Quick notes: Bad loans | RCEP sequel...

• Indian banks wrote off Rs 2 trillion in bad loans in 2018-19: Even if the loan recovery rate were to improve to 50% in coming years, India’s banks would still never be able to recover Rs 5 trillion from various errant corporate borrowers.



• Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train: Not a priority, says Shiv Sena 



• A swadeshi success story: 640 coaches of Train 18 to be manufactured in coming years



• RCEP: Japan won’t sign China-backed RCEP if India doesn’t join. . . .  Tokyo indicates efforts are on to address India’s concerns on RCEP



• Get a house that lasts three lifetimes in just 3 days: Light gauge steel, said to be rust-free and stronger than regular steel, is used to build the house frame.  The frame is then filled with thermoforming, following which concrete is sprayed from the inside as well as the outside to make six-inch-thick walls. These buildings are environmentally-friendly, as there is no burning of bricks.



• Resurrection of Bateshwar Temples: KK Muhammed, the anti-Ghazni




• Throwing my garbage into your home: Bengaluru sends truckloads of trash – full of maggots, flies and dengue-bearing mosquitoes – to the landfills in villages around us, filling the air with stench, polluting their water, ruining their fertile lands, poisoning their cattle, and destroying their health. The trash dumps are conveniently located (for us, not for them) – far from the city, so we don’t have to see where our trash goes.



• VikAss: India's sacred groves are disappearing, taking biodiversity and culture with them. Over the last 60 years, the number of sacred groves in Kerala has shrunk from more than 10,000 to less than 1,500.



• UP govt's love for booze: The state govt requires sugar mills to provide fixed amount of molasses to alcoholic drinks manufacturers at rates well below market levels



• Ferry Operators Switching From Diesel to Batteries: “This is a good idea because it quiets the boats while obviously removing tons of diesel fuel emissions. It saves millions of dollars annually.”



• Nuclear capable Agni-III missile fails in maiden night trial: “Suddenly it started behaving abnormally. It could be possibly due to metallurgical defects”.