Quiick notes: Pashtun rise | Edu changes...

• Challengeing the Paki Army openly: Pashtun Tahafuz Movement is turning into a thorn in Pakistan's flesh opposing its proxy war policy through jihadist groups.



• Sadhguru welcomes paradigm shift in education: "Throwing information at children and thinking that we are educating should end... Schools will become less relevant... 2-days school, 5-days learning... Our idea of schooling comes from Machester mass production version of industry". . . . . . . Thoroughly insightful and entertaining conversation, do watch!




• Tectonic shift: Now music schools take the e-learning route.



• Growing fixation with Hindi: The Centre is obsessed with imposing Hindi on people who do not speak the language and who are not ready to work with it.



• The surfaces that kill bacteria and viruses: Cicada wings are studded with tiny spikes on the surface that prevent bacterial cells from being able to settle and grow on the surface.



• Sridhar Vembu's miracle: ZOHO: The most successful SaaS company you may have never heard of.



• Temple scam: Rs 76 lakh has been misappropriated by Andhra Bank employees and Rs 66 lakh swindled by the SBI staff.



• The great bicycle revival:

Bicycle sales in the US more than doubled year-over-year in March. https://t.co/Gyy2WTLv4K by @MJ_Coren and @dkopf

— Zach Seward (@zseward) May 27, 2020

Quick notes: Clean Yamuna | Peak city...

• 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.

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) April 28, 2020




• 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.



• Demographic jihad: Huge growth in funding for pro-migration NGOs



• Billionaires gain, workers feel pandemic pain: America’s Billionaire’s see net worth jump $434B in first two months of pandemic.

Quick notes: University finances | Daily commute...

• Future of Higher education: American universities staring at financial hit. Online education will further erode their revenues.



• Cut the middle man: Restaurants plead with customers to abandon delivery apps.



• The end of meat is here? Coronavirus has ‘kicked open the door’ to a vegetarian future.



• 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!




• Full Spectrum UV Disinfection: Make-in-India, please!




• Why you might be missing your commute: The daily commute acts as a transitional buffer. It gives them 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-related identities and your work-related identities”



• Pakistani paedophile rings: British Govt forced to publish report on ethnicity of rape gangs after pressure from public, MPs. . . . . . The hidden truth.

Quick notes: Swayam prabha | Million-mile battery...

• Swayam Prabha: TV channel for students of classes 1 to 12; 100 top universities to offer online courses. . . . Go beyond Macaulay, 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.



• Globalism is eroding: Trump threatens new taxes on companies that make goods outside United States



• Colonel Ashutosh Sharma: When the 'Rajwar Tiger' made the supreme sacrifice.




• 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.

Quick notes: Sweatshop nation | Farm land...

• 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 July 2014. Six years later, business in Rajasthan has not picked up and employment has not grown. . . Can we revive the economy by exploiting one set of stakeholders?

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




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

— Aiyar (@ambi_aiyar) 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: A handful of elite cyborg universities will soon monopolize higher education.



• No harmful chemicals: Electrolyzed water uses electricity to change the chemical structure of salt, water & 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: Higher education | Green mobility...

• Disruption of Higher Education is Accelerating: 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.”



• Reduce viral load with Nasal rinsing and gargling with saline water: "Like hand wash, nose and throat wash may also remove or reduce viral load.



• Stealing research: US says Chinese hacking coronavirus vaccine research.



• Ultraviolet Sanitiser: DRDO lab develops device to sanitise electronic gadgets, papers



• 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 deeper insight into Hindu minds:
Thread1:

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

— Suren (@zeneraalstuff) May 7, 2020


Thread2:

Very valid point

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

Quick notes: Fly free | Mutations...

• 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

— Amit Thadhani (@amitsurg) May 5, 2020




• Criticism worked? US returnees to pay Rs 1 lakh



• 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 is going nowhere without emphasis on skills.



• Kirana Linker: Buy from your local grocers online in Telangana.



• C-virus has acquired mutations: Could substantially change its ability to cause disease.



• 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...  No, 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 United States and Canada to Central and South America

Quick notes: Byju's | Naya Rahul...

• Byju’s is fundraising at a $10B valuation: Bangalore-based education startup had amassed more than 35 million registered users, about 2.4 million of which are paid customers as of late last year.



• Naya Rahul: An intelligent man who knows what he is talking and is far from the person that his critics have portrayed him to be all these years.
  

  Mama was queen of the mambo
  Papa was king of the Congo
  Deep down in the jungle
  I start bangin' my first bongo
  Every monkey'd like to be
  In my place instead of me
  Cause I'm the king of bongo, baby
  I'm the king of bongo bong





• A practical workaround for anti-Hindu Apartheid:

I prayed long back to Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha to explore- Kannada Madhwa Mathams to open Edn Institutions in TN etc
and TN Saiva,Vaishnava Mathams, in Karnataka & elsewhere using language minority status.Choose State where language is in minority and serve Hindus.Not possible? https://t.co/OTyicjdpK0

— S V Badri (@svbadri) May 2, 2020




• Canada’s newspapers want Google, FB to pay for content: France and Australia have already mandated that these companies share advertising dollars for displaying news content.



• 'Such a simple thing to do': Why positioning Covid-19 patients on their stomachs can save lives.. "By putting them on their stomachs, we're opening up parts of the lung that weren't open before". . . Related: How Makarasana works.



• Belt loosening: China may lose $200 Billion in Belt and Road Africa wing.
  
  Belt and Road loans: Beijing is inducing IMF and World Bank to fund a bailout of China’s BRI lenders while continuing to turn the screws on those same countries -- proposing “debt-to-equity swaps” or “hiring Chinese firms” as solutions.
  
  CPEC: Pakistan begging China for debt relief .
  
  Tashkurgon: China developing one of world's highest airports for Pakistan & CPEC? Also plans to build three airports close to Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarkhand. In the event of a war, the airports can act as launch bases for Chinese Air Force.

Quick notes: Bio-warfare | Special flights...

• Biological warfare: There’s evidence that British colonists in 18th-century America gave Native Americans smallpox-infected blankets at least once.



• Healed with herbs: Ghanaian nurse based in the US and her family have defeated C-19 using herbs. “I soaked garlic, ginger and grains of selim in water for 24hrs and I started taking it orally. I also used another traditional healing method where for 20 minutes each morning, I sat by a bucket full of hot water and covered myself with a blanket so as for the body to absorb all the heat from the hot water”.



• Healthcare mess: Insurance-led healthcare with indifferent medical outcomes and cost inflation.

India heading down the same path of insurance led allopathic cost inflation and indifferent medical outcomes. Stop this and pursue ayurvedic wellness. @PMOIndia https://t.co/eTGql6FDD4

— राजीवः श्रीनिवासः (@RajeevSrinivasa) April 30, 2020




• Indian taxpayer's burden? Around 3-5 lakh non-resident Keralites are expected to return. State govt has written to the PM for operating special flights for Keralites stuck abroad.



• C-virus lingers in the air in hospital settings: C-virus could linger after being shaken from medical workers’ protective gear, or be present in the air in toilets used by patients. Some traces were also found in aerosol deposits on surfaces in ICUs.



• Tracking user data: Xiaomi, India's largest smartphone maker, sending browser data to China.. Xiaomi was also collecting data about the phone, including unique numbers for identifying the specific device and Android version. Such “metadata” could easily be correlated with an actual human behind the screen.



• Green stimulus: Pakistan pays out-of-work labourers to plant trees The work includes setting up nurseries, planting saplings, and serving as forest protection guards or forest firefighters.