Quick notes: Cash cow | DRDO's laser weapon...

• For Korean companies, India is a lucrative cash cow: LG India reported revenue of Rs 24,366 crore and a net profit of Rs 2,203 crore last year. Royalty payments to its Korean parent reached Rs 454.61 crore. But the real headline came with its 2025 IPO: In one stroke, LG India’s market capitalisation surpassed that of its global headquarters’. And it was purely due to generous policy environment.
  
  Hyundai Motor India and its sibling Kia tell a similar tale of extraction masked as investment. Royalty payments stand at 3.5% of sales revenue, translating into thousands of crores annually repatriated to Seoul. Such an anomaly has left Tata Motors and Mahindra to fight an uphill battle against what many term subsidized Korean pricing power.
  
  Samsung India completes the triumvirate of value extractors. Its revenue for the first time crossed Rs 1.11 lakh crore during 2025, making it the only consumer-electronics firm in India to cross the trillion-rupee mark. During 2024, royalty remittances to the Korean parent hit Rs 3,322 crore, roughly 40% of that year’s net profit. Retained earnings have ballooned and been diverted to Vietnam.
  
  Profits earned from Indian consumers through high royalties, IPO cash-outs and dividend flows are effectively subsidizing Vietnamese factories that then export finished goods back into India. Why? Should Korean conglomerates plough cash extracted from India into manufacturing facilities in a smaller neighbor that then undercuts Indian industry? The optics is toxic: India as a lucrative cash cow, Vietnam as the preferred factory floor.
  
  Decades of liberalization were sold on the promise that FDI would catalyze domestic industry, transfer technology and create balanced growth. Instead, the policy has tilted towards foreign giants who repatriate profits, royalties, special dividends and IPO proceeds liberally.
  
  On the other hand, Indian firms struggle with higher compliance costs, delayed approvals, and a royalty burden that starves local innovation.



Part of what pushed this into the open is what Korean firms did here in the last year.

Hyundai and LG listed their Indian arms and between them sent about $4.7 billion back to Seoul through IPOs and special dividends. Samsung's royalty payments to its parent tripled. All within… pic.twitter.com/e2Nbsuxew6

— Amar Govindarajan (@amargov) April 22, 2026




• Draining the economy: The proof is in the math: In just the last 12 months, Hyundai and LG repatriated $4.7 billion in royalties and profits. That is nearly ₹40,000 crore leaving our economy.

Localization of parts is not the same as localization of value. You can source 85% of a car’s weight (steel, rubber, glass) in India, but if the Intellectual Property (IP), engine architecture, and software ownership sit in Seoul, the wealth generated by Indian labor and…

— vijay (@Vic_Vij) April 23, 2026




• Funding the Adversary: India’s trade deficit with China has nearly tripled since Modi took office. Bankrolling China's rise which in turn lays claim to vast Indian territories including an entire state.




• You signed a trade-deal, now we will screw you: Indian exports face rising cost pressure as EU plans carbon tax expansion



• Galgotias School of Innovation: AI making work cheaper and this is a BIG Problem for Indian IT Services




• Trump kissing Xi Jinping's ass: A quiet U.S. favor for Xi Jinping.. A U.S. quota increase at the IMF would rescue China’s bad loans.
  
  Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing in May for a summit with Xi, and he will come bearing at least one surprising gift: A budget request to Congress to hand more money to Mr. Xi’s friends at the IMF.



• Chinese satellites over Mideast battlefield put US on edge: Chinese AI company MizarVision claimed on social media to have tracked the movements of American aircraft carriers, F-22 stealth fighters and B-52 bombers by using AI to analyze satellite data.



• Microwave weapon: 20-gigawatt Chinese microwave weapon touted as ‘Starlink’s worst nightmare’ by country's media — portable 5-ton device can deliver full-minute destructive bursts



• India’s “Star Wars” LASER DEFENCE: DRDO's $3 solution to a $30,000 drone problem. 100 kW Dura-2 can melt drones in seconds.




• Pakistan Is Getting a Stealth Fighter in 2026: China is ramping up the timeline to deliver J-35A to Pak



• Lesson for India, the GREAT consumer of imported tech: Iran claims US exploited networking equipment backdoors during strikes — says devices from Cisco and others failed despite blackout in attack that 'indicates deep sabotage'



• Privacy risk: Google Chrome lacks protection against one of the most basic and common ways to track users online



• Why this Chinese EV terrifies Europe’s carmakers: Luxury car makers staring at Chinese onslaught.



• China's Geely just built one of the most efficient engines ever: Geely now holds a Guinness World Record for thermal efficiency, with its new i-HEV Hybrid system rated at 48.4%



• Raag: Kamod By Manjiri Alegaonkar

Quick notes: PM yojana | Kill chain...

• Pradhan Mantri Yojana to rescue UK's economy: Hasn't India enriched them enough already?
  
  UK gains: Because British exports are so much higher value than Indian exports of clothing, footwear, and food, this should be worth £15bn extra for British exports and £10bn for India by 2040. . . expect this to get even worse for India
  
  Roll out the barrel: Scotch makers toast UK trade deal with India. . Our riches attracted invaders and colonizers. Today it is our dhaaru culture that is drawing them.
  
  FTA Impact: Scotch to get cheaper, Indian liquor stocks dip
  
  Limeys and cheating: India's exports to the UK may be impacted by Britain's decision to introduce carbon tax from 2027. “If Indian exports still face CBAM levies while UK goods enter India duty-free, it risks turning a balanced FTA into a one-sided bargain”.
  
  Limeys and looting: Sotheby's halts Buddha Piprahwa Gems auction. The collection is described as one of the most astonishing archaeological finds of the modern era. Its sale had drawn criticism from Buddhist academics and monastic leaders.




• Kill chain: While a spendthrift IAF invested in prohibitively priced weapons platforms, like the Rafale, the PAF invested in the “kill chain” inclusive of a few J-10Cs, Saab AWACS and mostly long range A2A ordnance.
  
  The PAF has initiated a new method of air warfare — combat aircraft staying well back in their own air space, firing long range air-to-air (A2A) and air-to-ground (A2G) weapons with exceptional support. Rafales cost $250 million each. The fleet of 36 is now depleted.
  
  The US is keen to push the far more useless and expensive F-35 on Modi’s India.




• US tariffs come with a side of Starlink: The US is reportedly encouraging countries to adopt Musk’s Starlink in tariff trade talks. India, Lesotho, Bangladesh, and other countries have moved forward with Starlink adoption in recent weeks.



• Woke flight? Europe launches program to lure scientists away from the US



• Manufacturing juggernaut in serious trouble: China’s economy on cusp of a deflationary death spiral

Socialism thriving in South Block

• Bharatiya Janata Party (Socialist): There is nothing remotely close in our budgets to describe the BJP as a “Right of Center” or “Far Right” party. Economically speaking, it’s even to the left of what the Congress was between 2005 and 2014. Right of Center used to mean something – balanced budgets, reducing regulations, minimum government, etc.



• National Pension Scheme: New 'Universal Pension Scheme' for all Indians being planned.



• Leftist under the hood: How Modi govt’s policies show socialism is our true national ideology.



• Lot of socialism in our political class: Ruchir Sharma



• Sarkari Yojana for Gig-worker: More government, less growth, fewer opportunities .

Quick notes: Space-tech start-ups | Freebie haven...

• NYT's Rare Praise For India's Space Program: The article titled 'The Surprising Striver in the World's Space Business' notes that India has become home to at least 140 registered space-tech start-ups, "comprising a local research field that stands to transform the planet's connection to the final frontier".



• Freebie haven: At 23% spend, Andhra Pradesh last in state capex in FY23.. Capex of government has been considered to be the prime driver of capex in the economy in the last few years.



• RIP, Free Market economics: U.S. ‘Industrial Policy’ returns




• Global Rupee makes little headway: A lopsided trade relationship between Russia and India has forced it to accumulate up to $1 billion each month in rupee assets that remain stranded outside the country.. "The rupee's prospects of becoming a significant international currency are connected to India's economic and geopolitical strength".



• Poll: Vivek Ramaswamy breaks into double digits in Republican primary



• China restricts exports of gallium and germanium: China to restrict exports of gallium and germanium, two critical elements for making semiconductor chips. China controls minerals that run the world —and it just fired a warning shot at U.S.



• It's a sin only if India commits it: Macron mulls social-media ban. “When things get out of hand, we may need to regulate them or cut them off.” Last week, Macron said social media companies had played a “considerable role” in the unrest across the country.



• Atanu Dey - Professor and Lyft driver: “I conjecture why the Indian riders were relatively rude. High status Indians look down on people who serve them. They have never experienced serving others and therefore think that those who serve are not deserving of respect”.



• Cities are for us, the people. Not for cars: How the Netherlands dumped cars for bikes

Quick notes: Petro-yuan | English fines...

• Petrodollar Dusk, Petroyuan Dawn: Iran, Venezuela, Russia and now Saudi Arabia shifting towards Petro-yuan. For nearly 50 years, the Saudis had insisted on payments with US dollars. But that all changed recently. “The Saudi move could chip away at the supremacy of the US dollar in the international financial system, which Washington has relied on for decades to print Treasury bills it uses to finance its budget deficit.”




• India Pushes Trade in Local Currency : Malaysia will be a test case that other countries will watch to decide whether trading in the Indian currency is feasible. India has already established a rupee-ruble payment mechanism with Moscow, which experts say is serving as a template for other countries. Last July, banks from 18 countries set up rupee accounts in Indian banks. They include Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania, Israel, Germany, Oman and Singapore.



• Italy introduces legislation to stop invasion of English language: Public officials could face fines of up to $110K for using foreign words in official communications.. France also has a language watchdog – the Académie Française — in which it catalogs and fight against foreign words, especially English ones, creeping into everyday language.

Countries oppose/ban the use of foreign language and even the foreign vocabulary in official communications to preserve their culture since language and culture are inseparable and go together. Invaders/colonisers impose their language for the same reason! https://t.co/YUabTzMdF3

— चमू कृष्णशास्त्री Chamu KrishnaShastry (@ChamuKShastry) April 2, 2023




• Brown is beautiful: India's 'brown beauty' makeup influencers go global




• New star in AI: Google says its AI chip is up to 1.7x faster and 1.9x more power-efficient than Nvidia A100 chip.



• Generative AI: Who will be the ultimate financial winners?

Great clip from @chamath describing who the ultimate financial winners may be from the generative AI revolution

pic.twitter.com/PieaotllOI

— Science Is Strategic (@scienceisstrat1) March 30, 2023




• Ustad Imrat Khan: Raag Gorakh Kalyan, drut

Cramer on Silicon Valley Bank

CNBC's Jim Cramer urged viewers to buy Silicon Valley Bank stock last month: “The stock is still cheap,” Cramer said. At the time, SVB Financial was trading at $320.40 a share.

Cramer listed SVB Financial among his “biggest winners of 2023 … so far” alongside blue-chip stocks such as Meta, Nvidia and Tesla.




What does it cost to be on Forbe's best list?

Proud to be on @Forbes' annual ranking of America's Best Banks for the 5th straight year and to have also been named to the publication's inaugural Financial All-Stars list.

👉 https://t.co/rEmfOSTT4f pic.twitter.com/NFWlPJUbh5

— SVB (@SVB_Financial) March 6, 2023

Explained, like you’re a 5-year old:

Many people are confused on SVB’s critical situation. Below, Silicon Valley Bank’s fall-down explained, like you’re a 5-year old. #ChatGPT

Stock down 60% pre-market. #SiliconValleyBank #svb pic.twitter.com/MSkr04Wp58

— Ana S. Alvarado (@anasoffia89) March 10, 2023

Quick notes: Social capital | SEBI wakes up...

• Capitalism on the way up, socialism on way down: Modern-day capitalism is all about reducing the risk for speculators.

Leave it to a Brown guy to tell it like it is


• China-led stock transactions will be watched: SEBI will be closely monitoring share transactions by Chinese companies and banks, especially in times when stock valuations are beaten down. The Finance Ministry was ruffled as regulators had not raised flags when People’s Bank of China was buying shares over the past few weeks. PBC now holds 1.74 crore HDFC shares.



• "China Will Find Out": Trump hints at consequences for c-virus misinformation



• Planet healing: People in India can see the Himalayas for the first time in 'decades,' as the lockdown eases air pollution

What nature really is and how we screwed it up.

This is Dhauladhar mountain range of Himachal, visible after 30 yrs, from Jalandhar (Punjab) after pollution drops to its lowest level. This is approx. 200 km away straight. #Lockdown21 #MotherNature #Global healing. pic.twitter.com/cvZqbWd6MR

— Soul of a Warrior (@Deewalia) April 3, 2020




• Importing rubbish: Over 1,21,000 mt of plastic waste being slyly imported into India in the form of flakes and lumps. Meanwhile, tons of plastic waste generated every day remain untreated and dumped into landfills and oceans.



• When your mind is quiet:

"It is all your desires that you see, when you think. But when your mind is quiet, without desire, you are complete and as wonderful as you have always been."
H. W. L. Poonja pic.twitter.com/kT7SdYKGzI

— Neelam (@NeelamFoT) February 18, 2020




• ExIt-aly? Italians burn EU flag. "We save ourselves".

Quick notes: Drone wars | Go local...

• Drone wars are here: Do we expect China to sit on the fence, like in 1971? China produces 1000 drones every day and we don’t even make 100 in one year that too mainly assembled by private firms.

...cont'd

A drone gun is capable of jamming radio, GPS & mobile signal, forcing the drone to ground in good time before damage.

A Bengaluru-based private company, BEML & ECIL working on counter-drone weapons. ATHENA or Advanced Test High Energy Asset, will soon be operational.

— Kiran Kumar S (@KiranKS) September 30, 2019




• Behind India's rotten economy: India has had to forego revenue to the tune of Rs 7,327 crore for its FTA with South Korea and Rs 4,053 crore for the trade deal with Japan. Total revenue foregone may hit as high as Rs 60,000 crore for the proposed RCEP deal once it goes live. Who is benefitting from India's Free Trade Agreements? Go Local!

Friends #Diwali and #Dussehra is around. Buy from people who in return can celebrate their festival. Go local. pic.twitter.com/yLRf8GKC2d

— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) September 29, 2019




• Bypassing Belt and Road: EU, Japan sign deal to link Asia. Setback for China's debt-trap diplomacy



• Prof Subhash Kak's brilliant ideas to promote Sanskrit:

Proposal to make Sanskrit more popular in colleges:

Devise an undergraduate degree in Sanskrit that has 4 courses on applied computer science:

1. Python and PHP
2. Discrete structures
2. Databases
3. Networks

Graduates will be able to work at many jobs in the IT field.

— Subhash Kak (@subhashkak1) September 25, 2019




Constructive idea to revive Sanskrit in India:

Produce abridged versions of 100 world classics (novels and stories) in सरल संस्कृत and publish them on the Web & in print. (with a glossary)

That would allow students to immerse themselves in Sanskrit in an enjoyable way.

— Subhash Kak (@subhashkak1) September 29, 2019




• Gene mutation: The modern humans who came out of Africa to originally settle Europe are presumed to have had dark skin. Then, the first farmers from the Near East arrived in Europe; they carried both genes for light skin. As they interbred with the indigenous hunter-gatherers, one of their light-skin genes swept through Europe.
  
  Another mutation took place about 6,000-10,000 years ago that resulted in the emergence of blue eyes.
  
  Interestingly, both these gene mutations can be traced to India and Middle East. So, it’s fair to ask if people with light skin and blue eyes did originate from India or Middle East some thousands of years ago?



• Excessive Hype : Just because something is new it doesn’t mean it will change your life or alter the tech landscape entirely. One example of this is the new 5G wireless service.



• “World’s largest fighter jet ecosystem” : Lockheed to begin supplying F-16 wings from Indian plant in 2020

Quick notes: 21 lessons | Solar pumps...

• AI and big-data: Godsend for totalitarian regimes.
  
  In the late twentieth century democracies usually outperformed dictatorships because democracies were better at data-processing. Democracy diffuses the power to process information and make decisions among many people and institutions, whereas dictatorship concentrates information and power in one place. Given twentieth-century technology, it was inefficient to concentrate too much information and power in one place. Nobody had the ability to process all the information fast enough and make the right decisions. This is part of the reason why the Soviet Union made far worse decisions than the United States, and why the Soviet economy lagged far behind the American economy.
  
  However, soon AI might swing the pendulum in the opposite direction. AI makes it possible to process enormous amounts of information centrally. Indeed, AI might make centralised systems far more efficient than diffused systems, because machine learning works better the more information it can analyse. If you concentrate all the information relating to a billion people in one database, disregarding all privacy concerns, you can train much better algorithms than if you respect individual privacy and have in your database only partial information on a million people. For example, if an authoritarian government orders all its citizens to have their DNA scanned and to share all their medical data with some central authority, it would gain an immense advantage in genetics and medical research over societies in which medical data is strictly private. The main handicap of authoritarian regimes in the twentieth century - the attempt to concentrate all information in one place - might become their decisive advantage in the twenty-first century.
  
  As algorithms come to know us so well, authoritarian governments could gain absolute control over their citizens, even more so than in Nazi Germany, and resistance to such regimes might be utterly impossible. Not only will the regime know exactly how you feel - it could make you feel whatever it wants. The dictator might not be able to provide citizens with healthcare or equality, but he could make them love him and hate his opponents. Democracy in its present form cannot survive the merger of biotech and infotech. Either democracy will successfully reinvent itself in a radically new form, or humans will come to live in ‘digital dictatorships’. - Yuval Noah Harari -
  21 Lessons for the 21st Century



• Ties with Chinese Communist Party: Alibaba is the force behind hit Chinese Communist Party app.



• India turns cautious on MNCs collecting data: MasterCard and Visa, the two biggest card networks in the U.S., as well as lobby groups that represent Google and Facebook — both of which offer payment solutions in India — spent months fiercely opposing the directive (on data localization). They were joined by as many as 30 U.S. senators, who urged India to rethink its stand on data localization. “We see this as a fundamental issue to the further development of digital trade, and one that is crucial to our economic partnership,” the senators wrote.



• Cabinet nod for long-pending KUSUM: The scheme consists of three components: 1. Setting up 10 GW grid-connected renewable power plants, each of 500KW to 2MW in rural areas; 2. Installation of 1.75 million standalone off-grid solar water pumps to fulfill irrigation needs of farmers not connected to the grid; and 3. Solarisation of existing 1 million grid-connected agriculture pumps to make farmers independent of the grid supply and also sell surplus power to distribution companies and get extra income.



• E-Waste: India generates more than two million tonnes of e-waste annually, and also imports undisclosed amounts of e-waste from other countries from around the world.



• Decimated credibility: Catholic Church credibility on the line at abuse meeting



• Hans target Africa: Chinese 'Ivory Queen' Yang Fenglan jailed in Tanzania

Quick notes: U-turn on e-commerce, Unsafe nuns...

• Lobbyists win: Govt does U-turn on e-commerce policy after aggressive lobbying by MNCs. The sharp reversal comes barely a week after the govt had explicitly restricted private labels being sold by e-marketplaces. 



• Unsafe nuns of India: The Associated Press blows the lid off decades-long sexual abuse of nuns by Catholic priests in India. The nuns AP interviewed—some decades younger than their abusers—described the fear of retribution and being isolated or even expelled from their community, which forced them to avoid making official complaints. “It’s a fear of being isolated if I speak the truth. If you do that, you have to go against your own community, your own religious superiors.”



• Soul Vultures: The enemy within




• English is the albatross that's strangling India:

English is the albatross that's strangling India. It's making us think of ourselves as second hand imitations of the west. For heaven's sake, our journos talk of 'blue-eyed boy' (a freak in India!) or 'christened' (we just name kids) https://t.co/xlTRg5RHh5

— राजीवः श्रीनिवासः (@RajeevSrinivasa) January 3, 2019




• The Keto Diet, Explained: We are fueled primarily by glucose, or blood sugar, much of which we derive from carbohydrates in foods like bread, fruit, potatoes, and sweets.  If glucose levels in the blood drop to really low levels, we’d pass out and die. But, interestingly, the body can’t store much glucose — only enough to last a couple of days. So if we forgo eating carbs for a few days, we need other ways to keep going. One of those is a process called ketogenesis.  In ketogenesis, our livers start to break down fat into a usable energy source called ketones bodies, or ketones for short. “Organs like the brain that normally rely primarily on glucose for fuel can begin to use a substantial amount of ketones. So ketones can stand in for glucose as fuel for the body when there’s a glucose shortage. It’s an amazing physiological adaption to starvation that allows tissues like the brain to survive”. 



• Chang'e-4 rover now exploring Moon: The far side could be an excellent place to perform low-frequency radio astronomy, because it is shielded from the radio noise of Earth.



• Raga Shukla Bilawal:




• Africans singing "Kal ho na ho":

Africans singing "Kal ho na ho" like wtf pic.twitter.com/LmJPahm8Sg

— Squint Neon (@squintneon) December 20, 2018

Quick notes: Siachen survivor, Best-paid CEO...

• Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad: Survives after being buried under 25 feet of snow for six days.



• Best-paid CEO: Sundar Pichai is getting a record-setting $199 million in stock.



• Vitara Brezza: Maruti's first vehicle to be conceptualised, designed, developed and validated in India. 



• Net bad assets of govt banks a third of their net worth: 29 public sector banks wrote off a combined Rs 1.14 lakh crore of bad debt between 2013 and 2015. 



• How far can you incentivize investment? In the US, in the 1990s, many states were attracting foreign companies by exempting companies from paying education tax. In the southern states, which had given the most such incentives, the companies said that we don’t find skilled people anymore. Mind you, they weren’t looking for high skill necessarily, but even good high school-level people were hard to find because the school system had collapsed and the community colleges were out of business.
  
  So, government investment in social and physical infrastructure is good for industry in the longer run, not just in immediate demand creation.



• Shift in momentum: Russian firepower helps Syrian forces edge toward Turkey border 



• Pollution map of India:

Quick notes: Kalam Road, Bhapkar Guruji...

• Abdul Kalam Road: Delhi's Aurangzeb Road to be renamed after Kalam.



• Rajaram Bhapkar: Maharashtra's 'Mountain Man' built 40-km roads in 57 years



• Bicycles May Use Full Lane: Cars do not own our roads.



• Rajan, the "least bad" central banker : India has been appreciated for avoiding the mistakes like keeping interest rates low to stimulate growth that most central banks have done.



• Ashley Madison hack: Female users were almost nonexistent. “Out of 5.5 million female accounts, roughly zero percent had ever shown any kind of activity at all, after the day they were created.”



• Exit false, enter true:

  “It is our ego which makes us feel we are a distinct separate entity. It provides identity to our functioning, and also creates feelings of separation, pain, and alienation. It is a part of our four-fold inner equipment (antahkarna) consisting of the mind, intellect, memory, and ego,” says Maa Gyaan Suveera.
  
  Eckhart Tolle echoes the same thing, “Vanity and pride are what most of us tend to think of when we think of ego, but ego is much more than an overinflated sense of self. It can also turn up in feelings of inferiority or self-hatred because ego is any image you have of yourself that gives you a sense of identity. Here’s me and there’s the rest of the universe and other people. The ego likes to emphasise the “otherness” of others.”

Quick notes: Kobane cleansed, GDP delusion...

• Kobane is free, well almost: IS lost nearly 1,200 fighters in the battle, despite outgunning YPG forces with sophisticated weaponry. "They are adaptive and resilient and no-one is declaring mission accomplished yet".



• Learn, India: China policy shifts towards quality-of-life rather than GDP. Excessive focus on GDP has contributed to environmental degradation and urban sprawl as officials encouraged heavy industry and bulldozed agricultural land to build housing developments.



• Speculators' haven: Indian stocks among the most expensive.



• Side-effects: Dementia 'linked' to common over-the-counter drugs - Tricyclic antidepressants, Antihistamines used to treat hay-fever and allergies, Antimuscarinics for treating urinary incontinence



• Crude Rout: U.S. oil well shut-ins start



• Warmer end of the spectrum: Australia Is heating up faster than the rest of the world

UPA does the expected, favors RIL

In a major victory for Reliance Industries, the Union Cabinet approved doubling of natural gas prices to $8.4 per million BTUs from April, 2014. Steep hikes in Power tariffs and fertilizer prices to ensue.

Deccan Herald: Govt doubles natural gas price

Barter Economy Matures

Time magazine declared this new form of consumption to be one of the 10 great ideas that will change the world. The new thing about collaborative consumption is that it can achieve a broader impact with the Internet as both a stage and a platform. The web professionalizes swapping and allows it to develop into an independent branch of the economy. 

Spiegel: Barter Economy Matures from Niche to Trend

• Barter Deals Flourishing 

Retail: Think Outside The Big Box

The “Walmart effect,” as defined by US investigative reporter Charles Fishman, occurs when “Wal-Mart, or any big-box retailer, comes into town, reshapes shopping habits, and drains the viability of traditional local shopping areas or mom-and-pop shops.” Walmart and its peers redefine the markets that they enter, changing consumption habits over time, and this factor combined with the company’s ability to underbid other retailers, means inevitable economic displacement for those involved in the existing system.

Not only are small retailers put out of business when large retailers like Walmart enter; in some instances modern retail may also create fewer jobs than it destroys.

PDF: Walmart’s Global Track Record and the Implications for FDI in Multi-Brand Retail in India

FT: Retail: Outside the big box

ISRO to Privatize PSLV & Satellite Production

ISRO is looking to spin off the production of PSLV rockets and satellites to private sector partners:

http://zeenews.india.com/news/space/isro-mulling-hiving-off-satellite-production-to-industry_783612.html

New Delhi: As it prepares for Moon and Mars missions, ISRO is planning to hive off production of communication satellites and polar satellite launch vehicles (PSLV) to the industry.

The space agency is keen to focus on unique science projects, develop remote sensing satellites and do more R&D instead of engaging in the repetitive exercise of building communication satellites and launch vehicles.

"We want to explore the possibility of 'producing' PSLV and communication satellites through the industry," K Radhakrishnan, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told PTI in an interview here.

The ISRO and its commercial arm Antrix Corporation have called for a meeting with the industry in September in Bangalore for a dialogue on the proposal and identify different work models.

"We want to find out what models could work out and evolve a plan. There is lot of repetition in building communication satellites," he said.
...

If satellite and PSLV production can be spun off to private sector partners, then conceivably likewise so could launch operations. We could have our own Indian private sector launch companies, like United Launch Alliance, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences in the United States. I think that following the great success of SpaceX's COTS2 mission to the International Space Station, ISRO has now seen the handwriting on the wall, and realized that privatization could bring in new cost efficiencies and better leverage Indian skills in space technology to market them to the rest of the world. This will result in a faster evolution of Indian space capabilities, and faster gains in Indian access to space.

As a Japanese expert has pointed out in recent comments, one of the limitations for other countries in imitating the US move to privatize space launch services, is in having a domestic demand for space launch services strong enough to support a commercial space launch industry. Hopefully, India's fast-growing space sector will be enough to provide a sustainable market.

“Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet”

The relentless drive for productivity may also have some natural limits. Ever-increasing productivity means that if our economies don’t continue to expand, we risk putting people out of work. Like it or not, we find ourselves hooked on growth.What, then, should happen when, for one reason or another, growth just isn’t to be had anymore? Maybe it’s a financial crisis. Or the need to rein in growth for the damage it’s inflicting on the planet: climate change, deforestation, the loss of biodiversity. The result is the same. Increasing productivity threatens full employment.

By easing up on the gas pedal of efficiency and creating jobs in what are traditionally seen as “low productivity” sectors, we have within our grasp the means to maintain or increase employment, even when the economy stagnates. At first, this may sound crazy; we’ve become so conditioned by the language of efficiency. But there are sectors of the economy where chasing productivity growth doesn’t make sense at all. The caring professions are a good example: medicine, social work, education. What sense does it make to ask our teachers to teach ever bigger classes? Our doctors to treat more and more patients per hour? What — aside from meaningless noise — would be gained by asking the New York Philharmonic to play Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony faster and faster each year?

NYT: Let’s Be Less Productive

Cloudy Future?

Cloud computing is arriving with breathtaking speed - but is it safe?

Privateers Propelling Our Space Program

Private enterprise is stepping forward to push India's space program skyward.