Quick notes: FTA | Pedestrian hell...

• Free-Trade-Agreements never benefited us: India-UK FTA negotiations to restart in early 2025
  
  
• India should not be pushed into joining trade blocs: It must assess existing FTAs, and should build a larger team of expert negotiators



• Trump unpredictable, Modi dependable? On trade, it’s just the opposite.




• Stranglehold on market, breach of Antitrust Laws: Zomato and Swiggy coerced restaurants into entering exclusive agreements that would deny them space to shift elsewhere if they wanted to join competing platforms.



• China is bombarding tech talent with job offers: And the West is freaking out. Chinese companies are trying to poach engineers in high-tech Western industries by offering to triple their salaries as Beijing seeks to catch up with Silicon Valley in the battle for tech supremacy.
  
  Executives at Zeiss SMT, which makes indispensable components to build the world’s most powerful semiconductors, got some troubling news last fall. Headhunters from Huawei Technologies were trying to poach its employees. Staff with access to sensitive Zeiss know-how received LinkedIn messages, emails and calls from Huawei representatives, offering them up to three times their salaries to join the Chinese company.
  
  
• Huawei trying to poach TSMC employees with 3X salary: Desperate times call for desperate measures
  
  
• China's CATL open to building US battery plant if Trump allows: In an August interview Trump was open to Chinese firms building cars in the US
  
  
• CATL electric bus batteries set for 1M miles, megawatt charging: New-gen LFP bus batteries last 15 years, CATL claims—20% longer. CATL claims a 22% boost in energy density by volume, and 175 Wh/kg by weight



• Anywhere but India: Chip makers expand in Vietnam — companies move to Southeast Asia as US-China tensions simmer



• Why it is so difficult to walk in Indian cities: The main problem is that too much focus is given to solving the problem of car congestion on roads. "To improve the flow of traffic, authorities often narrow down footpaths or eliminate them entirely. It might seem counter-intuitive, but allowing the congestion to persist and focussing on improving infrastructure for pedestrians will help solve the traffic problem in the long run". Cities can also implement their own Non-Motorised Transport Policy (NMTP) to create better infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians.



• The families fleeing Delhi to escape deadly smog... Also fighting "walking pneumonia" cases this season.... Understanding with science and data how toxic our air is, why and what will fix it.... Why Indian capital lags behind Beijing in the battle to breathe..




• ED raids e-commerce sellers linked to Amazon, Flipkart: The livelihoods of small shopkeepers are at stake due to anti-competitive practices, particularly from quick-commerce companies.



• Australian approves social media ban on under-16s.. lessons for India.