Quick notes: Fighter drones | Securing the heights...

• Fighter Drones are the future: US Air Force to test fighter drone against human pilot 

The competitor should be a drone fighter plane that’s remote controlled by a human, but with its maneuvers augmented by autonomy. The F-35 would have no chance against it.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 28, 2020




• Barely-literate Raksha Mantri: The Indian army is finally paying attention and doing the elementary thing of securing the heights on the Galwan to prevent the PLA from dominating the Depsang-DBO-Karakorum Pass Highway. The failure to take so basic a precaution of controlling the heights to protect this highway — a national strategic asset, suggests a lapse in professionalism and a laid back attitude of the army and the govt that the country can ill-afford. It permitted the PLA to get not just a toehold but a foothold.

Zoom claims it offers end-to-end encryption. But a probe finds that Zoom meetings are potentially compromised when keys for encrypting and decrypting are transmitted to servers in China: https://t.co/HiJyr0Q9fG. The last thing the Indian defense minister should be doing is this! pic.twitter.com/zQ9VErzxxy

— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) April 6, 2020




• Semiconductors, which is a critical component of phones besides ICs, diodes and transistors, is something that China holds an edge over India. . . . . . . Does anyone in Modi sarkar understand what this means?
  
  Can Indian smartphones make a comeback? Due to immense competition from Chinese smartphone makers, companies like Micromax, Lava and Karbonn which were immensely popular a few years ago, are virtually non-existent now. . . . . . . Maybe, Indians should buy HTC?



• Tibet's independence key to our national security: India’s support to Tibet can be more viable only when India can muster enough international support to stifle China, socially and more important, economically.
  
  The Speech that got Richard Gere banned from the Oscars:




• Fungi, the next frontier of biodiversity science: A teaspoon of soil from the Amazon contains as many as 1,800 microscopic life forms, of which 400 are fungi.



• RadWagon 4 250W: Electric Cargo Bike




• Hypocrisy framed:

Quick notes: Tibetan cause | Online hatred...

• The cause Hollywood forgot: “Any Hollywood blockbuster that wants to really bring in the money will need to appear in China. That requires compromises in the films but also careful consideration by the actors – do they really want to put their career at risk by talking about Tibet and China? Richard Gere continues to be a high-profile supporter of Tibet, but he has stated that his stance on Tibet has cost him work.
  
  “China has closed it off from the world, making it impossible to visit without a guide, and closely monitors Tibetans’s phone and internet activity so that as little information as possible gets out. Getting information out of Tibet is as tough as getting information out of North Korea these days, and if people don’t hear the stories, they won’t be engaged or keen to help.”




• Ratan Tata: Stop online hatred, support each other in 'year of challenges'. "I believe this year specially calls for all of us to be unified and helpful and is not the time to pull each other down".

Saw some army veterans hurling abuses at each other on Twitter.

During training at the NPA our Ustad would sometimes give example of the IMA- discipline, camaraderie and the bond it creates even beyond the service period. Ustad had no idea about poisons called TV & Social Media.

— Arun Bothra (@arunbothra) June 22, 2020




• Buying The Wrong Warplanes: The Mirage 2000 has been a more effective fighter in Indian service than the Su-30 has been. The Su-30 not only lacks the latest precision air-to-ground ordnance, it doesn’t perform well from the high-altitude air bases that support Indian operations along the LAC. The Rafale, the French-made successor to the Mirage, likewise is among India’s better fighters. But the country has ordered just 36 Rafales.



• No change in ground positions: China continues military build-up along LAC in eastern Ladakh amid talks.
  
  President of Tibetan govt in exile: After occupying Tibet, Chinese leaders said they'll go for Nepal, Ladakh, Bhutan



• What happened in 1962 in Galwan? By nightfall of July 10, more than 300 Chinese soldiers encircled the Gorkhas who held their ground under Naik Subedar Jung Bahadur Gurung. On July 13, orders were issued to the Gorkha regiment to fire if the Chinese crept ahead. Starting October 4, “The Gorkhas, having lived cheek by jowl with the Chinese for more than two months, were ferried out by returning Mi-4 helicopters over the next few days.”



• Superblocks: How Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars. . . . . . . Why Car-Free Streets may be here to stay


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Quick notes: Tibet question | Mountain combat...

• Tibet the solution for India’s border strategy: Under Nehru, India became the first country in the world to recognize China’s sovereignty over Tibet. Now it is time for India to revise its Himalayan border strategy to keep a firm position on its territory. To that end, India should revise its outdated policy on Tibet’s status and officially declare Tibet to be an occupied country.
  
  This significant revision of the “Tibet question” would serve two interests. First, such a declaration would automatically refute Beijing’s claim over the Himalayan borders and make China’s control over the Himalayan region illegal. Second, this political revision would re-validate the McMahon Line and Tibet-Ladakh border treaty, making India’s claim over the Himalayan border internationally valid and legal.

see you in a free TIbet...soon#Tibet pic.twitter.com/Dwx3tp1LpZ

— clara (@clara111) June 23, 2020




• India maintains an edge over China: Recent studies from the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Boston and the Center for a New American Security in Washington suggest India maintains an edge in high-altitude mountainous environments.



• Startling Bravery: Indian soldiers fought valiantly and with tremendous grit "till the last", even to the extent that half of them died in battle. The immediate bravery of those Bihar Regiment soldiers must be saluted and memorialised.



• Chinese Economic Takeover: “At India’s biggest wholesale market in Delhi’s Sadar Bazaar, almost everything on the shelves — toys, electronics, watches, home appliances – is made in China.. Almost 70% of electrical items come from China. Even the components of several Indian made items such as pumps to electronic toys come from China”.
  
  - Chinese have invested in the following Indian sectors:-
    1. Automobile Industry (40%)
    2. Metallurgical Industry (17%)
    3. Power (7%)
    4. Construction (5%)
    5. Services (4%).



• Stop endorsing Chinese brands: Traders appeal to Aamir Khan, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Virat Kohli and others to stop endorsing Chinese products.
  
  - Chinese smartphones are now 'Indian brands'! To escape backlash Chinese handset makers with own manufacturing lines in India have decided to highlight Made-in-India in their packaging more prominently from now.
  
  - Campaign to boycott China-linked apps picks up speed.
  



• Hostile Nepal: Nepal stations bombard Uttarakhand villages with anti-India songs and news.



• India should do this too: Australia's university fee changes mean humanities students will pay the entire cost of their degrees. . . . . .
  Huge cuts to Humanities and Social Sciences at Japanese Universities.

Australia university fee changes mean humanities students will pay the entire cost of their degrees.

This could be the beginning of a trend in the West.

The logic being that the West is graduating too few people in STEM & too many in humanities.

https://t.co/14tmu6Ywpz

— Subhash Kak (@subhash_kak) June 20, 2020

Quick notes: Five delusions | 4G equipment...

• Superpower delusion #1: China ranks TOP in maths.. India is nowhere in the rankings, but we have English "advantage", no?
  



• Superpower delusion #2: China has learned how the West produces knowledge, funds its development, and employs it.. India's "vikas model" is all about land -- grab farmland,  destroy forests.




• Superpower delusion #3: China focuses on know-how and jobs. For India, it is all about the lowest-bidder. “Procurement guidelines do not allow discrimination among firms/countries”.
  



• Superpower delusion #4: Laying red-carpets for MNCs is no substitute to self-reliance. 
  



• Superpower delusion #5: Our Big-bania log are mostly clueless about building technological self-reliance. Some form of 'State Capitalism' or hand-holding is needed.






• Waking up late: Telcos told to stop sourcing 4G telecom equipment from Chinese firms. Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal said "Huawei products were superior to those made by European companies".



• Intercontinental hypersonic weapon: China Claims to Have Broken a Record With Its Newest Hypersonic Missile

Kargil 2.0 on the eastern border

• Gen Panag: We played into the Chinese hands. We kept treating a military situation as a border incident.




• Bharat Karnad: An out and out army fiasco: “A lot of disengagement has happened,” said the army chief General MM Naravane. “We have had a fruitful dialogue with the Chinese, it will continue and by and by the situation will improve." Naravane’s tone hints at this whole ruckus being due to some small misunderstanding over an indistinct border, nothing that a bit of pow-wowing won’t clear up.
  
  The reality, however, is that there is now permanent stationing of PLA troops deep inside Indian territory in the Galwan and the Pangong sectors. As far as the Chinese are concerned the newly realigned LAC is something India can take it or lump it. There’s no third option, all the talks and negotiating will end up doing is embroider this fact.



• Wholeness:

Quick notes: CCP Propaganda | Temple bell...

• China peddling disinformation on Twitter: "While China won't allow its people to use Twitter, it is happy to use it to sow propaganda and disinformation internationally".



• Muslim man develops contactless bell for temple in Mandsaur: “It’s a contact-less bell. It rings just when any devotee or priest gesticulates at ringing the bell from a distance of feet and half. This is an ultimate gift to our temple from Nahru Khan”, said Kailash Pandit, the prime priest of the Pashupatinath temple



• Chennai set to become drone manufacturing hub:  Once drones are manufactured at a large scale at an affordable cost, the system could be used in traffic management, forestry, agriculture and disaster response, and during the pandemic.



• Alternative therapy: 30 COVID-19 patients discharged after Siddha treatment in Chennai. Patients are taught yoga and pranayama and are made to do salt water gargling and steam inhalation.



• Free Tibet: Astrologer predicts Soviet Union-style implosion of China




• Land grab: Changes to Karnataka Land Reforms Act to allow non-agriculturists to buy farmland 



• Tamil Nadu bans plastic packaging of goods: This means even items like biscuits and chips can no longer be packed in plastic covers.



• Perpetually delayed: Indian power producers seek more time to cap emissions. . . . . . Britain goes coal free as renewables edge out fossil fuels.



• Creating walkable & bikeable cities: The issue with walkability in the Indian context is that in most cities, pavements are either non-existent or are dirty, broken and encroached upon. Pavements are routinely dug up for laying of pipes and cables.Pedestrian traffic signals are mostly non-existent or often non-functional.

Quick notes: Apartheid | Rural revival...

• Our English Apartheid: Economic opportunity (in today's India) is almost exclusively for the English educated. Not knowing English is something the average Indian carries like a shame. There really is only one way to erase it: universal schooling in one's own mother tongue throughout India with a strong second language program.

5/ This issue is a silent social divide in India and the Indians on the "other side" silently endure their lingiuistic second class status and all too often blame themselves for their fate.

We have to address this in order to make broad based progress.

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) June 5, 2020



• Rural Revival and Technological Self-Reliance: Sridhar Vembu | Zoho




• "We make do with whatever is available": Pahadis are not used to complaining. A heartwarming tale of how returning migrant used the time to beautify the schools where they are quarantined.



• Narikutti Swami (Barry Long): By the 1960s Arunachala mountain had been almost completely denuded of all its original forests. Narikutti Swami was the first person to begin reforestation on the slopes of Arunachala. Many of the trees he planted are still there and nowadays the eastern slope of the hill has better forest coverage than at any time in the last 100 years. Narikutti Swami’s original name was Barry Long. He was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1930 and lived a fairly normal life there until, around 1957, he went to the cinema to see The Razor’s Edge, a film about a western seeker who goes to India and meets an Indian guru who transforms his outlook on life. Barry left the cinema with tears streaming down his face and a determination to go to India.




• Imran Khan: Pak among the pioneers of smart lockdown. “A lockdown means collapse of the economy & in poorer countries a steep rise in poverty, crushing the poor as happened in Modi’s lockdown”.



• EU-Vietnam FTA: The agreement is expected to enhance Vietnam's attractiveness for investors shifting factories out of China and will help Vietnam raise its skills and standards.
  
  

Quick notes: Social unrest | Sodium battery...

• Social media amplifying mass unrest: Extremists across the spectrum have mastered the use of social media to mobilize supporters. Radical Left and Islamists are seeding themselves within the overwhelmingly non-violent protesters.

Wherever you find a terrorist, just raise the tail of terrorists & you will see a stamp there.. Made in Pakistan🇵🇰
This is Urooj Rehman, a Pakistani student of American #JNU .. caught red handed throwing bottle bombs in public places. Bottles & bomb making stuff was enough in car pic.twitter.com/lp9Q3b3Af1

— Arif Aajakia (@arifaajakia) June 3, 2020

----

Now, The Quint wants US-like protests in India & is inciting people via emails.

Anti CAA protests: The Quint did a story about Muslim driver but later deleted as it was revealed he was a junior actor.

Pakistan quoted The Quint's report at ICJ to claim that Kulbhushan is RAW spy

— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) June 5, 2020




• Kerala model? Kin shun elderly returnees fearing COVID-19 infection. “Though it’s the obligation of the children and relatives to take care of them, many are trying to shirk their responsibilities. We get many calls seeking institutional quarantine for returnees. Sadly, the family members are not even considering their age,” said a health official.



• Extra Salty: Scientists just built the best sodium battery ever



• Huawei’s temperature-taking smartphone: An IR temperature sensor lets a smartphone do fever screening.



• Maithreem Bhajatha: 47 voices as ONE - Conceptualized by Sudha Ragunathan & S.Mahathi




• Digested: Herb Benson studied Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and is now repackaging it as "Relaxation Response".



• E-Bikes Are Having Their Moment:  “I was convinced that e-bikes would completely change cities all over the world in the next 10 years, but it seems like because of this crisis, suddenly it’s all happening in the next three or four months”... In March, sales of e-bikes jumped 85% from a year earlier. Amazon, Walmart and Specialized are sold out of most models.... "E-bikes kept me out of my car. Whenever I had a reason to go outside — like making a trip to the grocery store or dropping off baked goods at a friend’s — I preferred riding an e-bike".



• Monopolies are wrong!: Break up Amazon

Time to break up Amazon. Monopolies are wrong!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2020




• Nooooo!: This year might be the last year of annual Tiananme-Vigil in Hongkong

[This year might be the last year of annual #TiananmenVigil in #Hongkong]

1. 31 years ago, Beijing crushed dissents with tanks and guns. 31 years later, Beijing is ripping out our democratic aspiration with a tyrannical law. pic.twitter.com/Dx3xTmI5Vo

— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 😷 (@joshuawongcf) June 4, 2020

Quick notes: Remove China | Weakening virus...

• Remove China Apps: India is the biggest driver of installations of ByteDance's TikTok. A border dispute fuels a backlash against Chinese products leading to the app's popularity.

After Sonam Wangchuk called for Indians to boycott Chinese goods, to teach the Communist govt of China a lesson, a Jaipur origin "Remove China" app has seen 1 million downloads! It has 4.8 rating on Google Playstore.
It is also at the top spot of Google Play's top free apps list.

— Kiran Kumar S (@KiranKS) June 1, 2020




• Virus losing potency: The new c-virus is losing its potency and has become much less lethal, a senior Italian doctor said. “The swabs that were performed over the last 10 days showed a viral load in quantitative terms that was absolutely infinitesimal compared to the ones carried out a month or two months ago”.
  
  Read this comment somewhere: Engineered viruses lose their engineered traits over time as it reverts to its natural form. Nature doesn't accept unnatural mutations. The virus was far more deadly in Dec/Jan than it is today.



• C-virus is a hybrid: Pieces of several genomes recombined to produce the pandemic-causing pathogen. There appears to be a large number of coronaviruses that are regularly exchanging genetic information.



• W.H.O. was afraid: China stalled information to WHO for weeks, according to recordings of multiple internal meetings. From the time the virus was first decoded on January 2 to when the WHO declared a global emergency on Jan 30, the outbreak grew by a factor of 100 to 200 times. But the agency did try to portray China in the best light, most likely to coax the country into providing more outbreak details.



• ICU-grade ventilator prototype completed by IISc: Supporting both invasive and non-invasive ventilation, it uses only components made in India or easily available in domestic supply chains and was developed by its PRAANA team



• India's $6.6 billion electronics manufacturing push: Financial incentives and plug-and-play facilities to attract investments. Govt will initially target five global suppliers and extend a financial incentive of as much as 6% on incremental sales of goods made in the country for a period of five years. An incentive of 25% on capital expenditure will be provided for production of electronic components, semiconductors and other parts.



• Free Piston Linear Generator: A unique engine is bringing power to a remote Philippine island. Traditional generators require maintenance and oil changes every 200-400 hours. Aquarius engines need maintenance once every 1,000 hours and need no oil.




• Nations try to wean themselves off of American chips: Russia comes up with its custom  8-core VLIW design for servers, Elbrus.



• U.S. probing digital tax plans from India and others: The OECD is trying to find agreement among almost 140 countries on a global tax overhaul to address how multinationals -- particularly tech giants -- are taxed in the countries where they have users or consumers.