Quick notes: UK's aid | Stolen heritage...

• Londonistan: The five biggest recipients of UK's bilateral aid are Pakistan, Syria, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Afghanistan.



• Right direction: India and Israel to work together on perovskite solar cells and lithium sulfur batteries. Low-cost batteries and novel perovskite materials are among the topics selected for joint research and development.



• Chinese rival stole Tesla and Apple codes: Elon Musk says Chinese rival Xpeng stole Tesla and Apple codes.."They have an old version of our software & don't have our NN inference computer.. They stole Apple's code too". . . . . . . . . . . "China mastered six key technologies in warp speed, 4G, 5G, CRISPR, Quantum communication, Quantum computers, Quantum Radar". . . . India meanwhile won gold in History Debate Olympics. 



• Rice miller creates 'black gold' from ash in Odisha: Bibhu Sahu supplies rice husk ash (RHA) pellets to steel industries in Egypt, Ukraine and Taiwan and is exploring opportunities in Japan, Germany and Australia. “There were no machines available across the country to generate RHA pellets.. Some companies assured me to make the machinery but failed", recalls Sahu who hired local potters and a blacksmith to prepare a machine that can serve the purpose.



• Digital tax: France orders Big Tech to pay digital tax despite threat of US tariffs.



• On the hunt for India’s stolen heritage: The India Pride Project is a volunteer-run organisation which aims to return thousands of artefacts stolen from India during the colonial era. Many of these treasures are in the British Museum in London.  
• The new colonizer: Nigeria’s traditional textiles threatened by Chinese imports. “They take our designs and go to China and bring it to sell it cheaper”. 

Quick notes: Digital tax | Indian banks...

• Digital Tax: U.S. tariffs poised to hit Austria, India, Italy for taxing local revenue of Internet companies such as Facebook and Google.



• Who killed Indian banking? Should the govt be in the business of running banks? "In business, the promoters need to put in equity on the table first and then look for bank loans but in many cases in India the promoters used bank money for equity as well"... Things have started changing with the new insolvency law. It has infused the fear of God among the corporate borrowers, finally.



• The rise of monopolies: Crony capitalism is thriving in New India



• Pinaka rocket: Key to the Enhanced Pinaka's success is a guidance system that combines an inertial navigation system with satellite navigation.. Its accuracy and range puts it on a par with the US army's M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System. 



• UK to ban petrol and diesel cars: New cars and vans powered wholly by petrol and diesel will not be sold in the UK from 2030.  Hybrids would still be allowed,
  



• Odissi : Mahina Khanum
  




• China champions globalism: RCEP does not impose any human rights, labor rights, or environmental requirements on the participating countries, key for China as the world’s leading concentration camp administrator and carbon emitter. . . . “In the name of openness, we have allowed subsidized products and unfair production advantages from abroad to prevail”



• Beijing Professor: China ‘cooked Indian soldiers alive with secret microwave pulse weapon’. ‘In 15 minutes, those occupying the hilltops all began to vomit. They couldn’t stand up, so they fled. ‘This was how we retook the ground.’ . . . Fake news: "It's pure and poor psyops from China".



• Chinese hacking continues: Massive, China-state-funded hack hits companies around the world.. Japan seems to be the main target this time.

Quick notes: War lessons | Vocal for local...

• Turkish drones lead Azerbaijan to victory: “The first lesson that the Azerbaijani-Armenian clashes showed is the vulnerability of traditional land units -- armored, mechanized, and motorized formations in the face of advanced drone warfare weaponry and concepts.” Crucially Turkey also transferred 'a complete robotic warfare doctrine and concept of operations' to Azerbaijan.
  
  “The Turkish-made Bayraktar drones carry four missiles that are also produced by Turkey -- MAM laser-guided ‘smart micromunition’ missiles. In Syria, these drones very easily destroyed Russian air defense systems like the S-300 and S-400 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). This caused a kind of outcry in Russia because Turkey has produced drone weapons which are able to easily hit all the air-defense systems that have been advertised by Russia as one of the most effective air-defense systems in the world”.



• Sunken boats. Stolen gear: Fishermen are prey as China conquers a strategic sea. China’s navy, coast guard and paramilitary fleet have rammed fishing boats, harassed oil exploration vessels, held combat drills and shadowed U.S. naval patrols. “It appears that China is rapidly developing the capabilities to exclude other navies from the South China Sea”.
  
  Many experts argue that China is the main culprit in overfishing, offering massive incentives to its armed fleet and regular fishermen to venture far into other nations’ exclusive economic zones, from Latin America to the Antarctic. “Clashes will increase as China strengthens de facto control and [fish] stocks collapse. Eventually we will see loss of life if this keeps up.” 



• Vocal for Local: China lost Rs 40,000 crore from boycott of Chinese goods, claims CAIT. “We are all set to achieve our target of reducing imports from China to the tune of Rs. One lakh crore by December,2021”. . . . Will the educated middle-class support them?



• Our bodies are ruined by sitting, learn to squat: “Every joint in our body has synovial fluid in it. This is the oil in our body that provides nutrition to the cartilage. If a joint doesn’t go through its full range—if the hips and knees never go past 90 degrees—the body says ‘I’m not being used’ and starts to degenerate and stops the production of synovial fluid. . . . “Being on the ground helps you physically be ”grounded in yourself” —something that’s largely missing from our screen-dominated, hyper-intellectualized lives. 



• Living Soil:

Quick notes: Impressing the teacher | Anti-trust target...

• Quote of the year: "Rahul Gandhi has a nervous, unformed quality about him like a student eager to impress the teacher but deep down lacking the aptitude or the passion to master the subject" -- Barack Obama.
  



• Amazon is everyone's antitrust target: Germany, Italy and India are investigating Amazon over unfair practices. . . . EU hits Amazon with antitrust charges. A huge fine could follow.



• No room for Mongolian nationalism: China erasing Genghis Khan from its history... French museum abruptly cancels a long-planned Genghis Khan exhibit after the Chinese Cultural Affairs Bureau demanded that the museum alter the exhibition’s title, removing the words “Genghis Khan,” “empire,” and “Mongol.”... The CCP forces the ruling ethnic Han Chinese culture onto minority cultures in its regions of Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet, in many cases assimilating native minorities against their will.



• The burning scar: Inside the destruction of Asia’s last rainforests. A Korean palm oil giant has been buying up swathes of Asia's largest remaining rainforests and setting it on fire deliberately. 



• A different kind of vikas: A Resilient Sponge Corridor - Beijing Yongxing River Greenway... Breaking through the conventional way of flood control engineering, Beijing Yongxing river greenway turns seasonal urban drainage into a water resilient green sponge to retain and filtrate stormwater, meanwhile create an ecologically sound, productive and community-building green infrastructure.
  
  The concrete channel is removed and wetlands were constructed through a balanced cut and fill to create diverse habitats and activity places that fulfil the needs of local communities. This project showcases landscape as green infrastructure that provides a holistic ecosystem that regulates the hydrological environment, supports native biodiversity and creates community vitality.
  




• Pullata Ram Kumar: NRI from Andhra Pradesh donates RO plant every year on his son's birthday 



• Boeing Sells Zero Airplanes in October: Boeing received zero orders for aircraft in the month of October. Airbus received 11 new orders in the month.



• Aum So Hum sung by CHOIR:
  

Quick notes: Gaali project | Pink salt...

• Gaali Project: swear with love: Team seeks suggestions on healthy swear words.. Reforming India’s vocabulary, one word of discontent at a time.
  



• Pink salt neither healthy nor Himalayan: It’s not healthier. It doesn’t come from the Himalayas. Most of it comes from Khewra Salt Mine, situated between Islamabad and Lahore.



• India lost control over 300 square km: India realized it had lost control of about 250 square km of land in the Depsang Plains, which holds key roads leading up to the Karakoram Pass, as well as 50 square km of land in the Pangong Tso.



• China Building New 'Tunnels' For Winter At Doklam: To ensure all-weather access into the Doklam plateau.. The Doklam plateau is entirely snowed under during the winter months making access a challenge.



• ‘Won't soften stance on China’: Biden could pressure Beijing more effectively than Trump by galvanizing U.S. allies and criticizing its human rights record.. “The most effective way to meet that challenge is to build a united front of US allies and partners to confront China’s abusive behaviours and human rights violations”.



• Aao karein thodi cheeni kum: Micromax is relaunching to reduce dependence on Chinese tech. “The big brother in Delhi then announced demonetisation and we knew that we couldn’t launch right away.” This change in plan hurt the company hard. #BoycottChina



• Aishwarya Sridhar - Wildlife photographer-filmmaker: . Competing against 50,000 entries from 80 countries, 23-year-old Aishwarya Sridhar became the first Indian woman to be awarded the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award announced at the Natural History Museum in London





• Andhra man spends life savings on renovation of burial grounds: Venkat Rao, who is presently engaged in construction of Mahakali and Mahakaleshwar temple at an estimated cost of Rs 22 crore, for which he had already spent Rs 14 crore from his pocket till date, says he feels his hard-earned money was well spent on renovation of two cremation grounds and now on the temple. 
  



• Here's where you can learn Kannada: Bite-sized lessons online
  



• Build underground tanks in low-lying areas to arrest floods: Experts feel Bengaluru could learn a lesson or two from Tokyo, which had built the world’s largest underground water tank to beat recurring floods. Today, it serves as a massive discharge channel for floodwaters. Excess water automatically flows into the tank, larger than a football field. When the water approaches capacity, operators pump it out from the main tank... In Munich, recurring floods were arrested by building 13 underground tanks. “These were mainly built on civic amenity sites. The tanks had two tiers, each 8m deep. Water would flow into these 16m tanks, to be pumped out when required.”



• Walmart’s PhonePe zips past Google Pay: “Unlike China, we have given equal opportunities to both domestic and foreign companies”.



• India opens antitrust case against Google: Competition Commission of India has opened an investigation into Google for allegedly abusing the dominant position of its app store to promote its payments service in the world’s second largest internet market.



• Will Smith And Family Host Sadhguru
  




• China Lobbies for the West to Pay Africa’s Debts (to China): Angola, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Zambia have gone deeply into debt with China, giving China leverage to control their governments and influence state financial decisions by offering or withholding debt relief. 



• In China, Big Tech Isn't the Enemy. It's the Strategy: Foreign companies — notably in semiconductors, software or materials — that still believe China is a viable long-term business are kidding themselves. 



• Sexual impropriety: Pope John Paul II was warned about abusive archbishop Theodore McCarrick