Quick notes: SMIC advance | Jamsetji Tata...

• China’s Top Chipmaker Achieves Breakthrough Despite US Curbs: SMIC has advanced its production technology by two generations, defying US sanctions intended to halt the rise of China’s largest chipmaker.



• EV leader: China’s BYD was written off by Elon Musk. Now it’s beating Tesla.. Beijing poured billions of dollars into battery and EV companies to research alternatives to the combustion engine. . . . Meanwhile, India built Sardar Patel statue and cleared Aarey forest



• How Jamsetji Tata created the Indian Institute of Science: Confronted with an arrogant viceroy who could not understand the greatness of the giver or of his gift, any other man than Jamsetji would have withdrawn the offer. In fact the British reckoned that he would. But Jamsetji was not easily deflected from the accomplishment of his purpose.
  
  In 1904, Jamsetji added a codicil to his will urging his two sons not to use this money set aside for the university. If need be, he requested they add to the university from the wealth he was leaving them. While the scheme was still being considered and a provisional committee was looking into it, Jamsetji died on 19 May 1904. In 1905, when Curzon was on leave, he finally gave the green light to Dorab Tata, by agreeing that the government would meet half the cost.



• Raga Shudh Kalyan: Ustad Shujaat Khan accompanied by Yogesh Samsi on tabla.




• Zomato and Swiggy squeezing the small guy: Over the years, several smaller restaurant owners have opposed commission rates running up to 25-30%. These platforms may be helping with discovery and logistics, but at what cost?



• Canada's unmarked graves: How the church carried out "cultural genocide" against indigenous children.
  
  Searches for more possible grave sites using ground penetrating radar continue after discoveries in British Columbia and Saskatchewan provinces. Meanwhile, tribes are trying to piece together old documents that might help identify the deceased in the unmarked graves and shed light on the fate of others who never returned home.



• Manisha Ropeta, Pakistan's 1st Hindu woman DSP: Ropeta failed by one mark to clear her MBBS entrance examinations. “I then told my family I was taking a degree in physical therapy but at the same time I prepared for the Sindh Public Services Commission examinations and I passed that getting 16th position among 468 candidates.”

Quick notes: Space laser | Salami slicing...

• Space Laser Kalina: Russia is developing a new laser system that will disable foreign satellites.. Unlike anti-satellite weapons, the laser system is more of a blinding and disabling one, suppressing electro-optical systems of satellites using solid-state lasers... Gamechanger?



• 'Salami slicing' Indian territory': It was the biggest strategic blunder the Modi regime committed by agreeing to withdraw the Special Frontier Force unit from the heights in exchange for paltry returns -- the PLA's drawing back eastwards a bit from the terrain feature Finger 3 on Pangong Lake's northern shore.
  
  Indian imports in trillions of rupees from China are growing by nearly 50% annually, and the repatriation of profits in billions of dollars in hard currency by Chinese companies is keeping pace. It is among the bright spots in the current Chinese economy and something Beijing would not like to disturb. Delhi percieves Chinese exports to India as negotiating leverage.



• Europe’s Hypocrisy: After preaching Africa about the need to move away from fossil fuels, Europe suddenly wants Africa’s natural gas.
  
  Fossil fuels are now 'green': EU parliament votes to officially move the goalposts on what constitutes green energy by simply changing the labeling of investments in gas and nuclear energy to 'green'.



• Bhagavatar: Jon B. Higgins accompanied by Trichy Sankaran.




• Sober dates: More young people are dating without drinking. Drinking gets in the way of genuine connection



• Switching off Netflix: "Netflix is losing numbers because it keeps pumping out endless shows without stopping to check if they're good".



• I am back: Cheetahs to prowl India for first time in 70 years. It is the only large mammal to become extinct in the country since independence from British rule.



• Flooding of Hampi monuments: Two unscientific bridges built downstream of the left bank canal of Tungabhadra dam are the cause of the flooding of the monuments in Hampi, with the number of inundations set to increase in the coming years as the silt further blocks the flow of water.
  
  The water that is held back by the bridge is impounded and has put Hampi monuments in danger. Hampi is now being inundated multiple times a year even when the TB dam discharges just above 1 lakh cusecs of water. In fact, the government’s move to build a hanging bridge to connect Hampi-Anegundi had prompted the Unesco to put Hampi on the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger in 1999.

Quick notes: German industry | Windfall gains...

• China is steadily wiping out German industry: "Over a decade ago, the sudden emergence of Chinese competitors wiped out Germany's advanced solar power industry. Now, that experience is likely to repeat across a broad spectrum of industries. Germany is slowly but surely realizing that a national industrial strategy based on synergy with China is headed toward a dead-end.’’



• Role-reversal: “China-made EVs could turn Sino-EU automotive trade on its head. In EV trade – the future mainstay of the auto sector – the EU is quickly becoming a net consumer of China-made vehicles”




• Windfall: For Reliance, With Love: Russian oil has supercharged profits. Reliance’s GRM stood at a sky-high $24 to $26 per barrel.



• Is the tank doomed? "This war has been the day of the drone. It tells us that you need drones for defence to keep enemy drones off your back. You need classic low-level air defence including lasers and electronic jamming.".. In the future remote-controlled, unmanned tanks - essentially armoured drones - will be moving across the battlefield in tandem with crewed tanks, increasing their firepower while reducing the risk to life.



• Russia learns to neutrlize drones: In the early months of the war in Ukraine, drones emerged as an unexpected source of victory against Russian forces. But Russia has learned from the humiliation by drones. The drone wonder weapons are becoming increasingly ineffective because Russia has improved its defense systems and is downing and jamming many of Ukraine's drones. "Drones were able to play such a role because the Russians were slow to set up an air defense system".



• Anti-drone gun: Russia employing Stupor, an advanced electromagnetic weapon, that severs the connection between drones and their operators.



• Drone force: Ukraine sent dozens of 'dronations' to build army of drones. But electronic counter-measures were becoming increasingly effective.



• Smugglers using underwater drones: The unmanned submersibles are apparently capable of carrying up to 200kg (441lbs) of cargo.



• A Manipur Hill Came Crashing Down: At least 50 buried alive. "When a railway line or road is constructed in such topography, it involves a lot of vegetation clearing, slope-cutting and after that, and soil filling, but we are observing that these activities are leaving the soil very loose and vulnerable to erosions".



• High-fructose-corn-syrup for breakfast: Kellogg's loses court case over sugary cereal supermarket offers



• Vipassana Meditation: Kavitha Maharaj

Quick notes: RISC-V laptop | Idol thief...

• The first laptop with a RISC-V processor is coming: The “Roma” laptop comes from a collaboration between China’s DeepComputing and Xcalibyte. It’s expected to begin shipping toward the end of the fourth quarter of 2022.



• The Idol Thief: Nehru’s aide who turned into an art dealer in the US. Sadly, we see many Hindu murthis from “Jaipaul galleries” still coming up in auctions, though all of them have dubious provenances. . . . India Pride Project.



• Behind the ‘Largest Art Theft in History’: How stolen art made its way out of the jungle to foreign collections and top museums. From Cambodia to the collectors.
  
  One of the sculptures, about three and a half feet tall, depicted Shiva, his lips in a hint of a smile, sitting cross-legged across from Skanda, who was rendered as a small boy extending his hands upward to clasp his father’s. Another statue of about the same height showed Skanda in his adult role as a god of war, sitting astride Paravani, a thick-bodied peacock, carved in such detail that each feather was distinct.
  
  Toek Tik and his men were probably the first people in centuries to lay eyes on these works. “For us it’s the heritage of a thousand years of ancestors. We see that material and also a spirit”. While Angkor Wat and its environs were eventually secured, few other temples were, and thieves secreted thousands of Khmer objects out of the country, leaving shattered pedestals and empty alcoves.



• Professor E Balagurusamy: "As a person who has studied in a village in Tamil Nadu in Tamil medium, I can confidently say that rural students are on par with or better than students from the urban areas. I will go on to say that rural students are more motivated to excel than urban students. What the state government has to do is, improve the government schools instead of blaming entrance examinations".



• Using drones for reforestation: DroneSeed uses seeds as well as seedlings, or young plants, from its own nurseries. It then uses heavy-lift drone swarms to spread them across the scorched land. The drones drop the seeds in contained vessels, called pucks, where they then root and begin to grow into seedlings. These pucks are made out of plant fiber and contain nontoxic elements, such as spicy pepper, to deter rodents and other mammals.



• Bird apartment: Pinjara Pol Goshala builds 6-storey ‘bird apartment’ in Jaipur




• Father Sebastian Keezheth: Kerala Catholic priest sends sleazy video to WhatsApp group of women and nuns; faces music



• India orders investigation into Tata Motors EV fire incident: The incident follows a spate of e-scooter fires. Initial findings of the federal probe into three e-scooter makers found faulty battery cells and modules to be the leading cause of fires
  
  - Ola Electric slips to 4th spot as EV registrations fall amid fire fears



• ONDC is inevitable, to democratise ecommerce: The smallest Kirana store can be discovered and it will be worthwhile for many to enable such digitisation. Enablement and democratization is happening. . . . ONDC can become next UPI



• High Enzyme Foods: Your intestines and pancreas create many kinds of enzymes, but many foods also contain enzymes or the bacteria that produces them. However, because the modern diet is primarily made up of cooked and processed foods, we don’t reap much of the potential benefits of dietary enzymes. This is because when you cook food (above 118 degrees), process or pasteurize it, you destroy its natural digestive enzymes.
  
  We must therefore rely on our bodies to produce most of the enzymes we need to help us break down and utilize the food we eat. This is why adding raw, non-pasteurized, unprocessed and high-enzyme foods to your diet can be advantageous in the quest for optimal health.