Friday, March 22, 2024

Quick notes: Billionaire Raj | BYD Seagull...

  • Billionaire Raj: India's richest 1% earn 22.6% of total income — the highest share since data going back to the 1920s — and hold more than 40% of the wealth.

    The inequality gap widened after the economy’s opening up in the early 1990s, but “between 2014-15 and 2022-23, the rise of top-end inequality has been particularly pronounced in terms of wealth concentration”. “The ‘Billionaire Raj’ headed by India’s modern bourgeoisie is now more unequal than the British Raj headed by the colonialist forces”.


  • “Extinction-level event for the U.S. auto sector”: Why a small China-made EV has global auto execs and politicians on edge.

    The China-built BYD Seagull, a small all-electric hatchback, starts at less than $10,000, and reportedly banks a profit for the Chinese automaker. That latter point — EV profits where U.S. automakers have mostly failed to turn any — combined with the expansion of Chinese automakers into Europe, Latin America and elsewhere has automotive executives and politicians, from Detroit and Texas to Germany and Japan, on edge.

    The rise of BYD and other Chinese automakers led Tesla CEO Elon Musk to warn that Chinese automakers will “demolish” global rivals without trade barriers.




  • In One Key A.I. Metric, China Pulls Ahead of the U.S.: Talent: When it comes to the artificial intelligence that powers chatbots like ChatGPT, China lags behind the United States. But when it comes to producing the scientists behind a new generation of humanoid technologies, China is pulling ahead.

    New research shows that China has by some metrics eclipsed the United States as the biggest producer of A.I. talent, with the country generating almost half the world’s top A.I. researchers.


  • Unlike India's toy design: Alibaba claims it will launch a server-grade RISC-V processor this year


  • Domestic chis and operating systems: China to pivot from AMD & Intel CPUs to domestic chips in government PCs. The transition to domestic processors will advance more swiftly for server processors than for client PCs, due to the less complex software ecosystem needing replacement. China will need to invest approximately $91 billion from 2023 to 2027 to overhaul the IT infrastructure in government and adjascent industries.


  • Solar cooking - From sun to plate: Despite its advantages, solar cooking has some limitations, such as longer cooking time and the need to cook outdoors in the sun.

    To overcome these challenges, Saswat Sourav Panda, a resident of Puri, Odisha, integrated three solar-based cooking systems at his house for different cooking processes. A solar box cooking system is used for slow cooking, a parabolic concentrator for heavy cooking and a solar glass tube-based system for cooking even without sunlight.

    With a total investment of Rs. 31,000, Panda reduced his annual consumption of gas cylinders from twelve to four. “Once I started to appreciate the enhanced natural taste due to slow cooking in solar, we switched entirely”.


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Quick notes: AI infrastructure | KPIT battery...

  • AI supercomputer: India approves a ₹10,300 Crore funding package to bolster the nation's AI infrastructure. Plans 10,000-GPU sovereign AI supercomputer


  • Wafer-scale processor for AI: Cerebras launches 900,000-core 125 PetaFLOPS wafer-scale processor for AI — theoretically equivalent to about 62 Nvidia H100 GPUs


  • How India is betting big on global outsourced chip play: Malaysia is a dominant player in the business in Asia, and commands 13 per cent share of the global semiconductor chip testing and packaging market.


  • Malaysia's flourishing semiconductor manufacturing : The rush of foreign investments into Malaysia has come in the tunes of multi-billion dollar ambition from major industry players, like Intel. By itself, Intel will spend a whopping $7 billion on new, Malaysian chip assembly and testing facilities. The overall total of foreign Malaysian investment in 2023 was $12.8 billion, and that exceeded its seven-year combined total from 2013 to 2020.


  • EU Seeks Chip Sovereignty Using RISC-V: The European Union invests heavily in initiatives to achieve chip independence using the RISC-V open-source architecture. This effort is led by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, which has been a pioneer in the development of RISC-V technology.


  • Ravi Pandit's sodium-ion battery: India-based KPIT has unveiled its proprietary sodium-ion battery technology with energy density of up to 170 Wh/kg. “When we started working on sodium-ion batteries, the initial expectation of energy density was quite low but over the last eight years the energy density has been going up because of the developments that we and other companies have been carrying out”.



  • Cow Dung Gasification Process for Hydrogen Production: Green hydrogen can be produced from animal and human excrements and renewable energy. . . Modern Electron: This startup is converting cow manure into clean-burning hydrogen fuel.


  • A Brand-New Tiny Forest: Pocket-size forests filled with native plants have been embraced worldwide for their environmental benefits. Now one is planned for New York City.


  • Golden Handcuffs: Corporate roles have long enticed employees with riches – at a big cost to their personal lives. Only some workers walk away.


  • Healthier alternative to traditional beer: The brewing secrets behind tastier no-alcohol beer


Thursday, February 29, 2024

Quick notes: Semi-success | Cancer treatment...

  • Semi-success: India approves three chip plants with over $15 billion in investments to realize semiconductor ambitions. Tata Electronics will partner Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp and will focus on 28-nanometer technology.

    Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test Pvt Ltd will set up the second plant in Morigaon, Assam with focus on packaging technologies.

    CG Power, in partnership with Japan's Renesas Electronics Corporation and Thailand's Stars Microelectronics will set up the third factory in Sanand, Gujarat. All three factories will start construction within next 100 days.


  • India makes progress with US$21bn chip proposals: The Indian government, after years of watching from the sidelines of the chips race, now has to evaluate US$21 billion of semiconductor proposals and divvy up taxpayer support between foreign chipmakers, local champions or some combination of the two.

    Both Tower and Tata’s facilities would produce so-called mature chips — using 40-nanometer or older technology — that are very widely used in consumer electronics, automobiles, defense systems and aircrafts, the people said.

    The Tata Group is also planning to build a 250-billion-rupee (US$3 billion) chip-packaging plant in eastern India that would assemble and export chips.


  • Masterclass: Ashwini Vaishnav's masterclass On India's semiconductor ecosystem



  • Toy design? India’s homebrew RISC-V CPU goes on sale in new development board. The CPU is 32-bit and operates at up to 100 MHz, using only 256 KB of SRAM. This doesn't come close to competing with modern Raspberry Pi solutions


  • The Magic of R+Cu: Tata Institute Claims Success In Cancer Treatment - With "Rs 100 Tablet". The 'R+Cu' when taken orally, generate Oxygen radicals in the stomach which are quickly absorbed to enter blood circulation. The oxygen radicals destroy cfChPs released in circulation and prevent 'Metastases' - The movement of cancer cells from one part of the body to another. The researchers claimed that R+Cu prevents Chemotherapy toxicity.


  • Indigenous CAR-T Therapy Cures Patient Of Cancer: In simple language, the therapy includes genetically reprogramming a patient's immune system to fight cancer.


  • Magnificent 7 profits now exceed almost every country in the world: The meteoric rise in the profits and market capitalizations of the Magnificent 7 U.S. tech behemoths — Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla — outstrip those of all listed companies in almost every G20 country. Only China and Japan have greater profits when their listed companies are combined.


  • America sees surge of Chinese illegal migrants: Chinese migrants often take special “VIP” routes across the jungle that are led by guides working for the Gulf Clan, Colombia’s largest drug cartel, and are quicker and less strenuous for higher prices than the most basic routes.


  • #southtaxmovement: Why south Indian states have started a tax movement



Thursday, February 15, 2024

Quick notes: Capitulation on LAC | Phone addicts...

  • ‘Abject capitulation’ by Indian govt: Military veterans fear that the creation of non-militarised “buffer zones" inside the India-claimed lines at multiple transgression points in eastern Ladakh may help the Chinese Army to force India to agree to its reinterpretation of the LAC.


  • Phone Addicts: Indians spend more time on their smartphones daily than the rest of the world. More than 881 million Indians are 'always on' -- those who can't do without their phones.


  • Tower proposes $8B Indian wafer fab: Israeli foundry Tower Semiconductor has submitted a proposal to the Indian government to build a 65/40nm wafer fab in India at a cost of US$8 billion


  • A Curious Business Model: India will pay 70% of cost but Micron will own 100% of plant.. Micron will hold 100% ownership of a plant that costs $2.75 billion after having invested only $0.825 billion!

    If chip-making is India’s goal, the Micron deal won’t deliver it. What we are getting—assembling and testing chips made elsewhere—is the lowest end of the chip-making technology. We are not competing with the US, China, South Korea, or Japan on chip-making but with, for example, Malaysia, which is already streets ahead of us in this sector


  • Stay in touch with the earth: For spiritual seekers, the time around new moon is particularly significant to stay in touch with the earth.



  • How China Miscalculated Its Way to a Baby Bust: China’s baby bust is happening faster than many expected, raising fears of a demographic collapse. And coping with the fallout may now be complicated by miscalculations made more than 40 years ago. A Moscow-trained missile scientist led the push for China’s policy, based on tables of calculations that applied mathematical models used to calculate rocket trajectories to population growth.


  • China cheating? Who knew! /s: Taiwan accuses China of 'cheating' and 'stealing' chipmaking technologies. "They do not really follow the rules. They cheat and they copy, etc. They steal technology."


  • Germany’s Days as an Industrial Superpower Are Coming to an End: China is becoming a bigger rival and is no longer an insatiable buyer of German goods. The US is drifting away from Europe and is seeking to compete with its transatlantic allies for climate investment. The final blow for some heavy manufacturers was the end of huge volumes of cheap Russian natural gas.


  • Pradip Shivaji Mohite: The Class 9 Dropout Who Is Building Helicopters


  • Most charitable person: Jamsetji Tata, the founder of Tata Group, has been recognized as the most charitable person of the past century, having donated a staggering Rs 829,734 crore. This surpasses contributions from other global philanthropists, including Bill Gates, who secured the second position.


  • Thorium hope: New Fuel Powers Up India's Green Nuclear Future

Saturday, February 3, 2024

Quick notes: TTP attacks | Sober tourism...

  • A taste of its own poison: Al-Qaida, Afghan Taliban assist TTP with attacks in Pakistan


  • The Rise of Sober Tourism: 50% of travelers were likely to opt for a non-alcoholic drink over a beer or a cocktail. Booze-free vacations gaining momentum.


  • Nonalcoholic beers: The hottest beer in America doesn't have alcohol. Athletic Brewing has become the king of nonalcoholic beers.


  • The easy way to explain lift : Forget Bernoulli and Newton



  • Satya Nadella's first decade as CEO : When he took over as CEO in Feb 2014, Microsoft was mired in mediocrity. Its market cap was just over $300 billion. A decade later, Microsoft's valuation has swelled tenfold, to $3.06 trillion making it the world's most valuable public company.


  • Anywhere but India: U.S. plans to invest CHIPS Act money in Vietnamese semiconductor industry


  • Defender: India deploys unprecedented Naval might near Red Sea


  • “Flip Phone February”: Readers who have taken the plunge said it had improved their lives, marriages and mental health, and offered advice to those going without their smartphones for “Flip Phone February.” “Having the phone away from me has almost made my brain more open to information”. A Practical Guide to Quitting Your Smartphone.


  • Ancient Vegetables: What did Indians Eat Before Colonisation?



Thursday, January 25, 2024

Quick notes: Red Sea hero | Job crisis...

  • Indian Navy Flexes Its Muscles In Red Sea: India is deploying a growing number of warships to counter rebel attacks on commercial ships plying around the Middle East, while steering clear of joining the official U.S.-led force in the Red Sea, as it looks to protect its ties with Iran.


  • A jobs crisis in India is driving workers to Israel: Government data shows a declining trend in joblessness. This is due to the inclusion of unpaid work as jobs in government data. "It's not that jobs are not happening. It's just that organised jobs are barely growing and at the same time, the number of young people looking for jobs is increasing".


  • BJP rule under NaMo a dark age for the ASI: Archaeologist KK Muhammed: "The ASI has become a dead organisation and 10 years of BJP rule is a dark age of the organisation. I had undertaken the renovation of 80 temples that were destroyed in the earthquake in the Chambal area. We expected they (BJP) would be in the forefront of the renovation efforts. But not a single temple has been renovated in the last nine years".


  • Chinese guy compares China and India: I'm Chinese, I've worked in India for a while, I've been to some of the cities and villages in India. Personally, I think the gap between India and China will only get bigger, not smaller, in the next 10 to 20 years.

    Foreign investment in India is aimed at capturing the domestic demand of India. Foreign investment in China, the purpose is not only to occupy the Chinese market, but to meet the needs of the world!

    Second, India may miss out on a fourth industrial revolution Many people call breakthroughs in high-speed communications, new energy, new materials, life sciences, artificial intelligence and other fields the fourth industrial revolution. But Indians are still keen on IT and have invested little in the fourth industrial revolution.

    Third, India's environmental crisis. As a Chinese, I have witnessed the destruction of China's environment by industrialization. It is easy to destroy the environment, but difficult to repair it. Today, the annual investment in environmental protection in China far exceeds the sum of education and military expenditure. But it will take generations to repair the environment, and some will never be. Unfortunately, I saw similar environmental damage in India, which has a higher population density and a lower environmental carrying capacity than China. India must solve its environmental problems, which may cause social instability and unrest.

    Fourth, India's education crisis. In particular, inequality in education. Personally, 20% of people in India get a good education, but the quality and environment of education for the other 80% is really bad. Inequality in education leads to inequality in life development.


  • Undergrad textbooks in 12 Indian languages soon: The 12 Indian languages for which EoI has been invited are Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. NEP recommends teaching of Indian languages with English and other foreign languages. It envisages the promotion of Indian languages through regular use, preparation of pedagogical materials and training of teachers.


  • When in Karnataka, learn to speak Kannada: Learning Kannada was a struggle, but inspired by my senior, I, as a non-Kannadiga then, decided to go to the hilt to learn the language. The ideal way to learn to speak a new language is to speak with the locals — shopkeepers, vendors, helpers and even strangers with whom you can strike up small conversations. Let them know you are learning Kannada, and making an effort at it. You will instantly get support. I am now fairly fluent and continuing to improve day after day…and loving it!


  • Aanandaa Farms: Using permaculture to convert degraded land into a beautiful food forest.



  • White man drooling: How Guyana's big oil boom turned it into the world's fastest-growing economy


  • 'Know Your Customer' cloud computing requirements: Chinese companies to be stopped from using American clouds for AI training