Quick notes: Saras flight, R&D spending...

• Saras prototype: India's first civil plane Saras takes to the skies after nearly a decade In 2009, the second prototype of Saras on a test flight crashed on Bengaluru's outskirts, killing three IAF pilots and engineers. Since then, the project was in limbo. 



• India wants NRI scientists to come home: But won't spend on R&D. On the list of the top 2,500 global R&D spenders, India’s presence extends to a mere 26 companies, versus China’s 301. “Universities have students but need additional faculty support, while research institutes have qualified faculty but are starved of bright young students brimming with energy and ideas.”



• Price comparison: India is paying $115 million as the bare-bones cost of each Rafale fighter (with India-specific enhancements, spares, logistics and weapons all extra). In comparison, an F-35A (the air force version) cost just $94.6 million in February 2017. This is slated to become even cheaper.



• Modi govt has let down Indian soldiers: Defence budget is just 1.58% of GDP, the lowest since the 1962 war. The figure was 3.18% in 1988. In comparison China spends 2.1% and Pakistan 2.36%. Only 3.6% of our defence budget is available for modernisation.



• Pakistan’s nuclear black market: AQ Khan’s accomplices in nuclear sales were European engineers and ambitious businessmen out to get rich quick: “Urbane and educated, they stashed millions of dollars in secret bank accounts they also drove the business by always being on the lookout for promising new markets.”



• Musthafa's Vada:




• Govt wants to tackle pollution only near NCR: "Somehow the budget seemed to have treated the air pollution as a Delhi-NCR problem. They're not considering it through a national dimension, the national scale of the air pollution crisis."



• Are we stuck with plastic drinking straws? Despite a useful life of just minutes, traditional plastic straws cannot degrade once disposed of.



• Milk:

When it was said that Milk used to flow out of the Cows of Brindavan, when Lord Krishna played the flute. People called it a silly belief. Now when the foreigners provide us the video, we are amazed. pic.twitter.com/U5Zz1XY9fC

— Rishi Bagree 🇮🇳 (@rishibagree) February 1, 2018