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: Caliphate nextdoor | Largest casino...

• Sino-Pak script is working: Chaos in Bangladesh opens door to Islamic extremists. . . Students march with "ISIS Flags" in Bangladesh



• Scale of Chinese Spying Overwhelms Western Governments: Beijing is conducting espionage activities on what Western governments say is an unprecedented scale, mobilizing security agencies, private companies and Chinese civilians in its quest to undermine rival states and bolster the country’s economy. Rarely does a week go by without a warning from a Western intelligence agency about the threat that China presents.



• Largest casino in the world: India now accounts for 81% of all futures and options contracts in the world.



• Grand F&O casino: Where 93% Indians lose Rs 1.8 trillion but keep returning & the ‘House’ always wins.. Individuals trading in India’s derivatives market made a cumulative loss of more than Rs 1.8 lakh crore with 93 percent of the traders making losses over the last 3 years... Foreign Portfolio Investors siphoning off retailer traders' savings.
- Why India’s giant options market is a worry for regulators.
- New measures tighten F&O trading
- A Bubble in Indian Markets?



• Ten years of Make-in-India: Manufacturing growth has slowed to 5.5%, its GDP share remains stagnant at 15-17%, and employment in the sector has decreased



• Modi sarkar's Make-in-China policy: India's finished steel imports from China hit 7-year high... Export iron ore to China, import finished steel.. ..
  




• Rotting rice fuels discontent about Modi’s food policy: Growers and food policy experts are calling for a full opening of outbound shipments to help clear rice stockpiles and boost prices for farmers.



• Maha govt raises salaries of madrasa teachers: "The state cabinet has decided to increase the capital of the Minorities Financial Corporation to Rs 1,000 crore".... No funds for Marathi-medium schools, though.



• Shadow-banning Chinese EVs from US roads: US to ban Chinese hardware and software for connected vehicles



• Plight of Indian consumer: Ola Electric gets show cause notice after thousands of customer complaints.... 'Ola'n Musk and his EVs need to be less combustible.




• Vietnam to build six semiconductor fabs: Country aims to become a major player in the semiconductor industry by 2050. . . . US spends CHIPS Act cash to explore Indian chipmaking collabs.



• India's Pseudo-Satellite: Solar plane that can fly for 90 Days at a time. The National Aerospace Laboratories said the final version will have a wingspan which will be as wide as an Airbus 320, but weigh only as much as a regular motorcycle.



• Major medical breakthroughs in China: In just the last year, independent teams have managed to reverse both diabetes and autoimmune diseases.



• China's Gigantic Hydroelectric Dam Has Earth-Shifting Capabilities: The giant dam is able to hold 10 trillion gallons of water. This shift of mass would increase the length of a day by 0.06 microseconds and move the pole position of Earth by about 2 centimetres.



• Rhythm with Konnakol: Mattias Eklundh Guitar Lesson .




• Liberals didn't see this: Yazidi woman kidnapped and held in Gaza rescued after a decade.



• Oxfam network Of NGOs - acting on behalf of foreign powers? NGOs such as Samvad were chosen for funding as Affiliate NGOs on the condition that they would allow Oxfam India “complete freedom to plan the program and staffing in manner they want.”

Quick notes: Reality check | Gig worker...

• Reality check: India's bid to match China's factory heft gets a reality check. Goods imports have surged 56% since the 2020 border clash while India's trade deficit with China has nearly doubled to $85 billion. China continues to be India's biggest source of goods and was the largest supplier of industrial products last year.



• "De minimis": Biden takes aim at Shein, Temu with trade crackdown. . . . Guess who comes to China's rescue? Ambani and Modi sarkar!... yay! hindi-chini-bhai-bhai!



• Decline: India losing out to countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam in manufacturing. Direct employment related to exports fell from 9.5 percent in 2012 to 6.5 percent in 2020. . . . India’s share in global FDI falls to 2.1% in 2023 from 6.5% in 2020.



• Irrational exuberance: $5.5 trillion and ticking: Beware! The pressure is building in India's stock markets



• Gig worker exploitation is rampant: "I worked as a food delivery boy in Bengaluru. Guess how much I earned in a week".




• AI’s massive thirst for energy: Mr ChatGPT and other AI power players are going to the White House to discuss AI’s massive thirst for energy. . . Oracle will use three small nuclear reactors to power new 1-gigawatt AI data center



• Nikah mut’ah: Sex tourism in Indonesia sells itself as Islamic temporary marriage. . . Taliban’s 'reforms' lead to 21,000 musical instruments destroyed in Afghanistan



• India leads the world in generating plastic waste: Producing 10.2 million tons a year (9.3 million metric tons), far more than double the next big-polluting nations, Nigeria and Indonesia. China, often villainized for pollution, ranks fourth but is making tremendous strides in reducing waste.



• China’s Megadams Create Power and Destroy Homes on the ‘Roof of the World’:




• The Once-Dominant Tank Is Getting Humbled on the Battlefield: The rise of drones has prompted armies to change tactics and add defenses to the powerful armored vehicles.

Quick notes: Muslim "brotherhood" | Millionaire exodus...

• Pakistan to start second phase of Afghan deportations: Beginning Sunday, authorities are likely to expel more than 800,000 Afghans from the country, after about 541,000 were forced to leave in the first phase in November last year
  
  The reality of "Muslim Brotherhood": Syrians in Turkey face deportation into an unknown future. "You could tell that Turkey wanted to get rid of us Syrians". "Turkey has always used Syrian refugees as a political pawn, whether through its EU-Turkey deal and the billions of euros associated with it, or to exert influence on the reorganization of Syria if the regime were to fall".



• Why RICH people will leave India: a. Quality of living b. Crony capitalism c. Stockholm syndrome-- people adjust to everything -- gas chamber pollution, pot holes, traffic snarls..




• Union Budget is not corporate India’s wishlist: Tax breaks can’t solely drive profit



• Anna University to rope in int’l faculty: “Our faculty members are working with many international faculties in various universities as part of their research collaborations. We will try to bring in some of these international faculty members for a period of one to two years”.



• The dark side of light: Light exposure at night may raise the risk of type 2 diabetes. Reducing light exposure in the evening and maintaining a dark environment could be a cheap and easy way to prevent or delay the development of diabetes, even for those who are high risk.



• Night owl behavior could hurt mental health, sleep study finds. Morning larks who rose with the sun tended to have the best mental health of all, to no one's surprise.



• China's Peru megaport rattles USA: China's Megaport In South America Could Spark Resource War With US



• Chinese C919 jet hopes to challenge Boeing, Airbus: China is marketing its commercial jet to the international market.



• Meera Bhajan - Aryya Banik




• A single modern AI GPU consumes up to 3.7 MWh of power per year: GPUs sold last year alone consumed more power than 1.3 million homes



• 'BJP Did Hit Wicket With 400 Paar': India Shining 2.0.

Quick notes: High consumption | Unsafe terror base...

• The curious case of India’s high consumption: India seems to be consuming its way to growth. Spends on “Roti, Kapda and Makaan” actually grew at lower rates over the period 2012–13 to 2019–20.
  
  On the other hand, spends on alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics grew rapidly, and so did spends on transportation, recreation and culture, and restaurants and hotels. “. . Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment”.

There is a huge section of society which feels that anyone missing drugs, alcohol and non vegetarian food is missing out a lot in life.. 🤷🏻‍♀️

— Shweta Mangla (@ShwetaMangla) May 11, 2023




• Ghar Mein Ghus ke Marenge: Khalistan Commando Force-Panjwar terrorist shot dead in Lahore. The killing is the latest instance of terror kingpins being targeted outside India. In February this year, Bashir Ahmad Peer, a self-styled commander of the terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Pakistan's Rawalpindi.
  
  Also in the same month, former commander of Pakistan-based terror outfit Al Badr, Syed Khalid Raza, was killed in a similar manner outside his residence in Karachi while Kashmir-born terrorist Aijaz Ahmad Ahanger alias Abu Usman Al-Kashmiri, who had joined the Islamic State( IS), was reportedly killed in Kunar province of Afghanistan.



• Dr. Radhika Desai: The signs of de-dollarization are everywhere.
  
  Rupee-ruble payment pact talks reportedly suspended.. Russia says it has billions of Indian rupees that it can't use. . . .Economic realities hit rupee trade plans.
  
  Pakistan switching to yuan to buy Russian oil



• CPU Technology Nodes explained: What is wrong with 5nm, 3nm, 1nm.
Anastasi in tech



• Light pollution: The number of stars that people can see with the naked eye has reduced dramatically over the last decade. The cause is "Skyglow" from artificial lighting - the brightness of that glow has increased every year since 2011. "Our view of the stars is disappearing".



• Protein powders: Are they bad for your health? It's not some magic powder which will suddenly make you strong. You have to put the work in.



• Regenerative farming: Regenerative farming links soil health to human health. Decades of chemicals have ruined soils, making them less capable of providing nourishment for the crops, and lessening their nutritional value as a result. The United States has the lowest per capita spending on food of any industrialized nation in the world. Conversely, the US also has the highest per capita spending on healthcare of any industrialized nation in the world.



• Millet for Diabetes : Studies on millet nutrition: Is it a Healthy Grain?




• Erasing Uyghurs: China considers building its second capital in Xinjiang. 'It would end the historical concept that the region is the Uyghur people's motherland'.


Chinese firms foil US AI sanctions with older GPUs, software tweaks

Chinese mocking Indians:
video1
video2

Quick notes: Changing warfare | Industrial policy...

• A war which changed the very nature of war itself: "In the First World War, we invented the machine gun on a tank, and that changed the nature of the war; in the Second World War, we invented aerial bombardment of enemy cities. Historians will look back at the war in Ukraine and realise how drones and autonomy started to take off, and that was a step that changed the nature of war".
  
  "I think international regulation will eventually be introduced to stop the potential use of killer drones because these are ultimately going to be weapons of mass destruction”.



• Still clueless on manufacturing: Our industrial policy is based on a conceptually flawed approach of picking winning firms rather than sectors. This is the opposite of the successful approach adopted in East Asia, which did not select winning firms but adopted a combination of a horizontal, cross-sectoral industrial policy and a focus on some key sectors.
  
  Between 1979–2014, manufacturing remained at 16–18% of India’s Gross Value Added (GVA). Since 2015, it has declined and reached 13% by 2019, the lowest ever since 1960. . read more.



• China frontrunner in global EV race: BYD accounts for 40% of EV sales in China, while Tesla’s share stands at 11%



• CJI must come clean and apologise: For the Chief Justice to confuse gender with sex and claim there is no such thing as an absolute concept of a biological man, is not only anti-science, it is dangerous if applied to the fields of medicine and forensics.



• Misleading ads: How Bournvita lost the trust of its consumers



• Caribbean nations want UK to pay reparations for slavery: Britain traded more slaves than nearly any other country, transporting 3.1 million Africans to its colonies in the Caribbean, as well as to North and South America.



• Vidhushi Smt Malini Rajurkar: Tarana in Raag Shankara.




• K K Muhammad: Out of 200 Bateshwar Hindu temples in Madhya Pradesh, 80 got restored during Congress Govt and the remaining 120 temples could not, since BJP Govt didn't support.

Immensely liked the @TheLallantop interview of archeologist KK Mohammad

Mr Mohd was candid in saying that out of 200 Bateshwar Hindu temples in Madhya Pradesh , 80 got restored during Congress Govt and the remaining 120 temples could not , since @BJP4India Govt didn't support pic.twitter.com/SCeiYZXkN9

— Pawan Durani (@PawanDurani) April 18, 2023

---

pic.twitter.com/2bqb3L2eSm

— Tyrion Kumar Lannister (@KumarTyrion) April 19, 2023

---

True i was there last year terrible condition. pic.twitter.com/iXym0jLqRg

— Rishabh jajoo (@Rishabhjajoo2) April 19, 2023




• Wetlands are nature's shock absorbers: But India is losing them at an alarming rate



• Reports: Pakistan upgrading military hardware deals with Ukraine as it buys Russian oil

#Ukraine to receive #Pakistan-made Anza Mark-II MANPADS - mediahttps://t.co/RNuW3W7Io7

— Ukrinform-EN (@Ukrinform_News) April 29, 2023




ET Exclusive: Ukraine to supply Mi-17 helicopter engines and auxiliary spare parts to Pakistan in lieu of Islamabad’s continuous supplies of defence items via Europe since last Aug. Ukraine-Pak def ties date back to 1990s — My report ⁦@ETPolitics⁩ — https://t.co/PL7EnrPQtm pic.twitter.com/hs7HD6aURe

— Dipanjan R Chaudhury (@DipanjanET) April 27, 2023

Quick notes: North-south disparity | Demolition drive...

• Why south India outperforms the north: States like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra end up sending more money over to states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh than spending on themselves. In indicators of health, education and economic opportunities, the difference between the south and the north is as stark as that between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
  
  
  


• Demolition drive spares the rich and powerful: After declaring that all offending properties on lakebeds, culverts and wetlands would be demolished, Karnataka govt is suddenly singing a different tune. It is now looking to conduct a ‘resurvey’ of the affected region before it razes any encroachments. The administration turned its bulldozers towards properties of ordinary citizens, conveniently avoiding high-end villas and apartments.



• Health-conscious cities putting pedestrians first: "It is lovely for pedestrians and bikers to be able to share the streets. You see families out walking, kids playing – it is a much different experience."



• Dhruv Vidyut Electric Conversion Kit: Gursaurabh Singh invented this device, which can upgrade over 8 Crore cycles across India to a motor and battery powered electric cycle within minutes




• Unstoppable: China's domestic 7nm gaming GPU should arrive in 2025



• India Develops Affordable Vaccine Against Cervical Cancer: “The vaccine will be chiefly beneficial for girls aged 9 to 15 or women who are not yet sexually active. If we vaccinate adolescent girls now, its effect on reducing the cancer burden in the country will be seen within three to four decades”.



• Karnataka moots wide-ranging measures to promote Kannada: The draft bill mandates teaching of "functional Kannada language" to higher, technical, and professional education students, who have not learnt Kannada as a language till SSLC (class 10), and "cultural Kannada language" to students who have learnt Kannada.
  
  It also provides for reservation to students who have studied in Kannada medium from class 1 to 10 in higher, technical, and professional education.



• Mitti Mane: The residents of Mitti Mane, a housing community in Bengaluru, are experimenting with sustainable practices to transform the space into an eco-sensitive community.

Quick notes: Five delusions | Telecom equipment...

• Superpower delusion #1: China ranks TOP in maths.. India is nowhere in the rankings, but we have English "advantage", no?
  



• Superpower delusion #2: China has learned how the West produces knowledge, funds its development, and employs it.. India's "vikas model" is all about land -- grab farmland,  destroy forests.




• Superpower delusion #3: China focuses on know-how and jobs. For India, it is all about the lowest-bidder. “Procurement guidelines do not allow discrimination among firms/countries”.
  



• Superpower delusion #4: Laying red-carpets for MNCs is no substitute to self-reliance. 
  



• Superpower delusion #5: Our Big-bania log are mostly clueless about building technological self-reliance. Some form of 'State Capitalism' or hand-holding is needed.






• Waking up late: Telcos told to stop sourcing 4G telecom equipment from Chinese firms. Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal said "Huawei products were superior to those made by European companies".



• Intercontinental hypersonic weapon: China claims to have broken a record with its newest Hypersonic Missile

Quick notes: Sweatshop nation | Tibetan border...

• Sweatshop Nation: Governments in BJP-ruled states pushing for 12-hour shifts. Businesses may reduce from three shifts-a-day to two. . . . . . . . These kind of laws were brought in by Vasundhara Raje's govt in 2014. Six years later, business in Rajasthan has not picked up and employment has not grown. . . . . . . . . .Economic revival through labor exploitation?

Memo to those cheering the UP labour laws removal "to attract companies fleeing China".
UP needs agri labour more than any state. It grows 19% of our total foodgrain (32% of wheat).
Entire Ganga basin needs to shift to organic crop production - that has a future beyond 3 years.

— राहुल गोस्वामी (@rahul_goa) May 8, 2020




• Is BJP facilitating transfer of wealth from distressed farmers? Restrictions on purchase of farm agricultural land being removed. . . . . . Environment ministry in overdrive to clear projects.

On Modi's watch, China's trade surplus with India has more than doubled. India's stringent lockdown, by crippling the economy, has further boosted Chinese exports. The import lobby is a major funder of BJP. So, how does Modi intend to promote self-reliance by action, not talk?

— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) May 13, 2020




• Beijing opening new fronts: China's aggressive moves in Ladakh and Northern Sikkim do not augur well for the coming summer months. The new Chinese-made ZTQ-15 light tank could be a game changer. The Nepal Communist Party is dictated to by Beijing about what to do or say..



• The Coming Disruption: The strongest brand in the world is not Apple or Mercedes-Benz or Coca-Cola. The strongest brands are MIT, Oxford and Stanford. . . A handful of elite cyborg universities will soon monopolize higher education.

We need foreign technology in manufacturing, electronics, vlsi.. Not just money and not coca cola, and potato chips

— Aiyar (@ambi_aiyar) May 13, 2020




• No harmful chemicals: Electrolyzed water uses electricity to change the chemical structure of salt, water and vinegar into a cleaner disinfectant as effective as bleach.




• On mythology: Nothing to be offended

The reason "Mythology" offends us is because it has assumed pejorative meanings in other quotidian contexts

E.g. We often talk of "Myths vs reality" when discussing common misconceptions around us

But mythology in itself is not such an inaccurate word to describe the itihAsas

— Śrīkānta Kṛṣṇamācārya (@shrikanth_krish) May 11, 2020

Quick notes: Reliance Jio | Clear waters...

• Zucka virus: Facebook to take 10% stake in Reliance Jio.. WeChat-style “super-app” to target online retail.. “Bringing JioMart, WhatsApp together for a seamless mobile shopping experience.” . . Can we trust FB?



• Tech platforms: Australia will compel Facebook and Google to pay media outlets for news content. . . India should learn.



• So, the Kirana store format is preferred now? Experts say it may be time for grocery stores to ban customers from coming inside. . Prevents contamination by careless customers.
  
  



• Clear waters: Ganga waters at Rishikesh and Haridwar now fit for drinking. Absence of industrial effluent, sewage from hotels and lodges.



• Sunlight destroys virus quickly: Risk of transmission from surfaces outdoors is lower during daylight and under higher temperature and humidity conditions.



• China rattles sabres: Exploiting pandemic to pursue expansion in South China Sea.



• China won't write off Belt and Road debts: African countries have called for $100 billion in bailouts and debt relief caused by the Wuhan pandemic.



• First find peace within:

"If there is peace in your mind you will find peace with everybody. If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. So first find peace within and you will see this inner peace reflected everywhere else. You are this peace!"
H. W. L. Poonja pic.twitter.com/bME7MtRUgs

— Neelam (@NeelamFoT) February 16, 2020

Quick notes: Distressed assets | Solar tarp...

• Distressed assets: Germany beefs up law to block foreign takeovers. Govt to protect key industries from Chinese takeover.
  
  Vultures welcome in India: People’s Bank of China picks up 1.75 crore shares in HDFC as shares fall 32% from 52-week high.
  

  To prevent China aquring Indian companies at low valuation Govt govt must ban acquisition of Indian Cos by foreign entitities--Ban all foreign investments if now in our mkt-already Bank of China holds shares in HDFC-Danger alert:)) RT @narendramodi @nsitharaman @nsitharamanoffc

  — RVAIDYA2000 (@rvaidya2000) April 12, 2020

  
  




• What China learnt. But India didn't: China grasped how the United States produces knowledge in its universities, businesses, and centers of technology.  Western businesses have worked hand-in-glove with Chinese for a generation and have allowed China to siphon off knowledge and practices that greatly contributed to China’s rise. Western universities have cooperated with Chinese colleagues in pursuit of knowledge but also directly and indirectly to the benefit of the CCP and PLA.  Western laboratories and departments of mathematics and natural sciences depend on Chinese researchers and graduate students. 



• CCP narrative: Beijing tightens grip over c-virus research. "Academic papers about tracing the origin of the virus must be strictly managed."  



• Retractable solar cover to recharge EVs: The cover contains nine ASCA solar modules, covering 4 square meters of total surface area.




• No tension, simply attention:

“No tension, no intention, simply attention. No struggle between the in and the out, just stay relaxed and at ease.” ~ Papaji pic.twitter.com/SMYbXmrrFC

— Neelam (@NeelamFoT) April 4, 2020

Quick notes: Reliance Jio | Equalisation levy...

• The other virus: Facebook eyes multi billion dollar stake in Reliance Jio. . . Learn from China. No compromise on national security.



• Twitter police: Beijing’s c-virus lies are just fine.



• Revolt against Xi Jinping? “An official call to arms against Xi: The clown who insists on wearing the emperor’s new clothes.”



• Equalisation levy: Foreign-owned e-commerce players will have to pay equalisation levy from the next fiscal. The levy, which hitherto was applicable only to digital advertising players such as Google, has now been expanded to cover “e-commerce supply or services”. Setback to Chinese e-commerce players like AliExpress, Shein and Club Factory selling in India.



• Papaji: Wake up from the dream




• Uncontrolled binge-watching: Netflix, Youtube, Facebook to cut data traffic in India to ease network congestion



• Two Types Of COVID-19: Type-L is more virulent and was responsible for the intial outbreak in China. Type-S is relatively less aggressive.



• Cuba’s ‘wonder drug’ Interferon Alfa-2B: Interferon drugs are man-made versions of the proteins that the human body creates. The drugs equip the body to tackle viruses, preventing them from multiplying in the body. Interferon drugs first emerged for cancer therapy. Interferons have also been used in the treatment of HIV and AIDS.



• Radical left: Kick NYT out of India before they turn into nuisance.

The New York Times changed headlines 3 times in order to satisfy the Radical Left. What should have been a good story got “worse & worse”, until the headline alone made it very unfair. Fake & Corrupt News that is very dangerous for our Country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2020

Quick notes: Electronics roadmap | EB-5 visa...

• Precise timing: India lays out $6 bln roadmap to boost electronics manufacturing. The new measures come at a time global companies are looking to diversify their supply chains.



• EB-5 visa: ‘Money-Laundering Scheme’ selling path to U.S. citizenship for Chinese nationals



• Research: Does Agnihotra Homa offer protection from viruses?



• Social-media Gestapo: Twitter removes Rajinikanth’s video



• Phoren returned: Kasargod Gulf-returnee’s visits across Kerala cause worries, force border lockdown with Karnataka



• Death in commie dictatorship: Woman Says Coronavirus Patients Cremated Alive




• Cuban doctors head to Italy to fight coronavirus. Cuban doctors were on the front lines in the fight against cholera in Haiti and against Ebola in West Africa 10 years ago.



• CCP reframing C-virus narrative: Besides crafting a better global image, experts think China's overall propaganda goal is to maintain social stability at home. . . WHO parroting false Chinese propaganda.

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”.

Quick notes: Train-18 | Game changers...

• Train-18 success story: The real importance of Train 18 lies in the lessons it holds for frugal engineering, project management and empowering managers who dare to dream big.. General manager S Mani conceptualised the project and tenaciously followed up for getting the Railway Board to approve for the ICF to build two prototype train-sets.  With just about 18 months left for his superannuation, Mani put together a key team at the ICF with a remit to “design and manufacture the best train ever made in India,” matching world standards.



• Taking baby steps: Apple starts selling 'Assembled in India' iPhone XR model



• Kanwal Sibal: “China did not play by WTO rules, so will it play by RCEP rules?”
  
  RCEP will bypass WTO and offload excess agricultural produce from China, like grains, seeds and milk, into the Indian markets freely. Shifting our balance of payment and food sovereignty into the hands of China will be detrimental to the nation.



• Indian tech needs State-Capitalism: Within Banglore there must be enough knowledge to build what Huawei has. But they all sit in US cos.

Within Banglore there must be enough knowledge to build what Huawei has. But they all sit in US cos. India is a huge market but we haven't used our market power. China doesn't buy anything from US without insisting that they want 10 % IP in the product in 3 years.
Prof Paul Raj

— Nilesh Shah (@NileshShah68) October 22, 2019




• Game Changers: Netflix documentary aims to convert body-builders and athletes to plant-based diets




• Reject Halal food:

People across the world are rejecting Halal food. Here are the reasons. pic.twitter.com/btLle3HO2s

— Upword (@upword_) October 21, 2019




• Car-free cities are picking up speed . . . . . Car ownership is a trap that can be prevented.
  



• Someone talking sense: Install solar power panels on rooftops, not in large farms or power plants. The main advantage of solar is that they can be installed at a micro level even on the rooftop, but the govt is more focussed on larger plants.



• Uighur Gulag: Did a Muslim slave make your Chinese shirt?



• China is developing 'Magnetized Plasma Artillery': The magnetized plasma layer protects the gun barrel from wear and heat, and allow the projectile to achieve a higher launch velocity.



• Egg on their face: Exit polls way off mark

Biggest lesson for BJP.

When people have great expectations from you, if you fall short, they punish you a lot more than they would someone from whom they expect nothing.

Modi has raised expectations to an unprecedented high....state leaders have to measure up.

— विनोद शर्मा 🇮🇳 (@vinod_sharma) October 24, 2019




• Inequality For All: Something skewed about India's "growth story"

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: Rocket women, Alcohol consumption...

• Rocket woman: How to cook curry and get a spacecraft into Mars orbit.. Can you guide a spacecraft into orbit around Mars and cook for eight people morning and night? Yes, if you get up at 5am, and your name is BP Dakshayani. Here the former head of flight dynamics and space navigation for the Indian space agency explains how she did it - and the housework too.  They became known as the Rocket Women or the Women from Mars.
  
  Four years ago, the picture of a group of women in saris celebrating as an Indian spacecraft successfully entered Mars orbit shone a light on the role played by women in the country's space programme - among them BP Dakshayani.
  



• Machines Are Coming for India’s Unwanted Factory Jobs:  The trouble is finding jobs that Indians actually want. The country’s workers would rather drive for food-delivery services on the breezy, albeit steamy, roads of Mumbai and work in hotels than in factories. Fair enough. Who would want to work in a yarn mill, which needs to maintain a temperature of 33 degrees Celsius? Conditions on other industrial factory floors are likely worse... India's youth unemployment rate (ages 15-24) is one of the highest among large, global economies.



• Growth creates fewer jobs than it used to: Between 2013 and 2015, total employment actually shrank by seven million. Since 2015 there has also been an absolute decline in job growth.
  



• Alcohol intake in India doubles in 11 years: Per capita alcohol consumption in India has more than doubled from 2005 to 2016  



• Temple land grab: “After acquiring lands from the people in the name of SEZ, and without paying compensation in time to the owners, the State govt allots them to various companies indiscriminately and that the latter do not set up industries on such lands, and all these activities show that there is some big conspiracy behind it. To acquire lands belonging to the temples the govt first resorts to annulling the existing temple boards and appoints persons in-charge in their place to cooperate with it for the purpose.”



• HamSoham: Seattle Raga Labs with Ganesh Rajagopalan




• China Pries Technology From U.S. Companies: An audit this year convinced an employee at one foreign auto maker there was “clear evidence of collusion” between the audit team and Chinese auto makers. When the audit began, the person says, inspectors asked for only the blueprints of the electric-vehicle components the foreign company was striving to protect from its Chinese joint-venture partner.  “Somehow they knew exactly the areas to look at,” the person says. “There wasn’t a single question about any of the other very complex systems on the vehicle.” 



• Islam's True Colors: Chechnya starts concentration camps for gay men, first time after Hitler



• Pick your battles:

One trick Hindu’s need to learn is the art of ignoring. Half of the drama, ex. Gita burning, is done by losers trying to gain significance. Pick your battle, ask before you respond why is this person doing what s/he is doing? Only respond if it furthers our strength.

— Jiger Patel (@JigerPatel) September 14, 2018

Quick notes: Mudra loans, Bogota bikes...

• MUDRA loans is another crisis in the making: Raghuram Rajan points out that most of the bad loans were created during 2006-08, a period that coincides with the first term of the UPA.



• China's “Great Green Wall” Fights Expanding Desert: The project’s end date isn’t until 2050; so far, more than 66 billion trees have been planted. ... Jadav Payeng, the man who planted a forest.
  



• "On bicycles, we are all equal": How a Colombian cycling tradition changed the world.... 'A place for bikes, books and coffee'.
  



• Hindu India suppressing its women: Turns out India has the largest number of female pilots in the world.

Flew from NY to Delhi today on Air India with a female pilot and an all female flight crew. Turns out that India has the largest number of female pilots in the world. And yes, we arrived at our destination early after a smooth flight and perfect landing. Jai Hind! pic.twitter.com/wkgdMHMVWD

— Cristine Legare (@CristineLegare) September 10, 2018




• Hanuman Temple, Watsonville, CA:

Quick notes: Crude oil bill, Green Sahara...

• Rupee fall: How rupee has been held hostage to a 70% surge in India's crude oil bill



• EVs to the rescue? India can save about Rs 1.2 tn worth of forex by switching to e-2 wheelers... only as  clean as the grid powering them.



• Greening the Sahara: "Large-scale solar and wind farms in the Sahara would more than double the precipitation." 



• How Congress manages the economy:

And @INCIndia left behind unpaid oil bills worth Rs 2 lakh crore. Just as Rajiv Gandhi had a babalog's party and left behind unpaid bills for which India's gold had to be mortgaged. That is how Congress manages the economy. https://t.co/he2pE5GAHd

— Kanchan Gupta (@KanchanGupta) September 10, 2018




• SS-ADT: The Solid State Active Denial Technology is a non-lethal weapon system which disrupts hostile activities and can deny personnel from remaining in specific areas, without causing permanent physical harm or collateral damage.




• Section 377: India’s ancient religions are actually very accepting of gay people

Quick notes: Choking India, Akshay Venkatesh...

• How Chinese goods are choking Indian industry: In the life-saving drugs category, the dependence on Chinese imports is as much as 90%. China has increased the prices of bulk drugs 1,200% during last two years.



• Stop this dependence on China: India recalls rabies vaccines made by tainted China firm



• From trade war to currency war: The yuan's recent depreciation is nothing less than an import tariff of 7% across the board, not just a retaliatory tariff on selected US goods



• The mistake of letting China into WTO: Trans-Pacific Partnership could negotiate new rules of trade, cutting tariffs and covering state-owned enterprises, import surges, subsidies and other issues relevant to China. “Then China would need to make a decision. It can come on board, or it can decide it doesn’t want full access to 60% of the global economy.” .



• Check on predatory pricing: India’s e-commerce policy may end the Flipkart-Amazon discount war



• A number theorist who bridges math and time: Akshay Venkatesh wins a Fields Medal for his “profound contributions to an exceptionally broad range of subjects in mathematics.”



• Facebook: A way for you to feel jealous of people you haven’t seen in years.”