Quick notes: Foreign universities | Himalayan loot...

• Foreign university campus: Foreign universities will presumably not have reservations. Those seeking quota benefits, therefore, will be confined to state-funded universities.
  
  
  - Foreign university campus: First level the playing field.
  
  
  - Foreign university campus: Will “superior” western education bring wokeism, minoritarianism, gender issues, racist polarisation etc?
  

  Can we avoid downsides of opening up our edu system to all kinds of disruptive ideas from western universities:wokeism, minoritarianism, gender issues, racist polarisation etc? Issue not purely eco. After 75 years we still seem to need “superior” western education! https://t.co/dskIJ5UM0x

  — Kanwal Sibal (@KanwalSibal) January 7, 2023

  
  
  - Foreign university campus: Go swadeshi to avert peril.
  

  Why can’t India (the vishwaguru) produce its own top universities? Why turning into a consumer of foreign universities setting up branches in India?
  Dangerous: Wokeism coming in. https://t.co/JfF2iI0pr8

  — Rajiv Malhotra (@RajivMessage) January 6, 2023




• 'Joshimath can't be saved': Not just Joshimath, homes have developed major cracks in Nainital, Uttarkashi, Bhatwari, Gopeshwar, Guptkashi, Karnprayag, Mussorie and a host of villages. Villagers blame the tunneling work being done on the Rishikesh-Karnprayag rail project and the dynamiting taking place for the extension of the Char Dham road for these cracks.



• Joshimath: The neglected warning from 46 years ago: During the ramping up of the infrastructure, including the building of roads and houses, for the so-called development of Joshimath, enormous quantities of earth and boulders were removed using dynamite. Forests had also been cleared for timber used for construction in the seventies



• How green was my valley by Madhav Gadgil: The Himalayan loot that triggered the Joshimath disaster.
  
  Chandiprasad's organisation took up ecodevelopment work such as soil and water conservation, erection of a stone wall to protect the forest, or tree planting. The tasks were executed by everybody working in unison. The discussions were led by a physics professor from Gopeshwar college, but stonemasons who fabricated the water mills also provided their inputs.
  
  Unfortunately, the govt had a monopoly on the water resources and their only interest was to construct giant projects like Tehri to supply electricity for the capital city of Delhi. This tragic diversion of all resources of Himalayas in the service of the powers that be, in fact, had begun when the British govt leased forests from the Tehri maharaja.




• Android on RISC-V: Google is planning to bring full support for RISC-V chips to Android in the coming years, which could pave the way for RISC-V phones, tablets, smartwatches, set-top-boxes, or automotive systems, among other things.



• Bye bye: Dell plans to phase out Chinese chips from PCs by next year



• Taiwan-Invasion war game sees China quickly flopping: Huge cost to US, Chinese and Taiwanese militaries. At the end of the conflict, at least two US aircraft carriers would lie at the bottom of the Pacific and China’s modern navy, which is the largest in the world, would be in “shambles.”
  
  Those are among the conclusions the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), made after running what it claims is one of the most extensive war-game simulations ever conducted on a possible conflict over Taiwan.



• A dud? Why is India's single-use plastic ban failing? Adequate investments have not been made to make the transition. "The might of the plastics industry, really needs a tsunami to shake it up". . . . . Single-use plastic cutlery and plates to be banned in England.



• Hydra: The Greek island that banned wheels. A growing number of places around the world are looking to reduce reliance on cars.



• Madhup Mudgal: Haman hai ishq mastana - Kabir Bhajan