Quick notes: Stirling engine | Chinese GPU...

• France should pay us: France is seeing a spike in Rafale fighter jet orders after India acquired them.



• China's New Mortars: Designed for war with India? The PLA is now announcing the deployment of new self-propelled rapid-fire mortars to conduct “mobile, hit-and-run firing positions”.



• Stirling engine: China claims it developed the world's most powerful heat engine. “The prototype ran at a rated power of 320 kilowatts with a power conversion efficiency of 40%”. In comparison, the Stirling engine used on the Swedish Navy's Gotland submarines is rated at 75KW.. China eyeing deadlier submarines, safer nuclear reactors with new Stirling engine?



• Unstoppable: China's Fenghua-1 GPU aims for GeForce RTX 3060 compute performance. Based on Imagination Technologies' PowerVR architecture.



• Madhav Gadgil: "Most ‘development’ activities now are aimed at benefiting only the rich. The relaxations in ESA will benefit the quarries that make huge, illegal profits. Some mine-owners in Goa had told me about the huge rates they pay to the politicians, right from the bottom to the top. Before the 2014 elections, the BJP strongly supported our report, but the moment they came to power, they took a 180-degree turn".



• Gouging small businesses: For every $100 sellers earn in sales, Amazon is keeping $30 — up from 19% just 5 years ago.



• India's Population Growth: Urban India now has a fertility rate of 1.6, comparable to the European Union. In the relative weight of its states, India’s Parliament has remained frozen since the 1971 census. The average parliamentarian from Uttar Pradesh represents three million people, while a counterpart from Tamil Nadu represents 1.8 million.
  
  If Parliament were reapportioned according to the likely population in 2026, the five southern states would send 26 fewer representatives to the 545-seat Parliament. The four most populous Hindi heartland states would add 31 seats.



• Uddiyana Bandha and Nauli Kriya:




• Crafting sustainable homes: Interlocking blocks — an alternative to burnt bricks and concrete blocks