Quick notes: Blue skies | Milk output...

• Blue sky thinking: “For once this city looks like the city of my childhood – quiet, pure air and amazingly clear skies. I know it’s a high price to pay for enjoying clean air, the virus is deadly”.
  
  India has the world's highest number of tuberculosis cases.



• Cow vigilantism raised milk output: Normally, adult females are sold away for slaughter, after their fourth or fifth lactation at salvage value. But due to cow vigilantism after 2014, these animals have been reared for more number of lactations resulting in growth of milk production.



• Secular govts buying PPE kits from Hindu non-profit: These disciples of Satya Sai Baba are doing it at absolutely no profits as they view it as a public service in troubled times, charging Rs 475, while other traders charge Rs 1,500 and more.



• Back to glory? Doordarshan highest-watched channel in India during week ended April 3



• All Is Self: When mind is quiet, all is Self.

"When mind is quiet, all is Self. When mind moves the world arises. So be Still, throw away everything and be Free." ~ Papaji pic.twitter.com/o7JSUOyJay

— Neelam (@NeelamFoT) February 20, 2020




• Stay Safe: Mahina Khanum




• Terror haven, psecular haven: Before his arrest, Bangabandhu's killer Abdul Majed was hiding in Kolkata for 22 years.  



• Shift Production Out of China: Japan has earmarked $2.2 billion of its economic stimulus package to help its manufacturers shift production out of China as c-virus disrupts supply. 



• WHO: U.S. Spent $452 Million on WHO in 2019. China? $42 Million



• Dramatic drop in India pollution: In New Delhi, the average concentration of PM 2.5 plunged by 71% a week after the lockdown began.



• Students for a Free Tibet: SFT is a chapter-based network of young people and activists around the world. Through education, grassroots organizing, and nonviolent direct action, we campaign for Tibetans’ fundamental right to freedom.

Quick notes: Rocket women, Alcohol consumption...

• Rocket woman: How to cook curry and get a spacecraft into Mars orbit.. Can you guide a spacecraft into orbit around Mars and cook for eight people morning and night? Yes, if you get up at 5am, and your name is BP Dakshayani. Here the former head of flight dynamics and space navigation for the Indian space agency explains how she did it - and the housework too.  They became known as the Rocket Women or the Women from Mars.
  
  Four years ago, the picture of a group of women in saris celebrating as an Indian spacecraft successfully entered Mars orbit shone a light on the role played by women in the country's space programme - among them BP Dakshayani.
  



• Machines Are Coming for India’s Unwanted Factory Jobs:  The trouble is finding jobs that Indians actually want. The country’s workers would rather drive for food-delivery services on the breezy, albeit steamy, roads of Mumbai and work in hotels than in factories. Fair enough. Who would want to work in a yarn mill, which needs to maintain a temperature of 33 degrees Celsius? Conditions on other industrial factory floors are likely worse... India's youth unemployment rate (ages 15-24) is one of the highest among large, global economies.



• Growth creates fewer jobs than it used to: Between 2013 and 2015, total employment actually shrank by seven million. Since 2015 there has also been an absolute decline in job growth.
  



• Alcohol intake in India doubles in 11 years: Per capita alcohol consumption in India has more than doubled from 2005 to 2016  



• Temple land grab: “After acquiring lands from the people in the name of SEZ, and without paying compensation in time to the owners, the State govt allots them to various companies indiscriminately and that the latter do not set up industries on such lands, and all these activities show that there is some big conspiracy behind it. To acquire lands belonging to the temples the govt first resorts to annulling the existing temple boards and appoints persons in-charge in their place to cooperate with it for the purpose.”



• HamSoham: Seattle Raga Labs with Ganesh Rajagopalan




• China Pries Technology From U.S. Companies: An audit this year convinced an employee at one foreign auto maker there was “clear evidence of collusion” between the audit team and Chinese auto makers. When the audit began, the person says, inspectors asked for only the blueprints of the electric-vehicle components the foreign company was striving to protect from its Chinese joint-venture partner.  “Somehow they knew exactly the areas to look at,” the person says. “There wasn’t a single question about any of the other very complex systems on the vehicle.” 



• Islam's True Colors: Chechnya starts concentration camps for gay men, first time after Hitler



• Pick your battles:

One trick Hindu’s need to learn is the art of ignoring. Half of the drama, ex. Gita burning, is done by losers trying to gain significance. Pick your battle, ask before you respond why is this person doing what s/he is doing? Only respond if it furthers our strength.

— Jiger Patel (@JigerPatel) September 14, 2018

Quick notes: South China sea, Jihadi wives...

• Confrontation looming? Japan will soon help Vietnam extract gas from the South China sea. How will China respond? .... China has spent much of the past two years fortifying these islands, including placing missiles on the Spratly island chain.



• Wives of Jihadis: Wave of ‘disappointed’ wives are divorcing ISIS jihadis



• Rohit Prasad: The Indian engineer who is the brain behind Alexa



• Indra Nooyi: “Whether you are from the IITs or the IIMs, the Indian education system dishes to foreign companies the best and the brightest. In today’s world, as we CEOs look for truly global leaders who can pilot through all of the volatility in the world, Indian leaders are rising to the top. So every time we go out to look for leaders there are usually four or five people who have been educated in the IITs or the IIMs that show up.
  
  So the big question that I keep asking myself is if people who have been educated in India always bubble up to the top then why is it that these leaders want to leave India? Doesn’t India need these leaders? Even if they leave India, shouldn’t there be a round trip ticket for them to come back to India, so they can help India get to a better place. So I think one of the big issues we should talk about is not just lessons in leadership or what the leaders need to do today but what can India do to bring those leaders back to India, so India itself can become an even more powerful economy going forward.” 



• Certified pSecular: Andhra govt officially organizing Jesus event..?

Andhra government officially organizing Jesus event in Delhi and resident commissioner is actively involved in the event.#Secularism is at peak. pic.twitter.com/lTMyEAL5sr

— Shubham Verma ( आर्य शुभम् वर्मा ) (@THESHUBHAMV) August 7, 2018




• Lithuanian and Sanskrit:
  Sanskrit: Kas tvam asi? Asmi svapnas tava tamasi nakte. Agniṃ dadau te hridi tada viśpatir devas tvam asi.
  Lithuanian: Kas tu esi? Esmi sapnas tavo tamsioje naktyje. Ugnį daviau tau širdy, tada viešpatis dievas tu esi.
  English: “Who are you? I am a dream in your dark night. I gave you fire in heart, then you become a God”.



• Bolava Vitthal - Ranjani Gayatri




• Zuck wants to own you: Facebook wants your banking information, too. Banks are worried about the breadth of information being sought.

Facebook wants banks to give it access to card transactions and checking account balances along with information about where users shop.

In exchange, banks would get access to Facebook user information.

Dangerous. https://t.co/6W0xYY6iNQ

— The Tor Project (@torproject) August 9, 2018

Quick notes: Defenseless Yazidis, Modicare's high cost...

• First ISIS, now Erdogan: Yazidis left vulnerable as Kurdish forces pull out of northern Iraq
• India's tech hope: L&T Techology Services develops autonomous vehicle platform



• Modicare's high cost: Govt may borrow Rs 4 lakh crore from market to fulfil budget promises 



• Health sector mess: Without addressing the issue of pricing, Modicare will become unsustainable over the years.



• Pay back: Panel recommends fixing of 'minimum compulsory period' of working within country for doctors  



• Will China stab Qualcomm in the back? Qualcomm's purchase of NXP has received regulatory approval in all jurisdictions except one: China. The decision could hurt America’s sole company (Qualcomm) fighting Huawei for dominance in 5G wireless technologies.



• KKKangress appeasement on overdrive: Karnataka Govt tweaks minority college admission rule



• Living With Phytic Acid: The anti-nutrient you should know about

Quick notes: Temple lands, Dharma lesson...

• Hindus robbed by 'Vikas': BJP-led Maharashtra govt to sell vast tracts held by temple trusts. The State Cabinet amended existing laws, allowing transfer of Devasthan Inams land held by individuals and 4,000 temple trusts, including the ones at Shirdi, Siddhivinayak, Pandharpur and Mahalaxmi in Kolhapur.... vikas gando thayo chhe



• Muslims rewarded by 'Vikas': Same govt increases the budget of Haj Committee.

BJP-led Maharashtra govt says #budget of State Haj Committee will be increased.

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 11, 2018




• Shia board's warning: Shia Central Waqf Board urges govt to shut down madrassas in the country, alleging that education imparted in these Islamic schools encouraged students to join terrorist ranks.



• Chinese H1-B: China is issuing long-term visas to lure highly skilled people from abroad to work in the country. Technology leaders, entrepreneurs and scientists from in-demand sectors are among those eligible to apply.



• Growing innovation back home: Chinese workers abandon Silicon Valley for riches back home



• Dharma lesson by Max Muller:  What India teaches us is that in a state advancing towards civilization, there must be always two castes or two classes of men, a caste of Brahmans or of thinkers, and a caste of Kshatriyas, who are to fight; possibly other castes also of those who are to work and of those who are to serve. Great wars went on in India, but they were left to be fought by the warriors by profession. The peasants in their villages remained quiet, accepting the consequences, whatever they might be, and the Brahmans lived on, thinking and dreaming in their forests, satisfied to rule after the battle was over.
  
  And what applies to military struggles seems to me to apply to all struggles—political, religious, social, commercial, and even literary. Let those who love to fight, fight; but let others who are fond of quiet work go on undisturbed in their own special callings.



• AWAKE: The Life of Yogananda

Quick notes: Appeasement gone wild, Petcoke ban...

• Land of the pure: Telangana to set up IT corridor, industrial estate for Muslims. Chief Minister says minorities should have a 10% quota in the state’s double-bedroom housing scheme for economically weaker sections.



• Overdue: SC bans petroleum coke, furnace oil to clean up toxic air in Delhi-NCR 



• Lesson for Indian cities: Singapore bans additional cars to keep traffic from getting worse



• Lucknow-Agra Expressway: Aircraft of the IAF land on a stretch of the Lucknow-Agra Expressway




• Basis for calculus: Five ways ancient India changed the world – with maths



• India unwittingly aiding North Korea in cyberattacks: “Large, large, large amounts of data transfers between a number of Indian science and technology research centers and Philippine government research centers. It’s not clear what was happening there, but it certainly looked like the organizations themselves, and maybe their researcher technology is certainly of interest to some North Koreans"



• Reverse diabetes with Intermittent Fasting: Intermittent fasting is an increasingly trendy diet that involves going without food for anywhere from 14 hours to several days. The fad has picked up fans in Silicon Valley, including author and podcaster Tim Ferriss, Y Combinator partner Daniel Gross, internet entrepreneur Kevin Rose (who created an app that lets fasters track their progress), and nearly the entire team at "smart drug" startup HVMN.



• White Jesus:

Interesting that krishna is dark skinned like most Indians. But Jesus (if he existed) was brown, has been reimagined as white guy, a Borgia https://t.co/YfW25hj36x

— राजीवः श्रीनिवासः (@RajeevSrinivasa) October 23, 2017

Quick notes: Secular detonators, Sanskrit daily...

• Saved by Secularism: Daniel was involved in supplying explosives on three occasions: for planting a bomb below a bridge near Vellore in 2011 to target BJP leader L K Advani, the 2012 Tirunelveli blast and for the Malleswaram blast.



• High Time: Rajnath promises to bring back ‘quota within quota’ if BJP wins UP.
  
  As someone said, the Jat agitation stems from resentment about Yadavs pocketing all the benefits of reservation. Ensuring that no single caste can get more than a third of the available reservations will bring a measure of fairness to the system.



• India's only Sanskrit daily fights for survival: Sudharma was launched by Kalale Nadadur Varadaraja Iyengar, a Sanskrit scholar, in 1970 with the goal of propagating the language. 



• Paddy fields vanish in Kerala’s rice bowl: Real estate lobbies buy paddy fields from farmers at cheap rates and convert them to housing plots.



• Worth fighting for:

Britishers thru Land bill in 1894 gave land to church & Missionaries schools for 100 yr lease GOI shd get that land back
it is 2016

— No Conversion (@noconversion) June 11, 2016




• Ayigiri Nandini :




• India is building a $60 million supercomputer that will help predict monsoons: The dynamic, 3D modeling technique is far more high-tech than the statistical method, which sees Indian meteorologists collect data on things like sea-surface temperatures, wind direction, and wind speed before comparing this information to historical records of rainfall. The new supercomputer will work ten times faster than the one used in recent years.

Quick notes: Erdogan's games, Prejudice in courts...

• Erdogan's plan to expel Kurds: Visa-free travel to EU for Turkish nationals.



• Prejudice against Hinduism on the rise in India: Judges should not dictate religious practices. Political activists should not be allowed to use temples for political agitation.



• Why Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Criticism of Islam Angers Western Liberals: She is the object of vitriol by some on the left, for whom a narrative of the Muslims as victims and the West as victimizers is precious and comfortable.



• Tougher vehicle emission standards: China will become the toughest regulatory regime in the world over the next five years. Honda has said the 47-mpg standard will require it to sell only hybrids in China by 2025.



• Sun salutations with mantras:

Paid for by your friendly neighborhood soul harverter

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 34 US lawmakers have expressed “grave concerns” over “increasing intolerance and violence” against members of minority communities in India.

It refers to a June 2014 ban on “non-Hindu religious propaganda, prayers, and speeches” in their communities imposed by 50 village councils in Bastar, Chattisgarh, which it says has effectively “criminalized the practice of Christianity for an estimated 300 Christian families in the region”.

The letter then said the “nearly country-wide beef ban is increasing tensions and encouraging vigilante violence against the Indian Muslim community”.

It went on to cite the death of two Sikh men in October during protests over the desecration of the religion’s holy book, Sri Guru Granth Sahib.

..Really? How many Sikhs died due to hate crime in the US in recent years.

Concerted campaign by Breaking India forces.

Christian missionaries ideology is based on colonial expansionism

They never gave up dream of ruling the world through religion

— No Conversion (@noconversion) February 27, 2016

Quick notes: Suspect GDP, Ad-blockers...

• India's suspect GDP figures: Slowdown is pronounced in rural areas, which have suffered two consecutive dry years.



• Game changer: Facebook and Google fret over ad blockers



• Infosys Clock: Infosys clock will tower over Big Ben. .. NRN, a former Marxist with a soft corner for all things western. Detests our native languages.



• Pee power: From Gunpowder to Teeth Whitener: The Science Behind Historic Uses of Urine



• Kejriwal: A Hindu by faith, a Muslim by practice. "Prophet Muhammad said ‘The best form of jihad is to say the truth before the oppressive rulers’. Kejriwal is telling the truth before the rulers".



• Godmen's own country:

#Kerala State govt `gifts' 13 acres to Church at throwaway price https://t.co/O18dUpyafh @AnandRM_ pic.twitter.com/AzGXQ1sNXy

— Anjali George (@Kuvalayamala) February 4, 2016




• Mahishasura Mardini Stotram:

Quick notes: China model, Gut bacteria pills...

• Doomed:

If China is what @APanagariya wants for India our future is doomed. https://t.co/gsjxBTlK6X

— viva kermani (@vivakermani) January 19, 2016




• Air force Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud murder: Police raid on Sohrab home aborted three hours into crash. 



• Startups Draw on Gut Bacteria: Relatively new discoveries about of the role of the microbiome in human health have sparked a race to develop new therapies based on microbes in the gut.



• Traffic goes out of gear after Odd-Even ends: Congestion and grid-lock in urban India will continue as long as  private vehicles are not regulated. Learn from Singapore.



• Veena Voyage - Raghuvamsa:




• Degraded:

Atleast one quarter of China's agricultural land has been declared degraded and unfit for further cultivation https://t.co/G2qheUOuia

— viva kermani (@vivakermani) January 19, 2016

Quick notes: American justice, Patent delays...

• No justice for you!: Police officer who paralyzed Sureshbhai Patel will walk free. "That injury, standing alone, does not provide the basis for a criminal judgement against Mr Parker," the judge said.



• Why Sabarimala has restrictions on women: Differentiation is not discrimination. We need to be able to celebrate diversity and pluralism in religious worship with something more than just scientific reasoning and mere constitutional clauses.



• How does law allow Bakrid but not Jallikattu? Exemption is for “killing” animals, not exhibiting them. 



• Patent Delays Threaten “Make In India”:  A patent application takes, on average, six years to get approved in India  



• Electric propulsion on Isro satellites: “Instead of chemical fuel, we save on weight and pack it with more transponders”.



• Regulators reject Volkswagen's diesel fix: “"Volkswagen made a decision to cheat on emissions tests and then tried to cover it up. They continued and compounded the lie, and when they were caught, they tried to deny it.".

Quick notes: BJP's big chance, Punjab's real problem...

• Time for BJP to act:

  Jallikattu and Sabarimala - BJP's big chance to show that it will defend South Indian culture against Lutyen's Delhi. #WeNeedJallikattu

  — Saint Lucifer (@AgentSaffron) January 12, 2016




• Punjab's real problem: The nexus of drug cartels-the police-the BSF must be broken. Punjab is not going to be vulnerable to terrorism per se. It is going to be vulnerable to unemployment, drugs and lawlessness. But the ISI is bound to exploit narcoterrorism.



• Merkel under pressure: "More than 1,000 Arab and North African men gathered on New Year's Eve near Cologne cathedral and the main train station. Among them were many refugees that came to Germany in the past months". 516 criminal complaints had been registered, 237 of which were of a sexual nature.



• EV popularity a threat to established automakers: Because they can be readily purchased from suppliers, electric powertrains facilitate the entry of companies like Apple into the car industry.  So if electric powertrains really are contributing to disintermediation, they may also be making it possible for a host of new competitors to challenge established carmakers.



• China’s Letv Launches IoT-Enabled Bicycle In India: App integration, intelligent anti-theft, voice communication etc.




• uberPOOL: More people in fewer cars.... Uber pushes into public transit with new app partnership



• Distributed propulsion: Rethinking the Airplane, for Climate’s Sake. Dr. Laskaridis and Dr Devaiah Nalianda, are studying the feasibility of hybrid turbine-electric systems that might use batteries and a single jet engine to generate electricity for the motors.



• No compulsion to react:

  #PresentMomentReminder from #EckhartTolle. For automatic reminders, click here: https://t.co/FbP4rHE0Ee #quotes #PMR pic.twitter.com/SLsg5PJQFv

  — Eckhart Tolle (@EckhartTolle) January 10, 2016

Quick notes: NextEV, Emission standards...

• Padmashree Warrior takes on Elon Musk: Tesla rival NextEV taps her to run U.S. operations.



• China Emission Standards: So Tough Honda Will Have All Hybrids By 2025



• IIT-Madras develops low-cost air purifier:  Chennai's air quality index is around 55; Delhi, with an index of 313, falls under the 'very poor' category.



• Presstitutes: Unnecessary outrage over Air India's vegetarian menu.



• Zuckerberg's Indian Mousetrap: If every telecom company in India gave a free Facebook Messenger option, there's virtually zero hope for an Indian version of a QQ or WeChat, homegrown Chinese instant messaging services with functionalities that are streets ahead of what Zuckerberg has to offer.



• Akhand Secularistan: Imagine India with 55crore Muslims.

#AkhandBharat is a terrible idea. SAARC trade bloc, perhaps. Political union a dangerous fantasy

— Minhaz Merchant (@minhazmerchant) December 27, 2015

Quick notes: Secularistan, Indian of the year...

• Secularistan: KKKaangress govt demolishes structures at Jain pilgrimage centre, evicts Jain saints.



• Do something about pollution: The Delhi govt deserves cheers, not jeers



• Society regulated by Dharma:

If you are giving out Indian of the year award, do consider - the ordinary Chennai Citizen. Fortitude in adversity. pic.twitter.com/H6YbDd0wUJ

— Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) December 4, 2015

Quick notes: Humanities, Tolerance for polygamy...

• Humanities at IISc: One JNU is not enough!



• Muslim polygamy: "If the state tolerates this law, it becomes an accomplice in the discrimination of the female, which is illegal under its own laws".



• Dubious record: India's carbon emissions rise, even as global rates fall



• 1984 is not all:

I wonder why only the 1984 massacre is raised as an example of Congress hypocrisy on communalism—not Moradabad, Meerut, Bhagalpur, Nellie...

— Praveen Swami (@praveenswami) November 2, 2015




• Stop copying the west: Sunita Narain explains how Indian cities should expand.
  

Quick notes: Wembley protest, Old frauds...

• 'India's Daughter' filmmaker mobilises UK protest against Modi: She added: "Step one will be to find out exactly when and what time the Wembley event at which PM Modi will address a full stadium, will take place..."



• Tavleen Singh skewers Adarsh Liberal: Growing intolerance? What a bunch of old frauds these ‘intellectuals’ have proved to be 



• Discontent brews in Punjab: Possible return to militancy?



• Finding God for votes: Tamil Nadu's atheist leaders re-discover religious identity



• Australian accent is a product of early settler's heavy drinking: “The Australian alphabet cocktail was spiked by alcohol. Our forefathers regularly got drunk together and through their frequent interactions unknowingly added an alcoholic slur to our national speech patterns".



• Vata-Pitta-Kapha validated by genetics:

Ayurveda's Vata-Pitta-Kapha validated by genetics. Interesting paper in Nature Journal by CCMB: https://t.co/C0FRA7cm6T

— Suhas Mahesh (@suhasm) November 1, 2015

Quick notes: Uniform civil code, Bride-hunt...

• Review Dynasty's Secularism: Take a quick call on uniform civil code, SC tells Centre



• 5,000 Patels queue up for 42 Oriya brides in Gujarat: The Patel community has the most skewed sex-ratio (700-800 girls per 1,000 boys) forcing them to buy brides from tribal regions in Gujarat, Maharashtra and even Karnataka from agents.



• AP govt suspicious of Jagan fast's authenticity:  “Actually the blood sugar levels should decrease while on fast. Either the first report was wrong or there was an intake of food.”



• Environment tax on Delhi CVs from Nov 1:  "Everyday around 60,000-70,000 trucks enter Delhi. Now if you take say an average rate of Rs 750 per truck it comes out around Rs 4-4.5 crore per day". 



• Medicine prices: U.S. prices for the world's 20 top-selling medicines are, on average, three times higher than in Britain. U.S. prices for top brand-name drugs jumped 127 percent between 2008 and 2014.



• ‘Pander Express’: Stephen Colbert’s ‘Pander Express’ is a brilliant takedown of how Hollywood sucks up to China




• De-centralized energy solutions: Electrifying villages to spur growth.



• The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption which leads you to acquire more new things. As a result, we end up buying things that our previous selves never needed to feel happy or fulfilled.

Sekoolar rape in Calcutta - again

Shame on you Mumtaz Banu Arjee.

A 21-year-old woman was allegedly gangraped by five-six youths in a truck, looted her belongings and then dropped her in a deserted place in the city, police said on Monday.

A drug addict, was arrested this evening in connection with the crime committed last night, Kolkata Police Commissioner S K Purakayastha said. He was identified as Mohammad Hamid alias Raja.

"We have arrested Mohammed Hamid in the case. He has admitted to the crime. The victim is quite stable now. We are investigating the case and are on a lookout to nab the other culprits," 

http://m.rediff.com/news/report/gangrape-again-in-kolkata-one-arrested/20140120.htm

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.