Quick notes: RISC-V, Shaan Patel...

• India Preps RISC-V Processors: CDAC to receive about $45 million for its first 64-bit microprocessor.



• Shaan Patel: This perfect SAT scorer got rejected by the Ivy Leagues, but got on 'Shark Tank' and is now backed by Mark Cuban.... someone commented: "Ivy League schools are hotbeds of anti-Asian racism"



• Drug Cartels: In much of Europe, insulin costs about a sixth of what it does in the United States. That’s because the governments negotiate with the manufacturer to drive down prices unlike America's free market for drug pricing.



• Street Smarts for Smart cities: India faces real challenges in reducing traffic, pollution and congestion and Samuel Schwartz definitely has some ideas that might be useful. In "Street Smart", Schwartz describes his vision for "walkable" cities built around an array of low-tech traffic calming systems and technologies - from narrower streets to pedestrian plazas.
  
  The most important learning from Schwartz's "Street Smart" is the acceptance that cities do have limitations. No matter how small or smart vehicles become, there is only so much room on highways and city streets for vehicles.
  
  It is time for everyone, not just disaffected millennials, to contemplate "vehicleless" living (as advertised in Pune) and to consider the implications of the choices we make - particularly the choice of where we live. Schwartz notes that walkability broadly improves with greater concentration of populations in urban areas and with improved walkability comes improved mental and physical health. He adds that greater population concentration and reduced transportation stress contributes measurably to GDP growth.
  
  Maybe the Ace Augusta apartment developers in Pune are onto something - offering an experience capable of transcending transportation troubles and growing the economy while de-stressing its residents. That will look and sound like nirvana to a lot of people and not just people living in India.
  Street Smart: The Rise of Cities and the Fall of Cars



• The Battle for Sanskrit: A Sanskrit Review:




• Cancelling Communities' Land Rights: Land rights of people in Chhattisgarh were written off after land was allocated to the Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RVUNL) and Adani Minerals Private Limited.



• Poor air quality kills 1.4 million Indians annually: The number of premature deaths linked to air pollution will climb over the next two decades unless more aggressive targets are set.




• RISC-V poised for big role: Arun Thomas

Quick notes: Kerala unions, New Malibu...

• Mafia Unions of Kerala: "This is a testament to the unions in Kerala and what they do to business and how they destroy business in this state."




• Church steals temple land: Devotees confront the administration.



• Govt against consent of tribals for displacement: The NDA govt is on the verge of passing executive orders that would do away with the veto powers of tribals that protect their fores tlands in most cases.



• New Malibu Hybrid with Volt drive train: : Unlike her predecessors, who brought mainly financial backgrounds to the job, Mary Barra, the current CEO of GM, is a qualified engineer and a car geek, fully cognizant of the qualities that Malibu must possess to compete effectively.



• Daimler Unveils SuperTruck: : 12-MPG Semi is more than twice as fuel-efficient.



• Diesel fouls up Delhi air: In 1995, suspended particulate matter in Delhi had hit a high of 409 µg/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre). In 2000, two years after the CNG verdict, scientists measured the tinier and virtually invisible RSPM for the first time and found the level at 191 µg/m3 — it fell to 161 µg/m3 in 2007.
  
  Then, as sharply as a sudden gasp, from 2008 to be precise, the levels begin to rise and rise. And rise to the current 316 µg/m3, nearly 16 times what is considered healthy by the WHO, and nearly twice that of Beijing, the next most-polluted city in the world.
  
  “Pollutant levels increased for 3 reasons — increase in diesel vehicles, mobile towers which had diesel generating sets, and small scale industries”.



• Keep commerce out of medicine and education:

Capitalism and medicine, another toxic mix MT @toastingtoaster Doctors do avoidable surgeries tfor corporate targets http://t.co/ylFUwAQQau
— Sankrant Sanu सानु (@sankrant) April 1, 2015

Quick notes: Crypto-christist nexus, EVM shock...

• The Catholic establishment in the state has openly come out against the Madhav Gadgil and Kasturirangan committee reports and a pastoral letter was read out in churches warning of serious consequences if the government went ahead with them.



• And the crypto-christists join them: Left calls for Kerala shutdown Monday.



• Graham Staines taught him how to dupe the tribals? Ajit Jogi, while addressing tribals said, people will get “an electric shock” from EVMs if they press any button other than that of Congress



• China has pledged less than $2 million for Philippine relief, compared to $2.7 million by Ikea



• Sugary drinks tinker with vital proteins in the brain. Sugar exposure has the potential to alter a lot of diverse biological processes and play a role in neurological disorders.



• Esther Gokhale: Find your primal posture: 

US Likely to Go Into Pak Tribal Areas

It is seen as increasingly likely that the US will be forced to widen the war into Pakistan's tribal areas. I think we should be glad of this, because finally those areas will be pried open and exposed to the will of the outside world. They will no longer be Pakistan's guarded stash of henchmen, serving up lashkars used to attack India since 1948 onwards. Whatever our concerns about US sensitivities to India's security needs, at least they'll be occupying the tribals and keeping them off our backs.

I wonder how China is viewing these developments? Surely they're not going to take this lying down.

Local issues causing tension in Orissa, although conspiracy is national

This article by Ram Madhav on Rediff is an eye opener. There has been a sustained disinformation campaign in the ELM, the TV channels in particular about a "pan-India conspiracy" by Hindu nationalists targeting christists. Whereas, the recent outbreak in Orissa was born out of local feuds. If there is any consistent, pan-India thread in all such incidents, it is the element of christist aggression, intolerance and imperialism. The nexus of christist evangelicals with the lawless "Naxalites" adds an ominous dimension to their designs for enslaving India. They're clearly aiming to replicate their "scorched earth" policy from the "tribal" regions of the North east in Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Telangana etc.

"Tribal" rally in Delhi for land reforms

"The rally and the 26-day walkathon proceeding it is being organised by an organisation called the Ekta Parishad, and funded by international organisations like Oxfam and Christian Aid among others ....."

More malicious propaganda by the usual suspects in the name of "land reforms" and "tribal rights". I watched a report on NDTV about this rally, where they were talking to one of the organisers and his Kerala christist accent was pretty conspicuous. Yet, they refrained from identifying him. He was threatening to lay siege to New Delhi "indefinitely".... The malafide intentions of the padres inciting the gullible tribals is given away by their usage of the pernicious nomenclature of "Adivasi" as opposed to "Vanvasi".