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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trump says what any decent leader should say supporting oppressed hindus

whether trump means it or he is just saying this for getting hindu votes/support, this is a significant statement, and the contrast with the Biden/Harris clique couldn't be more dramatic. Kamala didn't even attend the white house Diwali event.

the fact that some white leader saying that Hindus have human rights is so unusual shows something really scary: they are out to exterminate us.

 

Quick notes: Climate hero, Beans to the rescue..

• Narendra Modi, global climate superhero? Since 2014, there’s been a 91% increase in grid-connected renewable energy capacity, a total of 22.6 gigawatts. At the same time, India’s coal-based power sector has been in decline. India’s Central Electricity Authority estimates that the country won’t need a new coal-based power plant till 2022.



• Fact-checking Trump's statement withdrawing from Paris climate deal: Under the treaty, India committed to reduce emissions 33 to 35 percent of 2005 levels by 2030. 



• 8 things Trump said about the Paris Climate Agreement that are total BS: California’s economy grew 40 percent faster than the rest of the U.S. last year, even as the Golden State carried out aggressive policies for boosting renewable energy, energy efficiency, and zero-emissions vehicles.



• Climate deal: Musk makes good on pledge to dump Trump over Paris

India commits to sell only electric cars by 2030. It is already the largest market for solar power. https://t.co/EGBNTPzmE5

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017




• Replacing beef with beans could save the planet: Pound for pound, legumes deliver more calories and more protein than beef with a far, far smaller carbon footprint. “Eating more beans is a great way to increase phytonutrients, fiber, antioxidants and lifespan”.

Quick notes: Modi's Kandahar, Indian summer...

• Pathankot: First we let it happen. Then we let those Pakis humiliate the entire nation. A lose-lose situation. Is this Modi's Kandahar moment?



• Govt rethinks security nod to Chinese firms: India considered reviewing clearance for Chinese investment in a tit-for-tat response after Beijing's snub on Masood Azhar.



• Paki scum in the US: Muslim Dairy Queen owner in Texas installed signs around his business comparing Hindus to monkeys



• Sharia Villages: Bosnia's Islamic State Problem



• Summer: April, and already on the boil as heat wave grips India



• Paradise lost:

Why is #Bangalore so hot? pic.twitter.com/bJO4sRITq2

— Whitefield Rising (@WFRising) April 4, 2016





• Surya Jyoti: New solar dome to improve slum-dwellers' lives



• Naive Narendra?

if modi is now turning into vajpayee, it's time to emigrate, i am sorry to say. this is the last chance @Sreeniv

— राजीवः श्रीनिवासः (@RajeevSrinivasa) April 5, 2016





Did @narendramodi under-estimate Pakistan's capacity to lie about terror? Hard to see justification for #Pathankot access. Naive? @sankrant

— Sankrant Sanu सानु (@sankrant) April 5, 2016

Quick notes: Soft Modi, iPhone unlocked...

• Military overruled on Pak access: On Pathankot, the Indian Air Force had told the government that granting access to the Pakistanis could compromise its security. Defence minister Manohar Parrikar too was of the same view.



• Playing into Pakis' hands? It is not known if there is any assurance from the Pakistani side, whether at the PM level or the NSA level, that Pakistan will take swift, credible and positive action after the JIT's investigations.  Even if such assurances exist, these will mean precious little as ultimately it is the other Sharif -- General Raheel Sharif, the Pakistan army chief who will take a final call.



• FBI breaks into iPhone: The FBI has managed to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino gunman without Apple's help.



• Count Prana, not calories:




• Britain's taint:

Photos of a man who starved 4m Indians to death. Terrible. https://t.co/rrfFJMGt74

— Tony Nash (@TonyNashOnAsia) March 27, 2016





• Just because technology makes it possible..:

"Just because technology makes it possible to be always available, doesn’t mean you should be." ~ @JesseLynStoner pic.twitter.com/aH1DH3LoHS

— Jesse Lyn Stoner (@JesseLynStoner) March 20, 2016

Quick notes: Misaligned priorities, Ride share...

• Misaligned priorities: Bullet train > health, safety or schools





• The last car you'll ever buy may already be in your driveway: "By 2025, 20 percent of cars will not be owned by an individual." They're not going to stop using cars, but a significant number will stop owning or leasing them. Instead, they'll turn to mobility service providers such as Uber and ZipCar.



• Break the Politics-Auto Industry Nexus: Delhi is not the sole victim of the automobile invasion. There is hardly any city in India with a population of more than a million, which is not congested by the growing number of motor vehicles on the limited length and breadth of civic roads.



• Making cycling fashionable: Young. Successful. And they cycle to work.



• 'Frequent green tea consumption may hamper fertility': Female offspring showed decreased reproductive output and a 17 per cent reduction in lifespan while males were unaffected.



• Arnold Schwarzenegger: Stop Eating Meat and Save the Planet




• Bullet train in perspective:

98,000 cr for a single Bullet Train that will take 15 years to build. Cost for concretizing all main roads in Bengaluru - 5800 crore (1)

— Srivatsa (@srivatsayb) December 12, 2015

Quick notes: Exit sign, Google's bike vision...

• Exit sign: Vasundhara defence collapses, PM still silent



• China arm-twists another tech giant: Qualcomm in venture with Chinese chip maker. The new deal involves far more advanced technology than before. 



• Gut bacteria and your mood: The rich array of microbiota in our intestines can tell us more than you might think. ...What's in Arvind Kejriwal's gut?



• North County as Copenhagen: Google’s bike vision for Silicon Valley
  .... lessons for India




• India, the world's biggest whiskey market: Indians consumed 1.5 billion litres of whiskey in 2014, completely dwarfing the United States' 462 million litres.






• Atheism must be about more than not believing in God: The human impulse is to seek answers, and to date, atheism has been unsatisfactory in its response.



• From Katha Upanishad:

the sun, is not stained by faults external to it the self within every being, Is not stained by the suffering of the world

— Path of Soul (@pathofsoul) December 1, 2014

Quick notes: Crash ratings, Diplomacy lesson...

• India adopting first-ever crash-test standards. Major automakers would fail



• Anna Hazare to campaign against Land Acquisition ordinance, says Modi government anti-farmer



• Paki diplomat in Dhaka caught involving in terror financing and fake Indian currency racket



• Religion of Karl Marx: The CPI and the CPI-M spent almost a decade-and-a-half accusing each of heresy; the CPI-M refused to accept the CPI into the Left Front fold until it admitted its errors at the Bhatinda session of 1977, a ritual that strongly resembled doing penance.
  
  The Buddha preached moderation in all matters, and the Jain tradition was to renounce violence of all kinds. This was not the ground where the concept of 'blasphemy' could arise.  It was a different tale in West Asia, where the three Abrahamic religions were born. There was no room for tolerance, leave alone respect, when a faith was (often literally) battling for survival. And so, almost inevitably, heretics and blasphemers alike started to pay with their lives.



• Fight smog: Chinese man invents 'green firecracker'



• Bitter lesson in diplomacy:

  Modi and his party went gaga over Obama, now they seem offended by Obama's "intolerance" comment. Lesson: Never be overzealous in diplomacy.
  — Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) February 7, 2015




• O Ranga Sayee - Semmangudi:

Composer: Tyaagaraaja

pallavi:
O rangashAyi pilacitE O yanucu rA rAdA

anupallavi:
sAranga varuDu jUci kailAsAdhipuDu gAlEdA

caraNam
bhUlOka vaikuNTham idiyani nIlOna nIvE yuppongi
shrI lOluDai yuNTe mA cintadire dennaDo mElOrva
lEni janulalO nE migula nOgili divya rUpamunu mutyAla
saruLa yuramunu gana vacciti tyAgarAja hrd-bhUSaNa

Quick notes: India Against Corruption 2.0, Billionaires...

• First major challenge for Modi: Anna camp plans stir against land ordinance. Congress warms to Anna.



• Indian billionaires: The ratio of billionaire wealth to GDP is higher in India than in other economies with a similar development level.



• Tina Chowdhury: Indian-Origin Scientist develops new way to treat Osteoarthritis



• Public transit: Electric cars are cool. But electric buses are awesome.



• Young monkey feeding a tiger cub:

Young monkey feeding a tiger cub 😍 pic.twitter.com/LssdFHPRRz
— National Geographic (@NatGeoID) January 23, 2015

Quick notes: Save the Yezidis, Caught on camera...

• Yazidis stranded on isolated mountaintop begin to die of thirst



• Please sign the petition: Stop the killings, pain, and suffering of Yezidis in Iraq.



• Extremely graphic video of Teesta's friends killing random motorists for pleasure.



• Air Force prefers Akaash weapon system. Not keen on Rs. 30,000 Cr Indo-French missile deal



• Modi reunites Nepalese youth with parents after 16-years 



• Indian TV crew shows rare video of rocket launch from Gaza:

• 1951:: Martand Temple, Kashmir:

1951:: Martand Temple, Kashmir (ph-Howard Sochurek) pic.twitter.com/uqDLnkLEof
— villagehistorypics (@villagehistory) July 27, 2014

Quick notes: Fasting, Fashion statement...

• Fasting could regenerate the immune system: You’re fasting to regenerate your stem cells and rebuild your immune system, not to lose weight. Fasting more often may have a number of negative affects which outweigh any benefits.



• Child trafficking plot thickens: Under pressure from Muslim League, Kerala govt shies away from launching full-fledged investigation



• Modi a ‘fashion icon’: ‘A Leader Who Is What He Wears’... ‘Here’s what Modi’s fashion says about his politics’... ‘India’s New PM Is the Country’s Latest Fashion Icon’



• On rooftops, in parking lots: How India plays football... (Car craze will ensure future generations will have less space to play). 



• Nailing the lie about food wastage:

Americans tossed out over 36 million tons of food in 2012. Less than 5% got recycled: http://t.co/AEknF8IHDf pic.twitter.com/CgbjYW8uHB
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 7, 2014

Quick notes: Sepoys no more, Cycle2Work...

• Sepoys no more: No more English, Modi chooses Hindi for talks with foreign leaders.



• Tharoor sings praises of Modi: ‘An avatar of modernity and progress’



• Telangana gets the emblem wrong  The emblem of India is incomplete without the motto: "Satyameva Jayate'' inscribed below the profile of the Lion Capital. (.. let's pressure them to also replace Urdu with Devanagari)



• Cycle2Work: Why not cycle to work and save the environment? (and the rupee)



• Autism linked to male hormones: Exposure to high levels of male hormones in the womb increases the chance of a baby boy developing autism.



• Seatbelt could have saved Munde: It was the intensity of the impact that made all the difference. 



• Devinder Sharma:

Have you ever seen boys in mofussil towns standing around with eyes fixed on the semi-nude girls in the film posters? #rapes
— Devinder Sharma (@Devinder_Sharma) June 4, 2014




• Mullah arrested: When he is not sodomising boys, he imparts Islamic education.

Quick notes: A train journey, UCC...

• Must read: A train journey and two names to remember



• Katju roots for UCC: "India has one common criminal law. Many of these laws are against the Muslim law. Nobody objected to that. For instance, Muslim law provides for stoning to death for women committing adultery, but that would be illegal under the IPC."



• Soda secret: Sugar-sweetened drinks such as soda can lower semen quality.



• Asthma: A form of vitamin E found in vegetable oils like corn, soybean and canola may worsen lung function, while another form typically found in olive oil may protect it. Asthma rates in the US have risen steadily in the past four decades, which corresponds with the rising use of canola, soybean and other vegetable oils rich in gamma tocopherol.



• FDI:

FDI in everything amounts to India for sale. Shortsighted way to raise cash. Indians will end up as shudras working for foreign vaishyas.
— Rajiv Malhotra (@RajivMessage) June 2, 2014




• Hydrogen leak: Mettur Thermal’s experience once again raises concerns on the suitability of Chinese power equipment for India.

Quick notes: Happy bikers, Timeless Varanasi

• Bicyclists are happiest travellers: People are in the best mood while they are bicycling compared to any other mode of transportation.
  (Bikes can solve some of India's biggest problems, including pollution and Rupee stability. Look at Europe)



• Heritage site: Varanasi should showcase timeless India, not flyover modernity



• Fine dining goes herbivorous: Not only Indians but even expats are opting for vegetarian



• Does porn affect brain?  Researchers found less gray matter in the brains of men who watched large amounts of sexually explicit material.



• Cardboard Desk converts into bookbag for schoolkids:

• Blast from the past: Tulsi to go on fast unto death

Relish the moment, India

• Our values, our way:

Mr Modi being blessed by his mother! Respecting our value system! Here is one for our families. pic.twitter.com/omZ7yCAN9i
— Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) May 16, 2014

• Eat Your Words:

#EatYourWords. With 272+, BJP set for India’s biggest mandate since 84. Live: http://t.co/sLPEbibgVz pic.twitter.com/NS1O7Wy8rf
— Firstpost (@firstpostin) May 16, 2014

Tryst-With-Destiny vs Tryst-With-Dynasty

Forbes has published an article by Robert Kaplan et al on the upcoming contest between Congress Party scion Rahul Gandhi and challenger Narendra Modi:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stratfor/2013/10/09/indias-tryst-with-destiny/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-nsc-indias-tryst-with-destiny-20131009,0,3521766.story

I wasn't too happy with the knee-jerk references to "Hitler", so I posted some of my own remarks in the comments section to throw a few thunderbolts at them. Please feel free to post your comments there too - but please try to keep them focused and credible. Persuasion will accomplish more than mere convulsions. There are some sober points to consider from the article too.

What the ELM didn't want you to know

What most of the ELM didn't report:

"Sanjeev Bhatt, suspended IPS officer, forged evidence to malign the state government.," the Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court contended.

What the ELM is spinning: A Conversation With Goa CM Manohar Parrikar

Administrative failure does not mean everything is blamed on one man, Narendra Modi. What happened then was unfortunate, but that does not require his apology, it requires his correction and he has done that. There were many reasons why people lost control in 2002 after the dead bodies [of Hindu pilgrims from an earlier attack] were shown on TV. It should not have happened, the administration should have clamped down on any violence, [If I were in his place] I would have ensured…but Modi was new to the job as chief minister. It was a blot on Modi’s career, but he was not personally a part of it. If he is guilty by connivance he should be punished, but investigations have given him a clean chit. People who oppose him do so because they fear him.

Quick notes: Bhatkal, threat from Nepal border...

• Jihadi paradise: Bhatkal, a port town in Uttara Kannada district, played a crucial role in almost all terror assaults across the country between November 2007 and July this year, including the Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Bodh Gaya blasts. Unlike other towns, it’s the Muslim here who is affluent, and not the Hindu.



• Muslims of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin have for past many years been grabbing no-man’s land on both sides of international border with connivance of Nepali authorities for putting up their illegal colonies, mosques and madrasas, stretching from Uttarakhand to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim.



• NaMo to Indian men: If women feel unsafe, we shouldn't call ourselves mard.



• Namo to BJP leaders: Don't defend rape-accused Asaram 



• Real estate collapse?  "A multitude of factors are converging, setting the stage for a deep correction in real estate."



• End the Dollarized economy: India eyes local-currency swaps



• Bad news for Chinese manufacturing: Moto X Defies Conventional Wisdom About U.S. Production



• Hans at the tech forefront: China discusses radical implications of SDN. 



• Meanwhile, India, with its "English advantage" is trying to fend off Philippines' threat to our BPOs! ... Superpowerdom starts with Ba-Ba-Blacksheep in our schools!

Quick notes: Punish the murderers

Ramesh is the second senior party functionary in Tamil Nadu to be murdered in the last nine months. BJP state medical wing secretary Dr V Aravind was killed in front of his clinic in Vellore by a gang in October, 2012.

TimesNow: TN BJP General Secretary murdered

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"Walmart masqueraded the investment as FDI in services sector, schemed and hoodwinked the Government and the RBI. After nine months of the case not moving ahead at the Enforcement Directorate, I wrote to the CBI and asked them to intervene and investigate and they have found violations," Achuthan told Reuters.

Reuters: India police agency says Wal-Mart violated investment rules


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On Demand Yoga


Streaming sites cater to busy schedules.

Real development versus hype

The number of slums in Gujarat has reduced by 5,579 (1.52%) over the last decade, according to 2011 census data. On the contrary, the 13 major states of the country – Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar, UP, MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, J&K, Odisha and Tamil Nadu – have witnessed marginal to manifold increase in the shanties of their urban areas. While there is a 17.50% increase in slums of Bihar, Kerala has seen its shanty town quadruple since 2001.

DNA: For Gujarat slum no longer glum story