Quick notes: Erdogan's terror, E-commerce norms...

• Erdogan's Turkey is Islamic State: Syria’s Kurds, betrayed by the U.S., ask Assad for protection. . . U.S. commanders recommend letting Kurdish fighters in Syria keep weapons. The recommendation “is a rejection of Trump’s policy to withdraw from Syria”.



• Paedophilic Paki: Most pedophiles in UK are of Paki descent says British home secretary Sajid Javid.



• Govt tightens e-commerce norms: Forces e-commerce companies to become ‘genuine marketplaces’. . Amazon may have to sell Cloudtail, Appario stakes. . "FDI rules do not allow inventory based model of e-commerce"... Move may end Amazon, Flipkart flash sales and discounts.

E-commerce firms and traders hail new norms but small vendors fret over 25% limithttps://t.co/K8sqGvH90y

— moneycontrol (@moneycontrolcom) December 27, 2018




• The War on Cars Is Real: It's being led by congested cities. Congestion pricing is just one way cities are actively engaged in reducing the number of cars and the amount of driving.



• Jobless growth: Manufacturing may not generate jobs at the expected rate. 'The policies were put in the hope that growth of the manufacturing sector will lead to increased employment'.



• David Godman on his spiritual journey:




• The Extraordinary Life of Maurice Frydman: Virtually nothing is known about this most extraordinary man. He was in all the right places in all the right times to get the maximum benefit of interaction with some of the greats of Indian spirituality -- Sri Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Mahatma Gandhi and J. Krishnamurti… He was a Gandhian, he worked for the uplift of the poor in India, he worked with Tibetan refugees, he edited extraordinary books [like] “I am That,” probably one of the all time spiritual classics. Ramana Maharshi said of Frydman “He belongs only here to India. Somehow he was born abroad, but has come again here”.
  
  “We ripen when we refuse to drift, when striving ceaselessly become a way of life, when dispassion born of insight becomes spontaneous. When the search ‘Who Am I?’ becomes the only thing that matters, when we become a mere torch and the flame all important, it will mean that we are ripening fast. We cannot accelerate that ripening, but we can remove the obstacles of fear and greed, indolence and fancy, prejudice and pride.” Maurice Frydman, April 1976 The Mountain Path

Quick notes: Foreign meddling, Trump towers...

• Who knew!! Not just Russia, the United States too has a history of meddling in foreign elections.



• Trump Towers in India: Ads in Indian newspapers have been promising drinks and dinner with Trump Jr. if buyers make a down payment of 2.5 million rupees for an apartment. Other investors are financing the construction, while the Trump family is benefiting from licensing fees it charges to put the Trump name on the buildings.



• Bloodbath: Amazon is wreaking havoc on American grocery industry



• Language policy: Calls for fight against Hindi imposition getting louder.



• Are we helpless?

Persons accused of big white collar crimes in India take safe refuge in UK or USA. Can a person accused in USA or UK take refuge in India?
We are not helpless. Our strength is in being united to bring these fugitives to justice system in India. No use in accusing each other.

— Ashok Khemka (@AshokKhemka_IAS) February 17, 2018




• Papaji: "Don't take I with you":




• Inner Workings: Cells continue to function even after an individual dies.



• Solid numbers: Tamil Nadu among the world’s leading renewable energy markets 



• Get them addicted early: Facebook expands 'Messenger Kids' to Android despite outcry.  These are the sneaky ways apps like Instagram, Facebook, Tinder lure you in and get you addicted.

Quick notes: Smart cities, Twitter's troubles...

• Smart cities: What next for the 20 cities?



• Embarrassment: In U-turn, Centre may allow FDI in multi-brand retail  



• Schlonged: During a speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Trump said Hillary had been “schlonged” by Obama in the 2008 race. In response, the Clinton campaign called Trump a sexist. It’s a charge Hillary has leveled against virtually every opponent she’s faced, but Trump responded differently. Instead of scrambling to donate to breast cancer research, he pointed out that Hillary spent years attacking the alleged victims of her husband’s sexual assaults. That ended the conversation almost immediately.



• Twitter's troubles: Twitter faces mortal danger from Facebook.




• Diesel scandal: Volkswagen May Buy Back Diesel Cars It Can’t Fix





• Obama's Hanuman: Watch from 44 minutes on

Quick notes: UPA-3, Road runway...

• UPA-3: Govt retains UPA's decision to allow 51% FDI in multi-brand retail



• And worse: Govt's environment policy encourages deforestation leading to ecological imbalance



• Taking on greed: How tribal Indians beat big coal firms



• India's first: IAF to convert Agra-Lucknow Expressway into India's first road runway



• My Chevy Volt May Outlive Me: Chevy Volt will have a lifespan much longer than an ordinary gas car or even a hybrid. 



• 'American Football Is Like a Nuclear Explosion': Nine former NFL players have committed suicide since 2010. What they all have in common is that they were defeated by life post-football. I get aggressive, the way I was on the field. I could hurt someone very easily.
  
  You make a mistake, the head coach sees it and yells at the co-coach and he yells at you. Shit rolls downhill. So the next time you give it your all so the coach praises you. It's a brutal business. If you want to make it, you have to eat shit.



• Venkat Panchapakesan: YouTube Engineering Chief Dies Young



• Shia Slaughter:  Dozens killed in Karachi bus attack

Quick notes: E-commerce, Aruba networks...

• FDI for Flipkart and Snapdeal: It has the potential to render many small retailers’ physical stores unsustainable



• Standing up to the Chinese:  Taiwan tells Alibaba to exit within 6 months



• Keerti Melkote: Aruba networks sells for $3 billion.



• Samuel, the messiah: Illegal YSR statues encroaching roads in AP



• $60,000 speeding ticket: Instead of a flat fine, Finland bases the penalty as a percentage of daily income. The rationale is that the fine should sting for anyone, even the ultra-rich.



• Healthy cows: Butter from grass-fed cows leads to fewer heart attacks



• McDonald's to cut use of antibiotics in chicken: Many poultry producers give their birds antibiotics to make them grow faster. But overuse of the drugs could lead to them becoming less effective in treating illness and disease in humans.



• It was not the British government that seized India, but a private company, run by an unstable sociopath. Using its rapidly growing security force – its army had grown to 260,000 men by 1803 – it swiftly subdued and seized an entire subcontinent. “What honour is left to us?” asked a Mughal official named Narayan Singh, shortly after 1765, “when we have to take orders from a handful of traders who have not yet learned to wash their bottoms?”



• White man's burden: One article describes "Nirbhaya" as "speaking excellent English". What comes through, then, is a sense of India as a place of ignorance and brutality towards women, that inspires both shock and pity, but also call for a rap on the knuckles from the "civilized world" for its "brutal attitudes". Nirbhaya, described patronizingly as a speaker of "excellent English" is marked approvingly as a good subject for the global rescue mission. ..(excuse me for quoting Kavita Krishnan)

Quick notes: Spy master, Driverless car...

• Spy Master: Ajit Doval, giant among spies, reports back for duty soon



• Not the fittest: RSS not happy with Smriti Irani as HRD minister



• Inspired by UPA: Google's driverless car.



• Waiting for kirana stores to die: Food retailers including Reliance, Wal-Mart, Bharti accumulate Rs 13,000 cr loss in FY14

Quick notes: Idling power plants, malnutrition stats...

• Nation paying heavy price to please the Ambanis. Rs 40,000 crore of investments in power plants with an installed capacity of 4,904 MW are at risk of turning into non-performing assets due to non-availability of domestic natural gas, primarily due to low production at the Reliance-run KG offshore fields.



• WHO malnutrition figures are a joke. Even perfectly healthy Indian children would be classified as malnourished just because they fail to meet the height and weight standards derived from the WHO population that is taller and heavier on an average.



• Lobbying pays: The government plans to ease retail FDI norms on sourcing and back-end infrastructure investments, besides allowing the global retail giants to set up shops in more cities.



• Alcohol means less happiness. Both men and women reported feeling less happy the day after drinking, but the effect was much stronger for women.

Quick notes: Batla House, Kamzor Kadi Kaun ...

• Batla House encounter of 2008 genuine, court rules: Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh had triggered a controversy by raising doubts over the genuineness of the encounter and visiting Azamgarh, the native place of the slain men.

• Kaangress ruled India is Asia's weakest link ..tell me something new

• S Gurumurthy on Dollar Circus: By recycling the phoney credit monies it has created and sent out, investing outside the US and earning huge returns, the US has escaped Friedman’s effect. It’s a model no other country can offer.




• Expect Kaangress to bend the rules again: 30% local sourcing norm can't be met: Walmart




• Walmart is facing several probes and shareholder suits related to allegations of corrupt business practices in Mexico and hushing up a previous internal inquiry into the matter. Walmart's India fallout started with allegations of bribery in Mexico

No Bull - Facts About Retail in the US

For those fantasizing about the benefits of big retail, here is some data:

Product	Retail Price	Farmer's Share
Flour (5lb)	$2.89	$0.62
Bread (1 lb. loaf)	$2.99	$0.12
Cereal (18 oz.)	$4.39	$0.09
Potato (Russet 10 lb.)	$3.99	$0.77
Soda (2 liter cola)	$1.49	$0.07
Lettuce (1 head)	$1.99	$0.44
Fresh Carrots (2 lbs.)	$2.99	$0.76
Milk (1 gal. fat free)	$3.75	$1.27

*Farmer’s share derived from USDA, NASS ”Agricultural Prices,” 2008. Retail based on Safeway (SE) brand except where noted.

The farmer's share is down 3.2 cents from just last year, and is a long fall from the 40 cents for every food dollar that farmers received in 1950. Wake up and smell the facts. A US style food industry is the last thing India needs.

BJP to strongly oppose FDI in retail sector

Absolutely correct stance. Now some crony capitalists will use the "free market" argument to push for big retail. Free markets when it suits them and Keynesianism when it does not.

Wal-Mart Expanding in India

Wal-Mart is finally expanding its presence in India, as a supplier to the country's fragile retail sector. Instead of mowing down mom-n-pop shops as was done in the USA, Wal-Mart is supplying those very shops as a wholesaler.