Quick notes: Reality check | Plastic waste...

• Reality check: India's bid to match China's factory heft gets a reality check. Goods imports have surged 56% since the 2020 border clash while India's trade deficit with China has nearly doubled to $85 billion. China continues to be India's biggest source of goods and was the largest supplier of industrial products last year.



• Lagging: India’s share in global FDI falls to 2.1% in 2023 from 6.5% in 2020: Limited success in attracting FDI in manufacturing sector.



• Decline: India losing out to countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam in manufacturing. India's share in global exports of apparel, leather, textiles, and footwear has declined from 4.5 percent in 2013 to 3.5 percent in 2022. Direct employment related to exports fell from a peak of 9.5 percent of total domestic employment in 2012 to 6.5 percent in 2020.



• Speculator's haven: $5.5 trillion and ticking: Beware! The pressure is building in India's stock markets



• "Exploitation is rampant: I worked as a food delivery boy in Bengaluru. Guess how much I earned in a week




• AI’s massive thirst for energy: Mr ChatGPT and other AI power players are going to the White House to discuss AI’s massive thirst for energy. . . Oracle will use three small nuclear reactors to power new 1-gigawatt AI data center



• Nikah mut’ah: Sex tourism in Indonesia sells itself as Islamic temporary marriage. . . Taliban’s 'reforms' lead to 21,000 musical instruments destroyed in Afghanistan



• India leads the world in generating plastic waste: Producing 10.2 million tons a year (9.3 million metric tons), far more than double the next big-polluting nations, Nigeria and Indonesia. China, often villainized for pollution, ranks fourth but is making tremendous strides in reducing waste.



• China’s Megadams Create Power and Destroy Homes on the ‘Roof of the World’:




• The Once-Dominant Tank Is Getting Humbled on the Battlefield: The rise of drones has prompted armies to change tactics and add defenses to the powerful armored vehicles.