India and China are circling Brazil’s Embraer after Boeing abandoned plans for a tie-up. This is seen as a one-off chance to rebalance India’s aerospace ambitions against strategic rival China.
R.K. Tyagi, ex-chairman of HAL said he had written to the govt urging it to move fast.
“Any country with ambitions will look at this. I feel this is a good opportunity. Valuation is down and if we get control of a modern, proven aircraft programme, it is a big jump.”
Resistance to China, or India is unlikely from Brazil’s politicians. “But Bolsonaro does not want to be seen as the one who sold Embraer to the Chinese”.
How River Yamuna Cleaned Itself: Two months of the lockdown have done what successive governments could not do in 25 years with over Rs 5,000 crore at their disposal.
Punjab: Eco-friendly industries to be granted CTE/CTO within a day
Remote work: Will a cloud-based rural revival be jump-started by today's remote work surge? . . . . . Have we passed peak city?
1/ When what we produce in a village does not get much value in exchange, our income is low.
To raise income, we have to produce more valuable goods or services.
We could also have people with higher productivity and income move in locally and spend some extra income locally.
Sita Ram Goel on Mahatma Gandhi: What is relevant in Mahatma Gandhi is not his failure in solving the Muslim problem but his success in re-affirming the language of Sanatana Dharma which had been revived during the Swadeshi Movement.
The anti-Gandhi nationalists have never tried honestly to face the fact that it was he and not they who had stirred the minds and hearts of Hindu masses. It was he and not they who had mobilized Hindu society to make sacrifices in the service of the motherland. Nor have the denunciations of anti-Gandhi nationalists succeeded in doing the slightest damage to his stature.
In fact, his stature has risen higher with the passing of time. He continues to be cherished by Hindu masses as one of the greatest in their history. Reverence for him in the world at large has also continued to grow. He is now regarded as a profound thinker on problems created by an industrial civilisation and a hedonistic culture. Hinduism has gained abroad because Gandhi is known as a great Hindu.
Why you might be missing your commute: The daily commute acts as a transitional buffer. It gives you time and space to think about the upcoming work role. “It’s not as easy as switching from one role to the next. When you go into work and you’re still in your home role, you often have conflict between the home and work-related identities”
Home-made disinfectant: Make your own hypochlorite solution. HClO prepared by this method will be mixed with metal ions during the process, so not to be used for medical use. Just for disinfecting the fruits & vegitables or work surfaces. For food disinfection, rinse with water after disinfection. . . . . "Does It Work?" YES!
Chinese espionage in Africa: By requiring African nations to use Chinese contractors to build the infrastructure, Beijing provides itself with a unique opportunity to implant Chinese surveillance technology into the projects from the ground up.. Servers installed by Huawei in the African Union headquarters were daily uploading their content to servers based in Shanghai, China. An inspection of the building—built by the state-owned China State Construction Engineering Corporation—also uncovered listening devices hidden throughout the building. . . . Anti-Chinese sentiment growing in Africa.
Professors around America have been caught selling secret research to the Chinese Communist Regime.
The national media won't cover it, so here's a thread of those who have been caught so far:
Swayam Prabha: TV channel for students of classes 1 to 12; 100 top universities to offer online courses. . . . Go beyond Macaulay, dear India.
Tesla's 'million-mile' battery: Jointly developed with China’s CATL . . . (China invests in real R&D, India's "English-advantage" is no match).
Tesla’s new batteries will rely on innovations such as low-cobalt and
cobalt-free battery chemistries, and the use of chemical additives,
materials and coatings that will reduce internal stress and enable
batteries to store more energy for longer periods.
Tesla patents a new electrode for its 1-million-mile battery.
Eroding globalism: Trump threatens new taxes on companies that make goods outside the US
Md Haroon Haji Abdul Rehman Lakdawala: NIA arrests key conspirator in Visakhapatnam Espionage Case. Pak based spies recruited agents in India for collecting sensitive and classified information regarding locations/movements of Indian Naval Ships and Submarines, and other defence establishments. Investigation revealed that, few navy personnel came in contact with Pakistani nationals through various social media platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp etc, and were involved in sharing classified information in lieu of monetary gains.
Electric bikes 'could help people return to work': A wider range of people would be able to use e-bikes reducing congestion and cutting CO2. In Denmark, where cycling has been strongly encouraged for decades,
e-bike routes are already linking cities to towns and villages.
Not even EVs: Much of central London could soon be going car-free. Taking large numbers of cars off the road is a simple and effective way to cut air pollution linked to lung-related illness. One annual example: Israel sees reductions of up to 98% of NOx emissions during Yom Kippur, when most of its population stays home.
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.
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?
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
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.
Fundamental shift in higher education: The second-greatest accretion of stakeholder value in business, behind Amazon’s entry into health care, will be big (and some small) tech firms partnering with a world class university to offer 80% of a traditional four-year degree for 50% of the price.
The myth/magic of campuses and geography is no longer a constraining factor — most programs will be hybrid soon, dramatically increasing enrollments among the best brands. MIT/Google could enroll 100,000 kids at $100,000 in tuition (a bargain), yielding $5 billion a year. Bocconi/Apple, Carnegie Mellon/Amazon, UCLA/Netflix, Berkeley/Microsoft … you get the idea
Blended learning: “Education is going to be online, offline.... a mix of both... it is going to be blended learning and it is going to stay.”
Green mobility: Peaking interest on the humble two-wheeled bicycle has come as a pleasant surprise. “Under the National Disaster Management Act, the Centre has been issuing guidelines for the use of different vehicles. But there is no mention of bicycles or its benefits”. . . “The real cost of motorised transport hasn’t been calculated, though it is threatening the health of a large population. The govt should start campaigning for bicycles at all levels for a fit India”.
Two must-read threads for a deeper insight into Hindu minds:
You can complain all you want about Sai Baba and Satya Sai Baba. But they are giving today's Hindus something that they want.
To understand Baba and his devotees, you must understand human nature.
- Humans need faith. They need someone to hold their hand and tell them it's okay
As traditional religious sects have turned into jaded establishments that are a pale shadow of what they once were, new institutions take their place https://t.co/rUBF9thsoN
— Śrīkānta Kṛṣṇamācārya (@shrikanth_krish) May 7, 2020
The entitled fly free: Air India rescued over 640 Indians from Wuhan in two consecutive flights on Jan 31 and Feb 1. This alone cost the govt Rs 6 crore. Later in Feb, Air India rescued 119 Indians and five foreign nationals on board the cruise ship Diamond Princess. Around the same time, IAF brought back 76 stranded Indians from Japan. In March, Air India brought back 481 passengers from Italy on two separate flights.
"GoI bears the cost of all such evacuations of Indian citizens. And that has been the practice from the past and continues till date”.
Directives went from the railway ministry. States followed those directives. Center cannot escape the blame for this fiasco. If it can ferry our citizens stuck in other countries free of cost, it could certainly have done the same for our own migrant labour. https://t.co/pRzL1kkAJM
Bring in the best brains: Telemedicine to be next big thing in post-COVID-19 era. . . The next big opportunity?
Be wary of Chinese investments: China is interested in India's infrastructure sector, with ventures for manufacture and distribution of trucks, cranes and other construction and transportation equipment. The Chinese are now moving in a significant way into the solar energy sector in Andhra Pradesh. Chinese companies have pledged investments of $3 billion in wind and solar energy development, in India. But it is the telecom sector that has seen the largest Chinese presence in India.
The Chinese have a track record of not transferring knowledge, knowhow, technology, spares, or even maintenance instructions, for their projects. China does not transfer knowhow and manufacturing skills, to enable its partners to stand on their own feet.
Gifting land: India offers land twice Luxembourg's size to firms leaving China. . . . take back land from non-productive industries. BTW, this will go nowhere without emphasis on skills.
Kirana Linker: Buy from your local grocers online in Telangana.
Mutating very fast: Now that all the countries are isolated, the virus is becoming independent, which means each country has a different mutant virus. The problem is, if this isolation continues for a longer period, a person coming from say the US will encounter a newer virus in India and vice versa. So, it will not be the same COVID-19. It will be COVID-19a, COVID-19b, COVID-19c, etc
Annalisa Chiusolo: Italian scientist says she discovered main mechanism behind COVID-19
A tragedy that does not have to be: Every year more than 6 million birds die as they migrate from the US and Canada to Central and South America
