Sunday, October 25, 2026

Quick notes: Richest hypocrite | Linux's time has come...

  • India seeks a partner, not bully: India spent 25 years believing it had moved from America’s waiting room to its drawing room. Trump’s second term is showing New Delhi the door.


  • The US Wants India To 'Obey', Not Negotiate: Washington had renewed diplomatic engagement with Pakistan. The largest importer of Russian oil and gas, China, was left untouched while India was punished.


  • America First, Hypocrisy Always: Trump's Double Standards On Russian Oil. . . The diesel pact, double standards and the price of strategic partnership.


  • World's richest hypocrite: A Pentagon contractor building Trump's Golden Dome wants to run internet over Indian soil, and he throws a tantrum every time someone asks who holds the off switch.

    Starlink is banned in China. Have you ever called Xi Jinping a monopolist? Called Chinese critics shills? Written a sarcastic letter to Prime Minister Xi? No!

    Because Beijing would shut your factory by Monday. India can't.

  • Musk’s $276 Million Midterm Rescue Mission for Republicans: Musk has already given more money, about $366 million, than he did during the 2024 election, when he laid out roughly $290 million to help return President Trump and Republicans to power.

  • Elon Musk Is Aligned With China, Warns Taiwanese Op-Ed, Advising TSMC To Reject Terafab Chip Making Project Partnership


  • Indian stocks: 'The 'great bull-market' that began in India in 2003 is over'.

  • India's national debt rose from 50 lakh crores in 2014 to 200 lakh crores today: Shan Shanmuganathan challenges India's official GDP growth figures.


  • Price of Rupee stability: RBI has spent half of $140 billion FX capital haul in rupee defence, bankers estimate. . . $143-bn boat fails to shield ₹ from shark


  • Linux in 2026: Why Millions Are Switching Away from Windows for Good. . . . Desktop Linux is now inevitable. Here's why.

  • Lesson for India: US sanctions force The Netherlands off Microsoft and toward alternative NixOS-based software ecosystem — trial programs running now, first release expected at end of 2027


  • BikAss: Kedarnath generates 50.30 tonnes of waste in 5 months


  • Beyond the language wars, Bengaluru’s migrants are learning Kannada.



  • Trump's weak points: China has quietly got Trump by the soybeans :-)


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Saturday, September 19, 2026

Quick notes: Choking ISRO | SIP stagnant...

  • Choking ISRO: 'IN-SPACe like an octopus is stretching its tentacles everywhere and choking ISRO.'

    Who In Delhi Stopped The GSLV Launch?

    India's Rocket Launches Costliest Among Major Space Powers


  • The Indian Investor Has A New Problem: An SIP That Does Nothing. Current high valuations are unforgiving. Corporate earnings could grow in high single digits or low double digits, while valuation multiples decline simultaneously. An investor may thus invest for several years without seeing similar growth in the value of their portfolio.


  • 'Cannot Accept Ranbir Kapoor As Ram': A 'fresh face' would be more suitable for the role of Ram to avoid 'baggage' from previous characters.


  • Has Trump Chosen Pakistan Over India? It is time Indians realise 'Everybody loves Pakistan'! The origin of Pakistan lies in the Western need to have an imperial outpost in this part of the world. India discovered that in the aftermath of the 1965 War when even Cold War enemies the US and then USSR coordinated their approach to India. Our close friend the Soviet Union forced our hand then to sue for peace with Pakistan.

    Destruction of Chabahar port torpedoes India's long-standing effort to bypass Pakistan in its effort to access energy-rich Central Asia, Afghanistan and Russia.


  • Anti-India stance.: First Pak, Now Bangladesh: Why Turkey Is Becoming India's New Security Headache. . . . Bangladesh ready to join Saudi-Pak-Turkiye defence alliance


  • Indian Fountain Pen Journey: Rajahmundry's Ratnam, Ratnamson, and Guider Pen Works



  • Why 90% Jobs are Stuck in These Cities? 3 cities ended up capturing 89% of all Indian startup funding since 2014. IT boom landed exactly where the talent already was.


  • Our BRICS trade "boom" is all imports: Imports outpace exports by nearly 4X.... $226 billion trade deficit. . . . India is hardly gaining from BRICS economically. 



  • Private sector investment has languished: Indian govt lost roughly $100 billion in revenues over five years due to the corporate tax cuts. Put in other words, the $100 billion was an ‘unconditional cash transfer scheme’ to the private sector. The corporates simply pocketed this money without investing much back in the economy. Corporate savings (retained profits) rose from 10.5 percent of GDP before the tax cuts to 11.2 percent, while the investment rate stayed flat.


  • Why Are Foreigners Not Visiting India? Foreign tourist arrivals in India are still below 2019 levels. Meanwhile Vietnam (the size of Maharashtra), Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Dubai have all recovered and grown past pre-pandemic numbers.


  • Pakistan-linked ‘honey-trap networks’ target Agniveers: Pakistan-linked honey-trapping networks are allegedly targeting young Agniveers posted at sensitive locations.


  • Podcast: Chinese AI Is Spooking Silicon Valley. . . . . . Fareed Zakaria: Are the Chinese the Better Capitalists?


  • Raag Kalawati: Anirudhha Aithal



  • Children and Social Media: India Should Ban Social Media For Young Children, Says Zoho's Sridhar Vembu. . . . How the UK plans to keep children off social media


  • Unethical: A 2024 Report Showed Meta Earned $7 Billion A Year From Scam Ads. The US-based company earns revenue by hosting illegal content on its social media platforms

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Tuesday, August 18, 2026

'Gujarat Centric Model'

'Gujarat-centric model': From Chips to Commonwealth Games, Annamalai asks why so much is going to Gujarat.

The Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor project was announced for Gujarat after Maharashtra had been in talks with the companies. Since then, Gujarat's position in India's semiconductor push has only grown. Tata Electronics, Micron and CG Power are among the companies setting up major semiconductor projects in the state.The Tata-Airbus C-295 aircraft manufacturing project announced for Vadodara soon after also drew criticism from Maharashtra's Opposition.

The Coast Pays, Delhi Collects: What The Centre's Mineral Bill Takes From States. India's mineral wealth may lie with the states, but the power to tax it is increasingly travelling north.

India's Jobless Rate Climbs as Labour Participation Declines: India's urban and rural unemployment rise, coinciding with a significant decline in the overall labour force participation rate to a five-quarter low

The Great IIT Dream Is Cracking: Why even top degree-holders are unable to find jobs. . . .Age Of The Pink Slip

Only facts matter: E20 fuel affects BS-III vehicles, parts may need replacement, admits Nitin Gadkari

The Great Korean Loot of Bharat:

‘They hid the truth’: Meta faces pivotal kids’ safety trial. "Meta's business model can be summed up in four simple words: 'hook' the users, 'hold' them for as long as they can, 'harvest' their data, and then 'hide' the truth from the public when making public statements". . . Major implications for company's future.

Cuba Is Low on Oil: Now, It’s counting on solar, with China’s help.. . . As the U.S. starves it of oil, Cuba is pulling off one of the fastest solar revolutions on the planet — with China’s help


Narayana Rama Ramana: Ust. Fayaz Khan


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Thursday, July 23, 2026

Quick notes: Myanmar corridor | Stealth fighter...

  • After Pak, It's Bangladesh, Myanmar: China plans new corridor that runs roughly 1,700 km from Kunming to Myanmar's coast. This is China building Indian Ocean access on India's eastern flank, mirroring what CPEC and Gwadar do on the western flank via Pakistan. Beijing intends to extend the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor to Bangladesh as part of its larger Maritime Belt and Road Initiative to boost its Indian Ocean presence.


  • China's Teesta Move: Why India should be very, very alarmed about China's Teesta move in Bangladesh. The firm involved in the project is PowerChina is also part of the strategic works with the People's Liberation Army. Pakistan, in the meanwhile, reportedly proposed a 'Joint Military Command' that comes alongside offers of 16-48 JF-17 Block III fighters - together with a simulator already delivered two months ago. That's the first piece of Pakistani military equipment to enter the country since 1971


  • Hundreds vs Zero: If war were to break out between India and China tomorrow, one side could send hundreds of stealth fighter jets into battle, while the other may not be able to send even one. China may already have around 500 operational J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighters, its most advanced jet. Delhi's operational stealth fighter inventory today stands at exactly zero.


  • Kaveri To J-20: How China Overtook India In A 40-Year-Old Race To Build Fighter Jets. China's early efforts were disastrous. Many countries would have cancelled the programme. But China doubled down.

    Between 2010 and 2020, Beijing invested approximately USD 42 billion under its "Two Engines" initiative, pouring unprecedented resources into superalloy metallurgy, manufacturing technologies, testing infrastructure, and specialised research institutes. Failures were treated not as embarrassments but as engineering data.


  • The tables are turning: As Chinese Tech Pulls Ahead, U.S. Fears It Will Become Dependent. China could surpass the US in biopharmaceutical innovation within this decade. “For decades now, we’ve been used to a world where the technology and innovation comes out of the West”


  • China takes supercomputer crown from US for first time since 2017: LineShine' beat the USA's El Capitan system and exceeded 2 exaflops for the first time.


  • E20 Petrol Debate: 'No Politician Has The Guts'



  • Security nightmare: Anthropic’s powerful Mythos AI reportedly breached ‘almost all’ NSA classified systems within a few hours during red-team test — report sheds more light on the U.S. government's sudden ban on the flagship models


  • China Has Matched Anthropic in Cybersecurity, Resetting AI Race: Chinese cybersecurity company 360 Security Technology released a new bug-finding tool called Tulongfeng. The company said it was comparable to Mythos in finding bugs. Those capabilities have alarmed many national-security officials and CEOs.


  • Top American AI execs sound alarm on Chinese models: Silicon Valley and Washington are debating a multibillion-dollar question: Should American companies be able to use Chinese AI models?

    Nvidia CEO: Jensen Huang argues American companies should be allowed to use Chinese AI models

    China narrows AI gap, challenges US influence . . .


  • Open-weight GLM-5.2 AI model powered by Huawei silicon: Chinese Z.ai's latest model tops AI ranking charts amid Anthropic Fable 5 ban.


  • CATL unveils Tener Sodium-Ion storage system: 15,000-cycle lifespan and 30-year durability. . . Battery breakthrough that smashes coal.


  • Chinese juggernaut: Inside China’s Race to Overtake European Supercars. Nissan CEO: China is setting the auto industry's 'future standards'


  • India's Ghost Projects: Empty Stations, Airports & Schools



  • Strategic autonomy requires defence tech to leave foreign crutch: India remains heavily dependent on foreign suppliers for some of the most critical technologies. Part of the problem lies in a persistent misunderstanding of technology transfer.


  • Every attempt was made to hide the loot: Ayodhya shows why keeping temples outside state control is not enough.


  • Drama over substance: Making an ass of Indian tech.


  • Putin in trouble? Over 40% of refining capacity hit: Expert warns Russia could ‘disintegrate’ over fuel shortage. . . China's Great Betrayal? Has Russia's biggest energy gamble just collapsed?


  • Low cost killing machines: “The average life expectancy of a Russian recruit right now arriving on the battlefield in Ukraine is estimated to be between 20 and 30 minutes”


  • Raag Gaud Malhar: Sri. Aniruddh Aithal - gift to humanity


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Saturday, June 20, 2026

Quick notes: India's off switch | Own goal...

  • Someone Else Owns India's Off Switch: Around 70 per cent of our cloud runs on three American hyperscalers, every byte reachable under the US CLOUD Act.

    We do not operate a single DNS root server, so every query from Indian soil is resolved on infrastructure we neither own nor can audit.

    And since a breach in 2014, we have had no trusted sovereign Root Certificate Authority, which means foreign corporations decide what the Indian internet is allowed to trust.

    Nayara Energy, July 2025. Microsoft suspended services to an Indian refinery that handles 8 per cent of the country's refining capacity, to comply with European Union sanctions over its Russian shareholding. It was a kill switch, and we had no override.

    The cloud, the certificates, the DNS, the navigation, the silicon. We rent all of it.


  • MBA era is over: India has historically placed greater value on academic credentials while overlooking vocational professions and skilled trades. Countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Korea and China have traditionally shown greater respect for occupations involving practical skills.

    "The globalising world gave a certain advantage to software, computer science and MBA education, but that era is over". Young people should focus on developing skills that remain valuable even as technology transforms industries.


  • India's Biggest Economic Challenge is not inflation, oil, or war - It is an unskilled population addicted to distraction. It is a generation that spends more time consuming content than creating value. The biggest theft today is not of money. It is of attention. Every notification fragments concentration. Every endless scroll delays mastery.

    Modern economies reward deep work, specialized knowledge, creativity, and disciplined execution. Algorithms reward emotional reactions. Unfortunately, millions choose the algorithm.


  • Own goal - Rupee's Pain Is Self-Inflicted: Indian firms investing abroad contributed roughly $30 billion to the capital outflow. Why would a country that requires close to $90B in net foreign capital annually to sustain rapid growth permit $30B of capital to flow abroad, thereby contributing to pressure on the rupee?


  • End to Rafale mess? Only 40-50 Rafales will be bought, if at all; rest MRFA Su-57E. This is because two other offers are on the table — Russia’s complete with tech-transfer, including source codes, for its 5th generation fighter — Su-57E, and Sweden’s for its Saab 4.5 gen Gripen E.


  • ‘The future isn’t manned vs unmanned’: If Pakistan does induct the J-35, it would change the regional air power equation. The Su-57 is one platform that comes into the conversation, given its operational status and India’s familiarity with Russian-origin systems.

    It is worth remembering that fifth-generation capability goes well beyond the airframe. Sensors, mission systems, weapons integration and networking define it as much as stealth does. An aircraft without that ecosystem solves only half the problem. Importantly, AMCA is and must remain India’s long-term answer.


  • Ashtavakra Gita: One small shift in understanding can dissolve a lifetime of inner struggle.


  • Taboo on crossing the sea? Andhra Pradesh HC stays order restricting priests who travelled abroad from temple rituals.


  • Mohammed's Own Country: Deaths outpace births among Kerala’s Hindus and Christians as population growth turns negative


  • BikAss: Over 2.8 million trees on forest land were approved for felling or recorded as felled in less than three years. . . .India's worst air pollution crisis isn't in its megacities.


  • Iran deal - back to square one: “Over the three-month trajectory, what Iran showed is that, yes, they were the underdog, attacked by two nuclear powers with military supremacy. But they also had their own cards to play.

    The defining point in this war is the strategic geographic advantage that Iran has over the Strait of Hormuz. And it seems like President Trump and the US just couldn't get them to reopen the strait with force. This brought [the US] to the negotiating table and, essentially, back to square one, because the Strait of Hormuz wasn't even a problem before the war.”

    "We're back to the original sin of Trump: out of obsession or jealousy of Barack Obama, tearing down an agreement that was much better negotiated.”

    - Iran gets major economic lifeline for minimal concessions.

    - Trump’s Deal sidesteps key reasons he went to war with Iran


  • The Great State Tax experiment:


  • Advantage China: CEO of Chinese Anthropic rival tells Elon Musk that China will have a Fable 5-class AI model before next year


  • Cheaper AI: Microsoft abandoning costly OpenAI, Anthropic models for China-based DeepSeek’s V4 Model for enterprise workloads. Soaring token costs are driving enterprise customers away from OpenAI and Anthropic and right into the lap of China's DeepSeek


  • Nation run by engineers: China drafts $295 billion plan to build national AI data center grid running on 80% homemade silicon.


  • NEET 2026 is a case study in institutional failure. Almost farcical


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Saturday, June 6, 2026

Quick notes: G2 | Nuclear dependency...

  • G2 resets India’s calculus: The emerging US-China cooperation means the marginalisation of New Delhi and other powers in Asia and Europe. First proposed by Brzezinski and implemented by Obama in 2009, G2 suggests that the US and China rule the rest of the world. The Obama-Hu Jintao joint statement of 2009 even mentioned both countries looking after South Asian security issues.

    China will leverage G2 to scale up its “all-weather” friendship with Pakistan. India needs to brace for further aggression.

    Why Hegseth's 'Shangri-La' Speech Should Worry India: For peace, you need strength. But that is certainly not what the US is projecting right now.

    The Chinese use not just their navy, air force, or coast guard but even massive fishing fleets to threaten neighbours. These "maritime militia" obstruct shipping routes, forcing international shipping as well to zigzag around them.


  • Honeymoon: From mutual suspicion to political embrace: How the U.S. learned to stop worrying and love Pakistan.


  • Was Rafale a bad choice? Why IAF needs Russian Su-57 stealth fighter. Pakistan is pursuing Chinese J-35 stealth fighters while China already operates hundreds of J-20 stealth aircraft.


  • Chinese Missile Likely Downed US F-15 Fighter Jet In Iran: US officials said the equipment could have improved Iran’s ability to track advanced fighter jets like the US F-15E Strike Eagle.


  • High cost of import dependence: Tighten belts says PM, then $43 Bn thrown at Rafale, another $10 Billion for a diesel submarine


  • India will pay $68 billion to US to become a nuclear dependency: Trump has moved on from India and Modi. In the region, he has found Asim Munir and the Pakistani state he runs far more congenial to augment his personal/family holdings and US interests. Because however much Modi wishes to cuddle up to Trump and accommodate the US, there is a limit beyond which he cannot. Munir faces no such systemic constraint.

    As per the 2008 civilian nuclear cooperation act, the fuel for the imported American reactors will have to be periodically imported from the US, and which supply can be stopped/disrupted at will, at any time for any reason, that Washington can think up. If these reactors are owned by US power companies, however, the US govt will be more considerate in imposing sanctions, say. And with a regular supply of US fuel assured, these firms can be permitted profitably to run a chain of nuclear power plants in India in a closed loop.


  • Indians in MAGA land: How Trump's Visa Crackdown Triggered a Texas Housing Bust



  • India’s fertility rate falls below replacement level: India’s Total Fertility Rate has fallen below the replacement level for the first time, revealing a widening demographic divide between ageing southern states and younger northern states.


  • Rice bags for atrocity drama: Andhra Pradesh pastor booked for staging attack on self to trigger communal unrest


  • Big Subsidies for Google, Limited Water for Locals: The Dilemma of AI in India. When Google arrived last year in this sleepy coastal Indian city, the govt rolled out the welcome mat, offering billions of dollars’ worth of incentives for the U.S. company to build data centers for AI.


  • Lahore Is Changing Names Of Its Streets: Now, the official signboards of Islampura read Krishan Nagar, Babri Masjid Chowk has reverted to Jain Mandir Chowk, and Rehman Gali is back to being called Ram Gali.


  • America Can't Touch It: There Is A 'Shadow' Route Keeping Iran Alive.


  • Tabla Cover: Shreya Bhattacharjee



  • Beijing enforces policy to secure top-tier talent: Chinese AI experts in private firms now required to secure approval before international travel.


  • R&D: Chinese university builds 3D chip design tool tailored to Huawei's ‘LogicFolding’ architecture — 3D design delivers increased performance and better thermal management


  • Impressive specs: Russian-Chinese Irtysh 32-core CPU runs The Witcher 3 at 30+ FPS


  • China's New Export Rules: Will Curbs Short Circuit India's $120 Billion Electronics Dream?


  • India’s energy storage crisis: The Advanced Chemistry Cell PLI scheme, launched in 2021 with an outlay of Rs 18,100 crore, targeted 50 GWh of domestic cell manufacturing by 2025. As of December, 40 GWh had been awarded across four firms, of which only 1 GWh had been commissioned, and no incentive has yet been disbursed.

    Policy still treats storage as a single category. It is not. An electric vehicle battery is built around energy density — weight matters, lithium wins. A grid battery or data-centre backup has no such constraint. It needs cycle life of over 10 to 15 years, thermal safety in occupied environments.

    The chemistries worth backing are the ones where India already has the upstream. Zinc is the cleanest case. India is among the world’s top five zinc producers, with an integrated mining and smelting base in Rajasthan operating at global scale. The upstream does not need to be invented; what does not yet exist is the bridge from refined zinc to battery-grade material to an Indian-manufactured cell, and that bridge is a policy choice, not a technology gap.

    Sodium offers a parallel opportunity, side-stepping cobalt, nickel, and graphite — the three minerals Beijing holds most tightly. Indian institutions are already moving.

    The choice is between accepting whatever the current supply chain delivers at whatever price Beijing decides, and deliberately building a storage industry where the cell is Indian, the electrolyte is Indian and the input minerals are Indian.



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