Quick notes: Border settlements | Gurkha regiment...

• Chinese settlements on eastern sector: Border settlements coming up in un-demarcated areas of LAC near Arunachal Pradesh. “India has also begun constructing villages closer to the borders but we are a late starter”.



• The pain of Nepal's Gurkhas over Agnipath: India on average recruited about 1,400 Nepali citizens into its Gurkha regiments every year. There are about 35,000 Nepali Gurkhas currently serving in the Indian army, including in Kashmir and the northeastern parts of the country.
  
  'What haven't the Gorkhas done for the Indian Army?' In the Battle of Nalapani 1814, which was the first encounter between the Gorkhas and the British East India Company, the myth of British invincibility was broken. The manner in which the Gorkha army overran Sikkim, Kumaon, Garhwal and Himachal Pradesh had impressed the British. The Gorkha empire at that time spread from the Teesta in the east to Satluj in the west -- a total of 17,000 square miles.



• BRICS == Chinese vehicle? Beijing is the prime mover pushing for expanding the BRICS membership, using it as a vehicle for a Chinese diplomatic thrust.

is the new #BRICS+ "#NAMwithchinesecharacteristics"? all the new members are pals of china, right?

— Prof राजीवः श्रीनिवासः (@RajeevSrinivasa) August 27, 2023




• Praggnanandhaa Asks Sadhguru: How to handle tension in a game




• India needs laws like this: All hail the new EU law that lets social media users quiet quit the algorithm. Users can easily decline "personalized" content feeds based on "relevance" (i.e. tracking) -- and switch to a more humble kind of news feed that's populated with posts from your friends displayed in chronological order.



• Stolen treasures: British Museum recovers some of 2,000 stolen items... you mean, stolen, then stolen again, right BBC?



• Develop or steal: Huawei's GPU reportedly matches Nvidia's A100. . . . With U.S. restrictions on high-end AI and high-performance computing (HPC) exports to China, Chinese GPU developers see a golden opportunity.



• Bloodbath: Vishal Garg, the CEO who mass-sacked employees over Zoom, suffers epic disaster as Better.com shares nose-dive over 90%



• Bhai mar ja agar marna hai, bas pakad ke rakhiyo: How Indian men’s 4x400 relay team made World Championships final with record-shattering run.The Indian quartet of Muhammed Anas, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh ran a stunning race to finish second after shattering the Asian record.



• India’s winning 4: Three fought injuries, fourth is a footballer-turned-sprinter. The unheralded relay squad not only broke the Asian record but also became the first Indian team to reach a World Championship final.

Quick notes: Peaceful rise | Threat from the skies...

• RoP, meet Peacful Rise: China makes it harder for its Muslim citizens to go to Mecca, or anywhere else



• China owning EV battery space: Chinese battery supplier CATL announces a new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that the company claims will enable super-fast charging - 250 miles of range in 10 minutes



• China's fertility rate drops to record low 1.09: Concerned about China's first population drop in six decades and its rapid ageing population, Beijing is urgently trying an array of measures to lift the birth rate including financial incentives and improved childcare facilities.



• Threat from the skies: India steps up the fight against a major space danger. New Delhi’s ambitious space plans include tackling the problem of floating debris, countless pieces of which orbit the Earth



• Bhagavan Das: God is not a big deal




• Back to the future for India's rice farmers: Red rice has attractive qualities. It is hardy and grows well without fertiliser and other chemicals. Research also shows it has nutritional benefits over white rice. But perhaps for farmers the biggest attraction is that it sells well.
  
  "Many of the current incentive systems like fertilizer subsidy, free power, canal irrigation, minimum support price and procurement, all work against the interest of farmers to shift towards more sustainable production".



• Himachal Pradesh floods: More rain, less snow are turning Himalayas dangerous



• Mindless growth: NGT vindicated in Shimla ruling. “We hereby prohibit new construction of any kind in any part of the Core and Green/Forest area.” Beyond this green zone, “construction will not be permitted beyond two storeys plus attic floor”. It is surprising that the State government has pressed ahead with a development plan that appears to disregard the NGT ruling.

Quick notes: AI scraping | R Thyagarajan...

• AI Scraping: Big Tech wants to "digest" copyrighted works. Google is training its bots on millions of copyrighted works without permission. The company wants to change copyright laws so that it can grab any content it wants from the Internet, use it as training data for its AI products, and argue “fair use” if anyone objects to its plagiarism.



• The Economic Losers in the New World Order: Giant subsidies and rising protectionism are upending decades of free trade. The world’s biggest economies are offering huge subsidies in a cutthroat race to win the industries of the future. The losers: all the countries that can’t pay up. Smaller countries, from the U.K. to Singapore, are getting left behind



• R Thyagarajan: Indian tycoon gave away $750 million. He doesn't even own a mobile phone. RT founded the Shriram group in Chennai in 1974



• India is a rising force in Southeast Asia: India is taking major strides to expand its influence in Southeast Asia, a move that will allow countries to counter China’s dominance in the region. “Since China hasn’t budged on the border issue, India now feels there has been no real return for its cautious attitude towards Southeast Asia”.
  
  For several states that most distrust China in the region — namely the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore, India is an additional partner to help counter Beijing.



• Decouple: India bars makers of military drones from using Chinese parts. India relies on foreign manufacturers for both parts and entire systems as it lacks the know-how to make certain types of drones. "There has to be coherent national strategy to fill the technology gaps" to deliver commercially viable products.



• Stop feeding your enemy: U.S. bans future investments in Chinese AI, Semiconductor, and Quantum Computing



• Sunway supercomputer: China builds Exascale supercomputer with 19.2 Million cores. Despite sanctions, Chinese supercomputers continue to develop.



• TSMC faces opposition to worker visas for Arizona Fab: The "Stand with American Workers" campaign demands that TSMC's foreign worker visas be denied, insisting that the company should employ locals



• English Note: Prince Rama Varma




• Toxic pharma exports from India: A cold medication made in India and sold in Iraq is tainted with toxic chemicals. The Cold Out label indicates it was made by Fourrts (India) Pvt. Ltd., a Chennai-based exporter of medicines.
  
  It’s the fifth time in a year that testing has found an Indian exporter’s drugs to contain excessive levels of ethylene glycol. Cases of Indian-made tainted cold syrups have been reported in Indonesia, Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon, and have killed about 300 children in the past year.



• When will UK return its loot? US returns haul of stolen artefacts to Italy



• What alcohol does to a woman’s body: For a variety of reasons, women can’t metabolize alcohol as fast as men, meaning they have more of the toxic substance in their systems for longer. Women have lower amounts of the enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, needed to break their drinks down, so they are left with higher levels of a substance that is toxic to organs like the liver. Moreover, women have less body water to dilute the alcohol they’ve consumed — the end result is that alcohol in their systems becomes more concentrated



• India’s English-medium craze stunts brains: The more highly developed the first language skills, the better the results in the second language.

English-medium education leaves students worse off not just in overall learning but even in English skills.

This is because a base of mother-tongue education is best for brain development.

India’s English-medium craze stunts brains.@SubramanianKri writes in TOI. pic.twitter.com/a195HxPiYg

— Sankrant Sanu सानु संक्रान्त ਸੰਕ੍ਰਾਂਤ ਸਾਨੁ (@sankrant) August 11, 2023

Quick notes: China's loss | Drone ships...

• China's loss in India could be Elon Musk's gain: Chinese automakers face heat. Tesla has had a red-carpet welcome from India for its proposal to invest in the country, while its largest rival in electric vehicles, China's BYD, has been stopped cold by increased scrutiny from New Delhi.



• Explained: How India has clamped down on Chinese products, investment



• India Restricts PC, Laptop, and Server Imports: The aim is to curtail Chinese imports of popular tech products. IT security concerns might have also influenced this. . . . Delays restrictions.



• Drone ships: A new form of drone tech has been gaining momentum in the Black Sea.



• Child deaths due to Indian cough syrup: Riemann Labs, which operates out of Indore, has been banned from manufacturing medicines following an inspection by drug regulators. A batch of cough and cold syrup sold in Cameroon under the brand name Naturcold contained extremely high levels of a toxic ingredient.
  
  Earlier, the licenses of three cough syrup manufacturers – Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Marion Biotech and QP Pharmachem – were suspended and their exports were stopped after two of the firms were linked to the deaths of at least 70 children in Gambia and 19 in Uzbekistan last year.



• Horse gram: Best drink to burn cholesterol naturally and effectively




• Woke priorities: New York Times dedicates massive amount of time to reviewing vibrators. Refers to women as “people with vulvas.”



• White man is a burden: The UK will drill for more North Sea oil and gas.



• Chinese Firm's lithography breakthrough: Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group (SMEE) is on track to reveal its first scanner capable of producing chips on a 28nm process technology by the end of 2023



• Raag Jhinjhoti - Jhala: Michael Griska - Surbahar