Quick notes: Chinese students | Mobile payments...

• Free from English-medium burden: Chinese students far out-stripped peers in every other country in a survey of reading, math and science ability. In reading, the 10% most disadvantaged Chinese students tested had better skills than the OECD average.



• Made in China 2025: Taiwan loses 3,000 chip engineers to ‘Made in China 2025’. . . . . . China is both the world's largest importer and consumer of semiconductors. It currently produces just 16% of the semiconductors fuelling its tech boom. But it has plans to produce 40% of all semiconductors it uses by 2025.



• India doesn't want chip technology, India wants VikAss: American waste ends up in Kanpur. 25 containers reached via Mundra Port by Adani Ports while the remaining 13 arrived via Navi Mumbai. Further, they were transported to Kanpur by a truck.



• Google and Walmart Push India’s Billionaires Out of Mobile Payments: Not all of India’s tycoons are giving up on the business. Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, has been testing a payments service whose launch date is unknown. With an estimated net worth of $56 billion, Ambani has the firepower to take on giants like Google, Ant, and Facebook. But he may need plenty of patience, too. “This is an extremely competitive race. Only the companies that stay invested in the long run and win the trust of the customer will last.”



• Realestate in post-car world: An apartment complex with 636 units in Tempe, Arizona will be the first in the country to ban private cars. There is no parking, either on-site or off-site, for residents. There will still be plenty of transportation options—just not private cars—and the developer intends to take this idea to other U.S. cities next.



• Bacteriophages: The Virus That Kills Drug-Resistant Superbugs




• Comfort cows: Cow cuddling is a practice from Netherlands called "koe knuffelen," and it’s meant to get people back in touch with nature. "You’d think interacting with a big animal wouldn’t be relaxing, but it is shockingly relaxing."



• Madhav Gadgil: Through his work, he realised how unscientific and irrational was the manner in which development projects were often cleared in India. “While on a committee to assess the environmental impact of a hydroelectric project on the Bedthi river, I went on a field trip with an engineer from Rajasthan. I noticed that a large bloodstain was slowly spreading across his spotless white shirt and quickly realised that a leech at the project site must have bitten him. When I drew his attention to the blood, the poor man got the shock of his life. Coming from dry Rajasthan, he had no idea what a leech was. When I told him that such creatures thrive in tropical rain forests, he was aghast at my foolish notion that such forests were worth saving.”
  
  “When I was 12 years old, I went on a trek to the Sahyadri along with a friend. It was summer and we were very thirsty. We found a temple on a hilltop that had a well. When we requested the priest for water, he asked us if we were Brahmins. My friend belonged to the mali [gardener] caste. I replied that neither of us was Brahmin. Hence, we were refused water. That day, I decided not to have anything to do with a religion that stops someone from giving water to a thirsty 12-year-old boy.”



• What makes this illegal? 'Tantrik' poojas at temple in Andhra Pradesh creates stir. . . . Can someone explain why it is illegal?