we've come a long way, baby, in 10 years; and we'll go a long way in the next ten

https://open.substack.com/pub/rajeevsrinivasan/p/ep-110-what-a-difference-10-years?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web 

ISRO Releases Picture of Lander

 A picture of the Vikram lander taken from the rover:

https://twitter.com/isro/status/1696792992718442558

happy onam!

https://open.substack.com/pub/rajeevsrinivasan/p/happy-onam-to-all?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

I Visit Temples To Find Inner Self: ISRO Chief Dr. S Somnath

Indian Rover Pragyan Deployed Onto Lunar Surface

 And now, with India's rover deployed onto the lunar surface, the Indian emblem of the Asoka Lions, as well as ISRO's logo, are both imprinted into the lunar regolith soil forever.

Quick notes: Hindenburg 2.0 | Oldest language...

• Hindenburg 2.0? George Soros-backed OCCRP said to be planning another 'expose'.. Concerted destabilization of Indian markets.



• RoP, meet Peacful Rise: China makes it harder for its Muslim citizens to go to Mecca, or anywhere else



• China's fertility rate drops to record low 1.09: Concerned about China's first population drop in six decades and its rapid ageing population, Beijing is urgently trying an array of measures to lift the birth rate including financial incentives and improved childcare facilities.



• What's the world's oldest language? “There are disputes among scholars about the precise date of ancient texts ascribed to Tamil and whether the language used is actually similar enough to modern Tamil to categorize them as the same language”.



• Padma Shri Meenakshi Amma: 78-year-old Kalaripayattu teacher




• Himachal Pradesh floods: More rain, less snow are turning Himalayas dangerous



• Point of no-return in the Himalayas: The collapse of a stretch of the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway, which is a part of the controversial Char Dham Project, has again raised questions about the Rs 12,000-crore project. The highway collapse is considered to have resulted from the weakening of the foundation of the road by the torrential rains that have lashed Uttarakhand. Landslides happen almost every day in some part of the region, boulders slide down on vehicles, and roads and buildings suddenly cave in.



• Mindless growth: NGT vindicated in Shimla ruling. “We hereby prohibit new construction of any kind in any part of the Core and Green/Forest area.” Beyond this green zone, “construction will not be permitted beyond two storeys plus attic floor”. It is surprising that the State government has pressed ahead with a development plan that appears to disregard the NGT ruling.



• Back to the future for India's rice farmers: Red rice has attractive qualities. It is hardy and grows well without fertiliser and other chemicals. Research also shows it has nutritional benefits over white rice. But perhaps for farmers the biggest attraction is that it sells well.
  
  "Many of the current incentive systems like fertilizer subsidy, free power, canal irrigation, minimum support price and procurement, all work against the interest of farmers to shift towards more sustainable production".



• Huawei Builds Secret Fab Network to Avoid U.S. Sanctions: This network is not a perfect substitute for TSMC and its leading edge process technologies — but it will make it easier for Huawei to procure commodity chips for a variety of applications without any restrictions from the U.S.



• China owning EV battery space: Chinese battery supplier CATL announces a new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that the company claims will enable super-fast charging - 250 miles of range in 10 minutes



• Nvidia is worth $240 per share: Says Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern School of Business Professor of Finance and valuation guru.



• Bhagavan Das: God is not a big deal

Camera Footage from Vikram Lander During Landing

 

Please Don't Embarrass Us, Mr Modi

So I'm sorry to have to say it - but we really didn't need to see Modi's face plastered onscreen directly alongside Chandrayaan-3's Vikram  during the actual moon-landing. This was a North Korean level of sycophancy (which is only slightly less than Nehruvian level of sycophancy), done so ham-handedly that it had me shaking my head.

I think Modi needs to fire his media consultants, because they're really taking him for a ride.

India Is On The Moon.

 Zero horizontal velocity. Zero vertical velocity. Zero altitude. 

Touchdown!

India is now the fourth country to land on the Moon, and the first to land at the important lunar south pole region.

the $900,000 AI job? bubble territory

we've been there before with SAP etc. it doesn't last. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-900-000-ai-job-is-here-230fc3cb?tpcc=NL_Marketing

if india does it, it's protectionism. if the west does it, it's 'industrial policy'

wasn't @theeconomist a cheerleader for #nehruvianstalinism? (honest question: before my time, but given that #deepstate wants #india 'barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen' they would have liked chacha's eccentric policies). now they want 'free trade'?

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/08/17/india-must-abandon-protectionism

why is the US in ukraine? because the business of #deepstate is war

https://harpers.org/archive/2023/06/why-are-we-in-ukraine/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Quick notes: AI scraping | R Thyagarajan...

• AI Scraping: Big Tech wants to "digest" copyrighted works. Google is training its bots on millions of copyrighted works without permission. The company wants to change copyright laws so that it can grab any content it wants from the Internet, use it as training data for its AI products, and argue “fair use” if anyone objects to its plagiarism.



• The Economic Losers in the New World Order: Giant subsidies and rising protectionism are upending decades of free trade. The world’s biggest economies are offering huge subsidies in a cutthroat race to win the industries of the future. The losers: all the countries that can’t pay up. Smaller countries, from the U.K. to Singapore, are getting left behind



• India is a rising force in Southeast Asia: India is taking major strides to expand its influence in Southeast Asia, a move that will allow countries to counter China’s dominance in the region. “Since China hasn’t budged on the border issue, India now feels there has been no real return for its cautious attitude towards Southeast Asia”.



• Jumpstarting India's start-up dream: Tech is not mere real-estate play.



• R Thyagarajan: Indian tycoon gave away $750 million. He doesn't even own a mobile phone. RT founded the Shriram group in Chennai in 1974



• English Note: Prince Rama Varma




• When will UK return its loot? US returns haul of stolen artefacts to Italy



• What alcohol does to a woman’s body: For a variety of reasons, women can’t metabolize alcohol as fast as men, meaning they have more of the toxic substance in their systems for longer.
  
  Women have lower amounts of the enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, needed to break their drinks down, so they are left with higher levels of a substance that is toxic to organs like the liver. Moreover, women have less body water to dilute the alcohol they’ve consumed — the end result is that alcohol in their systems becomes more concentrated



• Toxic pharma exports from India: A cold medication made in India and sold in Iraq is tainted with toxic chemicals. The Cold Out label indicates it was made by Fourrts (India) Pvt. Ltd., a Chennai-based exporter of medicines.
  
  It’s the fifth time in a year that testing has found an Indian exporter’s drugs to contain excessive levels of ethylene glycol. Cases of Indian-made tainted cold syrups have been reported in Indonesia, Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon, and have killed about 300 children in the past year.



• India’s English-medium craze stunts brains: The more highly developed the first language skills, the better the results in the second language.

English-medium education leaves students worse off not just in overall learning but even in English skills.

This is because a base of mother-tongue education is best for brain development.

India’s English-medium craze stunts brains.@SubramanianKri writes in TOI. pic.twitter.com/a195HxPiYg

— Sankrant Sanu सानु संक्रान्त ਸੰਕ੍ਰਾਂਤ ਸਾਨੁ (@sankrant) August 11, 2023




• Decouple: India bars makers of military drones from using Chinese parts. India relies on foreign manufacturers for both parts and entire systems as it lacks the know-how to make certain types of drones. "There has to be coherent national strategy to fill the technology gaps" to deliver commercially viable products.



• Despite sanctions, Chinese tech continues to thrive: China builds Exascale supercomputer with 19.2 Million cores.

Russia Set For Nuclear Test? If So, Then Why Not Us Too?

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2023/08/after-blaming-west-waging-proxy-war-russia-shoigu-went-arctic-nuclear-test-site

If Russia tests, then how would China feel about this?

Would they use the opportunity to test, too? Would North Korea do so?

If such tests were to happen, then why shouldn't we also test?

Sure, it would put nuclear cooperation, fighter engine deal, etc all at risk of deep freeze. But hey - priorities, y'know? Only robust nuke capabilities will keep the Chinese on their side of the line, in spite of their salami-slicing. Fighter jets simply aren't enough to do that.

If USA can't respect India's need to deter China, then what can they realistically expect from us as a Quad partner?

If even just the Russians test, we have enough cover to do a Pokhran-3 (tactical+thermonuclear). North Korea would probably join in at that point (perhaps with a thermonuclear test). But I'm not sure Pakistan would be able to do much, since they're too economically vulnerable, and they'd probably need tech transfer to do a thermonuclear test.

Btw, after our Pokhran-2, there was the Kargil invasion - so we'd have to be on guard against a similar suckerpunch from Pak or China following a Pokhran-3. Reason Musharraf did Kargil was because Pak nuclear tests put them in a tough position internationally, where they felt they had to grab J&K sooner rather than later. So we'd have to watch for comparable stunts by neighbors following Pokhran-3.

Ukraine and Taiwan situations are imposing heavy constraints on Washington right now. We have a lot more leverage now than we did in 1998. Ironically, the same peculiar Atlanticist fixations of the current Whitehouse that's put them on the road to war against Russia in Ukraine (ie. Nuland et al) may help keep them from diverting their attentions elsewhere towards us in response to our N-test. So if we throw her some bone on Ukraine/Russia issue, then maybe it will pacify her enough to leave us alone.

Note: China would be p!$$ed off if that happens, and would be doubly sure to try some further Kargil/Galwan/whatever stunt in return. Xi would go full Musharraf on us.

on various topics of interest

https://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2023/08/quick-notes-chinas-loss-drone-ships.html

venture capital eyes india, as per s&p

https://www.spglobal.com/en/research-insights/featured/special-editorial/look-forward/startups-riding-digital-infrastructure-could-transform-indian-economy

Profile on Apoorva Ramaswamy, Wife of Vivek Ramaswamy

View from Chandrayaan-3 Entering Lunar Orbit

 

Quick notes: China's loss | Drone ships...

• China's loss in India could be Elon Musk's gain: Chinese automakers face heat. Tesla has had a red-carpet welcome from India for its proposal to invest in the country, while its largest rival in electric vehicles, China's BYD, has been stopped cold by increased scrutiny from New Delhi.



• Explained: How India has clamped down on Chinese products, investment



• India Restricts PC, Laptop, and Server Imports: The aim is to curtail Chinese imports of popular tech products. IT security concerns might have also influenced this. . . . Delays restrictions.



• Drone ships: A new form of drone tech has been gaining momentum in the Black Sea.



• Child deaths due to Indian cough syrup: Riemann Labs, which operates out of Indore, has been banned from manufacturing medicines following an inspection by drug regulators. A batch of cough and cold syrup sold in Cameroon under the brand name Naturcold contained extremely high levels of a toxic ingredient.
  
  Earlier, the licenses of three cough syrup manufacturers – Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Marion Biotech and QP Pharmachem – were suspended and their exports were stopped after two of the firms were linked to the deaths of at least 70 children in Gambia and 19 in Uzbekistan last year.



• Horse gram: Best drink to burn cholesterol naturally and effectively




• Woke priorities: New York Times dedicates massive amount of time to reviewing vibrators. Refers to women as “people with vulvas.”



• White man is a burden: The UK will drill for more North Sea oil and gas.



• Chinese Firm's lithography breakthrough: Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group (SMEE) is on track to reveal its first scanner capable of producing chips on a 28nm process technology by the end of 2023



• Raag Jhinjhoti - Jhala: Michael Griska - Surbahar

Vivek Ramaswamy Town Hall

He comes across well in this Town Hall, as he seems to do in all his interviews:

can apple make visionpro a smash hit product?

Ai-generated teaser for our new podcast on #apple's ambitious new product, #visionpro. can it be another blockbuster success, or just an also-ran? we think it may do better than we think, as apple has a lot of the ingredients in place to make it successful. https://watch.wave.video/F3oQbfv8uMJVm4Tk

podcast at substack https://rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/p/ep-108-vision-pro-could-be-apples