Quick notes: Super app | Amol Yadav...

• Tata’s super app: Step aside Amazon, you could soon order ‘everything’ using Tata’s super app. . . . . . Over 2,000 online sellers file antitrust case against Amazon in India.



• Big economies in crisis: The clear outlier among major economies is China, which catapulted into recovery mode in the second quarter 
  
  
  
  



• State Media Poll: Nearly 50% of Chinese think India is too economically dependent upon China, an assessment many Indians would agree with. . . . we Indians have been busy with history debates
  



• VPNs provide backdoor entry for banned Chinese apps: Even as the govt banned 59 Chinese apps, including the popular TikTok and Camscanner, many people have been downloading and using them through the VPNs.



• Amol Yadav: Plane built on Mumbai rooftop takes to the skies



• 'The Chinese air force is no threat': You see, it is not about numbers here, it is the qualitative edge we have over them that will make a difference. Which brings me to the point of Rafale versus the Su-30/MiG 29. We have almost 250 plus of these and are increasing their strength with new purchases to make good the earlier losses. In my opinion, if we had a trade-off possible, we could do with a 100 odd Rafales rather than the older technology.  In today's war, it is the side which has technical superiority which is at an advantage.  Technology is a force multiplier. It allows you to fire the magic bullet to get through the door first. Once you have broken in, it is a matter of time before you would have put out China's front tier airfields and air defence.



• China Launches Warship for Pakistan Navy: China has launched the first of four “most advanced” warships it is building for Pakistan amid deepening defense and economic ties between the two allied nations. 
  



• India selects RISC-V for self-sufficiency contest: Startups encouraged to get busy with open-source 32-bit Shakti, 64-bit Vega. Indian officials acknowledge it's all the start of a rather longer effort to both enhance the nation’s semiconductor design and manufacturing capabilities and an ecosystem to make it all happen and meet India’s desire for silicon self-sufficiency.
  
  How a Silicon Valley chip pioneer landed in China



• Make the most of your online learning: Do not think about finishing the course! Just think about putting in the time: Good online learners use processes that involve putting a certain daily amount of time into their chosen course. Your daily goal is always to put in the time you’ve allotted, whether it’s five minutes or five hours. This means never missing an “X” on your calendar, signifying you’ve done your day’s studies. -Barbara Oakley



• Speculative bubble: No sales but 4,300% gain in firm amid penny stock boom. Retail investors’ frenzy over small stocks in India has reached such extremes that shares of some companies that aren’t booking any sales, let alone profits, are going through the roof.

Quick notes: Desi apps | Hindi imposition...

• Indian TikTok copycats no match to the real deal: Indian rip-offs of TikTok still have to get the basics right —a tough feat considering the lack of expertise in short-video in the country... The interface and functionality of most of these apps were so similar to TikTok that it was clear that none of them had a truly distinct vision that would offer users something new and keep them loyal in the long-run.



• Devouring Nepal? China occupying land in 7 border districts, says Nepal Survey Department



• 1962 redux? Modi-Doval vying for Jawaharlal Nehru-award for Tibet strategy... "India is capable of giving a befitting response to Chinese aggression". That's about it.
  

One, PLA will not budge from its 1959-60 claim line in Ladakh as new LAC. Two, India cannot forcefully evict it from occupied territories. Three, PLA deployments in TAR are permanent. Four, PLA & PM interoperability has increased. Now look for own options? https://t.co/DM3Dydfxyl

— Pravin Sawhney (@PravinSawhney) August 22, 2020




• Flying Gripen, Thailand Beat Down China's Air Force: Over the final three days of the war game, the Thais killed 22 Chinese jets and lost three of their own. The final tally for the exercise favored the Thai air force. The Gripens shot down 42 J-11s while the J-11s shot down just 34 Gripens. 
  



• The Israeli influences on the J-10’s design are unmistakable: A close-coupled, canard-delta arrangement; a single-engine fighter featuring a ventral engine inlet; twin ventral strakes; and an area-ruled fuselage. The J-10 remain an agile, versatile and inexpensive multirole fighter designed from the outset to incorporate hi-tech avionic systems and guided weapons. Though not a cutting-edge stealth aircraft, it marked an important milestone in China’s military modernization—achieved, most likely, with a little foreign assistance.



• Impose local language on migrants: Hindi migrants to non-Hindi states should learn local language, not the other way round. Regional language should get primacy.
  

Unfortunately, a rich language of Rajasthani which traces its history from 800 AD has been reduced to a dialect of Hindi. Our cultural identity is being compromised through Hindi imposition. The Government should instill the value of respecting various lang.#StopHindiImposition

— Bhavyansh Singh Mewar ભવ્યાંશ સિંહ મેવાડ (@Bs_mewar) August 19, 2020




Marathi in Maharashtra ✅
Hindi in Maharashtra ❌
Remove Hindi Chindi from Maharashtra and if possible also from India. #2LangPolicy

— अण्णा అన్నా (@MeeAnna_) August 23, 2020




• Cost of Bengaluru's traffic jams has a number: Bengaluru's notorious traffic congestion is taking a toll on health and productivity, with each of its residents losing an average Rs 52,264 per year on medication and for measures taken to avoid the congestion.



• Karnataka mathematics teacher wins national award: Yakub made a whopping 300 videos on teaching maths in a simple way by demystifying its complex concepts and uploaded them on YouTube to make them accessible to the students.. . . Basavaraj Sungari: Karnataka teacher uses augmented reality tools to make online science lessons interactive
  

Quick notes: Fourth revolution | Chip industry...

• The contest for the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Beijing recognizes, as the US once did, that basic research cannot be supported entirely by the market and the private sector and instead must be supported by the public. China’s investments have been enormous. By some estimates, China’s government-funded R&D also already exceeds U.S. federal R&D spending.
  
  China’s centrality to global manufacturing and supply chains is an enormous strategic advantage; in contrast the US has allowed “the hollowing out of its industrial base” which means it cannot convert its innovations into products without China’s factories.



• Beg borrow or steal: China poaches over 100 TSMC Engineers to bolster domestic chip industry. Compensation packages were reportedly two to 2.5 times higher than at TSMC. The Chinese chipmakers not only throw more money at their prospects, but also offer them the opportunity to grow inside the organization.
  
  A previous Nikkei report revealed that Taiwan has lost over 3,000 chip engineers to China. Chinese hackers have pillaged Taiwan’s semiconductor industry .... India continues to be a non-player in semiconductor industry but a world-leader in history-debates.
  



• China not withdrawing: The Chinese have refused to vacate Finger area and are saying that they would maintain an observation post with over 30 soldiers around Finger 5.



• US tech giants preparing pushback against India data-curb plan: India's plan to regulate non-personal data is the latest irritant for U.S. tech companies that have been battling tighter e-commerce rules and data storage norms that several countries are also developing.



• Yale Discriminates Against Asian Americans, Whites: Yale University illegally discriminates against Asian Americans and White applicants in undergraduate admissions, the Justice Department told the school in a blistering letter that cited a two-year investigation and demanded the college immediately change its process. 



• Gargling lowers viral load: Gargling with mouthwashes might lower spread of COVID-19. The findings "support the idea that oral rinsing might reduce the viral load of saliva and could thus lower the transmission of SARS-CoV-2." 
  



• What did Pakistan do right? Pakistan has removed nearly all of its coronavirus-related lockdowns, citing a sharp decline in new infections and deaths.“Figures show that Pakistan has done better than many other countries in the world.”



• Building A Greenway: Puyangjiang River Corridor, China. 

 

 

Quick notes: Agrivoltaics | NEP...

• Agrivoltaics: Generate electricity and produce nutritionally-superior crops simultaneously with tinted, semi-transparent solar panels. The tinted solar panels absorb blue and green wavelengths to generate electricity. Orange and red wavelengths pass through, allowing plants underneath to grow.
  
  While the crop receives less than half the total amount of light it would get if grown in a standard agricultural system, the colours passing through the panels are the ones most suitable for its growth.
  
  Agrivoltaics work best for plants that grow well in partial shade. Potential functioning crops include hog peanut, alfalfa, yam, taro, cassava, sweet potato, along with lettuce.
  
  Food, water, energy at its best.




• NEP: Syncing education with practical knowledge and the needs of the times, the policy recommends that from the sixth standard onward, students be taught coding in school... The premium on “English-medium'' should also ease a bit, with the government encouraging early learning in the mother tongue or regional language.

Coding & AI is skill like that of the carpenter and the artist.

India teaching coding only via English is like asking children of merchants to make furniture.

Explains why Indian coders lag those from China, Japan, Russia, or US where coding is taught in via own languages.

— Subhash Kak (@subhash_kak) August 2, 2020




• Alexa Fund: Amazon met with startups about investing, then launched competing products. In some cases, it has met with startups about possible takeovers, figured out how their technology works and then refused to invest in them when it launches a competing product at a later stage.



• Energy-based-weaponry: Israel's Iron Beam, the laser that could destroy Iranian missiles



• Three Gorges Dam: Was it worth it? Some geologists say instead of relying on dams to stop flooding, we should give rivers space and allow them to expand during the flood season. "Large alluvial rivers naturally flood during the wet season. Floodwater is not a problem, that's simply what rivers do. The problem is when you have a lot of people living in the areas that are subject to flooding". Many dams in the northwestern coast of the US were actually removed because they blocked the migration of fish from the ocean up the rivers, causing their populations to drop. In the southeast of the country, upstream dams in the mountains created environmental problems, driving fish species to extinction, causing water pollution, and the recession of coastlines due to the blocking of sediments.



• Reverse migration: Pandemic triggers reverse migration from India cities to villages. Creating ways to earn a living for migrants who have lost jobs remains India’s biggest challenge as it grapples with the pandemic and a faltering economy.



• Moon-bathing, to cool off your heat: A kinesthetic experience of nature, close at hand, that can soothe away anger, which is a pitta condition, and aggravated vata (of anxiety).