprised largely low-tech manufacturing products like mineral fuels, pearls and organic chemicals. 

If it were this easy to grow your economy, every tin pot dictator would hire a consultant and get rich overnight. In most sensible places, consultants peddling instant cures seen as little better than snake oil hucksters. In India, they advise NITI and the UP government. pic.twitter.com/BFFazgIWq9

— Rupa Subramanya (@rupasubramanya) September 10, 2020




• How Communist China weaponized the waters of Asia: Nine great rivers of Asia descend from the Tibetan plateau. After the Chinese Communist Party occupied Tibet, it has essentially monopolized these waters  




• Threat to Rafale: Bird menace due to garbage dump danger to Rafale. IAF has sought immediate implementation of Solid Waste Management scheme to reduce the activity of large birds like black kites in the aerodrome zone of 10 km around Ambala airfield. “This would involve instituting of littering penalty, improvement in garbage collection and setting up of a suitable SWM plant at a suitable distance from the airfield”. 



• Rahul Baba's failed attempt to create rift in Army ranks: The defence ministry officials clarified that there is no difference in the quality and quantity of the items served, except that the officers are served different items than those served to the jawans.
  

Spare a thought for commanders and soldiers on the ground. Difficult terrain, harsh weather, faced with the enemy barely 300-400 metres away. Its a tinder box out there. One small tactical incident going out hand will have strategic ramifications.

— Nitin A. Gokhale (@nitingokhale) September 8, 2020




• The enemy within: How Indo-China border dispute once split the Communist Party of India.. “A Communist Party statement praised the Chinese for leading the Tibetans from ‘medieval darkness’ and blamed the rebellion on Tibetan ‘serf owners’ backed by Indian reactionaries and Western imperialists”.



• Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu:

Gee, Hindutva folk are a hopeless lot. They misdirect their energy to illusory goals like "unity" or "declaring Hindu Rashtra" -- a verbal gain that increases the quotum of hostility you'll have to deal with but won't yield anything tangible. Instead, abolish the discriminations. https://t.co/A1twp98bgT

— Koenraad Elst (@Koenraad_Elst) September 9, 2020




• Huawei's Android OS rival: Huawei to shift phones to its own Harmony operating system from 2021



• Sexualization of girls: #CancelNetflix trends on social media after preteen twerking film ‘Cuties’ debuts

.@netflix child porn "Cuties" will certainly whet the appetite of pedophiles & help fuel the child sex trafficking trade. 1 in 4 victims of trafficking are children. It happened to my friend's 13 year old daughter. Netflix, you are now complicit. #CancelNetflix pic.twitter.com/GI8KFH7LFq

— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) September 12, 2020

Quick notes: Visa Gods | Indian inaction...

• Visa Gods and Brain Drain: Why the Indian govt and media get all worked up about declining opportunities for Indian out-migration has never made sense.
  
  In the early 2000s, when India’s rise was viewed in a positive light, many had hoped that like the East Asian communities in the US — Japanese, Koreans and Chinese — Indians in the US would also return home, invest in India and contribute to the home country’s development. However, for a variety of reasons, this expectation is yet to be realised.
  
  It would be interesting to see how many of those who attended Modi’s rallies abroad have decided to return home to contribute to India’s “atmanirbharata”. . . . Taxing the Brain Drain.



• Chabahar port rail project: Iran drops India after inking $400 billion China deal.. That China pulled the strings behind the scene cannot be doubted... The possibility of Iran leasing out the Chabahar port to China at a later date cannot be ruled out. If that happens, China would have extended its strategic reach to the Pakistan-Iran coast.
  
  Act quickly: India dragged its feet on building the rail link from Chabahar to Zahedan. First, the delays were over contract disagreements, then the fear of US sanctions, and later, after the US provided a “carve-out” to India on the port and the rail link, the difficulty under the sanctions regime in finding international suppliers for material... From Nepal to Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Iran, Delhi has made commitments on building power projects, highways, railways, and other infrastructure. Each proceeds slowly or not at all. The Pancheshwar Dam project in Nepal, for instance, has been hanging fire since 1991.



• Dr Bharat Karnad on India's inaction:
  
  Commercial satellite imagery reportedly shows the LAC has shifted 12 to 15 kms in Depsang, 1 km in Galwan, 2 to 4 kms in Gogra and 8 kms in Pangong Lake. This would be by far the largest loss of territory to China since the 1962 war. Is this observation correct?
  I have been warning since the beginning about the quite considerable loss of territory. I estimate that China's policy of what I have called incremental annexation has resulted in the loss of some 1,300 sq kms of Indian territory in the new millennium.
  
  Should the buck not stop with NSA Ajit Doval?
  Well, yes, because he is supposed to ingest all intel, field reports, military briefings, analyses and recommendations from the China Study Group, et al, and alight on policy options for the PM.
  
  You have said repeatedly that Indian intelligence knew about the Chinese build up for the last one year. More specifically, intelligence had told the army about Chinese movements in the LAC area, but the army took this to be normal spring time activity. Would you say this has been an operational lapse by the army?
  As I have already said, there's no excuse for XIV Corps Headquarters in Leh or army headquarters in Delhi and for the army misreading imagery intelligence transmitted to the Defence Intelligence Agency by DIPAC.



• “You must make Tibet a core issue”: By referring it as the India China border, India had ceded 2.5 million square kilometres and legitimized Chinese claim, he stressed. “Now in Doklam and Galwan Valley, what are you arguing about..one kilometre here, or two-kilometre…you have already conceded 2. 5 million square kilometres of land. You must take it back; say it is the Indo-Tibet border and it is disputed…You must make Tibet a core issue”.

Quick notes: Tibet card | Brigadier Dalvi...

• Play the Tibet card with China: The logical step is to challenge the very legitimacy of Chinese claim over Tibet.. China abrogates treaties at will.

Bharat Ratna & loud mouthed A.B.Vajpayee formally recognised Tibet as part of China in 2003.'Lion' Modi ended all formal relations of GOI with Dalai lama & with Tibet Govt. in exile in 2018 .So appeasing China was a joint Congress-BJP project, despite 'tu-tu mai mai' in TV shows.

— Tapas Banerji (@t_banerji) July 3, 2020




• Brig John Parashram Dalvi: The man who told India about Nehru's Himalayan blunder.. "And let the guilty, and their political successors contemplate, the great crime of sending brave men to do battle against AK47's with WW I obsolete.303 Lee Enfield bolt action rifles".



• Rethink of India's China policy: “We need to join forces with the US, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Indonesia and western Europe to take on China economically''... “Will Mr Modi pitch national interests over economic ones is a political question”.



• Biden victory is CCP victory: HK businessman says it like it is.

Elmer Yuan: #BeijingIntercoursJoe Biden was responsible for China relationship under @BarackObama his very corrupt family made huge money from China. It will be hopeless for🇭🇰,Taiwan and the free world if he gets elected b/c it will mean the #CCP won against the free world. pic.twitter.com/2R4nwMQ4Q0

— Against the Tide (Idź Pod Prąd) TV (@AgainstTideTV) July 6, 2020




• The Guru is a principle, not a person:

the guru is a principle, not a person: @MakrandParanspe.

the world is on fire: in duality, you never find peace. that which helps you get out of duality/triguna is the guru.#gurupurnima message

— राजीवः श्रीनिवासः (@RajeevSrinivasa) July 5, 2020




• The art of not doing anything while appearing to be doing a lot:

Intellectis hate techies because we mean business, we get things done. Modern intellectualism (more hopefully later on this from this twitter handle) is all about the abstract and the art of not doing anything while appearing to be doing a lot!

— KVSarmaJ (@kvsarmaj) July 2, 2020

Quick notes: Ignored inputs | India's options...

• Flagging Chinese incursions for long, say Ladakhis: “Not just for the past couple of months, I have been raising these concerns since 2015”.. The Facebook posts by Chodon, a BJP leader from a nomadic family, date back to May 2019. She also shared her earlier post in which she had written that Chinese PLA soldiers had entered 6 km into Indian territory at Dhola village in Nyoma Block, unfurled their national flag and stopped locals from hoisting the Indian, Tibetan, and Buddhist flags.




• Naiveté is in our DNA: "With China, we have very good mechanisms in place to maintain peace and tranquility" - Gen Bipin Rawat.

Just 11 month old interview with Army chief then and now CDS , Gen Bipin Rawat .. ( 27.07.2020) @IndiaToday
Must be realizing as Government. Trusting #China was big mistake .#LAC #LadakhBorder #ChinaIndiaFaceoff pic.twitter.com/0uQgVfTruA

— Ashraf Wani اشرف وانی (@ashraf_wani) June 30, 2020




• PLA using Tibetans against India: The CCP has obviously decided to integrate more Tibetans into its defence forces; to start with, in the paramilitary forces, giving them good salaries and buying their fidelity. The Tibet Military District has many senior Tibetan officers of the rank of colonels, senior colonels and major generals (never higher, as CCP does not trust the Tibetans that much); but this gives a clear indication that the Tibetans will participate in future conflicts with India (in all probability, some were already present in Galwan). It does not augur well for the relations between India and Tibet.



• India’s options against China: "The PLA lost the advantage of surprise, preemption and the window that was available upto end June while the Indian Army reserves were being mobilised, acclimatised and deployed. The likely plans of the PLA have been war-gamed for years by the Indian Army, and I have no doubts that the PLA will come to grief". - Lt Gen (retd) HS Panag



• China Killed Canada’s Greatest Tech Company: China not only bankrupted Canada's most successful company, they hired those Engineers later and milked even more... "Much of the intellectual property that underlies Huawei’s current 5G offering came along with the top Nortel scientists in Ottawa."



• Cyber defense: All major non-western societies have a "firewall"

All major non-western societies have a "firewall" though not all of them are effective as the great wall of china.
The west( and US) didn't care becos they owned the internet and "open-web" was working to their advantage. Not any longer.
Only suckers are us Indians

— 𑀯𑁂𑀁𑀓 𑀝𑁂𑀰 (@yenkak) June 29, 2020




• CCP's hunger: China's super trawlers are stealing fish stocks in North West Pacific, South America and Western Africa.



• Israel shuts evangelical TV channel: Israel's regulator has ordered an evangelical Christian broadcaster's new channel off the air, saying it applied to serve a Christian audience but instead has sought to persuade Jews with the gospel of Jesus.



• The year of the electric bike.: Pedal-assisted models can reach speeds of about 30 miles per hour, helping people get to work without having to rely on public transportation while also offering a chance to exercise.



• Robot uses UVC light to disinfect warehouses : The system can neutralize about 90% of coronavirus particles on surfaces.

Quick notes: Tibetan cause | Online hatred...

• The cause Hollywood forgot: “Any Hollywood blockbuster that wants to really bring in the money will need to appear in China. That requires compromises in the films but also careful consideration by the actors – do they really want to put their career at risk by talking about Tibet and China? Richard Gere continues to be a high-profile supporter of Tibet, but he has stated that his stance on Tibet has cost him work.
  
  “China has closed it off from the world, making it impossible to visit without a guide, and closely monitors Tibetans’s phone and internet activity so that as little information as possible gets out. Getting information out of Tibet is as tough as getting information out of North Korea these days, and if people don’t hear the stories, they won’t be engaged or keen to help.”




• Ratan Tata: Stop online hatred, support each other in 'year of challenges'. "I believe this year specially calls for all of us to be unified and helpful and is not the time to pull each other down".

Saw some army veterans hurling abuses at each other on Twitter.

During training at the NPA our Ustad would sometimes give example of the IMA- discipline, camaraderie and the bond it creates even beyond the service period. Ustad had no idea about poisons called TV & Social Media.

— Arun Bothra (@arunbothra) June 22, 2020




• Buying The Wrong Warplanes: The Mirage 2000 has been a more effective fighter in Indian service than the Su-30 has been. The Su-30 not only lacks the latest precision air-to-ground ordnance, it doesn’t perform well from the high-altitude air bases that support Indian operations along the LAC. The Rafale, the French-made successor to the Mirage, likewise is among India’s better fighters. But the country has ordered just 36 Rafales.



• No change in ground positions: China continues military build-up along LAC in eastern Ladakh amid talks.
  
  President of Tibetan govt in exile: After occupying Tibet, Chinese leaders said they'll go for Nepal, Ladakh, Bhutan



• What happened in 1962 in Galwan? By nightfall of July 10, more than 300 Chinese soldiers encircled the Gorkhas who held their ground under Naik Subedar Jung Bahadur Gurung. On July 13, orders were issued to the Gorkha regiment to fire if the Chinese crept ahead. Starting October 4, “The Gorkhas, having lived cheek by jowl with the Chinese for more than two months, were ferried out by returning Mi-4 helicopters over the next few days.”



• Superblocks: How Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars. . . . . . . Why Car-Free Streets may be here to stay


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Quick notes: Tibet question | Mountain combat...

**Reposting an older post.. may appear with a new date due to my bungle.. **

• Tibet the solution for India’s border strategy: Under Nehru, India became the first country in the world to recognize China’s sovereignty over Tibet. Now it is time for India to revise its Himalayan border strategy to keep a firm position on its territory. To that end, India should revise its outdated policy on Tibet’s status and officially declare Tibet to be an occupied country.
  
  This significant revision of the “Tibet question” would serve two interests. First, such a declaration would automatically refute Beijing’s claim over the Himalayan borders and make China’s control over the Himalayan region illegal. Second, this political revision would re-validate the McMahon Line and Tibet-Ladakh border treaty, making India’s claim over the Himalayan border internationally valid and legal.

#India has put itself in a self-made political trap on border issues by betraying Independent #Tibet.

https://t.co/CyQ9BRj1jo

— Tenzin Namgyal (@Tenam108) June 19, 2020




• India maintains an edge over China: Recent studies from the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Boston and the Center for a New American Security in Washington suggest India maintains an edge in high-altitude mountainous environments.



• Startling Bravery: Indian soldiers fought valiantly and with tremendous grit "till the last", even to the extent that half of them died in battle. The immediate bravery of those Bihar Regiment soldiers must be saluted and memorialised.



• Chinese Economic Takeover: “At India’s biggest wholesale market in Delhi’s Sadar Bazaar, almost everything on the shelves — toys, electronics, watches, home appliances – is made in China.. Almost 70% of electrical items come from China. Even the components of several Indian made items such as pumps to electronic toys come from China”.
  
  - Chinese have invested in the following Indian sectors:-
    1. Automobile Industry (40%)
    2. Metallurgical Industry (17%)
    3. Power (7%)
    4. Construction (5%)
    5. Services (4%).



• Stop endorsing Chinese brands: Traders appeal to Aamir Khan, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Virat Kohli and others to stop endorsing Chinese products.
  
  - Chinese smartphones are now 'Indian brands'! To escape backlash Chinese handset makers with own manufacturing lines in India have decided to highlight Made-in-India in their packaging more prominently from now.
  
  - Campaign to boycott China-linked apps picks up speed.
  



• Hostile Nepal: Nepal stations bombard Uttarakhand villages with anti-India songs and news.



• India should do this too: Australia's university fee changes mean humanities students will pay the entire cost of their degrees. . . . . .
  Huge cuts to Humanities and Social Sciences at Japanese Universities.

Australia university fee changes mean humanities students will pay the entire cost of their degrees.

This could be the beginning of a trend in the West.

The logic being that the West is graduating too few people in STEM & too many in humanities.

https://t.co/14tmu6Ywpz

— Subhash Kak (@subhash_kak) June 20, 2020

Kargil redux

• Gen Panag: We played into the Chinese hands. We kept treating a military intrusion as a border incident.




• Bharat Karnad: An out and out army fiasco: “We have had a fruitful dialogue with the Chinese, it will continue and by and by the situation will improve." General MM Naravane’s tone hints at this whole ruckus being due to some small misunderstanding over an indistinct border.
  
  The reality, however, is that there is now permanent stationing of PLA troops deep inside Indian territory in the Galwan and the Pangong sectors. As far as the Chinese are concerned the newly realigned LAC is something India can take it or lump it. There’s no third option, all the talks and negotiating will end up doing is embroider this fact.

Quick notes: Hamas apps, Aadhaar theft...

• Indian defence establishment should take note: Hamas 'created dating apps and fake Facebook profiles to try to lure Israeli soldiers' 



• 13-feet walls not enough: Stealing your Aadhaar details costs just Rs 125  



• China's penetration of Silicon Valley: More than 20 Silicon Valley venture capital firms have close ties to a Chinese govt fund or state-owned entity. The U.S. Congress is finalizing legislation to expand the govt’s power to block foreign investment in “critical” technologies, including venture investment. 



• Threatened by Trump: China presses Europe for anti-U.S. alliance on trade



• Ghar Wapsi: Lithuanians seek identity in their pagan roots ....(Hindus should support their liberation from church)



• Raga Mohanam by Chong Chiu Sen: A Malaysian-Chinese disciple of D.K. Pattammal


 Pallavi: Ninnu kori yunna nura nikila loka nayaka
  Anupallavi: Nannu palimpa samayamura nameeda krupa judara
  Charanam: Sannuthanga Sreenivasa



• Matthew 10:32 to 10:37: 32Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. 34Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. 37He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Quick notes: IITM, MMRCA redux...

• India's best: How IIT Madras beat all the odds to become India’s top engineering college...... keep those DMK and JNU types out!



• MMRCA redux? It is obvious the IAF would prefer to add 110 more Rafales.. Having pocketed $12-bn for 36 of these, Dassault would be happy to sell the rest for another $20-$30-bn with TOT (transfer of technology). And well connected Reliance Defence is already chosen as its strategic partner. As with TOT provisions in past contracts, Rafale TOT will come with the advanced technologies as “black boxes” — which is not helpful.



• What technology will India get? “In the MMRCA tender, vendors promised capabilities that were still under development. This time, they are aware of the stringency of Indian weapons procurement”. The RFI emphasises the need for significant transfer of technology to build the fighters in India.



• Unending misery: Indian banks stare at $38-bn NEW bad loans from power sector



• Samskrutam: Vanessa Acevedo



• Language of access: Chinese is the second most popular language on the Internet after English. In contrast, Indic content accounts for barely 0.1 per cent of the worldwide Internet content..... MNCs understand the value of the vernacular, unlike NRN who wanted us to abandon our languages.



• Kerala church: "Yoga and Christian beliefs cannot go hand in hand. Yoga believes in oneness and does not differentiate between the creator and creation"...... essentially, the church does not believe in your innate divinity.



• The church doesn't get it: "What difference does it make to you whether Jesus Christ lived at a certain time or not? What has it to do with you that Moses saw God in the burning bush? The fact that Moses saw God in the burning bush does not constitute your seeing Him, does it? If it does, then the fact that Moses ate is enough for you; you ought to stop eating. Each one must experience it himself." --Swami Vivekananda.

Quick notes: Startup rankings, Erdogan's jihad...

• Macaulay's children: India slipping further down the global startup hub rankings
  Rank Region
  1    Silicon Valley
  2    New York
  3    London
  4    Beijing
  5    Boston
  6    Tel Aviv
  7    Berlin
  8    Shanghai
  9    Los Angeles
  10  Seattle
  11  Paris
  12  Singapore
  13  Austin
  14  Stockholm
  15  Vancouver
  16  Toronto
  17  Sydney
  18  Chicago
  19  Amsterdam
  20  Bengaluru



• Indian Army's lack of direction: First invest in human beings – not platforms. As every growing economy has realised it is the soldier, not the machine that wins wars. First they need to get rid of the sahayak system, and over the top perks enjoyed by the officer core, including golf courses and golf carts. Then they need to start investing in serious body armour, and rifles for soldiers, while selling their many priceless properties that they don’t need.



• Our next East India Company: E-commerce in India is growing faster than other Asian countries. Amazon gains a firm footing against homegrown rival Flipkart.



• Erdogan's jihad: When Turkey’s armed forces finally seized control of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, it was presented as a victory by “Islam’s last army” in a holy war.



• In Erdogan's crosshairs: Kurdish rebels withdraw from Iraq's Sinjar



• Hafiz Kazi: Indian behind deadly vehicle crash at Travis Air Force Base



• #deletefacebook: How to dump Facebook… or at least put it in the dog house for a while
  
  
  
  
  

Quick notes: Rafale decision, Slaughterbots...

• Rafale decision: When Parrikar reached the PMO, the Prime Minister sprang a bombshell. Parrikar was told that, on Modi’s forthcoming trip to Paris, he and French President would announce an agreement for India to buy 36 Rafale fighters. Taken aback, Parrikar still caught his flight to Goa. Over the next week, he batted loyally on behalf of his PM, publicly defending a decision he neither understood nor agreed with, that was taken over his head. Parrikar told PTI in Goa that all 36 Rafale fighters would join IAF service within two years; in fact more than six years will elapse before the final delivery is made. India needs some 200-300 fighters to replace the MiG-21 and MiG-27 fleet that is being phased out of service. Just 36 Rafales provides little cover.... About the deal.



• Spike Anti-Tank Guided Missile: India scraps $500 million Israeli missile deal, wants DRDO to make in India. Advantage Pak, worries Army



• Slaughterbots: And drone swarms




• Long tail-pipe: Electric vehicles charged in China (and India) produce two to five times as much particulate matter and chemicals that contribute to smog versus petrol-engine cars. The hidden cost of electric cars!



• Skill and Scale: Why Suzuki-Toyota alliance is a huge deal for India’s EV dream



• Birds changing their path: Not just people, smog affecting flight of migratory birds 



• An ARM killer from IIT, Madras? Meet the brains behind India’s ambitious processor project... RISC-V 101



• Han Prowess: China challenges Nvidia's hold on AI chips. "Draw level with the US in AI within 3 years, and become the world leader by 2030".



• Make India a higher education hub:

I've been saying for years that instead of exporting (& paying for) our students abroad, we should make India a higher education hub. But how will that happen if all we do is play politics with quotas, entitlements & institutionalized incompetence?@PrakashJavdekar https://t.co/VvZLDJdmkG

— Makarand R Paranjape (@MakrandParanspe) November 15, 2017




• Our Living Planet From Space: NASA satellites watch earth 'Breathe'

Quick notes: Missile story, Cycle sharing...

• India's Missile Story: In autumn 1982, Kalam presented his findings to the defence minister at that time, R Venkataraman. If Kalam was a hard-driving visionary, so too was Venkataraman. Dismissing all talk of a "phased programme", he ordered all programmes to be taken up simultaneously. The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme was formally sanctioned in July 1983, and funds were pre-allocated for a 12-year period up to 1995.
  
  Those were heady days for the DRDO's idealistic young scientists, buoyed by the 1971 victory over Pakistan and the "peaceful nuclear experiment" of 1974. In 1972, two young IIT graduates, VK Saraswat and Avinash Chander joined the DRDO just ten days apart. They were amongst more than a hundred young scientists who joined the DRDO's missile complex after graduating from premier institutions like the IITs, and Jadhavpur University. Within three years, Saraswat was heading propulsion development, while Chander spearheaded the development of navigation and guidance systems.
  
  "Wherever we have worked without the option of import - be it on strategic missiles, nuclear weapons, atomic energy or the space programme - we have achieved self-reliance. In the super-secret world of electronic warfare, where import is not an option, we have built world-class systems. We should ourselves ban imports, and we will indigenise. Necessity is the mother of invention."



• Debájit Sarkar explains: How good is LCA Tejas compared with other fighter jets in its category?



• Urban mobility: Zoomcar launches PEDL, India's first technology enabled cycle sharing service 



• Hydrogen is right choice as fuel for automobiles: G Madhavan Nair, former chairman of ISRO: "Lithium, you cannot throw it around. That becomes the most polluting thing. There has to be an adequate mechanism for collection and reprocessing. The availability of lithium is scarce and that's why the cost of LiBs is high. That's why I say for the long-run, one should look for (Hydrogen) fuel cell "



• Nerdy and proud of it: The smartest Americans are heading west



• Foreign languages not to be part of 3-language formula: Students who are keen on learning foreign languages should opt for the subject as fourth or fifth language 



• Better to learn to code than learn English as a second language: Programming encourages students of all disciplines to be inventive and experimental: “It’s not just for the computer scientists. Creativity is in the front seat; technology is in the backseat.”

Quick notes: Amrita University, Fighter pilots...

• The spiritual guru who is pushing innovation: Mata Amritanandamayi's hospital has developed protein nanomedicines for drug-resistant leukemia and nano-structured wafers to prevent recurrence of brain tumours. Amrita University developed “Amrita OceanNet” to communicate with and track fishing vessels in real time 60 km into the sea. Amrita’s researchers have also developed their own 3D printer to test printing of blood-vessels.



• Sweeping the armed forces away: The ‘Swachh Bharat’ project has been a much-needed initiative. But surely, there can be nothing more thoughtless than an attempt to use the military as one vast force of safai karamcharis. That truly verges on the demented, to say the least. The military is motivated to make sacrifices primarily as a matter of honour, for defending one’s own or the units’ izzat, and not cleaning somebody else’s muck.



• Country’s first three female fighter pilots: Flight Cadet Mohana Singh, resident of Khetpura village of Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan, Avni Chaturvedi of Madhya Pradesh and Bhawna Kanth will take the responsibility as fighter pilots after couple of months.



• Exploring on wheels: Bengaluru is soon going to see a welcome change with a system of ‘bicycles-on-rent’ in Cubbon Park.



• Tamil culture has strong Vedic connections:

Tamil culture has strong Vedic connections owing to the great yogis and acharyas of the region. Should honor its dharmic heritage!

— Dr David Frawley (@davidfrawleyved) October 9, 2017




• Yeh hai Bengal meri jaan:




• Done deal for Swedish firm Saab? IAF planes flying Gripen formation sparks speculation..
  
  Reader Kautilya comments: If the Gripen is indeed selected, the IAF will earn itself the dubious distinction of not supporting an indigenous aircraft (HAL Marut) for lack of indigenous jet engines but selecting an aircraft from a foreign vendor who cannot provide jet engines.



• Making in India already, say telecom gear makers: Nokia manufactures all the radio equipment for local customer requirements in India. Similarly, Swedish telecom giant Ericsson said it was the first to start manufacturing telecom equipment in India in 1994.

Quick notes:F-16 tech, Defence manufacturing...

• F-16 minus tech?  US firms would retain control over sensitive technology. Saab’s Gripen NG offer could be equally problematic since it, too, has American technology, including the GE F414 engine that powers it. Sweden and Saab can only part with non-American technology.



• F-16: Obsolete and exposed, says Bharat Karnad: “Upgraded avionics cannot make the F-16 fly and maneuver better than the version of the aircraft with the Pakistan Air Force. PAF long ago passed on an F-16 to China for its aircraft designers to study and to reverse engineer many of its technologies. So this plane is an open book for India’s two adversaries – a bad situation for any ‘frontline’ IAF aircraft to be in.”



• Defence manufacturing mission: Manohar Parrikar had earlier set up a small defence firm supplying hydraulic systems and parts to a defence public sector unit. Under him, the ministry of defence drafted an out-of-the-box strategic partnership model by building on recommendations of several expert committees and groups.
  
  According to the model, for each of these SP (strategic partnership) verticals—single-engine fighter planes, helicopters, air independent propulsion submarines and armoured fighting vehicles/main battle tanks—the government will choose a few foreign OEM  partners as well as local Indian firms. Indian firms will then team up with foreign OEMs and bid for RFPs (request for proposals) under the strategic partnership policy on a competitive basis. The bid winner will manufacture the products and service them through the life cycle, locally—creating jobs, and building infrastructure and indigenous capabilities. 



• Tackling drones: Lockheed’s Laser Cannon Shoots Drones Out of the Sky, No Fuss




• Alt-E: India’s record-low Wind and Solar prices may not be sustainable. Some Chinese module suppliers are now reneging on price agreements,



• Carbon Pricing: Shell bashes bans on gasoline cars, proposes carbon pricing instead



• Beef: U.S. beef production roughly equals the annual emissions of 24 million cars



• After JLR: Tatas looking to buy another luxury auto brand. Maserati or Alfa Romeo possible.



• My Journey from Islam to Hinduism:

Quick notes: Air power, Bleeding burger...

• Air power balance between India and China: Why Indian Air Force may best Chinese jets in an air battle over Tibet



• What the PLA has up its sleeve: China's new hexacopters and self-detonating drones



• Plant-based burger that drips blood: It uses an ingredient found in plants called leghemoglobin—which carries the same iron-containing molecule, known as heme, that’s also found in animal muscle.



• Switch to electric mobility: German firms likely to stop ICE development in as little as 6 years.



• America’s first-ever high-speed rail line: Tantalizing possibilities. Why not “have more folks live in Central valley and commute into Silicon valley?”



• Shirdi Solar Kitchen:




• Tata cancels plans for Tamo sub-brand, Racemo sports car: Tamo was launched at the 2017 Geneva auto show as a new aspirational brand aimed at improving Tata’s image on the world stage.



• You might not actually need to finish your antibiotics: Challenging the widespread belief that you should keep taking every last dose of antibiotic prescribed by your physician even after you feel better. This advice has long been claimed to be key to preventing antibiotic resistance.

Quick notes: Kurds advance, 5th gen fighter...

• Nightmare for Turks: Kurds plan to expand territory across Syria to the Mediterranean sea, to create a trade route and bolster Kurdish enclaves in the north.



• Battle for Raqqa: Trump OKs arms for Syrian Kurds, despite Turkish objections... Kurds advancing, capture Tabqa Dam and a nearby town from Islamic State.



• Indo-Russian FGFA fighter: India and Russia are likely to soon ink a pact to finalize the detailed design for the fifth-generation fighter aircraft. 



• Baluchi independence is needed, break Iran if needed:

India cannot depend on placating Iran & praying for stability in Pakistan. Baluchi independence is needed: https://t.co/TwXoSX6PSF

— Rajiv Malhotra (@RajivMessage) May 6, 2017




• Welcome home: Ahead of triple talaq hearing, Muslim women chant Hanuman Chalisa for help 



• Nightmare on IT Street: About one lakh people to lose their jobs by next year.



• Microbiota and cancer risk: How our gut bacteria affect cancer risk and response to treatment 



• NAND Flash: The Triumph of Quantum Mechanics at the Heart of Solid State Data Storage