Quick notes: Chip research | Scam industry...

• Semiconductor industry can thrive underrobust network: What is needed is a network of institutions researching and developing the semiconductor industry along the lines of what has taken root in the USA. The Ohio State University is setting up a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary education and research centre—Centre for Advanced Semiconductor Fabrication Research and Education (CAFE)— to advance the fabrication and development of semiconductors and next-generation device technologies.
  
  Intel has announced a $3 million funding award for CAFE over three years. India needs a similar network which can provide a stable research base and explore alternatives in case of global upheavals. The demand for electronics goods in India will only increase in the coming years, and we cannot afford to miss the bus



• Why semiconductors are central to world economy, geopolitics: From the earliest days of the missile race, the Pentagon was fixated on applying computing power to defence systems. The first major application of chips was in missile guidance systems, but today they are used in everything from communications to sensors to electronic warfare.



• India's Thriving Scam Industry: No clear law or policy or regulation has been actively discussed or implemented to curb this menace.



• Bowing to colonial masters: Indian car makers propose tax cut on imports in trade deal with Britain. "Everyone is acting on a lot of apprehension and few data points on what impact a duty cut can have".

1/ India's thinking is dominated by English, which means it is shaped by what goes on in the US and UK. I will explore some consequences here.

First let's come to economics. Both the US and UK are highly financialized, "post-industrial" or "post- manufacturing" economies.

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) October 21, 2022




• Baikal CPU: Russian Baikal 48-Core CPU benchmarks emerge



• Drone power: Ukraine confirms 1st known case of fighter jet going down to a Kamikaze Drone

Interesting! A Ukrainian MiG-29 shoots down a Geran-2, proximity suggests, using his cannon. The drone explodes on being hit and plummets to the ground. Apparently, the MiG-29 itself went down, likely due to shrapnel hits from the exploding Geran-2! https://t.co/2DlLwt7l1k

— Vijainder K Thakur (@vkthakur) October 12, 2022




• Upgraded Shahed-136: Russia has 'upgraded' Iranian Shahed-136 Kamikaze drones to boost its lethality & accuracy. Moscow has installed its domestic GLONASS GPU control modules in place of the inertial navigation system.



• Bayraktar TB-2 vs Shahed-136: Ukraine becomes proxy battlefield for Turkish and Iranian drones



• ‘An empty world is a sad world’: Zuckerberg’s metaverse is getting slammed in internal documents. Horizon’s user base has steadily declined since spring. Most users don’t return after the first month.



• From ‘lying down’ to ‘let it rot’: Once-flourishing middle class faces end of ‘Chinese Dream’



• Extreme weather: India suffered income loss of $159 bn in key sectors due to extreme heat in 2021



• Stabilised mud blocks: